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Craig's Brush with
Mad's Maddest Artist,

DON
MARTIN

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Mad's Maddest Artist, Don Martin, had a Brush With Craig -- meaning, with me -- in the early '90's. By that time, Don had left Mad over an ownership dispute, and fled for the competition, becoming Cracked's Crackedest Artist. At the same time, Don had launched a self-syndicated newspaper strip titled "The Nutheads," about a close-knit family of nitwits who ran a small grocery. Somehow I entered the picture and began writing gags for Don -- Cracked gags as well as for the syndicated strip.

In answer to the slightest hint of encouragement, which is all it takes for me to write about myself, I'm posting a couple of my rough gags for Don Martin, along with the finished pages after Don worked his magic.

In some writing situations, I expect the artist to follow the script reasonably closely. For an assignment like this, however, I was writing in service of Don's unique brand of cartooning, and I fully expected him to change things around as he saw fit. In fact, that was part of the fun of it for me: to see how my gag would turn out after being processed through the Don Martin filter. Here's one of my favorites:

Here's the finished piece, from Cracked #264, August 1991. ©1991 Don Martin

In the below example, the most obvious change is Don's addition of a third-tier panel.

I was a little surprised that Don kept the name "Sally," since Sally strikes me as being a decidedly un-Don Martin-like name. I usually put conventional names and sound effects into my writing, in the expectation that Don would go his own way with those.

The finish turned up in Cracked #260, January 1991. ©1991 Don Martin.

At first glance the addition of the extra panel seemed like a needless change for the sake of change, but on closer examination, it actually transforms the gag. In my version, the reader could assume that the girl was fully aware that the bully was trashing her boyfriend even as she was chastising him. In Don's version, the girl walks onstage while the bully's already going at it, so when the boyfriend is revealed, she is surprised at the same moment the reader is.

Here's a note from Don that references the above gag page:

Dear Craig,

You mentioned you hadn't seen any of your gags that I've finished up. Here's one that I just did and will appear in Cracked #259. The muscle man stretching the guy on the beach will be next -- Probably within the next couple issues.

I did a number of the Nutheads and, of course, will be doing them all, but they are scattered about the studio and hopefully we will have it together this Fall sometime, and you shall see them.

Thanks for submitting stuff -- We like them alot and will use as many as we can.

Best, Don

 

And while I'm at it, check this art that was on the back of his envelopes: (©1991 Don Martin)

Here's the one from Cracked #259, also mentioned in the note above.

Don's addition to this gag was so spot-on that I'm still wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?" He knew just what was needed to turn a so-so gag into a good one.

© 1991 Don Martin

Finally, here are a few Nutheads gags of mine which Don used. However, I don't have Don's finished versions handy. If someone out there has 'em, I'll post 'em. You can mail me HERE.

As I mentioned in rec.arts.comics.strips , the fundamental flaw in The Nutheads as I saw it was that Don tamed things down to reach a family audience -- but who wants to see a tamer Don Martin? Even so, there were some good chuckles in the strip. Wish he was still around!

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