Running Press | 1200 pages, 2 volumes | $150
By CHARLES TAYLOR | December 3, 2007
Don Martin’s work for MAD — all of it from his 32 years at the magazine collected in this two-volume slipcased edition inaugurating a series of releases of MAD artists — is instantly recognizable. His people are big-nosed schmoes with sleepy eyes, puffs of wiry hair, and what appear to be life preservers under the waistline of their clothes. Their hands make delicate little mincing gestures and their strangely thin, elongated feet take a 90-degree turn at the toes as they step forward. Whether they’re average Joes or headhunters, Martin’s people share the same physique: a tottering tower of obloids. Martin puts the bodies of these characters through every kind of permutation, treating them as much like gadgets as the squirting flowers and joy buzzers that populate his gags: glass eyes pop out from a pat on the back; heads are steamrollered into manhole-cover shapes. All of this accompanied by a Dadaist panoply of sound effects found nowhere else: shtoink! shklorp! fwoba-dap! It’s unlikely Samuel Beckett was aware of Don Martin, but had he been he might have recognized a kindred spirit. They both appreciate the jokes our bodies play on us; that fate is the squirting flower ready to shpritz us in the face. The difference is no one ever peed their pants watching Waiting for Godot.
Related:
Holiday books, Graphic Traffic, Winter's tales, More 
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Okay, we admit, we went a bit crazy this year.
- Graphic Traffic
Comics. Graphic novels. Sequential-art books. Call them what you will, but there are more of them than ever.
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The cold season heats up on Boston boards
- Here's a quarter
Twenty-five years ago, residents of a shared Portsmouth house called “Middle Earth” rigged up some tin-can lights and a home-made light board.
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Amazing but true: each year since 1989, the tireless curatorial team at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park have scoured the New England area to put together a show highlighting artists from the area.
- Soldiering on
Kenny Carnes has bitten off a lot to chew with Pieces of War , the solo play that he wrote and performs at Perishable Theatre.
- The best on the boards
There have been a few muggings on the rialto this year.
- Flashbacks: September 1, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Ian Sands and Paul Babin.
- Fringe benefits
The clock is ticking in The Maternal Instinct (at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre through April 16).
- Carter heaven
James Levine’s devotion to the music of Elliott Carter has been a boon to Boston.
- Play by play: March 6, 2009
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Samuel Beckett, Don Martin
