The Art of Don Martin

He was a genius. Parents (especially mothers, who are usually more grown up than their testosterone impaired counterparts,) called his art silly, trash or even disgusting. That’s the wonderful thing about art, the stuff that’s worth keeping is never respected till the artist is dead. I’m sure there were contemporaries of Leonardo Da Vinci who looked up at the Sistine chapel and said, “Populist claptrap!”

To those of us raised in the 60’s and 70’s, Don Martin was our Leonardo.

Martin truly was an artist - not just a cartoonist, as shown by the diversity of his character styles from the simplistic Fester Bestertester

To the far less exaggerated Lance Parkertip, Noted Notary Public.

Like all Mad artists, Martin did his share of parody.

But he was always at his best telling little stories of everyday events - gone wrong - or at least odd..

Politically correct predated Don Martin, and I don't think it would have influenced him anyway.

And in a way - I think that is what will preserve his legacy long after our self-appointed social inhibitors have passed away.  What will endure is the onomatopoeia.

And the high fashion,

That was the work of an artist only properly recognized years after his death.

But that’s the thing about art, dance, music, film. We as a society rarely know what we have before it’s gone.

Someday we’ll look back at this decade and recognize the greatness of art which is today regarded as garbage. Fifty years from now, someone might be dedicating a blog post to the Great Literature of Headley Hauser.

Or maybe not.

Here's one of his lesser gags - YouTube needs some new uploads.