Last Updated October 1, 2005

To see a larger version of any artwork on these pages, click on the picture

became a serious comic book fan in the later years of the 1960's and the early 1970's. At that time comic fandom was a rich and vital sub-culture. There were a multitude of comic fanzines to choose from at that time featuring the work of an army of young fan artists, many of whom would soon "turn pro." My major fanzine fix was sated by the publications of the SFCA, which stood for the Science Fiction and Comics Association. The SFCA was run by a comic fan named G.B. Love of Miami, Florida. G.B. published the Rocket's Blast & ComicCollector or the RBCC as everyone called it. At the time it was the premiere fanzine in the country. Each thick issue was chocked full of articles and columns on the history of comics and the great illustrators of the past, ads for other fanzines, ads where people sold old comic books, and fan artwork. The RBCC gave me my first taste of the art of Don Newton. It was love at first sight.

The RBCC #95	The RBCC #89	The RBCC #106	The RBCC #90	The RBCC #82
The RBCC #110	The RBCC #87	All Issues	The RBCC #84	The RBCC #104
The RBCC #112	The RBCC #99	The RBCC #76	The RBCC #100	The RBCC #91

As you can see above, Don was a featured artist in the RBCC doing many covers. My particular favorite is the cover of issue #82, the Hawkman piece. I had always like the Joe Kubert version of Hawkman, but Don's was a unique reinterpretation of the Hawkman character. Don's Hawkman was a rediscovery of the initial concept, "He battles evil that grows in the present with his great collection of weapons of the past! " I remember the day that issue arrived. I just stared at it for hours. Unlike some artists who seemed restrained by black and white work, Don excelled at using detailed penwork to define texture and lighting and to set the mood. The cover to the RBCC #95 (above) is scanned from the original artwork and our thanks to Scott Moore for providing the original.

Besides covers, Don also did interior illustrations for the RBCC. His painting of Thor, God of Thunder graced the inside back cover of the RBCC #86. Most of the time Don interior illustrations were pen and ink, such as his H. P. Lovecraft pieces in the RBCC #81 and #84 or his Two-Face in issue #74, Catwoman in #78 or Lex Luthor in issue #79, all three done for the "Masters of Evil" series. Don also did a piece for a rather odd series in the RBCC called "Golden Gold, Re-creations of the Greatest Comic Covers and Scenes of the Golden Age." Don's contribution appeared in the RBCC #72 and was a very nice painting recreating the cover of Captain America #14.

Don did three pieces for the "Masters of Evil" series in the RBCC. His Catwoman is one of my favorites. The Luthor illustration was the first Don Newton art I ever saw.

Don was also a mainstay in the other publications of the SFCA. I guess G.B. Love was the guy that discovered Don, though a talent like his was not going to stay hidden for long. Don had a number of styles that he employed. Don's first published work for fandom was the back cover of Fantasy Soundtrack #1. This was another SFCA publication, a rather odd SFCA publication, really a 14-page ad for audio tapes of science-fiction soundtracks that G. B. Love was selling. Mostly they were of old movies and serials, but they also included a couple of TV shows as well. Don's back cover was a pen and ink illustration of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock on an alien planet. The scan I have her is from Don's own copy of the fanzine and he has re-inked  part of the figures so this version is unlike the actual printed version.

For the Illustrated Comic Collectors Handbook Vol. 4, Don combined a light and breezy brush stroke with some tight pen work to create 14 black and white illustrations of super heroes of the past, while the center spread of the book was an acrylic painting by Don of a cloaked character with a slouch hat and gun (most likely the Shadow), which although printed in black and white has the look of a color piece to me. These are some really cool Newton pieces and I am reprinting all of them here. The Hood piece below is scanned from the original art which, I'm happy to say, comes from my own private collection. The Illustrated Comic Collectors Handbook was a great way for comic fandom newbies to catch up on the heroes of old and the Newton art in volume 4 was a true delight.

Johnny Rebel	The Hood	Star-Spangled Kid	The Shield	Johnny Quick
Yank & Doodle	The Flash	The Shadow	Silver Scorpion	Moon-Man
Yankee Boy	The Thunderer	Plastic Man	Dr. Midnight	Fighting American

The Fandom Annual # 2 featured not only a portfolio of three pieces by Don (one acrylic, one pen and ink and one Captain Marvel piece represented here in mixed media showing Captain Marvel and the six gods that make up the word SHAZAM and give Cap his power) but also an 18-page strip written and drawn by Don called "The Savage Earth." As far as I know, this was Don's first strip, and not surprisingly, it featured the things that Don did best: jungles and caves and explosions and fire, and lots and lots of figures and faces. Particularly nice is Don's use of extreme light sources, such as campfires, explosions, fiery infernos, and the blast of a good death-ray pistol to create stark contrasts between light and dark. "The Savage Earth," done over a period stretching from 1968-1970, gave us all an idea of what kind of talent Don had in his possession.

Three scenes from Don's wonderful strip "The Savage Earth" where his spectacular use of heavy light sources creates such amazing depth. Click on any of the scenes to see a more detailed version

For the Golden Age #3, published in 1968, Don did three pieces. The three-color front cover featured The Crimson Kid and the Red Wrath, two characters that Don created when he was a child. The black and white back cover, called "The Great Comic in the Sky" featured Skyman, Airboy, Bulletman, Target, Spy Smasher, Cat Man, Daredevil and the Black Terror listening to Captain Marvel tell a tale from his glorious past. Don's third piece, in a totally different style if for an article by Tom Fagan called "The 41 battles of Harvey Kurtzman." these three pieces show that even in early 68, Don had many unique styles in which he was proficient.

A very EC/Jack Davis feel to this article illo about EC's Kurtzman.	There is a much more traditional feel to Don's wonderful cover art.	Don's back cover is more in the whimsical 40's style popular with Captain Marvel.	Letter from Don to Howard Siegel where he fesses up  about the Red Wrath and the Crimson Kid.

Don did a lot of work for the Golden Age. Issue #4 featured an unusual Newton cover in a very unusual style. It features a character called Blacklok and is from an unsold adventure newspaper strip that Don created in 1967. You can read more about Don's foray into newspaper strips on the Newspaper page of this site. The center spread of the issue is a different story a beautiful painting of Spy Smasher, printed in black and white. This issue is from the summer of 1969.

An unusual piece for the cover of the Golden Age #4.	A wonderful black and white painting in the center spread of the book displays Don's emerging painting style.

The winter of 1969 saw the publication of the Golden Age #5 which contained a number of Newton treats. First off was a front cover by Don of a hero battling a dragon while a lovely woman looks on. If the hero had worn glasses I would think this was Freeze from the Savage Earth as Don was doing the Savage Earth at this time. On page 8 Don provides an illustration for an article on Top Notch Comics of The Firefly. The center spread of the book is also by Don and features Catman. Finally, Don also provided an illustration of Batman and Robin for an article by Howard Siegel entitled "In Retrospect." This issue also features an early piece by Rich Buckler and a back cover of Hawkman by John Adkins Richardson that is very nice.

The cover of The Golden Age #5 seems to be inspired by The Savage Earth.	A beautiful Catman center spread is the highlight of the issue.	Don does a Golden Age Batman and robin,	Don's interpretation of the Firefly, from Top Notch Comics.

The Golden Age# 7, published in 1971 is a treasure-trove of Newton art. It contains another three piece portfolio by Don, this time of characters from Fox Comics. All are done in pen and ink beginning with a really striking Blue Beetle piece, the Beetle smashing through the cover of a Fox comic book. The two other pieces each feature two heroes, the Dart and U.S. Jones look on as three thugs make a getaway from Harry's cocktail lounge, and the Flame and V-Man walk away after leaving three culprits tied-up on the steps of the police station. Don also has another piece in a portfolio of different artists called Golden Age Greats. Don's contribution is a wonderful black and white action piece of the Black Terror, which is really well done. The book is capped off by a beautiful full color, wrap-around painting by Don of Tarzan, kneeling on a large tree branch, shooting a bow and arrow. Still early in Don's career as a painter, but this one is a gem, from the lush greens of Tarzan's jungle home to the scorching yellow of the sky. I love this painting.

Another SFCA publication that Don did covers for was The Golden Age Collector. This was a great fanzine series that featured full stories from the golden age, by the likes of Reed Crandall, Mac Raboy, Lou Fine, and Basil Wolverton, some printed from the original artwork. Given the nature of the magazine, the only new artwork appeared on the covers. Don did the covers for at least the first three issues. I think these cover are exceptional examples of Newton art. Issue 1 in 1972 features a wonderful cover of Steel Sterling leaping at Baron Gestapo. This one seems to be very much a Newton "fan" piece; it has the feel of Kirby, Steranko and Colan. For issue 2 Don turned in a beautiful pen and ink job, featuring a character I do not recognize being attacked by what appears to be vampire cave creatures (our copy here is scanned from an enlargement of the original). Issue 3 sports a wonderful rendition of Firebrand that is a Newton classic. Don captures the essence of the Reed Crandall art inside, but imbues it with the Newton magic; the wonderful anatomy, the textured inks, the grace and style that was Don Newton at his best.

This Steel Sterling cover has very much the feel of Kirby, Steranko, and Colan	Some great penwork highlights this cover for The Golden Age Collector #2	A favorite of mine is this beautiful Firebrand cover.

It is no big secret that Don Newton was a big Captain Marvel fan. If you've already checked out Don's superb Captain Marvel costume on the "Who Was Don Newton?" page, or Don's RBCC ad where he was willing to trade paintings for Captain Marvel memorabilia (on the same page), you know what I mean. In later years Don would draw Captain Marvel for DC in the pages of World's Finest Comics, but before that came The Rocket's Blast Special #8. 

Don poured his heart into this one. The book contained three, very detailed pen and ink drawing by Don, a two page strip, retelling Captain Marvel's origin, and a 5-color wrap-around cover. 

As you can see, Don was using an overly detailed style on his Captain Marvel illustrations. This is quite a different style than Don would employ years later at DC. But notice how even with this drastic departure from the normal Captain Marvel style, the essence of Cap is still there.

In 1973 Don was part of another SFCA publication called Sword and Fantasy, which reprinted fantasy illustrations from other SFCA books into a large coated-stock portfolio. Three pieces by Don were reprinted here, his cover from the Golden Age 5, and two H.P. Lovecraft illustrations from the RBCC. Sword of Fantasy also contains some wonderful work by Frazetta, Wrightson, Corben, Kline, Juanillo, Crandal, Finlay, Wood, and Bok.

A very nice illustration by Don of H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dweller."	A sequence from H. P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" is a very dynamic piece by Don. Both Lovecraft illustrations first appeared in issues of the RBCC.

The SFCA also produced a series of high-quality black and white reproductions of what they called classic comic art. The series, called "Classic Reproductions," featured the work of John G. Fantucchio, John Adkins Richardson, Robert Kline, Frank Frazetta and Don. Six of the seventeen pieces were by Don. The ad for the series featured a Superman piece by Don that I have never seen elsewhere and that was not a part of the series itself. 

Don did some work for comic conventions in the early 70's. In the RBCC#80 the ad for the Miami Con 2 of 1971 contains a wonderful illustration by Don of Flash Gordon. The ad mentions that the convention program book would have artwork by Don and Richard Corben.

In 1971 Don also was a special Guest of Honor at the Houstoncon. The program for that convention  had a full page on Don and displayed the Captain Marvel illustration from the inside front cover of the Rocket's Blast Special #8. I have Don's own copy of the program and, as he was sometimes known to do, Don went over the art at a later date and improved it. What you see below is the detail from the original Rocket's Blast Special followed by the version printed in the program which was later augmented with additional inks by Don.

Ten issues later RBCC#90 would feature an ad for the 1972 Phoenix Con which also features some Newton art. As you've no doubt read elsewhere on this site, Don lived in Phoenix and was intimately involved in this convention. The ad mentions that Don's time was going to be auctioned off and that the winner could have Don draw whatever they wished. The ad when on to say that Don was also in charge of the art contest and that you could write Don for details. Don also did two pieces for the interior of the Phoenix Con Program.

Don did these two illustrations for the interior of the Phoenix Con '72 Program. It was at this convention that Don met C C Beck, creator of Captain Marvel. Don would later collaborate with CC for National Lampoon and on a number of stories for Captain Marvel that almost saw print..

For the 1973 Houstoncon, of which he was again a special guest of honor, Don did the cover to their convention program as well as four caricatures of other special guests. The cover is really great, Superman carrying two comic fans to the convention is the main focus, but in the background are a number of characters: The Spectre, Captain Marvel, Bulletgirl, Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, The Shadow, Tarzan, Green lantern, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, The Flash, Hawkman, Batman and the Phantom. The program also contains a Captain Marvel illustration from Rocket's Blast Special #8 and the cover to the RBCC #99. The caricatures inside are in a unique style, very reminiscent of his work a couple of years later at Charlton on "The Treasure Seekers," which appeared in The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #45.

Kirk Alyn played Superman and Blackhawk in the Republic serials of the 1940's.	Frank Coghlan played Billy Batson in "The Adventures of Captain Marvel," 1940.	Don's wonderful cover to the 1973 Houstoncon program.	William Benedict acted in "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" and numerous other serials and films.	Dave Sharpe actor and stuntman extraordinaire worked on many Republic serials and films.

From all of the beautiful work Don did for the SFCA, to his work for conventions, to his creation of his Captain Marvel costume, it is clear that Don Newton was a comic fan first, and a comic artist second. And his love of and appreciation of comics would show through in the years to follow as Don made the transition from comic fan to comic professional, first at Charlton and then at DC.

Besides his convention work, Don did work for fandom publishers other than the SFCA One of those other publishers was Titan Publications of Richardson Texas, publisher of Titan Comics and this is such a strange little tale that I think it deserves a page of it's own on this site. 

Another of those other fanzines was the Comic Crusader. Issue #8 featured a cover by Don of the Marvel character Yellowjacket duking it out with a mad scientist. In the background you see Capt. America trapped in a sphere.

Don did work in a couple of issues of Alan Light's Dynamic Magazine in 1970. In the double issue 5*6 Don did a wonderful centerspread of Tarzan. Of this piece in the next issue fan-turned-pro Dan Adkins would write, "...My favorite drawing in this issue of DYNAMIC was the Newton centerspread. He's very knowledgeable about what he's doing."

Don also worked for publisher Bill Schelly and his fanzine, Sense of Wonder. Don did a Spirit illustration in issue #11 and two pieces for issue #12. This was a really great little fanzine, nicely printed and just chocked full of interesting stuff. Don's contributions are a black and white cover of Yarmak, an Australian Tarzan imitation. Don also provided an interior illustration of Yarmak for an article by John Ryan. The book also features articles on Jack Kirby, Stanley Pitt, Will Eisner and an article on Gene Autry comics by Russ Manning.

Don did these two illustrations for Sense of Wonder #12. This is not Don's original cover for this issue. That cover was ruined in a flood of Don's Phoenix home in 1972. Not only did Don replace the ruined cover, he added the interior illustration as well.

Another fan publisher Don did work for was William Black's Paragon Publications. Black published a number of books on a wide range of topics. He was a big fan of Saturday matinee western heroes, Captain Marvel, and his own stable of superheroes. I'm not sure of where all the artwork Don did for Paragon was actually printed, but I do know a few of the places. One was Black's flagship book, Paragon Magazine. Don had an illustration of the Lt., Marvels, inked by Black, in the April 1973 issue #5.Another couple of pieces Don did for Paragon were part of a portfolio of super-heroes, the Golden Age Greats, that Black sold. Don did four illustrations in all for that book, three inked by publisher William Black and the other inked by Don. My favorite of the four is the beautiful Hawkman that Don inked himself.  Once again, Don evokes a different Hawkman than you are used to seeing; the feeling from the piece is more earthy, more brutal than your normal Hawkman. When I recently bought Don's own copy of the Golden Age Greats I noticed that he had re-inked parts of the Hawkman figure, so we present that version of the piece as well. 

This illustration of Billy Batson and the Lt. Marvels is from Paragon #5. Black's inks are only so-so.	This illustration of Dr. Midnight also inked by Bill Black is from Paragon's Golden Age Greats Portfolio  published in 1971.	William Black also inks this Captain Midnight/Spy Smasher illustration from the same portfolio.	This  Hawkman is penciled and inked by Don and is from the same portfolio.	This copy of the Hawkman is from Don's own copy of the Portfolio and has been re-inked in places..	William Black does a much better job of inking this Marvel Family illustration.

Don also did work for fan publisher William G. Wilson and his fanzine, The Collector. I don't know how much work Don did for Bill Wilson, only that he did work for at least five issues of the fanzine. In fact, one of Don's earliest non-SFCA fan pieces appeared as the cover of The Collector #16, Fall 1969. I believe this cover represents Don's first published illustration of the character he would draw for six years at DC, Batman. In the very next issue Don would provide a cover of the Justice Society of America.

Issue #17 was a Don Newton extravaganza! Not only did Don provide the cover but he provided a page full of photographs, an interview, and three pages of artwork. The full text of the interview can be found on the Interviews section of this site. The three pages of illustrations can be seen below. They range in quality from acceptable to excellent and this is the only place I know of where more than two panels of Don's Blacklok strip ever appeared. This issue offers a full page collage of Blacklok panels which I think are really wonderful. I think the Captain America piece is only passable while the Captain Marvel piece is very nice and in the style Don used on The Rocket's Blast Special #8. 

This illustration of Captain America fighting the Red Skull is passable, but not great Newton work.	Don always went all out when he was doing a Captain Marvel piece and this excellent illustration is no exception.	I really love this glimpse of Don's proposed syndicated strip Blacklok.

Don did a piece in issue #26 as part of a Tarzan portfolio. This was around the time that DC was doing the Tarzan books with Joe Kubert and Kubert and Steve Fabian both contribute to the portfolio. Don's piece is unusually sparse in detail, with almost no background what-so-ever. Actually quite a departure from the work he was doing at the time and not nearly as nice as the Tarzan piece he had done two years earlier for Dynamic Magazine.

In issue #28, Fall 1973, of The Collector there is a portfolio called High Dawn II. It is described as "Concluding a Western Portfolio by DON NEWTON" (High Dawn I was published in issue #27). High Dawn II consists of eight illustrations by Don presented on five consecutive pages. The quality is of varying degrees; some are quite nice while others look like very early, very rough pieces. This issue also contains a back cover of the Shadow by Don which is reprinted in the interior as part of an article, "Shadow of the Ages," by Murray Bishoff.

The entire High Dawn II portfolio from The Collector #28. Some of the pieces seem a lot older than others. I would guess that some of these were done a whole lot earlier than 1973. None of the pieces are named or captioned. Don lived n Arizona, and with his obvious fascination with the western genre, I'm surprised that we never saw a western comic from Don. Maybe it's just that the timing was bad; westerns were not very popular or plentiful during Don's time as a pro.

Don did a number of covers for ST Enterprises for their flagship publication, The Comic Reader (most people I knew referred to it as TCR). Don's participation with ST lasted longer than his stint with DC, from November 1974 to June, 1983. During this time Don did eight covers for TCR and they range in quality from OK to spectacular. Rather than talk about them. I'll let the artwork speak for itself (a rarity on this site for sure!):

Issue #112, Don did a cover of Dr. Graves and Baron Weirwulf taken from a Charlton house ad.	Issue #134 has Don's tribute to the Phantom, just about the time the book was being cancelled by Charlton.	Issue #146 sports this wonderful Superman artwork, penciled and inked by Don. Don's inks remind me of Wrightson here.	Issue #175 contains a rare Green Lantern illustration. Don's work on GL at DC never pertained to the Hal Jordan GL.
Issue #186 has a nice Newton/Adkins Captain Marvel.	Issue #189 has this wonderful Newton/Rubinstein Captain America, another "Captain" that Don always loved to draw.	Issue #205 back cover sported this wonderful rejected cover for Batman #356 shot from Don's wonderfully detailed pencils.	Issue #211 back cover featured the return of Donovan Flint and the Star Hunters, inked by Sam Delarosa.

Don provided wonderful covers for two issues of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, comic fandom's unofficial guide to how much your collection is worth or how much you should pay for that Don Newton classic comic you've seen here and want so much to own. I've mentioned in other places on this site that books featuring Don's artwork are not that expensive (I've rarely paid more than $10 for any of the books I have bought in the past five years of finishing of my Newton collection), but there is one exception to this and that is the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #4. I've seen this book go for as much as $35 on ebay. This issue features an early take on the Justice Society of America and may be Don's only attempts at the Spectre, Starman and Mr. Terrific. Of the two covers I much prefer the cover to #13, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman reading the Overstreet guide, with its beautiful Joe Rubinstein inks. Just look at the lushness that Joes embellishment added to the figures and you too can see why he was Don's favorite inker.

These final pieces of fandom art serve to transition Don from fan to professional; Howard Siegel's Comic Collector's Comments column in the RBCC #105 featured a section called "Newton News" which contained part of a letter from Nicola Cuti at Charlton sharing about Don's first professional comic work there. The item was accompanied by an illustration of Baron Weirwulf (to your left), which I don't think ever saw print in a Charlton book, so could be looked upon as a final piece of Newton fandom artwork. OK, Newton fan extraordinaire, Carsten Larsen, has located a snippet of this Newton piece on a Williamsune splash page that appeared  in "(Baron Weirwulf's) Haunted (Library)" # 24, cover-dated November, 1975, so only in this "full body" form was this piece never published by Charlton. In 1975 ST Enterprises published a limited edition (2000 copies) Benefit  Portfolio featuring the work of many professional artists. Don provided a wonderful illustration of Baron Weirwulf (to your right) on page 20.

The early 1970's were a wonderful time for comic fandom and a big part of that was the fine work of Don Newton. I look back fondly on these old issues of the RBCC that I have and wish I had collected more. The RBCC always seemed to hit the right balance between content and ads and a big part of that content was Don Newton. As the late G.B. Love wrote to me in 1999, "Don has much (if not more) to do with the success of the RBCC as anybody."

This page is a work in progress and as I am able to get more of Don's exceptional fandom art scanned and cleaned up I will be presenting it here.

All of the artwork on this page is copyright of the SFCA, G.B. Love, the estate of Don Newton, William Black, Bill G. Wilson,  and any other copyright holders I am missing. Special thanks to the late and great G.B. Love for his kind permission to reprint for all to enjoy Don's fine legacy of fandom art. Thank you G.B.!

All characters and their associated likenesses are copyright 2003 by their respective owners.