MAD's Maddest Artist Don Martin Bounces Back!

 

By Don Martin

A selection of Don Martin's comics, featuring mainly his characters Fester and Karbunkle. 

It opens with National Gorilla-Suit Day where Fester is upset about people celebrating National Gorilla-Suit Day by dressing up in gorilla suits. The conclusion: 

And A Visit To the Dentist which does not go well for poor Fester.

Followed by The Hardest Head in the World which is a satire of boxing movies. It stars Karbunkle as the man with the hardest head in the world. He becomes very famous but the high life causes him to lose his tone and his head shatters when a feather falls on it. But all is not lost, Fester puts him through a strict training programming. Karbunkle hardens up again and the story ends with him being dropped from a plane, head first, onto an Egyptian pyramid. 

Then Fester and Karbunkle star in Swan Lake. Fester appears as Prince Siegfried and Karbunkle as the Swan Maiden. Karbunkle presents Fester with an egg at the end when Fester was expecting a kiss.

Next is The Barber with Fester as a barber who unfortunately accidentally cuts off his client's nose.

After that is The Gourmet in which Fester eats a wet mop, thinking it is a delicious plate of spaghetti. How it ends: 

The final story is The Painters. Fester and Karbunkle are house painters and Fester ends up in the toilet.

These funnies are funny and crazy and fine examples of Don Martin's work. My copy of the book is dated 1963.  But even though the cartoons are more than sixty years old, they are still so much wacky fun to read and look at.

The Invisible MAD

 

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Includes:

• Will Success Spoil Charlie Brown?
• The MAD Library of Extremely Thin Books
• Spy vs Spy
• Advantages of the Suburbs for Kids
• Don Martin cartooons
• Dave Berg's The Lighter Side of Friendship
• Mission: Ridiculous
• MAD's Medical Mother Goose
• More Announcements for Everything
• MAD's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions
• Air Pollution Problems of the Future
• You Know You're Really Getting Old When

A fun read, with lots of content, a trip to the humorous past for the young and the old.

The Abominable Snow MAD

 

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine from the 1970s.

Featuring

• The Milking of the Planet that Went Ape by Arnie Kogen, art by Mort Drucker
• Cartoons by Don Martin
• The Shadow Knows by Sergio Aragones
• The Lighter Side of Weekends by Dave Berg
• Howard at the Mike by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
• MAD Interviews a Typical Liberal Family by Lou Silverstone, art by Paul Coker Jr.
• Distinctive Wedding Announcements by Frank Jacobs
• Spy vs Spy
• The MAD Christmas Hate Book by Al Jaffee
• A MAD Look at Tarzan by Don Edwing, art by Jack Davis
• and more

This was a fun book to read, especially for an old fogey who was an adult in the 1970s. I think MAD was at its best in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Here are some excerpts from the book --

From The Shadow Knows

From Dave Berg

From Dave Berg

From Distinctive Wedding Announcements

MAD'S Maddest Artist Don Martin Steps Out!

By Don Martin

I think this was the first collection of Don Martin cartoons. It was certainly the first collection of his that I read as a kid. I remember so many of the cartoons in that book. Coming back to it decades later, I still enjoyed Martin's silly sense of humor. And I think these early cartoons among his best.

This collection includes:
1. Fester and Karbunkle Out West
2. Fester Goes Ski Jumping
3. Fester and Karbunkle The Motor Trip
4. Fester and Karbunkle The Safe Movers
5. Fester and Karbunkle The Roller Coaster Ride
6. Sylvan Interlude in a Petunia Patch
7. Karbunkle in The Penny Arcade
8. Fester and Karbunkle in A Department Store

When I was a kid and trying to go to sleep, I would imagine the various stages of Fester's experience in A Department Store.

MAD About Sports

By Frank Jacobs

Illustrated by Jack Rickard.

MAD contributor Frank Jacobs pokes fun at sports and sports fans. Featuring:

The MAD Sports Hero Primer
The MAD Hall of Fame for Minor Sports
You Can See She's Not a Baseball Fan
If TV Sports Covered a Family Quarrel
Announcements for Athletes
The Polar Bear Club Diving Competition (by Don Martin)
If Sports Editors Wrote Headlines for Great Historical Events
The Big-Time Athlete Yesterday and Today
Band Formations for Small Colleges
Sports for Better or Verse
You Can See She's Not a Football Fan
If Sports Editors Wrote Headlines for the Bible
When Women Take Part in Men's Professional Sports

The copyright is 1972 and the attitudes expressed in the  book are pretty dated. Also, it's about sports, a boring subject to begin with.

MAD's Al Jaffee Spews Out Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions

Author and illustrator Al Jaffee gives answers to thoughtless questions. Along with regular stupid questions, the book has sections dealing with:

• Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions Goes West
• A Snappy Answer to Some Stupid Questions that Backfired
• An Out of this World Snappy Answer to a Stupid Question
• A Romantic Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions Love Story
• A Snappy Answer to a Stupid Question Because It Is There
• Through History with Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions

And some sections have blanks for the reader to insert their own "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions."

You might not think that the "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" bit could be stretched out to fill an entire 192 page book, but Jaffee manages to do so and still be entertaining and funny.

MAD Blasts

By MAD Magazine, edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1980, 1981 & 1988.

Included are:
The Shiner by Larry Siegel, art by Angelo Torres
The Lighter Side of . . . by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
MAD's Career-Oriented Mother Goose by Frank Jacobs, art by Paul Coker Jr.
Don Martin cartoons
The MAD Sale of Expendable American Properties, Landmarks and Monuments by Dennis Snee, art by Sergio Aragones
Why Didn't You Do Your Homework? A Collection of 18 MAD Excuses by John Ficarra, art by Paul Coker
What the Television Says and What it Really Means by Tom Koch, art by Jack Davis
Real Life Madness by Lou Silverstone, art by Harry North
More Wait Till You Get Home and Find That . . . by Paul Peter Porges
and much more!

Hopping MAD

By MAD Magazine, edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1964 & 1968.

Included are:
Insecurity Is a Pair of Loose Swim Trunks by Frank Jacobs, art by Bob Clarke
The Evolution of a Popular Song by Tom Koch, art by George Woodbridge
The Lighter Side of  Married Men by Dave Berg
Don Martin cartoons
A MAD Look at the Circus by Sergio Aragones
The Great Filter Tip Cigarette War by Al Jaffee, art by Bob Clarke
MAD Visits the Producer-Director of "Charades" by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
The Long Range Effects of Products on People by Don Reilly, art by Jack Rickard
And more!

MAD Pet Book

By Paul Coker Jr.

A collection of cartoons written and drawn by Paul Coker Jr.

The chapter titles read like a serious book about pet care. But it is totally not that.
The chapters include:
Choosing Your Pet
Housing Your Pet
Your Pets Diet
Training Your Pet
The Health of Your Pet
Some Final Obfuscations

It's an amusing collection, but for me, the best part was the illustrations.

MAD About Town

By MAD Magazine, edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1976, 1977 & 1983.

Included are
Gall of the President's Men by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
Don Martin cartoons
The Lighter Side of . . . Noise by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
The MAD Guide to  Parental Hang-ups by Tom Koch, art by Paul Coker Jr.
MAD's Academy Awards for Jocks by Lou Silverstone, art by Jack Davis
A MAD Look at Winter by Sergio Aragones
MAD's Death Announcements by Frank Jacobs
When You're Poor . . . and . . . When You're Rich by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
And much more!

MAD's Don Martin Carries On

By Don Martin, Dick DeBartolo and Frank Jacobs

A collection of cartoons by Don Martin, including
One Wednesday Morning at the Hospital
One Afternoon in the Garden
One Sunny Day in Key West
Captain Klutz Meets the Man of 1,000 Faces (Give or Take 900) written by Dick DeBartolo
One Morning in the Operating Room
The Ballad of Arthur Freen written by Frank Jacobs
One Monday Afternoon at Joe's Concrete Works
Cockroaches
The Scientist in his Laboratory
Star Spangled Bananas written by Dick DeBartolo
And more!

Steaming MAD

By MAD Magazine, edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine, copyright 1968, 1969, 1975.
Included are:
If Comic Characters Were Psychoanalyzed by Frank Jacobs, art by Bob Clarke
Cartoons by Don Martin
The MAD Ice Hockey Primer by Larry Siegel, art by Jack Davis
The Lighter Side by Dave Berg
Spy vs Spy
Christmas Is . . . by Gilbert Barnhill, art by Al Jaffee
A MAD Look at . . . Sex Education in the Schools by Jack Kent
Casey at the Dice by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
MAD's Follow-Up Report on Progress by Dick De Bartolo, art by Bob Clarke
A MAD Look at Movie Monsters by Sergio Aragones
And much more.

Mad for Kicks

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from Mad Magazine,  dating from 1973, 1974, and 1980.

Satire, cartoons & humorous pieces featuring Mad's most well-known artists and writers like Dave Berg, Don Martin, Mort Drucker, Bob Clarke, Jack Davis, Stan Hart, Dick De Bartolo and Larry Siegel.
Included are satires of the James Bond movies, Dave Berg's The Lighter Side, a Mad Tennis Primer, Spy Vs Spy, and a satire of the 1970s TV show McCloud  titled McClod.

This was my era and looking back at those days is quite a hoot. A lot of Mad's best known artists have passed on so enjoying their humor and art is pleasant and sad at the same time.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mad

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from Mad Magazine, dating from 1968 and 1975. Cartoons, satire and humorous nonsense, still funny and enjoyable forty some years later.

Included are:
Mad's "Cliche Conversation" Killers by Stan Hart, art by George Woodbridge
Several Don Martin cartoons
More Specialized Self-Defense Books by Dick De Bartolo, art by Joe Orlando
Balmy and Clod by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker
You Know You're Really a Parent When... by Phil Hahn & Jack Hanrahan, art by Paul Coker, Jr.
Alley-Oops! by Sergio Aragones
A Nostalgic Look at Sandlot Baseball by Dean Norman, art by Paul Coker, Jr.
The Lighter Side by Dave Berg
And much more!

These humorous pieces may be old, but they are still funny and well worth reading.

The Brothers Mad

Edited by William M. Gaines

A collection of excerpts from Mad Magazine, dating from 1953, 1954 and 1955.

These comics and satires date from 65 years ago. Of course the movies and TV shows lampooned are no longer familiar to most readers today. But the book is still funny and enjoyable even if you don't get a lot of the references.

Included are:

• Black and Blue Hawks
• The Dave Garrowunway Show
• How to Get into the Army
• Shermlock Shomes: The Hound of the Basketballs
• Fozless Fooznick
• Shadow
• Alice in Wonderland
• Woman Wonder
• Melvin of the Apes
• Little Orphan Melvin

And loads more!