Don Newton: Encyclopedia II - Don Newton - Biography

Don Newton - Biography

Don was born in the small coal mining town of St. Charles, Virginia and that at the age of four Don developed asthma. The family doctor advised the Newtons to move out west. The family traveled about for a time, living in New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado before finally settling down in Arizona. Don grew up and spent most of his life in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Mesa Arizona area

Don Newton - Don’s Early Years

Growing up in Mesa Arizona in the 1940’s, Don Newton was a big comic book fan. He began drawing when he was only a young boy, with comics being a big influence on his artwork from a very early age. He collected Captain Marvel, Whiz, Batman, Daredevil, Planet, and All Star, among other comic books of the time. He was a big fan of Batman and Daredevil, and an even bigger Captain Marvel fan. As a budding artist, Don created a host of characters of his own and devoured anything that involved Captain Marvel, his favorite character.

Don was a serious collector of comics, but by the time he had reached his high school years, he had already dumped his comic book collection in the garbage can. Don threw away almost complete runs of both Captain Marvel and Whiz worth a small fortune in today’s market. A growing attraction to the opposite sex, as well as to weight lifting and potential competition in that arena, had reduced his available time for comics to practically nothing, and he felt that it was time to explore other interests. Don thought he was done with comics.

By the mid 1960’s, Don Newton was a successful artist and grade school art teacher in Phoenix. He also worked part time as a student art reviewer for the mail order "Master Artist's Painting Course." Don was successful, but something was missing. Don could not shake his interest in comics.

Don eventually discovered comic book fandom, while searching for a source to purchase old comics. A friend gave him a copy of the Rocket’s Blast ComicCollector (the RBCC). Don sent the publisher, Gordon (G.B.) Love, a sample of his work which eventually saw print as the back cover to the Golden Age #3, another fanzine Love published under the auspices of the SFCA (Science Fiction and Comics Association). Excited about seeing his artwork in print and having found an outlet for that work through which he could express his rekindled love of comic books, Don was hooked on comic fandom. Comic fandom also became hooked on the artwork of Don Newton, and would enjoy a mountain of comics artwork from him in the years to come.

Don became an artistic staple of all the SFCA publications during this period. He produced almost two-dozen covers for the RBCC, and between 1968 and 1973, it was difficult to find an SFCA publication that did not feature something by Don: artwork, a letter, a photo or an article about or written by Don. Don did not limit himself exclusively to the SFCA; he also worked for most of the major fanzines during these years as well, but the SFCA seemed like home to Don.

Don was a huge Captain Marvel fan. Don made himself several Captain Marvel costumes that he would wear to comic conventions. Don’s wife made herself a Mary Marvel costume as well.

Don did one major strip during these years, which ran for more than a year in the RBCC called The Savage Earth. Don had been doing illustrations for the RBCC for a while when G.B. Love presented the story idea for The Savage Earth to Don. Over a period stretching from 1968 to 1970 the 11-chapter, 18-page, original science fiction strip appeared in issues 60-70 of the RBCC and was reprinted in The Fandom Annual #2. Issue #65 of the RBCC sported a Newton Savage Earth painting.

Don’s work also appeared in All Dynamic #5-7; Collage; Comic Crusader #8-12 and 14-15; Fandom Media #3-4; Fantastic Fanzine #12-13; Fantasy Soundtrack #1; Fulcrum #1; Grave Tales #1; the Illustrated Comic Collector Handbook #4; Nebulous #1; The Newton Portfolio; Omnivore #1; Paragon #4-5; Paragon Golden Age Greats #1; Phantasy Review #1; Radion #7; Rocket’s Blast Special #8; Sense of Wonder #11 and 12; Styx #2; Sword and Fantasy #1; The Collector #16-17, 19, 21-14, 26-28; The Golden Age 3-5, 7; The Golden Age Collector #1-3, Titan Comics #2,4, 6-7; and Venture #4. All in all, over 100 fanzines contained the art of Don Newton.

Don tried for years to leverage his connections in fandom into a shot at the big leagues, DC Comics or Marvel Comics, but he was at a distinct disadvantage, living in Arizona. Marvel in particular wanted their artists close at hand. Don finally set his sites a little lower and sent some sample pages to Nicola Cuti at Charlton Comics. Where the big fish passed on Don, the little fish took the bait at once.

Don Newton - Charlton Comics

Don did his first professional work at Charlton Comics in 1974. Their colors were never up to industry standards and at times the blacks were washed out and ugly, but it was the pros. Charlton was also the home of some of the industries biggest talent, like Steve Ditko, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Joe Staton, John Byrne, and now Don Newton.

Don's first work for Charlton was a seven-page horror story in Ghost Manor #18, March, 1974 called "The Empty Room." Everyone at Charlton loved Don's work on this story.

The next issue of Ghost Manor, #19, June 1974 had two one-page features. The first introduced the character of Baron Weirwulf and his mysterious library from which he would read facts about "vampires, werewolves, monsters, UFO's and magic." These would appear in the pages of many Charlton comics.

Don continued doing horror stories for Charlton and in 1975 he began painting some absolutely beautiful covers for their horror and romance books. September of 1975 saw the last of the new horror work that Don would do for Charlton and it appeared in Midnight Tales #14. It features a couple of very nice pages. This was a nice peek at what was soon to come from Don.

October 1975 was the month that Don Newton made the comic industry stand up and take notice as his vision of the Phantom burst onto bookstore shelves across the county in issue #67. Since Don was stylistically reinventing the character, it was all too appropriate that Don's first work on the Phantom would be a retelling of his origin. From the beautiful cover painting through 23 pages of story Don made it clear that the Phantom was alive and kicking, the jungle avenger, "the Ghost who Walks" had returned.

Although the story, "Triumph of Evil!," is attributed to Joe Gill, Don would later claim that he "re-wrote 50% of [the] #67 script." Within a few months, Charlton would basically give control of the Character to Don, lock, stock, and domino mask.

Don would pencil and ink all of his Phantom work and would supply a cover painting for every issue he drew. Don rewrote and drew issue #68, but issue #69 only featured a cover painting by Don. Don had a lot of gripes with Charlton. It appears that there was a protracted disagreement with Charlton over the book that Don eventually won. The fallout from this was the missing of the deadline for issue #69, Don having a hand in all future stories, and Bill Pearson being hired to color the interiors of the Phantom.

The rest of Don’s short run on the book was wonderful as he basically wrote, penciled, inked and painted covers for issues #70-74. This run featured two classic Newton pieces at Charlton. Issue #70 of the Phantom is simply amazing. It is known far and wide as the "Bogart" issue, as the story stars Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Claude Rains and is a mixture of "Casablanca," "The African Queen," "The Maltese Falcon," and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

Don’s swan song on the book, issue #74, features the Phantom of 1776 meeting Ben Franklin. It has Don’s most stunning Phantom cover, the Phantom of 1776, sword in one hand, flintlock pistol in the other in front of a smoky background of the Declaration of Independence and a tattered 13-star American flag. It's breathtaking.

Don Newton - The Death of Charlton

In the midst of Don’s artistic triumph, things were not going well for Charlton. First they cancelled the Phantom, and then a month later they folded (for what would be the first of many times).

When Don had begun working for Charlton, he saw them as a stepping-stone to Marvel. While still working for Charlton, Don did do work on the Giant-Size Defenders #3, January 1975. This work came through friend Dan Adkins. Dan Adkins had been given the 32-page story to pencil and ink over Jim Starlin's layouts and was way behind schedule. With about 10 days left to complete the strip, Dan had only completed 4 pages and asked for Don's help. Don, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to get work at Marvel, said he would do the work, but only if he got a credit line. Marvel agreed and Don went to work. In all he penciled 12 full pages and also penciled or inked panels on two other pages. Although he was supposed to follow Jim Starlin's layouts, Don once said he "wound up erasing 90% of his [Starlin's] stuff." Anyone who has seen the book can see that the pages Don did show little or no Starlin influence.

Through Adkins Don also did some small uncredited inking on a few of the Kung Fu books. And he also did a frontispiece for the Savage Sword of Conan #6, June 1975.

In early 1976 Don did a single painting for Roy Thomas, which became the cover of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Annual #1. Roy was very impressed by Don's work on this cover and mentioned that he was saddened by the fact that he would most likely not be allowed to use such a great talent again due to Don living in Arizona.

Don inked the April 1977 issue of Ghost Rider, #23. The book had pencils by the late Don Heck. This Ghost Rider issue is surely a cut above what Heck was normally doing and that is because of Newton's inks. Newton left Heck's pencils alone, so that the result is more Heck than Newton. Still, the combination is interesting and the book is a milestone in Newton’s career in that it represents the first full book of work by Don for Marvel. But the work from Marvel dried up and Charlton was gone.

Don Newton - DC Comics

Don became depressed, but within a few months he was feeling better about his career when he finally got work at DC. Don begin his career at DC with DC Special #28, July 1977. Don's contribution was the pencils on the 12-page Aquaman strip, "A Creature of Death and Darkness!" inked by his old friend Dan Adkins. Don would draw Aquaman off and on for the next three years.

Later that same month saw the release of Don's first series at DC, The New Gods #12. Like his first Aquaman story, Dan Adkins inked most of his work on the New Gods. Don had a great love of science fiction and the New Gods certainly had a lot of SF leanings. Considering that Don was still working as a junior high school Art teacher and was doing the book in his "spare time," it's not too bad. Don did 8 issues of the New Gods, issues 12-19 and two more New Gods stories that appeared in Adventure Comics.

In the middle of Don's run on The New Gods, he did the designs and first two appearances of a new DC strip, The Star Hunters. They premiered in DC Super-Stars #16, October 1977 in a 34-page origin written by David Michelinie and inked by Bob Layton. Don did all of the character and hardware designs for the series. Don also did the cover for this book, which was a rarity for Don at DC. Star Hunters #1 followed the next month with a 17-page story by Dave, Don, and Bob Layton. This was Don's last work on the Start Hunters.

DC revived the Aquaman title with issue #57 in September 1977 and Don took over as the regular penciler with issue #60. This is around the time the Don gave up his job as a teacher to take on comics as his career.

May 1978, in Aquaman #61, Don got his first chance to draw Batman professionally. The story by Michelinie was a continuation from the previous issue featuring Kobra as the villain, but this issue guest-starred Batman and Green Lantern.

These four issues marked the end of the book although Don would continue drawing the character in Adventure Comics for the next year or so, alternating issues with Don Heck.

One of Don’s life-long ambitions was to draw Captain Marvel and his dream finally became a reality beginning in 1978. Don was given the nod as the new penciler for the Shazam! Book. Not only was Don getting to draw his favorite character, he was given an opportunity to "redefine" the character as well.

His first effort was in issue #35 of Shazam!, which also ended up being the final issue of the book. Don penciled the 17-page story, "Backward, Turn Backward, O Time in Your Flight!", which was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger.

Although the Shazam! book was cancelled before it had a chance to gain an audience under Don’s new art approach, the Shazam! feature was quickly moved into World's Finest Comics, which, at the time, was a big Dollar Comic featuring 68 pages of new stories and art. His first Worlds Finest issue, #253, is dated November 1978. Don would draw Shazam in 28 issues of World’s Finest, ending his run in July 1982 in issue #281.

Don did the Shazam! Strip in 28 issue of World’s Finest before it moved to Adventure. Don’s last work on his beloved Captain Marvel appeared in the September and October 1982 issues of Adventure Comics. These two stories were obviously scheduled for World’s Finest, but it had reverted back to a standard comic featuring the Superman-Batman team. During this time-period, Adventure was a 5”x7” digest book and the diminutive size of the printed artwork took its toll on the art’s impact.

Since joining DC Don had been pressing for an opportunity to draw Batman and finally he got his chance. Batman #305, November 1978 featured an 8-page Batman back-up strip, “With This Ring – Find Me Dead!” inked by Dave Hunt. The same month Don was the “Guest Penciler” on the Batman strip in Detective #480. Don followed it up with another back-up story in the very next issue of Batman.

DC must have been impressed with what they saw as within six months Don became the permanent penciler of Detective. Don would also do back-up stories in Batman, featuring Batman or Robin or Catwoman for the next two years before beginning a two-year stint on the main Batman strip beginning in late 1982. Don also did a couple of issues of the Brave and the Bold, starring Batman. In total Don did 79 stories featuring Batman or members of the Batman family during his tenure at DC. Don was by far the most prolific Batman artist of the time.

The Newton Batman harkened back to the days of Dick Sprang; it was a majestic thing of beauty. Though it was never considered to be the “definitive” Batman, too many others had mined that field before him, Don did add to the Batman legend. In my mind what Don did best on Batman was what Don did best everywhere, he brought a level of humanity to the characters that others did not or could not. What was “definitive” about Don’s Batman work was the supporting cast. Don’s Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon will forever be those characters for me. Under Don’s inspired pencils they breathed real breath; they became real people. This was Don’s talent; this is what set him apart from every other penciler.

Although many inkers worked with Don on his Batman pages, two stand out above the rest. His old friend, Dan Adkins, inked the vast majority of Don’s Batman pages and the late Alfredo Alcala inked the majority of his Detective pages. These men embody completely different inking styles, but both added to the richness of Newton’s pencils.

Don Newton - Marvel Comics

Early in Don’s career he had looked at getting work at Marvel as his major goal, but over time Don became disillusioned with Marvel. Not only did he like the DC characters better, but also he found the "style" of the two companies to be almost direct opposites. While DC relied on characterization to drive their plots, Don thought Marvel seemed to focus on fight scenes. Don's talent was better suited to the character-driven plots at DC than the action-driven plots of Marvel, so he was quite satisfied with working at DC. In 1979 however, Don returned to Marvel to produce his best work there.

Don wanted to draw Captain America at Marvel, but John Byrne was doing Cap at the time and the Avengers was the best they could do to fulfill that request. Don wasn't too thrilled about doing a team book, but took the assignment anyway when he was promised Joe Rubinstein as his permanent inker on the book. Don had loved the inks that Joe had done on The New Gods #16 years earlier and jumped at the opportunity to work with Rubinstein again.

Don finished the pencils for two issues but did not have the script for a third issue in hand. DC would always fill Don's time with a backup story or something else in the case of a script delay, so Don never would stop drawing. When this did not happen at Marvel, Don panicked. Don contacted Paul Levitz at DC and re-upped his contract with them.

Don's two issues of the Avenges became Avengers Annual #9, half of which was inked by Rubinstein." Joe Rubinstein became Don's favorite inker with his work on the second half of this book. Joe's clean, powerful style, let the details in Don's work shine through, while adding a "glossiness" to the pencils that other inkers could not. This was mighty powerful stuff. It would have been a great run, but Don was back at DC…but not for good.

In 1981 Don Newton again jumped ship from DC to land ashore at Marvel. As was the case the first time, better money was one of the factors that pushed Don to Marvel. In addition, Don began feeling as though DC did not respect him as much any more, that they were taking him for granted.

Marvel had other artists such as Val Mayerik call Don to entice him into working at Marvel again. Unlike last time, Joe Rubinstein was not part of the deal, but Don hoped that, in time, he could talk Jim Shooter into letting Rubinstein ink the book. The Avengers issue 204 featured inks by Dan Green. The results were, for the most part, dreadful. Don's wonderful style is almost non-existent in this. Don absolutely hated the job.

Don Newton - DC Again

During the time that Don was drawing this second attempt at the Avengers book, Paul Levitz contacted Don and told him that he would promise him some additional advertising artwork, should Don return to DC. After the disastrous Avengers job by Green and again the lack of scheduled work for Don from Marvel, Don agreed to accept a new contract with DC. He was happy again with DC and never worked for Marvel again.

Don opened 1982 with backup stories in Green Lantern #148 and #149. For Green Lantern #148 Don penciled an 8-page Green Lantern Corps story inked by Dan Adkins. This story has a little bit of everything in it: space battles, Guardians, alien civilizations, everything, except humans.

Green Lantern #149 again took us down an unexpected alley. Dan Adkins again handled the inks on an eight-page western entitled "Earth's First Green Lantern." Not only does this story redefine the history of the Green Lanterns on Earth, altering the Earth/Abin Sur timeline, it also features Don's only professional western comic art. There is a richness to the art, a depth of detail that you do not see in most western comic art.

It would be two years later before Don returned to Green Lantern, but what a return. Green Lantern #181 is the only DC comic Don ever inked, a 6-page Tales of the Green Lantern Corps story "One Night in a Bar on Lawrel-Hardee XI" written by Paul Kupperberg, penciled and inked by Don (lettered by friend John Clark). It is stunningly beautiful, richly detailed, and a true gem. The inks are lush and brushy like Don’s old Phantom style, but the details, the intricate crosshatching is evocative of his early fandom work, only with a maturity that was never there in the past. In Don’s obituary, which ran in most DC comics for a month, Dick Giordano said of this work, “To my mind, Don's final statement was the Green Lantern Corps story he penciled and inked that appeared in Green Lantern #181. He showed us how to do it right.”

Yeah, Don’s obituary. Time was running out.

After six years of drawing Batman, Don was burned out and was looking for a new challenge. In 1983 Don had worked with Roy Thomas on a proposed re-launching of the Shazam! series featuring a new member of the Marvel Family, Captain Thunder (basically a black Captain Marvel). The new Shazam! book was never “green lighted” by DC, but this did mark the first time that Roy and Don would work together, and was the catalyst for Roy asking Don to take over the Infinity, Inc. title. Don had always told DC that other than Batman and Captain Marvel the only book he would like to draw was the All-Star Squadron. Roy tapped into that interest by proposing that Don draw Infinity, Inc., featuring the children of the original All-Star characters. Don jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, this collaboration did not last long.

They started with a fill-in issue that was to be used in the future if Don ever had problems meeting the deadline on the monthly team book. Don penciled this issue and the pencils went into storage for a rainy day. The first issue scheduled to contain Don’s art was Infinity Inc. #11, February 1985 and Don penciled a 5-page framing sequence around an 18-page story drawn by George Tuska and Mike Machlan, Don's pencils are inked by Tony DeZuniga and look very, very good. Don was to begin penciling the entire book with issue #12, but the letter page in issue #11 told the world that tragedy had already struck. Don had died in August of 1984.

While Don lay in the hospital in a coma, his mother had sent in the first three pages of Infinity Inc. #12 to Thomas. Joe Rubinstein was brought in to ink them and Don’s Phoenix friend John Clark lettered the pages. Those pages are absolutely stunning; this would have been an incredible series, but it was not to be.

Jim Shooter let Rubinstein out of his Spider-Man duties for a month so that he could ink the fill-in issue Don had done. It became Infinity Inc. #13, April 1985. This was Don's last published original work, a 23-page story, "A Thorn Grows in Paradise," written by Roy Thomas.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki