Donald L. Newton was born in 1934 and became a professional comic book artist and cover painter in 1974, drawing for companies like Marvel, DC and Charlton. Born in Virginia, but mainly raised in Arizona, Newton began his career in the fanzines of the Science Fiction and Comics Association (SFCA) in the 1960s, while also being a grade school art teacher.
Starting in 1974, Newton worked for Charlton's horror titles ('Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library', 'Ghost Manor'), while also doing a successful run on 'The Phantom'. After a while, Newton found his way to Marvel, where he did painted covers and inking jobs on the Kung Fu titles, as well as 'Ghost Rider'. He left the company for a while, but returned in 1979 to work on 'The Avengers'.
Newton eventually began a career at DC in 1977, starting with 'Aquaman'. He became a regular on the title, and gave up his daytime job as an art teacher. That same year, launched his first series, 'The New Gods', inked by his old Marvel colleague Dan Adkins. He was also assigned to the 'Shazam!' title in the 'Shazam' comic book series and World's Finest Comics, and began a regular run on 'Batman' in Detective Comics. In the final stages of his career, he also worked with 'Green Lantern' and 'Infinity, Inc'. He was known for the humanity he brought to his characters. Don Newton's career in comics was tragically cut short by throat cancer in 1984. His work was an influence on Frank Cho.
