Background
Don Martin was born on May 18, 1931, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He was raised in a nearby town Brookside.
Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, Newark, New Jersey, United States
Don Martin studied illustration and fine art at Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art between 1949 and 1951.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
In 1952 Don Martin graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Don Martin was born on May 18, 1931, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He was raised in a nearby town Brookside.
Don Martin studied illustration and fine art at Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art between 1949 and 1951. In 1952 he graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
For a while, Don Martin lived at home working at different jobs while he painted and drew. Eventually, he got back into cartooning because he had to make a living. Marin moved to New York City and worked in an art studio. Don also sold work to record- and greeting-card companies and science-fiction magazines. His art style went from academic realism to cartoony.
In 1956 Martin brought his portfolio to the Mad magazine offices and was immediately given an assignment. Mad was the only publication in the early 1950s that was pointing out the silliness in advertising and television and movies and politics. In his earliest years with Mad, Martin used a more jagged, scratchy line. Later, his style featured bulbous noses, and the iconic hinged foot. In 1961 he made his first Mad Pocket Book. His first two books, Don Martin Steps Out and Don Martin Bounces Back were co-written with E. Solomon Rosenblum in 1962.
He left Mad in 1987 for a position at Cracked, a publication of the same genre, after a series of legal disputes involving the ownership of his drawings. Martin drew hundreds of comics that were unpublished in any magazine and these appeared in over a dozen published books. He left after six years of working.
In 1994 his own publication called Don Martin Magazine emerged for the first time. This cartoon magazine featured a full array of the characters he’d drawn over the years.
Don Martin was a member of the National Cartoonists Society and the Graphic Artists Guild.
Physical Characteristics: Don Martin suffered from eye problems. He underwent two corneal transplants: the first in 1949, at the age of 18, and the second in 1989. Through the use of eyeglasses and contact lenses, Martin kept on cartooning.
Don Martin was married to Norma Haimes Martin.