A 1000-Page Don Martin Retrospective to Be Published!

In October 2007, Running Press Book Publishers will be publishing "The Completely MAD Don Martin." This 17-pound 1000-page volume will contain every comic that Don Martin created during his 30 years with the magazine. (Note that Amazon is taking pre-orders.)

As a cartoonist myself, MAD Magazine's Don Martin was one of my great influences. In fact, he was a great influence on many cartoonists. All you have to do is turn on The Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. Eyeballs bulge, oversized feet flop, and rubbery mayhem ensues. As grotesque as his characters were, the onomatopoetic sounds emitted from each cartoon box were just as grotesque and uniquely Martin. Example sounds include "Sizafitz!", "Blort!", "Oot greet", and my favorite, "Cha-kunk-ding-rip."

Martin's characters were horribly grotesque almost to the point of ridiculing physical and mental deformities. Yet, as disturbing as these characters and their situations were, fans laughed and laughed hard (and still laugh) not AT these hapless characters, but at ourselves. I believe that deep down we are all hapless Don Martin characters.

My personal favorite Don Martin characters are Fester Bestertester and his huge idiotic sidekick Karbunkle (especially Karbunkle). My personal favorite Fester and Karbunkle comic is "The Man with the World's Hardest Head", a story of American hucksterism gone psychotic. Karbunkle has the world's hardest head and Fester is his promoter. The story is Karbunkle's rise and fall in the world of show business ... and it is screamingly funny and terribly disturbing. (I worked in Hollywood for 30 years)