Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum << Prev Page of 4 Next >>
Topic: Don Newton (1934 - 1984) (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
Greg McPhee
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5091
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 4:23am | IP Logged | 1  

Gerry Conway, Don Newton, Alfred Alcala and Gene Colan produced some great Batman stories in the early 80's.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Andy Smith
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 20 June 2004
Posts: 503
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 5:42am | IP Logged | 2  

Don's art was very classic. Some of his figures and faces had a nice Alex Raymond feel. It's a shame he passed away with such a small body of work behind him. I own three of his originals and cherish each one!

Andy
Back to Top profile | search
 
Vladimir Fiks
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 1138
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 5:44am | IP Logged | 3  

Great talent and big loss to the industry.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Derek Cavin
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 03 June 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2403
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:13am | IP Logged | 4  

Thanks for starting this thread, Francesco. Don was great. My first exposure to him was Brave and the Bold 156 (as a back issue), which I still own. His artwork had a fluidity to it. I have been seeking out his material over the past couple of years. Kudos to the folks who own a piece of his original artwork.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:29am | IP Logged | 5  

Newton was an early favorite of mine. I loved his work on Batman.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Warren Leonhardt
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 10 July 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 454
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:30am | IP Logged | 6  

I really like his work a lot. Terribly under-rated - just look at how organic his stuff is! The fleshy parts feel right, all in the right masses and in movement, and there's a difference where the bone comes close to the skin. The hand in the top right panel is pretty amazing. This page shows it all - the guy must have been a boxing fan or something - the look on a guy's face as he's punched is exact and a staple of his work (and the cup that dude is hit with in the center of the page is so obviously HARD!) What a draftsman.

Nice choreography too - never loses a reader, regardless of the reader's age. Crystal clear layouts. I wish we could have seen more!

Hats off to him.







 
Back to Top profile | search
 
Paul Anthony Llossas
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 19 August 2005
Posts: 1600
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:37am | IP Logged | 7  

He was such a big fan of Captain Marvel and was slated to do the art chores on a new Shazam series at the time he died.  He really made the World's Mightest Mortal look like he lived up to that title.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Dale Gonsalves
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 24 April 2004
Location: Jamaica
Posts: 487
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:51am | IP Logged | 8  

God I miss seeing Don Newton's art

I started reading Detective Comics during Don's run and still rate him in my tp 5 Batman artist.

24 years ?? my my my how time flies.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Warren Leonhardt
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 10 July 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 454
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 7:10am | IP Logged | 9  

Thanks for the link to that site, Gerry! In fact, I was just reading through the interview section and I saw this from a 1976 interview:

Siegel: Are you still angry over the roadblock once put before you because you live in Arizona and New York was considered the only area an artist could live in if he was to get pro work?

Newton: You bet. Charlton was the only publisher interested in giving me a try. With them it's ability, not geography. I probably could have been a professional comic book artist two years earlier, had not the stigma of long distance been a quirk of certain editors.

Siegel: Go into detail about how you and Charlton got together. It can be important to the readers in that it again proves that a smaller publishing house can be more dynamic and willing to try out talent, whereas DC and Marvel are fixed in their methods and formulas.

Newton: Actually, the story wouldn’t win an Academy Award. I was reading an issue of RBCC and came to the story and picture of Charlton's forthcoming super hero, E-Man. The concept was eye boggling, and prompted me to send Charlton some samples of my work, including "Blood Island," along with a letter of introduction. Nick Cuti called me and asked that I do a sample piece, which was, in my opinion, too hastily done and left much to be desired. But both Nick and George Wildman liked it and I've been turning out work for them ever since.

It seems that without Nick Cuti, we may not have had a chance to see Newton on Batman, or John Byrne on much else, either. Not to mention a whole slew of artists, no doubt.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Paul H. Kupperberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 24 July 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 228
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 8:37am | IP Logged | 10  

Warren sez:
"It seems that without Nick Cuti, we may not have had a chance to see Newton on Batman, or John Byrne on much else, either. Not to mention a whole slew of artists, no doubt."

And ME! Nick bought my first professional work at Charlton in 1975.

Newton was great. He drew a batch of my stories (most notably the 2 Ch'p GL CORPS back-up stories in GREEN LANTERN, as well as a few issues DC Comics Presents and the like) and I'd been a fan of his stuff since the late-1960s fan days and, of course, his beautiful work on Charlton's Phantom. Nice guy, too. His death was a loss, on every level.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Greg Woronchak
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 September 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 1631
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 8:47am | IP Logged | 11  

As a young reader, Don's Batman and Detective Comics art simply blew me away. He remains my personal definitive Batman artist.

Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 
Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 8959
Posted: 19 August 2008 at 10:27am | IP Logged | 12  

I loved everything that Don Newton did, including the Phantom.  The best thing he ever did though, IMO, was Star Hunters, even though it was incredibly brief.

 Paul Anthony Llossas wrote:
He was such a big fan of Captain Marvel and was slated to do the art chores on a new Shazam series at the time he died.  He really made the World's Mightest Mortal look like he lived up to that title.

And Newton did do quite a number of Captain Marvel/Shazam stories.  They appeared in World's Finest after the "DC Implosion" cancelled the Shazam! series.  They started in the 250's I believe.

Edited to add:  Next time I'll research before I post.

His Shazam run was Shazam! #35 and WF #253 through #281.



Edited by Kevin Brown on 19 August 2008 at 10:32am
Back to Top profile | search
 

<< Prev Page of 4 Next >>
  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login