The award winning cartoonist, DON MARTIN, grew up in Morristown, New Jersey. It was an area filled with lush greenery, wild life, and country roads. And it was a place magically suited for the minds and bodies of growing boys. High School years were spent roaming magnificent woods with his dogs and friends. The perfect place to dream. His talent moved him in different directions, from fine art to commercial art, to cartooning and gag writing. The 5 years of art study that he had, four in New Jersey and then one in Philadelphia gave him a secure foundation so that his mature work reflected what he was trying to say in an original manner and it expressed what he was feeling. . A move to Greenwich Village and work in studios gave him more training. Then one of his bosses suggested he take his portfolio up to MAD. He did. And the rest appears to be history. He became famous almost overnight. His work has appeared worldwide in books and magazines, such as CRACKED and MAD. Don loved making drawings that made people laugh and his funny pictures were also used on a wide range of products. He was basically a shy man, cautious because of his vision problems (He was legally blind most of his life and had cornea transplants.).Here are some comments Don gave during an interview for a Boston radio station:
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR CRAZY IDEAS FROM?: Good question. I wish I could answer it. The nearest I can figure out is that I was a moody adolescent that grew into an even moodier adult. Humor was the thing that kept my feet on the ground, so-to-speak. And it's a combination of strange elements: Looney Tunes and Kafka; Charlie Chaplin, the three stooges and Ambrose Bierce. Some people think my humor is dark, but I think it is just silly. My drawings are also meant to be just silly. They have to help the gag work--or sometimes, it is just the reverse--the gag has to help the drawing work.
WHAT ABOUT THE SOUNDS YOU ARE SO WELL KNOWN FOR. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM or HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THEM?
First off-- I hear the sounds in my head. Sometimes I'll touch them up a little, if they don't feel right. I started creating them a few years after my career began. They just seemed more expressive of the kinds of things that were going on in my cartoon panels. Besides there really is a correct sound that goes with a particular action. A kiss sound could never be like a brick hitting a head sound. Do you agree?
Don Martin joined Pixels.com Licensing on June 23rd, 2018.
