DON MARTIN looks at Monsters!

I have always admired the work of cartoonist Don Martin, who worked at MAD magazine from 1956 to 1988, which, of course, were the golden years of that publication. His cartoon style was unlike anything I had seen before, and it completely blew my mind. His grotesquely designed characters and his ridiculously exaggerated sound effects always made me laugh out loud!

I was really sorry when he departed MAD over royalty disagreements with Mad's publisher, William Gaines but I loyally followed him over to Cracked magazine, where he stayed six years before branching out with his own magazine which unfortunately, didn't do well.
Don Martin kept working on other projects until his death on January 6, 2000 in Coconut Grove, Florida at age 68, from cancer.

In memory of this extraordinary artist, here we have a few monster inspired cartoons, to celebrate the impending Halloween season.

                                              

13 Days Before Halloween...

 As Halloween draws closer, I'm reposting these few Halloween-inspired cartoons from several seasons ago:

 

                                    

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) is the first film in which the famous comic duo meet the classic monsters from Universal Pictures' horror films. In my humble opinion it is also the best of them.
Bud and Lou play baggage handlers Chick Young and Wilbur Grey who get involved with Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster when a crate holding the remains of the Count arrives at the railway station in Florida, where Bud and Lou work as baggage clerks, to be delivered at McDougal's House of Horrors, a local wax museum.
The film contains some of Abbott & Costello's best routines and some of the one-liners are true gems, like this one:

The film is also notable because it was the "swan song" for the Big Three of Universal's Monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Werewolf made their last appearances in a Universal film here.

                                         

 Bud and Lou made some other subsequent horror spoofs for Universal: "A & B Meet the Invisible Man" (1951), "A & B Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1953) and "A & B Meet The Mummy" (1955).

                    But their crowning achievement in horror comedies was certainly the first one.

Abbott and Costello have always been among my favorite comedy teams, second only to Laurel & Hardy, but in the 1940s, they were the top box-office draws, remaining there for several years. Their brand of comedy was more suitable to the taste of war and post-war audiences.

They also had a successful run on television with the "Abbot and Costello Show" (1952-1954) and their legion of fans remain adoringly faithful to this day.

Traditionally, I always reserve October for a horror film marathon, with the classic Universal films holding a special place in the line-up.

So, here's to the classic Universal monsters and to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, who will always keep a special place in my heart. 

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!

Halloween is just around the corner so I thought I'd repost this cartoon:

A MONSTER CALLED FRED

A MONSTER CALLED FRED ©  -  This is the last comic strip from the Monster Trilogy under the banner name of CREEPY CONDO, my unsold comic strip project.
Maybe the Newspaper Syndicates today are more inclined to favor strips with social significance and topical themes over purely gag-oriented material.  This type of humor may be on its way out but I strongly suspect the whole idea of funny monsters isn't that original, to begin with!

A Cartoonist's Halloween Nightmare!

THE CASTLE presents: CREEPY CONDO

Back in 1964, during the height of the great 60s "Monster Craze", I developed a private comic book named "THE CASTLE". I was 13 years old and drew the comic in simple bond paper with pen and ink with color added with markers and color pencils. I only completed four issues and left the project for something else. "THE CASTLE" was never intended for publication of any kind and as I left my parents home years later, the comic books were lost. I recently recreated the cover of the first issue by memory and I am reposting it here as well as a few samples of a new comic strip inspired by the same characters. The new strip is called "CREEPY CONDO" and it was done just for fun in the spirit of the forthcoming Halloween. Hope you enjoy it!

THE CASTLE - Faux Gold Key Comics Cover (1964)

This of course is not a real Gold Key comic!

Back in 1964, I was a thirteen year-old bitten by the Monster Craze of the early Sixties and tried my hand doing some private comics for my own recreation which were then stashed away for some future and unforeseen use. I managed to churn out three or four complete issues of THE CASTLE before I abandoned the project and went on to something else. This is a re-creation of my original cover from 1964 which I did imitating the Gold Key comics style, complete with the familiar Gold Key seal. The comic's premise was, of course, a family of monsters living in a hilltop castle. The twist here was that they were the ones being terrorized by the nearby town's denizens who came knocking at their door with an assortment of wild schemes and requests. My original artwork from that era has been forever lost.