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Tales of the Batman: Don Newton review

By Leroy Douresseaux
January 21, 2012 - 09:20

Tales of the Batman: Don Newton cover image

Once an art teacher and fan and amateur artist, Don Newton had a brief, decade-long career as a professional comic book artist.  He died in 1984, at the age of 49, as he was set to become the series artist on Infinity, Inc., a spin-off of the 1980s DC Comics series, All-Star Squadron.

One of the characters with which Newton was most associated was Batman.  Beginning with Batman #305 (cover date November 1978), Newton drew Batman and related characters in almost 80 stories that were published over a seven year period.  DC Comics has gathered 22 Don Newton-drawn Batman stories in the hardcover collection, Tales of the Batman: Don Newton.  These stories were published during a two-year period from late 1978 to late 1980 and were published in three Batman comic book titles, Batman, Detective Comics, and Brave and the Bold (a Batman team-up book).

Don Newton’s compositional style reminds me of Jim Aparo, while his graphic design and page layout clearly show the influence of Neal Adams.  Newton wasn’t a copycat, though; the way he composed the contents of his panels was and still is distinctive.  Most of the stories here feature Dan Adkins inking Newton, but I prefer Dave Hunt, who inked the first three tales in this book.  Hunt makes Newton’s figure drawing look gorgeous and smooth and made each element in a panel stand out, while Adkins’ inks allows Newton’s eccentricities free reign, which isn’t always a good thing.

The Batman of the late 1970s still retains some of the influence of Denny O’Neil (who wrote several of the stories in this book).  O’Neil’s Batman is an ominous figure, more like the avenging wraith that appeared in the first Batman stories back in the late 1930s.  However, I think the Batman in these Newton stories is most influenced by the work of writer Steve Englehart, who presented Batman as a “Darknight Detective.”  In fact, this Batman is more detective than “Dark Knight.”

Newton is perfect for this kind of Batman, who creeps around inside, deftly crossing the threshold into buildings, hallways, rooms, laboratories, and other interior and living spaces.  Of course, the Batman in these stories also swings over roofs, jumps on moving vehicles, and has no problem kicking as in his urban playground.

There is an awkward nature to the way Newton draws, but once again, that serves his stories well.  Limbs flail and smash into things, which give a strong physical sense to Newton’s fight scenes.  That’s why the fight in “The Perfect Fighting Machine” (Detective Comics #480) really looks like a fight to death – one that Batman might lose.  Newton’s Bronze Tiger in “The Vengeance Vow” (Detective Comics #480) captures Bruce Lee’s movement in the static visual medium of comic books probably as best as anyone can.  For an odd bit of physicality, Newton stages a fight between Batman and some thugs in the narrow rows between movie theatre seats (Detective Comics #487).

DC Comics sent me a copy of Tales of the Batman: Don Newton for review, and this is one of the instances when I feel a bit guilty about that.  Why?  It’s because after reading this book, I realized that I would have been happy to buy it.  As with many DC hardcover reprint collections, the interior pages are made of coated or enamel paper stock.  The reproduction of the comic book art is solid, and the restored color pops on the page.  Only the reproductions of the Brave and the Bold stories can be described as poor.

With this book, DC Comics has made Newton, who is practically obscure now, seem like someone special.  For awhile, Newton was special, because he got the plumb assignment of drawing Batman comic books on a regular basis.  And you will also believe in Newton’s noteworthiness when you see Tales of the Batman: Don Newton.

A-

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12