Running Press, a division of the Perseus Book Group, has announced a series of definitive hardcover collections featuring the top artists from Mad Magazine including, among others, Don Martin, Jack Davis, and Sergio Aragones.  Don Martin will be the subject of the first of the Mad's Greatest Artists releases, a two-volume, 1,200 page slipcased hardcover that will have a retail price of $150.

The Don Martin 2-volume set, which is due out in October, lovingly reprints Martin's graphic insanity in an oversize 10' x 13' format.  Known as 'Mad's Maddest Artist,' Martin's art style is instantly recognizable thanks to his hilariously caricatured figures with their bulbous noses and bizarre hinged feet.  Martin, who worked at Mad from 1956 to 1988, tapped into the post war era's rich vein of absurdist humor, added broad touches of slapstick, and topped it off with his own berserk touches like the classic 'National Gorilla Suit Day.' It's no wonder that Mad Magazine, which featured all sorts of 'departments,' didn't try to compartmentalize Don Martin's work, which appeared under the 'Don Martin Dept.' heading.