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MAD Cartoonist Don Martin Dies
inbred writes "Don Martin, longtime Mad magazine cartoonist who drew an assortment of wild-haired characters, punctuating the grotesque action with wacky words like SPLOP! and POIT!, has died. He was 68."
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His stuff was the best in the mag, IMO But he went splop..
I remember the old MAD cartoon advertisement about the jedi-master card... ...Anyone else seen it/know where I could find it again? it was such an awesome spoof of those Mastercard ads... -goon (ty)
You're a real sentimental person, aren't you?
When someone I liked or respected or thought was funny dies, I find it worthwhile to pause and reflect on how that person touched my life.
Perhaps only Linus and the President touch your life, but Don Martin gave me, for one, many smiles. Therefore, I'm glad Slashdot found his death newsworthy. I think his cartoons had a zany, geeky kind of perspective and I'd imagine many Slashdotters got a kick out of his sense of humor as well.
Fair enough. What is pointless to one person is intensely interesting to another. Make it a category, then people who bitch and moan about it can filter it out and stop distracting from the discussion that the rest of us would like to have. :-P
..you won't be expecting any new work from them. Some folks, you don't know if they're in a slump or just dead. Example..I was -convinced- that Johnathan Winters was dead, 'til I just saw him on Comedy Central this week. Who knew?
Well, I guess I do owe thanks to the creators of MAD. I used it as toilet paper.
He probably died after watching the MAD TV show. Hint: not from laughing. -t
Moderators -- Please knock the parent post down as "redundant". Posters should not be rewarded for their ability to cut & paste.
Slashdot is for discussion, not for karma whoring.
Many newspapers now offer longer obituaries which are labled "appreciation". That is the point, to appreciate for a moment the memory of those who have been important to our lives. All societies understand the significance of death, even network societies.
Agreed. Egorn not only posted his attempt at cutting & pasting in the 22nd comment, but also the 25th. Karma whoring galore.
spy vs spy rocks! damn that....i remember playing the game on my apple IIc..heh..mulitplayer fun also..check out this WEIRD photo..follow the misc.shit link at this..also..WEIRD homepage.. http://eatcock.quake.au.nu
People who dedicate themselves to making other laughs, help people live longer, healthier lives. Heres to the years people have gotten out of Mad!
Personally, I never knew he was alive and don't care that he is dead.
No idols, no heroes.
I liked his work thats appreciation enough.
Has anyone tried getting it to work under Wine yet? That would be tres cool!
If a tree fell in the forest and no one was around to hear it, Don Martin would have a sound for it!
One of my favorite sounds....someone steping into dog shit would make the sound:
SLISHH
By Don and thanks for all the laughs!
Lose -- one 'o'. Amendment -- one 'm'. Speech -- no 'a'. Slashdot shouldn't be News For Illiterates.
I hate to burst your bubble, illiterate, but "Amendment" has TWO 'm's in it...
just food for thought.
I miss your grits, cheeseass.
Aww, I'd like a naked and petrified Ricky Martin, so I could lick his toes!!
Why does it take death to remind you that you are mortal?
I've never gone to a funeral yet I have always been aware that I will die.
Oh shit...somebody else died...MOM? will I die someday too?....Of course you idiot you've known that since you were 6!
I was born in 1969 and not until 1994 when inside a used magazine shop did I notice a MAD magazine from 1969. It said that man had gone to the moon and that the sky is blue.
I feel silly that I never noticed that about the year I was born.
I hope that i can find a magazine from the 1970's to read a lot more useful information.
Thank-you MAD you make me smarter
I have him in my dead pool for 2000.
I take an early lead in 2000
No he was the dude that paired up with Jerry Lewis!!
We should start a dead pool category and cool liitle forms to keep track of our scores online.
Replace Karma with your dead pool scores.
I can see it now....
THE SLASHDOT DEAD POOL
Shut up, you self appointed Karma Police, it saved me a point and click, and was cited where it came from. This is not an essay exam where we are supposed to be graded. The moderation system was started when the bandwidth was abused by noise from tolling idiods spewing garbage, not collecting relavent materials. If someone has mind numbingly posted redundant material, please say so, but karma whining is god awful stupid.
The obits are one of the last profit centers of papers.
Jim Davis has not actually participated in the 'Garfield' strip (in other than an editorial capacity) for a number of years now. He supervises the day-to-day operation of "Paws, Inc.", the holding company handling all of Garfield. Paws, Inc.has grown to a monstrous proportion, much like the fictional cat it is named for. I live not far from their headquarters here in Indiana. (As an aside, they don't utilize local wastewater treatment, instead opting for a localized 'bio-filtering process' that is very efficient, and contributes to the enviroment. Granted, there are only 200 people out there, and this technique doesn't work in large scale, but it's still very neat.And very Geeky!) On-Topic: Garfield isn't drawn by Jim Davis anymore, but rather by a army of cartoonists. Charles Schultz did it right, as do many others.I much prefer those who keep the strip closer to heart; they seem to actually have ideas, rather than recycle them. Just my 2cents..
I am thinking of getting the "Totally MAD" CD-ROM set to find out what's all the hubbub with Don Martin's work. However, I am using Linux (RedHaT 6.1, upgraded to 2.2.14 kernel) and the CD-ROM set is made for Windows. Has anybody tried using WINE or something of the sorts to see if this will work?
Yeah you know you want it and TRUE humorist would agree. Slipslosh needs a Death Icon. Skull and bones would do the trick - just don't make it look like a pirate flag... OY!
Here is a link to an appreciation of the life and work of Don Martin: The Guy Who Drew Outside the Lines
I read both back in the '70's. I really preferred MAD. Cracked would take a current fad (at that time, "The Fonz") and beat it to a pulp. They would continue beating it long after it was dead in popular culture. Then they'd switch to whatever the new fad was and similarly beat it. MAD seemed to be a bit more balanced, beating on everything equally.
My personal favorite was a four panel cartoon in the back of a particular issue back in the '70's.
The scene was a TV Commercial. On the screen was dripping faucet with the sound effect "GLIT, GLORT, BLEEBLE, DURP." The voice over comes on "Do you have a dripping faucet..."
Next frame is the same dripping faucet, same sound effects ("GLIT, GLORT, BLEEBLE, DURP."), voice over: "...and you don't know who to call?"
Next frame is the same dripping faucet, same sound effects ("GLIT, GLORT, BLEEBLE, DURP."), voice over: "Call the plumbers who've been in the business for over 20 years!"
The final frame shows four guys standing in front of their van which says "Glit, Glort, Bleeble, & Durp: Plumbers for over 20 years!"
I still laugh at that cartoon.
I think he had a very valid point. Unlike you.
...who the heck is Jason? ;-)
I've always regarded Martin as a comic genius.... I grew up on his material, and thank him for the warped sense of humor I have today.
Another brilliant Mad Magazine writer (one of the few original Mad authors who's still around and active) is Dick DeBartolo, whose early attempt at a kid's show ("Winky Dink and You") got me in trouble as a child. (With the show's encouragement, I attempted to draw on the screen of my parents' new color TV -- with Mom's lipstick!)
Goodbye Mr. Martin. Thanks for the laughs.
In men of his age it's usually
FLUB DUP FLUB DUP DOOBADOOBADOOBA SPROINK!
a heart attack, or
BLOOTT! PTTHHHFFRLLLP!
a stroke, or
SKROONCH!
Cancer.
I owned a whole bunch of CRAZY mags at one point. I donated them to an SF library when I was in Clean Out Your Mom's House mode a few years back. It was a very odd little mag, a bit more surreal and daring than MAD, but with not-as-good talent. One regular feature was a cartoon about a radio serial. It consisted of panel after panel of an old-fashioned radio spouting voice balloons. One piece I remember was a sparsely illustrated short story about people in a suicide pact. It seemed very literate and cool to me when I was a teenager. Their movie and TV satires were ONE PAGE LONG but managed to due the job. I was just thinking about one the other day; a spoof on the prison escape movie "Pappillon." The last panel shows the hero floating away from Devil's Island on a giant cork. "He was free for the rest of his days," read the text, "Both of them." Their mascot was a little creepy guy called the Nebbish. He was eventually revealed to be Richard Nixon. It seemed funny at the time... Stefan
For example, I read Science Fiction but I haven't found any single author since Heinlein and Asimov that I'll buy and enjoy everything they produce.
A famous quote: "The Golden Age of science fiction is 14."
The reason you don't think anything is as great as Heinlein and Asimov has nothing to do with the greatness (or lack thereof) of today's science fiction authors.
You're not 14 any more. The sense of newfound wonder and excitement you felt when encountering the science fiction legends of your youth is gone, and if you are like most people, will never be recaptured. The everyday concerns of school, work, jobs, parenting, etc., take up too much time and energy to get that back.
If you liked everything Asimov wrote, you bought more than 300 books, by the way. The authors filling the SF section of a bookstore today include a dozen authors who are blowing the minds of 14 year old readers the way yours was blown by Asimov and Heinlein.
I can see why some Slashdot readers want to avoid obituaries. They turn 90 percent of this site's readership into maudlin, oversentimental morons. The idea that people aren't great anymore, and they used to be great when you were a kid, is astonishingly stupid.
What, me worry?
I remember seeing an issue of Cracked in a grocery store in 1988 with the headline "Don Martin is Cracked!" I surprised me because I always knew him as a Mad artist.
I eventually found out about his dislike of Mad's copyright policies. I also noticed that for a few years after Mr. Martin switched to Cracked, Mad did not reprint any of his material in any of their "Super Specials" (large compilation issues containing popular past material). Maybe they were unsure if they could still use any of his old work?
It's always seemed to me that while Cracked has been more creative with their subject material (except for the stupid Cracked Monster Party series), Mad's humour and material has always been of a higher quality than Cracked's. Don Martin made some good contributions to Cracked when he joined them, but overall, I think even he started to slip into the Cracked rut. All of my favourite Don Martin cartoons are from Mad, none from Cracked. His better material is definitely from his Mad years. Maybe Mad has stricter quality control...?
What do you think folks? Was Don Martin better being "mad" or "cracked"?
P.S. I know Don Martin never contributed to it, but has anyone ever read Crazy magazine...?
(I'm the same guy that posted the comment "Don Martin and Mad vs. Cracked," which was rather critical of Cracked, above...)
I didn't care for Cracked when I read it, but I will definitely agree that Mad fell into a rut in the mid-1990s, and is probably still in it. I remember seeing Mad TV and then reading a few issues of Mad shortly afterward and thinking, "Bill Gaines (Mad's former publisher) must be turning in his grave..."
Cracked has ventured into some territory that Mad has been afraid or unwilling to touch, often with very good (and funny!) results. Their recent parody of Pokémon with the cover featuring Pikachu puking on Ash was hilarious. ("When searcing for Pokemon in the grass, beware of obstacles...there might be Pokepoo hidden in there.") When I was in high school and the New Kids on the Block were popular, Cracked trashed them mercilessly while Mad ignored them completely except for the occasional short article here and there, usually published in a cowardly manner. Same thing for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dick Tracy, and Street FighterII. Cracked's poems are some of their true gems. When has Mad published any funny poetry? Mad has a formula, and does like deviating from it very much, which is unfortunate. Notice how Cracked has taken to publishing parts of their magazine in colour now. I wish Mad would do that!
Cracked, while being more creative as I pointed out, has often had it's share of problems with "bang for the buck." Whenever I pick up an issue, I only read about 10% of the magazine. There's that one article that's featured on the cover, and maybe a few others that are good, and the rest is fluff. Sometimes Cracked parodies things that are old or aren't popular anymore. This is a good example of the "fluff."
Cracked also has a problem with its artwork. Don Martin is very good, as well as John Severin, who I believe is one of the best humour magazine artists ever, but Cracked has a lot of extremely poor quality art. I was really disappointed that their Wild Wild West parody was drawn by Walter Brogan. He's terrible! His "artwork" is messy, disorganized, and very difficult to follow. And Mike Ricigliano? His "Spies and Saboteurs" are cool, but anything else by him is funny...for a few minutes.
When you analyse both magazines for a few issues, you start to discover that they really sell into totally different markets. Mad is meant for tennagers and young adults, while Cracked is meant for younger people, probably around junior high school age. This explains why I liked Cracked then but don't like it now.
One other thing... The face of Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is instantly recognizable anywhere, and can be put on any head or body, while Cracked's Sylvester P. Smythe must always have blond hair and a wimpy look to be discernable. (Which makes me wonder...what ever happened to those back covers where they put his face on a celebrity's body?)
Back in early 1990, Cracked rented a 1-800 number and asked people to call and vote for whether or not they should keep him or not. The first issue to advertise the 1-800 number had the headline, "Should We Kill Sylvester?" Back then, I didn't have the money to call the number (it wasn't toll free), but today I would for sure! Today, whenever I see Sylvester's stupid mug in the upper-left corner of the mag's cover, for some reason, I get really angry and want to kill him! Arrghh! He makes me so mad!!
SYLVESTER P. SMYTHE MUST DIE!!
Sorry...
Was he just walking down the street, minding his own business, when suddenly kerplunk, he was lying down holding a lily? There's got to be more to it that that.
TROLL VS TROLL stories.
--- Here instead
Tiome to dig out the one book of his I still have: Don Martin Forges A Head.
I grew up on Mad in the '70s, and Don Martin had some of the best material. It was odd and often hilarious.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Don Martin create the veeblefetzer name/character? That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Don Martin.
Martin was never one my favorites, though he did have funny stuff. I really liked Spy vs. Spy, Aragones' "Marginal Art", and Mort Drucker's great caricatures in the movie parodies. And of course Al Jaffee's fold-ins ("The Almighty Dollar??" say Bart and Milhouse...)
I knew Mad was going downhill when Dave Berg stopped doing "The Lighter Side of..." with a single theme for the entire segment and instead had a different theme for each piece.
Wow, this hurts. Don was one of my fave cartoonists of all time. As a child I'd always buy my Mad mag and Don's toons were the first thing I read. Ahhh Captain Klutz I hardly knew ye.... Rest well Don...You'll be missed. I raise a glass to you and say...THPLATKT!!!
VENI! VIDI! VICI!
Garfield was a very good strip in it's first 5 years. The perspective and setup was unique. Then Jim Davis was hit with "moichendizing". The cartoon show, tons of toys and books, etc. At that point, the strip began showing signs of being 'tired'. It's still going, almost 20 years later, but it's obviously nothing groundshaking now.
The same thing has happened to Scott Adams and Dilbert. Popularity and the TV show have really screwed up the fresh look of the comic.
I'd argue that we didn't see this with Bill Waterson or Gary Larson because they only allowed their work for books and the occasional promotional items; both were able to stay fresh for much longer, and rather than draw out and get repetitive, they quit the business on time.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Cracked Magazine was always a better magazine. Mad magazine - like Mad TV - is and was always stuck in a rut. Their comedic style fizzled long ago; and was so often dependant on fads that came and went just as easily as their foul humor. Cracked magazine was different - it had and still has humour that goes beyond the childish parody of it's more established competitor.
Cracked magazine was always a little more respectable - in more ways than one. And I think Don Martin recognized Cracked's valuable qualities; which helped lead to his future with Cracked Magazine. I'll always love Don Martin's gift to my life - he gave me the knowledge that despite simplistic drawings a good bag of humour can make everyone laugh.
Thanks Don.
Joseph Elwell.
I loved Don Martin's work. It's truly sad to see him go. I hope that both Mad and Cracked (which also used some of his work) give him fitting tributes. The man was great at what he did.
Adieu, Don. You'll be missed, but never forgotten.
The guy was a cartoon genius. I think I still have, stashed away in a folder somewhere, several pages of "Mad Don Martin's Sound Effect Stickers" from when I was a kid in the 70's. These things were fantastic. You could really *hear* them - PWANG!, a frying pan in the face. POIT!, a breast popping out of a too-tight corset. SPLADAP!, someone smacked with a fish. GASHPLUCT!, a farmer walking through a muddy field. SHTOONK!, a metal rod poking someone's eye. GLING!, a fly going through a fan.* There were a million of them. All illustrated in a goofily original style in which the victims appeared more bemused than actually hurt.
His straight cartoons were always a riot as well. I particularly loved the befuddled surgeons - wondering how to begin a brain operation, not noticing "Insert thumb into slot A and pull" notation on the patient's neatly perforated skull. Or when an organ flies out of the patient's body - "better save that, we might need it later."
And, who could forget his portrayal of Elvis, "Shmelvis Parsley in 'Singing Wings'"? The list goes on and on - it's no wonder I turned out the way I did, thanks in part to this man's warped sense of humor. Don was truly brilliant, he will be greatly missed.
* Disclaimer: I may have spelled a couple of these wrong, it's been years after all.
--Indigo
Simple enough. Just a simple gravestone, maybe with a curved top, casting a shadow over a lonely little spot of ground, maybe with a daisy. That or an open coffin.
I'd advise against using religious symbols or vultures or anything like that. But an obituary icon would make sense to me.
J.
damned vulpine http://sb.drtwister.com/
Anyway, finally! real "News for nerds stuff that Matters."
I must admit, Mad Magazine probably "fsked" me up as a kid more than smoking pot or anything else.
I still, to this day, want to fold the back end of most magazines to see if anything happens....
All my National Geographics have a strange "threefold" on the back end....
Speaking of National Geographic..... do you remember the first time you became a man? *wink*
Bitcoin pyramid: Join here: http://www.bitcoinpyramid.com/r/1427 it's FREE!
Shit, the graveside at your funeral is gonna be a pretty empty area, rather like the one between your ears.
Don't take life too seriously. It is only a temporary situation. Usual disclaimers apply.
Don't take life too seriously. It is only a temporary situation. Usual disclaimers apply.
QA to the rescue, killing bugs on sight.
Cheers, Don, and thanks.
**>>BELCH
Check out Ralph Snart Comics
Reid Flemming
Steven
Flaming Carrot
Most of these are relatively defunct, but they all reek of true, timeless, awe-inspiring greatness.
**>>BELCH
I was born in 1961, and not until 1994, in one used book store, I saw an old copy of MAD magazine, published in 1961 which reminded me that "1961" can be REVERSED and still becomes "1961" !!
Man, I realized how STUPID I was, when it had to take me THIRTY THREE YEARS of my life before I notice what the MAD magazine has noticed the year I was born !
So, this is a VERY BELATED THANKS to all who have contributed to the success of MAD. You have convinced me that there _ARE_ geniuses behind the COVERS OF MAD !!!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Goodbye, Don. Thanks for all the laffs.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
...and I think Illiad and Nitrozac are the ringleaders. I guess they weren't content with what fame they already had, and decide to go out and either kill or threaten the other cartoonists. Yeah we all know Charles Shultz is retiring but do we know the "real" reason? =)))))
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
I've always been a big fan of Don Martin's. Those are some good looking and comfortable shoes.
_ _____________
Seriously tho, that is sad to hear. He and Sergio were a couple of the best Mad cartoonists. Time to pull out a few dusty old copies of Mad and have a read..
_______________________________________________
--
driph
\begin{boggle}
Dilbert creative? Please.
\end{boggle}
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
The repetitive strips always use the same gags, and have been around for what seems like forever. Marmaduke. Ziggy. Peanuts. There won't be any earth-shattering ideas, nor anything to shock you. The same-ol', same-ol'. They'll always be popular, because they provide comfort from what you read on the front page.
The creative strips are far more rare. They entertain by their newness, by innovation. The Far Side. Calvin and Hobbes. Dilbert. The creative cartoonists tend to burn out -- Bill Waterson and Gary Larson both couldn't handle the pressure.
Jim Davis won't ever run out of new ideas -- he has all the ones he'll ever need. I hope, though, that Scott Adams hangs around for a few more years.
Here's to cartoonists.
--------------------
--------------------
Earth first? Oooh, and I was thinking of paying the rent.
There is good work being done today, stuff that will definately be considered classic material in the future.
Consider the following:
Note too that all of the "classic" artists you mentioned had their own influences who they probably felt they were unworthy to be compared to.
In short, don't overlook the possiblity that the "good old days" are happening right now.
Jon
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Zontar The Mindless,
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Oh yeah, it came with a roll of mad toilet paper too! haha, great!
Has all the cool spy vs spy, edge art, and my favorite the army guy who makes all the peace signs.. (Ops showing my age)
I just did a quick search for Don Martian, shows a list of his cartoons.. All his "DAY" cartoons, the caveman cartoons. Damn, what a shame.
-Brook
This is one thing I _don't_ want to hear about when I come to Slashdot - the death of someone. I get that enough on the news, when I care enough to watch. Although it's a natural part of life, and I suppose it's 'interesting' to some, I'd like to see a new category for this topic, so I can 'check' it off for news I don't want to see.
I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'please excuse me.'
what came out of my mouth was 'Move or I'll kill you!'
Oh, man, moderated _down_. Guess it had to happen sooner or later...
I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'please excuse me.'
what came out of my mouth was 'Move or I'll kill you!'
And I don't see what all the fuss is about.
What people frequently forget is that when MAD went from a comic book format to a magazine format in 1955, one of the first artists the late William Gaines hired was one Don Martin.
Martin's quirky (but very funny) style of cartoon work was truly unique and was a major mainstay at MAD until he had that unfortunate falling out with MAD back in 1988.
He will be seriously missed.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
The german onomatopeias themselves are worth reading...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
This man made me laugh my ass off... SPLORCH!
A sad day for a great man... whacky as that may be....
Flenser, eh?
I knew I forgot something - I really meant to put Vernor Vinge on that list, too.
But if you really meant that there were some authors - Asimov and Heinlein - whose stuff you thought was great without any exceptions...then you actually liked those last Heinlein novels?
Surely even the greatest of authors may be responsible for one or two complete turkeys, though these tend to be forgotten.
I admit it's hard to find something particularly awful from Asimov but that's surely because (i) his output was so enormous that it's hard to find the room to remember the least good of his stories, and (ii) his writing seems fairly uniform in its mediocrity by today's standards.
I'll amend that insofar as to say that he did write some stuff which really sticks in my mind - the short story The Last Question and the novel The Gods Themselves. I also thought his later Robot and Foundation novels got better as the stories converged.
You know it only just occurred to me that The Last Question anticipated F J Tipler's Omega Point Theory by several decades.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Nice flame, man!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
What kind of twisted mentality could possibly mark up my post as INFORMATIVE???!?!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
FLOOBADOOP! That should be preserved for posterity!
:o)) Sound of an empty glass bottle bouncing off your head - DOONT!
He was my favourite too. Here are some more Don Martin sound effects, from some Don Martin Sound Effect Stickers I got with an issue of Mad Magazine way back in about 1975 (they've stayed fresh in my mind all that time):
Sound of treading in a rather moist dog turd - GLITCH!
Sound of being hit in the face with a frying pan: PWANG!
Sound of a springy saw blade bent back then released to smack you in the face - FOINZAPP!
Sound of being poked in the eyeball with a lit cigarette - SIZAFITZ!
Sound of someone drilling into your forehead with a power drill - BZZOWNT!
Sound of being hit in the face by a large wet fish - SPLADAP!
Sound of being being poked in the eye by one of those thin metal rod-type towel rails that stick out from the wall - SHTOINK!
...and my all-time favourite
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
For example, I read Science Fiction but I haven't found any single author since Heinlein and Asimov that I'll buy and enjoy everything they produce.
:o/
I think this must be the result of a combination of viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses and not knowing what to look at in the bookshop.
For starters, Asimov wrote great science fiction - real page turners - but in retrospect it was just traditional pulp. It lacked any kind of sophistication and didn't really demand much from the reader. Heinlein was truly the master in terms of story (eg. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag) but this reputation was won solely on the strength of his output back in the so-called Golden Age. As he aged, his stories and characterisations were increasingly saturated with self-indulgence, saccharine sentimental and sexual fantasies. The rot started to set in around the time of Stranger In a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love. By the time he wrote Number of the Beast his style was hardly recognisable and that book is about enough to make anybody puke. I didn't even bother reading Job at all.
The advent of "New Wave" sci-fi in the seventies meant lean times for those of us who liked good hard science fiction stories, with a traditional narrative structure (a beginning a middle and an end). NB I'm generalising so please don't flame me OK? The likes of Philip K Dick didn't appeal to everyone, some of these stories tended to be a bit too abstract for pulp fans.
But in the eighties and nineties Hard Science fiction enjoyed a resurgence. You may not like the bleak worlds portrayed by "cyberpunk" authors like William Gibson but science fiction has largely moved on from there by now. A lot of science fiction these days has a more optimistic tone.
There is no basis of fact in the suggestion that there is no more good Science Fiction being written any more. I'd particularly recommend you have another look at:
Orson Scott Card - not just Ender's Game, one of my favourites was a book called Hot Sleep, now out of print but re-written and re-released as The Worthing Saga
Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars. A truly wonderful book describing the first colonisation of the red planet in stunning detail, it actually makes it believable.
Greg Bear - Eon and its sequel Eternity. Lovely, traditional hard Science Fiction.
Greg Egan - Diaspora. Beautiful story and characterisation. Was developed out of his short story Wang's Carpets which makes up one chapter of the book (the idea behind it will blow your mind, guaranteed).
Peter F Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction &c. Traditional Space opera at its best.
Stephen Baxter - Voyager and Titan. Totally credible very near future space exploration. Like K S Robinson he's researched NASA's stuff very thoroughly and it pays off. he also did The Time Ships, a fairly convincing sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine authorised by Wells' estate.
Iain M Banks - all of the "Culture" novels, particularly Use of Weapons (although that particular book does play around with the narrative structure a bit, for a very good reason).
Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward and Spares. Very unusual stories. A bit like Iain M Banks.
Ken Macleod - The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal and The Cassini Division. Actually The Star Fraction wasn't released in the US because it goes on about leftist politics a lot. You can get it from amazon.co.uk if you're not boycotting Amazon.
Neal Stephenson - I'd better mention Snow Crash and The Diamond Age before I get drummed out of Slashdot...I'd probably have mentioned them anyway but it's a bit hard to be sure when you just know someone's waiting to jump down your throat
NB. I don't mean this to be an exhaustive list of my favourite contemporary Science Fiction by any means. But if you read all the above I'm certain you'll find that more than a few of them will excite you, and make you want more.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
I wish to exclude whiners from the comments page. They are pointless. What good does it do to anyone to know that someone doesn't want to see an article. Most of these people although sometimes add something to the discussion simply are being annoying. They are saying very little interesting things in their whining and for many of us this just simply means nothing. People skips articles every second people whines every second. Now if someone prominent right now like the president or Linus whined that would be news. Most of these whinings aren't. They are just people who everyone thought would whine anyway.
I wish to exclude whiners from the comments page. They are pointless. [...]
Does anyone else see the irony here?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I'm saddened to see Don go. I loved Mad back in the 70's. In fact, to this day, I still haven't seen most of the "classic" American movies of the 70's, but I have read the Mad versions :)
As for Sergio, I'm glad he's still around. He put out a wicked parody/kick in the nuts version of Blair Witch last month, and I laughed my ass off on every page.
Essay Topic: Compare and contrast Don Martin and Sergio Aragones comic stylings with respect to dialog vs. sound effects. Sergio's were silent movies, while Don's were silent movies with somebody behind the screen doing insane sound effects.
SHTOINK!
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I think the difference is that most of the best comics these days are being put up on the web, and the artists aren't getting paid for it (at least not much...)
See Goats, Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly (though that one's not restricted to the web..)
there are a lot of other "hobby" strips out there - ComicSites lists bajillions of them.
Of course, I miss Bloom County, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side..... But so do we all..
No, it's time to get Totally MAD and have a read in full zooming and rotating digital splendor.
It's harder and harder because there is far much more noise these days.
It used to be that people only ever got noticed because they had talent, or at least, it was more like that than it is today.
These days, there is so much shit crammed into your face it's hard to get away from it and find something interesting.
Know how I find interesting things? My friends.
Interesting music, Interesting booze, interesting sports, interesting.. everything.
It serves to reinforce that you are GROWING UP. (That is you, in general, not you as an individual, as you are obviously not growing up)
Many readers here I bet are 25 or under....
And lots of the people we grew up looking up to are starting to get rather old.. so it serves to let us know that we are mortal, and that soon we will be those icons for the generations to come.
Among readers of MAD, I have no doubt that Don Martin will be missed.
Snicker - Readers of MAD have missed him for 12 years since he left MAD for Cracked in 1987...
First they burn books, then they burn people.
>Where would Breathed, Larson, Watterson, et al. be today without him?
Say, what is Berke Breathed doing these days? Haven't heard a peep since he finished with Outland.
ObDonMartin: Thanks for all the laughs. We'll miss ya.
Not only a nerd himself (just read the obit, or [preferably] any of his work), but an inspiration to several generations of nerds. Definitely /.-worthy news. So there! BBBBLLLLLPPPPTTTTTHHHTT!
Where would Breathed, Larson, Watterson, et al. be today without him? Just the onomatopoetics alone should enshrine this guy in the cartoonists' hall of fame (is there one? Where!?).
Just my $0.02. We'll miss ya Don.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Exactly how Windows-centric *is* this collection, anyway? Is there anyone who has it and has had a look through the file system?
One of the reviews on the amazon.com page you link to complains about the low image quality. Well, that's the way it goes, I guess -- as someone who has worked with scanned artwork before, I can assure you that it's damn hard getting pages with richly detailed, shaded artwork and crisply-printed black and white text to compress well. Let's hope that by the time EC produced Totally Mad II or whatever, wavelet compression will be patent-free. :)
The first thought that comes to mind is the National Cartoonists' Society's Reuben awards, although those are more geared toward newspaper comic strips than to comic books and magazines. More general in scope is the Michigan State University comic art collection, which is about as definitive a collection as one point on the globe can be.
I wish to exclude obituaries from my front page. They are pointless. What good does it do anyone to know that someone is dead. Most of these people although once great simply died of old age. They were doing very little productive things in their old age and for many of us this just plainly means nothing. People are born every second people die every second. Now if someone prominent right now like the president or Linus died that would be news. Most of these obituaries aren't. They are just people who everyone thought would would die soon anyway.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
Thanks for that insightful comment.
1000 SlashDot sigs
I do like the premise of your idea, however.
Yeah, I haven't read his stuff in awhile, but back in the day, he made me laugh. Thumbs up to him.
When I was about 10 years old, my grandmother got me a hand drawn cartoon from Sergio Aragonez (another cartoonist for Mad). It had a picture of Sergio and a picture of Neuman both waving and saying "Hi, Jason!". I still have that picture, and I still love Mad. Although Sergio has always been my favorite artist, I am really going to miss Don Martin. Ah well...heres to another rant and sad times.
-=Omicron=-
Martin based his humor on misery and misfortune, to crack "sick" jokes. The magazine dubbed him "Mad's Maddest Cartoonist." The guy poisoning pigeons in the park - "I hate pigeons" - winds up killing the people who gather around to sample his scrumptious popcorn. Mona Lisa, as the reader realizes only in the last frame of the strip, is sitting on a toilet. Hapless boobs with big feet get squashed in all manner of ways.
"There's always been physical suffering in comedy," he once said. "Even ancient clowns kicked each other in the seat of the pants or hit each other over the head. It's the same thing in our time, just a little stronger."
The cartoons had a vocabulary all their own. "SHKLIP" was the sound made when construction workers tossed concrete at each other. "SPLOP" described a surgeon throwing body parts into a doggie bag. "FAGROON" came from a collapsing skyscraper.
His license plate read "SHTOINK."
"Is it funny? That's the only test I know when it comes to cartooning," Martin once said. "Not whether it's sick, or whether it's going to ruin people's values or morals. You only have to ask a simple question: 'Is it funny?'"
His twisted approach influenced generations of younger cartoonists.
"Don Martin was the one who really stood out," "The Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson told The Miami Herald in a story published in 1990. "I really always loved his work. He was such a great artist."
Martin left Mad magazine in 1987 after a falling-out with its publisher, the late William Gaines, accepting a job at Cracked, a competitor.
Martin chafed at the tradition that Mad, like most publishers, retained all rights to reprint and profit from his work that it used, paying him on a free-lance basis. But he put out paperbacks of cartoons not published in the magazine, eventually selling more than 7 million copies.
Martin drew despite a degenerative eye condition that forced him to undergo cornea transplants, wear special, highly uncomfortable contact lenses and use a magnifying glass while drawing.
"He was a shy and retiring sort of guy, considering he drew a comic strip that was crazy," said a longtime friend, Laurence Donovan.
Martin was born in Clifton, N.J., and began his undergraduate work at the Newark Institute. He earned a fine arts degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He began submitting drawings to the fledgling Mad magazine in the mid-50s.
Movie News - "Entertainment news, bitch!"
I am a writer it's what I do for a living is it so bad if a person who reads slashdot is also a writer.
Movie News - "Entertainment news, bitch!"
MAD was my favorite magazine in the late 60's through the 70's and Don Martin was my favorite
MAD cartoonist. Of all his characters perhaps his
most endearing and nerdy was Joe Fonebone. High-water pants pulled crotch tight and white socks/dark shoes. The prototypical nerd. Around my house my children understand what "looking like
a Fonebone" means whenever I hoist my pants up too much!
RIP Don.
And the brethren went away edified.
Maybe I'm not looking in the right places anymore, but it seems to me that finding great talents in the world is getting harder and harder.
I'm not sure if this means that there are fewer people who truly stand out in their areas of expertise, or if the truly talented are simply being drowned out in the flood of information available in our media-rich environment today.
For example, I read Science Fiction but I haven't found any single author since Heinlein and Asimov that I'll buy and enjoy everything they produce. The fading away of the Peanuts cartoon is another example. There are hundreds of cute cartoons out there, but very few are as timeless as Schultz's creations. The Cat in the Hat series is yet another example. How can the average person pick the jewels out of the many "merely shiny" stones all trying to grab a moment of our attention?
Where are the Great Talents going? This passing is the latest loss that seems irreplaceable today.
Hrmph. I'll get an off-topic for this one, but I gotta do it.
I didn't say there aren't any talented writers, I said there are no writers out there that I will buy and enjoy EVERYTHING they write. It's not too fun reading someone putting words in my mouth that aren't even close to what I think or write BTW...
Niven/Pournelle are the closest I've found to that ideal, but they just don't quite make it plus it seems that their production has dramatically tapered off in the last decade.
I've read many of those you mention and I like some of their stuff, but not all of it.
And for many nerds who grew up on Mad Magazine, Don Martin is an instantly recognizable name. Obviously the name means nothing to you, but clearly it meant something to someone otherwise it wouldn't have been posted.
While I'm not against a separate category for obits, I find it ludicrous that you think the world revolves around only what you think is important. Have a little perspective. If the story means nothing to you, then move on.
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Just asking...
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This is an example of cut-and-paste. Pathetic really.
There's no reason for a sig here.
The site is here: http://members.tripod.de/mad_2/donmar tin.html
Funny stuff.
There's no reason for a sig here.
Don Martin was always my favourite in Mad Magazine. What a shame that he will not be around any more to entertain us.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~haensel/Don_Marti n/don_martin_main.html
I can't help thinking Mad was where I learned the word "Plotz". I hope Don would prefer that in a headline.
Paul Boutin | writer for Slate, Wired, etc
Seems like more and more brilliant artists are dying or retiring these days, with none stepping forward to replace them. The comic artists of today are like pen-lights to the artistic flames of men like Don Martin or Charles Shulz or Carl Barks or (in another vein of comic art) Jack Kirby.
Among readers of MAD, I have no doubt that Don Martin will be missed.
So my long time favourite cartoonist is gone, it's really sad. However I wonder if it was only Sweden who once had a special DM magazine filled with Mr Martins great stuff, coz I loved that magazine even more than MAD... RIP Martin...
Only dead fish follow the stream
MAD was also the first place that Don Knuth was published, with his wacky weights and measures system. It's a shame that the other Don has gone; I've got my feet folded over the edge of the sidewalk in mourning.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
So am I the only one here who went digging through the issues looking for the oft-hoped-for "POIT!"? One of the best parts of pre-pubescence.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
BOINK!
Okay, moments up. You may all resume your normal, crass, undeserving lives.
It seems like lots of media types--cartoonists in particular, i.e. Charles Schultz, --are leaving the business these days, one way or another. And others can't be far behind. Jim Davis has drawn Garfield for 20 some years now. How dull that must be. "Hmm, what about..., nope, done that before. Maybe... nope done that too..."
Berkely Breathed, creator or Bloom County and Outland. Some of the best and funniest comics I have ever seen. I love that quote by him thats like "the real dinosaurs aren't in calvin and hobbes, they are the strips that stay forever and never change".
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard