'Postcard from Mound City' (27 August 2022), featuring baseball player Albert Pujols and U.S. politicians Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.
Dan Martin is an American cartoonist and a longtime contributor to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Part of the art department since 1980, he is the sixth artist to draw the newspaper's famous front-page 'Weatherbird' cartoon. Between 1996 and 2023, he additionally commented on the local news in his weekly editorial cartoon series 'Postcard From Mound City'.
Early life and education
Born in 1958, the St. Louis native Dan Martin was a 1976 graduate from Lindbergh High School. At age 16, he had his first art job making caricatures at the Six Flags Over Mid-America amusement park. In 1978, he received an associate degree in Fine Arts from St. Louis Community College-Meramec in the city's Kirkwood suburb. He continued his studies at the University of Kansas, graduating with a Fine Arts degree in design. He later settled in Crestwood, a city in south St. Louis County.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fresh from art school, Martin joined the art department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in May 1980. In the same month, the paper also hired journalist/columnist Bill McClellan, who became Martin's lifelong friend. During the 1990s, Martin illustrated several books collecting McClellan's humorous columns about everyday St. Louis life. As part of the art staff, young Martin started out doing cartoons, illustrations and layouts, while also assisting the longtime 'Weatherbird' artist Amadee Wohlschlaeger, who was reaching retirement age. Martin remained in the art department up until his 2023 retirement, making sketches for reports on topics ranging from gangster trials in courtrooms to Cardinal baseball. He also had regular cartoon features on sports and St. Louis history..
Selection of Dan Martin Weatherbirds from 2000. The first image parodies rock musician Chuck Berry's song 'No Particular Place to Go', while mimicking his trademark "duck walk".
Weatherbird
In 1981, Wohlschlaeger's successor on the daily 'Weatherbird' cartoon was Albert Schweitzer. By late 1986, Schweitzer was ready to retire as well, after which Martin was appointed the new 'Weatherbird' cartoonist. Illustrating the daily weather forecast, the weatherbird has been a longtime fixture on the Post-Dispatch's front page, starting as early as 1901. Despite its longevity, only five cartoonists have drawn the feature prior to Dan Martin: Harry B. Martin (1901-1903), Oscar Chopin (1903-1910), S. Carlisle Martin (1910-1932), Amadee Wohlschlaeger (1932-1981) and Albert Schweitzer (1981-1986). Drawing the birds since late 1986, Dan Martin is the second-longest running 'Weatherbird' cartoonist after Wohlschlaeger, and the third Martin to draw the feature, although none of them are related. Continuing in Schweitzer's tradition to draw the cartoons in color, Dan Martin updated the birds by removing their cigars and giving them more bird-like beaks.
'Postcard from Mound City' (18 May 2002).
Postcard From Mound City
In 1996, Martin expanded his cartooning activities by starting his long-running cartoon/comic feature 'Postcard From Mound City' (1996-2023). Appearing on the "op-ed page" ("opposite the editorial page"), the 'Postcard' started on 25 December 1996 as a fill-in when one of the columnists was on holiday. Well-received, it was quickly picked up as a regular feature, appearing on Saturdays. The weekly strip takes a satirical look at the newsmakers in the city, as well as the daily issues facing the St. Louis people. Over the course of 26 years, Martin caricaturized several famous, infamous and otherwise colorful people of the city, while giving commentary on local issues and daily frustrations. The ultimate insider's peek at St. Louis life, the strip has once been described as the "inside joke that only a St. Louisan could get". Even the "Mound City" in the title refers to a largely unknown and old-fashioned nickname for St. Louis, based on the nearby Cahokia Mounds.
Semi-retirement
On 4 February 2023, Martin announced his retirement from both his newsroom staff duties and his weekly cartoon panel 'Postcard From Mound City', although he continues to draw the daily Weatherbird on a freelance basis. The artist plans to spend his retirement with expanding his activities in a couple of charitable boards that he is a member of, like the St. Louis Media History Foundation and the St. Louis Mercantile Library.
Recognition
Dan Martin is a winner of the Society of Newspaper Design award (year unknown). In 2016, both Martin and his columnist friend Bill McClellan were awarded at the annual St. Louis Press Club Media Persons of the Year gala.
Self-portrait.