Showing posts with label Don Newton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Newton. Show all posts

28 April 2020

Scatterday Morning Post

Apparently today is Scatterday. Every time i try to focus on something, thoughts skitter off in multiple directions. I've started three different posts this morning, and the ol' peripatetic brain wandered off in the middle of each.

So, let's go back and check in with some old faves.

What's Don Newton up to...?


Umm...

Maybe it's not a good time?

I'll try again later.

damnfoolery by Don Newton from Return Of The Skyman (1987)

12 December 2019

P&B's Harlequin

So, there's a new cartoon series for those who live in a world without heroes...



Since this country's definition of 'Hero' has been warped by movies like Rambo to mean 'the psychopath who kills people we don't like,' Harley Quinn makes the perfect hero.

Of course, for her to be the hero and to work as a series, it's going to have to be an ugly world. They establish this quickly in her introduction, along with a solid hint of the blood and violence to follow...



Oh, yeah...  did i mention the language? This isn't Batman The Animated Series (where Harley got her start).

There are stark differences...


...to wit...


By yon by - one of the delights of the show for me is hearing Diedrich Bader back in the role of Batman...


And we've got Alan Tudyk as Joker -


Add some lovely sets, including a B.S. inspired Joker's Lair...



Toss it all with a smattering of explosions and a bucket brigade of blood filled dark humor along with a side of personal revelation and by the end of the first episode...


Yeah, i think i might give the show a look and see what happens.

But i'm a twisted old f  k.



BTW - I personally find it interesting to note who gets a creator's credit -


Harley Quinn created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm
Oh, yeah - anybody who loved Batman The Animated Series and all that's flowed forth from it loves their work. (Actually, i've been a fan of Timm's work since Whisper)

...Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger.
About damn time that the Kane family relented to allow a more truthful credit. They've been doing nothing but adding shame to the Kane family name for years.

...and Killer Croc? Interesting. Created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton.
Well, you know we love Don Newton around here. Somehow, despite a fairly amazing body of work as both writer and editor, we haven't visited with Conway as yet. (Even more surprising since i was a big Mack Bolan fan, too) I wonder if they got a creator's credit due to when Killer Croc was created, or if it was keyed to Conway's contract if he was editing at the time?

Either way, it's cool to see their names up there.


screens from Harley Quinn S01E01 (2019)

15 March 2018

Another notable figure to come out of the SFCA (Science Fiction and Comics Association, publisher of Rocket's Blast Comic Collector) was Don Newton.

If his name is not familiar to you, that's because Don got his big break in comics back in 1975, and he's another of those artists we lost too young, only nine years later. Before we touch on his professional career, let's look at some of his work in early 70s comic fandom from the above mentioned RBCC and Ronn Foss's Golden Age zine.

I think these are two of the earliest illustrations we have here today, from the first year he started to submit to the fanzine -

 


If Newton's artwork looks remarkably polished for his first months of submitting artwork, that's because Don is another who proves the foolishness of the notion that "those who can't, teach - those who can, do" notion. By this time he had been teaching art at Arizona State for a decade and a half. When his love of comics was re-ignited, he went and did.

Here's he recreation of a scene from Master Comics #27


Personally, i like Don's version better than the original. Most of you are probably too young to make the comparison, so here's some reference for you:


Let's take a gander at some of his zine covers, shall we?






It's not hard to see how it didn't take too long for Don to find professional work once he decided he was ready. He wasn't just doing covers and illustrations, he was also working on his story telling skills with his The Savage Earth series in RBCC:


Hopefully, i'll run some of this later. But currently i haven't been able to dig out two consecutive chapters from my scattered collection. (A similar hunt has been underway for sequential chapters of the series by John Adkins Richardson, our previous teacher. Having a bit more luck with the hunt for Maxor Of Cirod)



I skipped a few significant covers along the way. Here are the first two -



You may recall that one of Don's first submissions featured the classic Captain Marvel. He obviously had great love for the character, and for RBCC Special #8 he also provided this 2 page retelling of the World's Mightiest Mortal's origin story:


...as well as this lovely shot of Dr. Sivana...
The Captain Marvel portrait appearing above the covers was used to announce that Don Newton would be working on DC's new Captain Marvel revival with Cap's original creator, C.C. Beck. That's a helluva good way to get your career going, wouldn't you think?

Here's another cover we skipped:


I always loved the concept of The Phantom as a multi-generational superhero maintaining the illusion of an Immortal. So it came as a rather rude surprise to me when Groovy enlightened me, via a 10 year old post, of his Charlton issues of The Phantom that i somehow missed completely. Right from the first issues we get his cover paintings...



...and Don drawing the lead feature...


By the time he left, barely over a half dozen issues later, he had taken over completely -


There's a great cover for that issue shown on Groovy's post linked above.

I may have missed Don Newton's short tenure on The Phantom, but others did not. We'll let Don tell it from this profile featured in World's Finest Comics #272 -



all art except Master Comics #27 by Don Newton for Golden Age, RBCC, and The Phantom (1968-1972)
Captain Marvel Jr art by Mac Raboy for Master Comics #27 (1942)