Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall by Daniel Best.
Way, way back in 1975 when I was thirteen I found a new comic in the Milk bar, it was The Planet of the Apes a spin-off of the popular movies and TV series.
I was so excited about this comic that I didn’t even care that the story continued onto the next issue, so I kept an eye out for other titles by this new publisher Newton Comics. Well, you could imagine my disappointment when hot on the heels of Planet of the Apes came countless Marvel titles. I quickly became aware that Newton was doing the same as GK Murray (whose self-contained black and white DC stories I’d grown to love) and were releasing reprints, but in my opinion not as good. Soon these comics were everywhere and my passion for the Planet of the Apes series waned as this was also the time that I discovered American underground comics. Newton eventually disappeared off the newsstands and seriously I could have cared less. It seemed like mass produced rubbish. I did however, many years later as my interest in local comics grew, wondered what happened to them.
Well I don’t have to wonder anymore, thanks to Adelaide author Daniel Best’s Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall. A book entertaining on so many levels and a captivating reference of a short but tumultuous time in the history of Australian comics, and one that up until now was largely ignored. Besides being a comprehensive listing of all the Newton Comics catalogue with cover images of all available issues, it also tells the amazing story of how, in a short span of three years Newton Comics deserved the title chosen for the book.
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| Maxwell Newton |
Best does a great job filling in a gap about Maxwell Newton and his comic publishing history, that seems to get passed over in his own biography and by many Australian comic book historians.
Newton was a child prodigy who grew up in Western Australia and counted among his school alumni John Stone (the man whose signature was on our bank notes for a long time) and ex PM Bob Hawke. He was talented journalist and economists who wrote for major National papers including the Australian and the Financial Review. He was accused of spying by the Gordon Liberal government and started the Sunday Observer in Melbourne where the idea for Newton Comics was formed and how Maxwell Newton went on to screw Marvel comics out of a small fortune on his way to a self-destructive lifestyle.
The author goes into what transpired over that period in some detail, including original documents and interviews with people who were in the thick of it, he also continues as Newton’s publishing career and life collapse due to his many excess’ which include alcoholism, suicide attempts and a stint as a pimp, only to clean up his act sustainably. Eventually leading him to abandon Australia (with the help of Rupert Murdoch) building for himself a respectable career never to return and dying at the age of 61 in 1990.
Best also gives us insight to the collectability of the product as well as comprehensive list of available comics and ephemera, even supply a script of a possible Australian story that may have been published had things turned out differently.
Why we have TV mini movies on media personalities like Dulcie Boling, Ita Buttrose and Kerry Packer when we had a Larry Flint/Ian Fleming hybrid running amuck upsetting politicians and the establishment in equal measure. A man with amazing resilience and ability to bounce back from whatever crisis he found himself in (usually self-infected) This man is a major motion picture waiting to be made.
Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall was made possible by a 2013 Pozible crowd funding campaign and a lot of people had faith in him to make it a reality, and I’m glad, it’s a fantastic read and an important research document for the series Australian comic collector. Daniel Best has written a well researched and entraining book that sheds light on a period many tend to skip as blip on the radar in Australian comic history.
Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall is available as an Ebook via Blaq Books www.blaqbooks.com.au
