Attempted Bloggery: Driving in South Dakota: Frank Modell and Don Martin

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Driving in South Dakota: Frank Modell and Don Martin

Frank Modell's cartoon for The New Yorker of November 25, 1950 was a good one, strong enough to be included a quarter century later in The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975. It can therefore be said to have been somewhat on the radar in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Frank Modell
The New Yorker, November 25, 1950, page 45

Modell may have concluded that Teddy Roosevelt was the funniest President on Mount Rushmore. His decision to mess with TR's facial expression is an interesting one, having the great sculpted head grimacing in reaction to his decapitation and displacement. Compare that with the couple in the car, who appear too stunned even to react.

Don Martin, whether he knew of Modell's cartoon or not, conceived a similar gag for Mad #196 dated January 1978. His challenge with Late One Afternoon in South Dakota is to decide what sort of multi-panel setup will deliver the best payoff. He decides, of all things, on some madcap signage play.

Don Martin
Original art
Mad #196, January 1978, page 25

So, we are asked to believe that on a mountainside road with no guard rail—at least Modell does give us a guardrail—a highway department vehicle comes screeching to a halt before a convertible that is possibly already braked. The highway worker does not close the road in response to a critically unsafe condition, but instead changes the sign to read something utterly preposterous that we don't really understand until the final panel. This is a Don Martin cartoon, so in reality we probably won't question any of this nonsense. Note how Martin has the driver—and the driver's hat—do the reacting, not the stately Lincoln head. The original art went unsold at Swann Galleries earlier this month for reasons that probably have nothing to do with the missing guard rail.

Don Martin
Full page original art
Mad #196, January 1978, page 25

Don Martin
Swann Galleries Sale 2608, Lot 191, June 9, 2022

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/DON-MARTIN-(1931-2000)-One-Late-Afternoon-in-South-Dakota-MA?saleno=2608&lotNo=191&refNo=794740

I'm certainly not going to declare a winner here, although very likely you can infer my own preference. My guess is that fans of The New Yorker will prefer Modell's cartoon, and that fans of Mad will prefer Martin's, and all's right on Mount Rushmore.