Martin Nodell was born on November 15th, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after his parents had immigrated to the United States from Ukraine.  Martin came from a very talented family of whom his favorite uncle was Dave Apollon, who in his time was known as the world's greatest mandolin player.  After his father's death, His uncle Dave asked Martin's mother to come to New York City in 1937-1938 from Chicago, where Martin had attended the Chicago Academy Of Fine Arts.  Martin wanted to be an actor before moving to New York but he was not very successful on stage, so he would do scenery art for the background of plays and playbills for the theater.  Martin thought he could pursue a career in art, so he went to attend art classes at Pratt Institute in New York.  Martin said in an interview in 2000: "When I tried to tell them my talents in doing art for the theaters they told me to pursue a career in arts, and when I went to the art shops they told me to pursue a career in theater!"  At this point in time, Martin had no idea what to pursue a career in.  He soon noticed spin-racks full of comics in newsstands and mom-and-pop stores around New York.  Looking at the racks of comics he decided that was something he would try to pursue a career in, thinking he could make a few dollars here and there by doing comic pages.

 Martin looked for comics that had characters that were lasting the longest.  He saw that a certain publisher had Superman, and their most recent, Batman. They looked like they were consistent, so he decided he would have a better chance of working with them than anyone else at the time.  

Martin had decided to see the editor, Sheldon Mayer. He showed Mayer some samples of his work and according to Martin, Mayer was looking for a "different type of hero character."   He said if Martin created a new character for them they would consider his work.  Martin, 25 at the time, was excited by the whole experience. After leaving Mayer's office, Martin got to work immediately, brainstorming ideas for this "new character."  As Martin himself put it, "I picked out the name from the train man on the tracks who was waving a lantern, going from red to green, Green meant go and I decided that was it. Then I needed a colorful and interesting costume. I was interested in Greek mythology and so the costume took on elements of that. It just all fell into place. When I sent it in, I waited until the second week before I heard the word to come in. I was ushered into M.C. [Max] Gaines's office, and after sitting a long time and flipping through the pages of my presentation, he announced, 'We like it!, Get to work!" His first comic under All-American Publications (later DC comics) would be All-American Comics #16, the first appearance of Green Lantern.  Shortly after, Martin would meet a girl named Caroline (Carrie).  They were married 2 months after and had both moved in with Martin's brother, Simon, who could build a TV from scratch and had worked on the controls of the atomic bombs which ended World War 2.  Martin would stay with All-American Comics drawing Green Lantern for 7 years.  Martin wanted to pursue a career in advertising, bringing his art samples to studios and advertising agencies around Manhattan.  One day, while walking from one job possibility to another, Martin happened to come across his friend Stanley [Stan Lee] Lieber on the street. Stan asked Martin how he was doing, with Martin replying "Not so good."  Stan invited him up to his place of work to meet Timely Comics (later known as Marvel) publisher, Martin Goodman.  Martin began working for Timely in the bullpen, where Martin would draw stories of the Sub-Mariner, The Human Torch, and Captain America, from 1947 to 1950.  His most notable cover during his short stint with Timely was Captain Americas Weird Tales #74.  

After leaving Timely in 1949, Martin left comics to go into the advertising field in 1950. His proudest achievement during this time in the advertising field was working on the presentations for the Matador Surface-To-Surface Missile for the Princeton Film Center.  From 1950 to 1961, Martin worked for several advertising agencies such as Cunningham & Walsh, Shipman Studios, Filmways Productions, And several others.  By 1961, Martin was looking for different ad agencies to work for. He landed a job back in Chicago with Leo-Burnett Advertising Agency to work on general advertising (commercials, Etc).  His most notable work in this field would later become one of the world's most recognized commercial characters of all time, Poppin Fresh, most commonly known as the Pillsbury Dough-boy.  The Dough-boy was an idea of Rudy Perz and Milt Schaffer.  Owing to its great popularity, Martin was often asked by his fans to draw the Dough-boy at comic book conventions.  Some fans commissioned artwork with Green Lantern and the Dough-boy.  

Martin created designs such as the EXXON Tiger and also advertisements for Folgers, Procter & Gamble, and many more. By the mid-'70s, Martin had retired from advertising.  Not long after, he and his wife Carrie had moved from Chicago to West Palm Beach, Florida, and were fully settled by 1980. In the mid-'70s, Martin would often work for newspaper companies/publishers in the art field, With some of his work featured in many news articles from the Palm Beach Post. Although by 1982, Martin retired from the newspaper field. Martin and his wife, Carrie, were convinced by Gary Colabuono to attend their first comic book show, the 1980 Chicago Comic Con. When at the show, They were blown away at the response from fans coming to their shared booth/table at the show. they started traveling to comic conventions across America, Doing art of the original Green Lantern, and signing autographs for fans of his creation. Soon after, DC Comics Rediscovered Martin, with his first new comic book work being a 12-page puzzle-and-activity section in Super Friends Special #1 (1981). Martin continued doing other projects for DC, including All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (1982), And the Harlequin in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #10 (Dec. 1985). His final two published pieces of Green Lantern art are a one-page illustration of the Golden Age Green Lantern in the 50th-anniversary issue of Green Lantern vol. 3, #19 (Dec. 1991) and a one-page illustration of the Alan Scott Green Lantern and Superman in the one-shot Superman: The Man of Steel Gallery #1 (Dec. 1995).  

At 80, Martin penciled his final comic-book work, the whimsical, 10-page Harlan Ellison adaptation "Gnomebody", scripted by John Ostrander and Ellison and inked by Jed Hotchkiss, in Dark Horse Comics' Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Quarterly #1 (Aug. 1996).  In 1998, Martin would contribute to the Golden Age Green Lantern Archives #1 book, which came out on May 1st, 1999. Martin's loving wife, Carrie, passed away on April 25th, 2004.  She was 84 years old. Martin, struggling from the loss of his beloved wife, still toured comic book conventions. Martin's last convention was the Motor City Comic Con, in 2006.  Martin Nodell passed away at 91 on December 9th, 2006.  His legacy lives on in his children, his Grandchildren, and his Great Grand-children.