FURSHGLURK! Don Martin Collection is Nigh!
MAD and Running Press are going to be releasing the first of a series of complete collections entitled “MAD’s Greatest Artists”, where they presumably collect all the art of each featured artist that appeared in the magazine. The first volume is called MAD’s Greatest Artists: The Completely MAD Don Martin.
The article linked above comes from Scoop, a website for news about collectibles, does not go into too many details other than to say it will be a two-volume slip-cased special edition and will include every single work Martin created for the magazine, weighing in at over 1000 pages and 17 pounds. The edition also features commentary and reminiscences from other legendary MADmen such as Jack Davis, Sergio Aragones, Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee as well as other notable cartoonists like Jim Davis and Gary Larson. Running Press says it is being put together by the same people who did The Complete Far Side and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes volumes. As those were exceptionally well designed and beautiful books, I would think the “MAD’s Greatest Artists” collections will be of similar quality. The picture looks good, also from the Scoop website. The article mention a publishing date of Oct. 2007, but Amazon has it listed here as a pre-order with a Nov. 2007 publication estimate.
What a great idea for a series of collections. I can see some great volumes with the works of Davis, Will Elder, Wally Wood, George Woodbridge and Dave Berg coming. I wonder if they will repackage the Antonio Prohias Spy vs. Spy’s despite the fact that the Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook softcover was published only a few years ago? I also wonder if they will go ahead and produce volumes with active artists such as Mort, Jaffee, Sergio, Angelo Torres, Sam Viviano or others who have large bodies of work and were truly among the greatest of MAD’s artists, but still might be producing more work in the future? I’ll have to remember to ask about that and see if I can share the answer.
Can’t wait to see this one. Damn, I need more bookshelves.
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I love Don Martin (in fact, he was one of the first artists I loved to copy as a kid), but I’m not sure that love extends over 1000 pages and 17 lbs. of reprints. Kinda like how I love chocolate ice cream, but not 25 gallons of it.
I could see buying the work of more accomplished artists like Davis, Drucker or Wally Wood, but the Martin one would be a stretch. Any idea how much money they’re thinking of selling these for? I would think they’d be at least $100 for the set.
Also: Would Dave Berg really get one of these things? Most fans of the old MAD that I know either actively dislike it or (worse yet) are completely apathetic toward it. It was just “there”. It’s hard to imagine 17 lbs. worth of Dave Berg talking to a nag in curlers (which is always the image that always comes to mind when thinking about his MAD work).
Don Martin is one of the biggest influences that inspired me in the 1970’s! This is one volume collection that I must get my filthy mits on! Can’t wait till they have yours all prepared as well Tom! It’s gonna happen and rightly so!
Amazon’s lists the sticker price at $150.00, but they sell it for $94.00. A stiff price but these kinds of bound editions usually cost about that much.
I can relate to your opinion, Mark. Personally I would love to have all of Don Martin’s work collected, as I can see myself enjoying all 1000 plus pages. Dave Berg’s work has a comfort food sort of quality to it for many long time MAD fans, but that’s one collection I would not be very excited about owning. I appreciated Berg’s observational humor but his feature was one of those I never looked for in the magazine nor would have missed.
As for the “MAD’s Greatest Artists: The Completely MAD Tom Richmond”… that one is a long shot, Steve!! Give me another 25 years and some art lessons and we’ll see where we are!