Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy


I didn't mean to be so hard on Don Newton, I do like his art on many series and anthology stories, he's just not one of my all-time favorites. As we've discussed here before, he was perfectly suited to the SHAZAM stories, that had a long enjoyable run as a backup in WORLD'S FINEST, circa 1978-1982.
I know you're a fan of Newton's NEW GODS run. I think it's nice art, but it's just not the same characters for me as portrayed by Kirby and others. I saw the collected trade of NEW GODS BY GERRY CONWAY (with art by Newton) just came out. You bought it, and I might too, if I didn't already have the issues from when they came out.
Likewise Newton's art on BATMAN, DETECTIVE and a few issues of BRAVE AND THE BOLD. I actually filled the gaps in my collection of those issues just a few years ago. While initially, Newton's art (circa DETECTIVE 480-496 or so) was not compatible with the creature-of-the-night Batman, I think Newton's art on the series increasingly conformed to a Novick/Adams/Aparo look on Batman, but again, while his art is nice, to me Newton's art isn't quite the right fit on Batman the way Newton draws him.
Newton also did some fun anthology stories in books like HOUSE OF MYSTERY, TIME WARP, MYSTERY IN SPACE and other titles.

And you may not know it, but prior to the late 1970's Newton previously worked for Charleton, doing horror/mystery anthology stories, and a run for several years on THE PHANTOM, roughly issues 67-74

Newton got his start in the fanzines in the late 1960's, particularly nice are his covers for ROCKET'S BLAST COMIC COLLECTOR (RBCC), starting in 1968, and on through the 1970's, even when he was doing pro work. I recall when Newton's death was announced in 1984 of a heart attack at age 49, tragically way too young. But he was a prolific artist, who left a huge body of work to remember him by.

Likewise, Joe Staton is not one of my favorite artists, but on series he is suited for, I really enjoy his work, such as on E-MAN 1-10 from 1973-1975. He's also a good inker, and inked Sal Buscema on a run in INCREDIBLE HULK, circa 1975-1976. But when paired with a bad inker, or on series I don't think he is suited for, no, I don't like Staton's work. SUPERBOY/LEGION is one I don't think he was suited for.

I don't know if you're aware, but the NEW GODS were revived in 1st ISSUE SPECIAL 13 immediately after Kirby left DC in 1976, in a story by O'Neil and Vosburg.
A little over a year later, the series was revived in NEW GODS 12-19 by Conway and Newton. And then once cancelled, one last inventory story was published in the dollar-sized ADVENTURE COMICS 459 and 460 (there are other Newton and Staton stories in these issues too), if you missed them. Another casualty of the DC Implosion.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Gerry Conway, you have to admire his talent demonstrated at a very early age, and what a prolific wordsmith he was for many years, across a huge spectrum ot titles, both at Marvel and DC. This is a guy who created Man-Thing in 1971 at age 16, and by the time he was writing these NEW GODS stories at DC was still only in his mid-20's, and just a few years later was a very successful scriptwriter out in Hollywood on series like Father Dowling Mysteries, Law And Order, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. He used comics as a springboard for many Law and Order episodes, with many murder victims given names like John Byrne, Roger Stern and Frank Miller, a playful ribbing of his writer/artist friends in the comics field. I especially liked one Criminal Intent episode (episode 78, "Collective") where a girl was a con woman who targeted rich nerds at comic conventions, to swindle them out of their collector valuables.


Writing this on another topic, and not wanting to further take G-man's other discussion even further off-topic, I thought I would move that offshoot discussion here to a new topic.

It occurred to me writing this, and looking at the profiles of many other comics creators in recent years, how many comics creators die young, and way before their time. Maybe the average of young deaths in the comics field is not that unusual or unique, as compared to other fields. I had several friends who died in high school, and a number of others who died in my college and early career years. But it just seems like comics creators might be more prone to death at a young age.
Perhaps because of the sedentary lifestyle of comics creators spending long hours sitting at a desk. Or also perhaps that what drew them to writing and art is they were bedridden at a young age, and developed their artistic talent while their peers were outside playing sports.
Another possibility is that until recently most comics artists were under-paid and struggling to survive, especially when their health declined in their later years. Others prone to alcoholism, or tormented and suicidal, as creative people are in many artistic fields. Names like Robert E. Howard, Sylvia Plath and Iris Chang come to mind.

Whatever the cause, I thought we could have a topic devoted to these talents, to let the affection for these creators and their work be expressed, way beyond their limited years.