Never Met Gaiman Or Martin
Comic writers Neil Gaiman and Don Martin never met Don Browne of LaBelle, FloridaThese two notable people have not visited LaBelle, Florida as far as we know. That's where Don Browne has lived for the last 11 years, after moving to the small rural town from Miami, Florida, that is, Browne moved to LaBelle, not Gaiman or Martin. Don Martin, who lived in Miami in the 1970s and 80s, never met Don Browne. And Browne never met Neil Gaiman either, in fact he never heard of him before Gaiman was mentioned on the Penn Jillette radio show in February of 2007. But then, Penn is a full five inches taller and 100 hundred pounds heavier than Browne, anyway.
Photo left: Don Browne never met Gaiman or Martin
Neil Gaiman - Son of a ScientologistAccording to Wikipedia, Gaiman is "of Jewish origins, he was educated at several Church of England schools, including Ardingly College, West Sussex, an independent boarding school. There, he studied both standard school topics as well as religion classes. This training gave him a wide background in both Jewish and Christian theology/apocrypha, which he incorporates heavily into his works, perhaps most notably in The Sandman. David Gaiman, Neil's father, is a high ranking member of the Church of Scientology in England. It is unclear whether Neil ever was or currently is a Scientologist."And to make the record clear, Neil Gaiman's father never contacted Don Browne regarding anything to do with Scientology, even though the senior Gaiman was allegedly a high official of this mysterioius church, and even though Gaiman never heard of Browne. It is unknown whether Neil is a Scientologist. Perhaps Penn Jillette knows this. Don Browne (radio name "Mark Werling") did interview a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology on the Mark Werling radio show at WAFC-FM in the late 1990s, but Gaiman's father nor son Neil made any contact with Browne. Nonetheless, Browne said he would not have joined the church even if contacted by either, but would have been interested in playing a few hours with the E-Meter.
Don Martin - Maddest of the Mad Magazine ArtistsWikipedia says, "Martin was regarded as a quiet man who enjoyed relaxing on the beach near his home in Miami (he would send in his work to the MAD offices in New York City). Reportedly, he liked slipping into the backgrounds of photographs tourists would take of each other, so when their films were developed they would wonder who the strange man was. Fellow MAD contributor Sergio Aragones has the same impish habit." Don Martin never appeared in the background of any photographs that Don Browne snapped in Miami, of which the full amount of photographs taken were in the thousands. But Browne says he will take another look at his photo albums to re-check this, except those photos that the ex-wife took with her after the messy divorce, of course.
Links of Interest:
Email: Don Browne