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Marty Mab's editorial cartooning style has been characterized as "Cute meets the real world". Marty's editorial humor is well suited for his cartooning style and is now featured on the internet and may be available for publication as noted, contact email: martymab@cartoonpage.net

Like Jim Davis of Garfield fame, Marty Mab had asthma as a child and while his friends were running around at play, Marty was escaping from his health limitations by reading comic books and watching cartoon shows. "We had TV but I also bought up all the 8mm cartoon films I could get my hands on. I've always been fascinated by the amount of imagery that could be projected to the mind using a few strokes of art work."

There were some distractions along the way. In the late 60's/early 70's Marty tried stand-up comedy, "My first performance was a disaster, I was the lead act ahead of a nationally known rock group, you remember... the ones that wore the revolutionary war outfits (Paul Revere and the Raiders?). The mic was dead through my entire routine. Well, at least the folks in front enjoyed. In '67 Chad Everett got me a part as an extra in a movie he co-stared in with Robert Taylor, it was an eye opening experience! Chad was as nice as they come. Another surprise, the perpetual villain with the mean looking eyebrows, John Davis Chandler... in reality a soft spoken nice guy. The extras would joke about how the movie was made to be a money losing tax deduction for the studio; chairs would mysteriously disappear from a porch in the middle of a scene, etc. I was featured in a scene at the opening of the movie, walking down main street as the stagecoach roared into town. Picture a born New Yorker shmegegge wearing a large sombrero... they cut the scene out of the movie and made me surrender my sombrero the next day (the prop man actually grabbed it off of my head) ... I really liked that sombrero."

With promises to get him on the Ed Sullivan show in a year, Marty decided that performing in front of audiences wasn't for him. "It was around that time, Gary Shandling called me to find out how to get into show business but I was out of the loop by then and couldn't help him. Our parents were good friends in the 50's. In fact, growing up I thought Gary's real name was 'Boopy'. That was the first thing my mother heard him say as a small child and it stuck. I remember when Gary was older and said, "Don't call me that." and I had to ask my mother, "Then what is his name?" Hmm.. wonder how Boopy made it without my help? ...Haven't heard from him since. I read on a web site that Gary is now a Buddhist... 'Buddhist Boopy'... the mind boggles... "

By the late 70's Marty decided to put his comical ideas down on the drawing board and studied for a short time under the instruction of Gene Freshe. Gene was a cartoonist behind the marketing genius of advertising copywriter Tom Rogers in the early 'Charley The Tuna' days. "To the best of my recollection, Gene claimed to be the original Charley artist. I still have some assignment sketches from that class. Gene emphasized drawing technique over all, that class and the book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' help me realize that I could draw."

Marty says it was through personal study of the great cartoonist and their methods that resulted in his drawing talent to really bloom. "If you want to be the best do what the best do best. Try saying that three times in a row! -Groucho?" Marty treasures his collection of cartooning courses and books, including his 1957 set of "Cartooning for Profit" by David Rand, published by the Cartoonist's Exchange in Ohio. "I enjoy perusing through my books, like Ken Muse's 'The Secrets of Professional Cartooning!'. Even the layout of the book itself pulls you into the world of cartooning. Ken included large scale panel examples of many of our cartoonist greats. Of course, Ken is also well known for his outstanding animation achievement's in TV...

"... As for myself, I dabbled here and there but my mind always wonders back to editorial cartooning and gag writing. I just think in those terms, I can't help myself." Marty says that the current world situation has energized the editorial cartoonist. "We've never seen the world in this state. It's begging to be drawn! The patient is going down hill and it's up to the editorial cartoonist to turn it upside down and manufacture a smile or two along the way. That's one of the reasons I'm excited about this web site, it's still a work in progress but I have some interesting additions in mind and hope it will be a place for cartoonist as well as the public to enjoy."

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