Strangely Perfect

By Don Martin(1931 – 2000) Taken from “Mad’s Maddest Artist Don Martin Steps Out”

Arnold Stang Dies The voice of Top Cat, the excellent cartoon series of my childhood has died at a good old age. He’s also in one of my favourite bits from the film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”  About half-way through the clip below he’s one of the two gas station attendants who [...]

Guillotine and “The Reign of Terror” Funny how I missed this during the summer – I was in hospital, I think. This video is Henry Paulson, stumbling and squirming, as he struggles to evade quite simple questions for someone in his position.  (I talked about his deceit last year here and here, at the start [...]

Freedom and the Law In stark contrast to the US which still insists on draconian measures against people thought to be bad (the lowest of the low Rumsfeld called them), the UK has had a landmark ruling for common sense in a democratic, freedom-loving country. Nine Law Lords have unanimously ruled it was unfair for [...]

When I’m feeling numb, I just look at this.  It’s got everything.  One (or two) character(s), five frames, no words, sound effects, tension, drama. It’s by a cartoonist called Don Martin who died a few years back and for many years was part of the glue that held Mad Magazine together. Ahhhh.  That’s better.

The Sirens, and others like The Harpies, are mythical creations designed to remind us that all is not what it seems.  Their allegorical presence is there to make us realise that we can be drawn into bad actions as if hypnotised, even though we know and are aware of exactly what is happening around us. [...]

At a discussion meeting this evening we discussed the subject; How has our practice influenced our view of the future. I thought about this and determined that my vision is extremely optimistic now as compared to previously in my life.  I connected two passages from the very beginning and near end of the Gosho that [...]

Well I just had to, to get myself in the correct frame of mind after seeing government crap for hours. ……..just gets me every time!

Two items this week have prompted this post which follows on from others like Laughable Big Brother. The Viz character, Roger Irrelevant is the link. (Viz flash version of a Roger Irrelevant cartoon.) Quoting from the Wikipedia description of Roger: “Roger Irrelevant is utterly detached from reality. The premise of the strip is that he [...]

Two WordPress trackback spams lead our hero to investigate their source and potential actions.

I thought we’d got rid of all the stupid flagellant stuff from the Middle Ages when people were primitive and bestial, trusting in a primordial god-figure to save themselves from the wrath of hell. But no. So called civilised people are getting themselves crucified as a form of penance, but, being the modern world, it’s [...]

The state of the world and stuff has been getting me down again recently, so just for me, I’m putting my favourite one-page gag of all time up again as a post. It’s by the late great Don Martin who was a major dude at Mad Magazine for many years. A lot of the magazine [...]

The Paleontologist This gets me every time! It’s by the late Don Martin, whose obituary is here Don Martin Dictionary! (it’s worth a click) Don Martin, one of the premier cartoonists at Mad Magazine in it’s heyday, had his own style (which every cartoonist must have to be successful anyway, of course), the key points [...]

George Melly is dead (not the man on the telly…) George Melly’s dead. Doomage will remember the reference in the Tom and Jerry film with the Zoot Soots (Suits). In Crawling Chaos, it would have been an EFS but “The Lady from Shanghai” was it, I suppose. I want a Zoot Suit, and I want [...]