Ever since I first saw his work (on a Brave & The Bold, with either Red Tornado or Dr Fate, I forget which now) Don Newton instantly became my favorite Batman Artist, when he became a regular artist on the regular Batman books in the early 80's, I couldn't have been happier. Teamed with inkers like Alfredo Alcala, his fluid figure work, & dynamic use of shadow simply dominated over everything else for me,& Gene Colan was working on the Bat titles regularly at that time too, so the competition wasn't exactly a slouch!! My favorite work of his was on a (seemingly) throwaway stand alone issue, featuring a villain called 'The Savage Skull' (an ex-cop with grievences, if memory serves). Don Newton drew real characters who you could believe in visually, not simply 'comic book cyphers', his work made me want to aspire to that in my own work.. I'm still aspiring. In more recent years I learned that he had a track record on tiles like 'The Phantom', but for me, Don Newton will always be one of the absolute best Batman artists.
Ever since I first saw his work (on a Brave & The Bold, with either Red Tornado or Dr Fate, I forget which now) Don Newton instantly became my favorite Batman Artist, when he became a regular artist on the regular Batman books in the early 80's, I couldn't have been happier. Teamed with inkers like Alfredo Alcala, his fluid figure work, & dynamic use of shadow simply dominated over everything else for me,& Gene Colan was working on the Bat titles regularly at that time too, so the competition wasn't exactly a slouch!! My favorite work of his was on a (seemingly) throwaway stand alone issue, featuring a villain called 'The Savage Skull' (an ex-cop with grievences, if memory serves). Don Newton drew real characters who you could believe in visually, not simply 'comic book cyphers', his work made me want to aspire to that in my own work.. I'm still aspiring. In more recent years I learned that he had a track record on tiles like 'The Phantom', but for me, Don Newton will always be one of the absolute best Batman artists.
ReplyDeleteHey Staz, thanks for sharing. I was more of a mid-1980s Batman fan, so I'm really going to have to check out Newton's run.
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