Mad's Greatest Artists: Don Martin #[nn]

In "Genteel Ben," a grizzly bear outshines his human family in manners and decorum, turning the Everglades into a satire of polite society where the real wild thing is the people. Written with sharp wit and drawn in Don Martin’s signature chaotic style, this six-page parody skewers the idea of civilization with a bear who’s far more refined than the folks he’s stuck with.

In "The Jumper," a quiet night is shattered by sirens, pulling a man from sleep to witness a woman trembling on a windowsill. Without a word, he climbs out to confront her—then makes a decision that shifts the moment in an instant. A wordless, razor-sharp comic strip of dark humor and sudden tension, this story delivers a perfectly timed twist in just six panels.

In this delightfully absurd parody from Mad’s Greatest Artists: Don Martin, a dim-witted warrior named Conehead the Barbituate sets off on a quest for vengeance against the sorcerer who killed his parents—because, well, that’s what you do in these stories. With Don Martin’s signature slapstick flair and exaggerated visuals, the tale skewers the over-the-top tropes of sword-and-sorcery epics, all delivered in five pages of pure, typeset-lettered chaos.