"Mad's Maddest Cartoonist," known for his goofy and twisted depictions of mostly suburban life, died at age 68 on January 6 of 2000. He left Mad in 1987 after 25-30 years, in a falling-out with Gaines, and went to work for Cracked. Martin earned a fine arts degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I've enjoyed his work for years and salute his skill.

Among the distinguishing traits of Don's cartooning genius are the sounds. The man must have loved noise. As spaghetti whacked you in the face, it went "schploit." A surprized person would choke, stick out their tongue, cross their eyes, and go "gack!" If you got hit in the head with a frying pan it didn't just go "bam" - it went "ga-da-ba-da-broing!"

And if you think about it, that's more like it really would sound.

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