Donald Partlow was born in Baltimore, Maryland in the early sixties. Outside of his years of serving active duty in the U.S. Airforce The state of Maryland has been his home.

Donald remembers his first exposure to comics was through his father who read The Phantom, Sgt Rock, and Sgt Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos books. Donald’s mother was a schoolteacher who allowed him to use his imagination and share his ideas as she created holiday and seasonal bulletin boards throughout the school where she taught.

Donald’s love of comics began with Spiderman because he could relate to Peter Parker as the geek nerdy kid, except instead of a science Donald had a superhero curiosity. He then started drawing his own original heroes with powers that he imagined would allow him to be “cool” and fit in.

Donald and Aaron met in high school but didn’t become “brothers from different mothers” until after graduation. At the age of 32, Donald was diagnosed with Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis, as a result Donald temporarily lost his vision, walked with a cane/walker on multiple occasions, and was advised he could possibly be wheelchair bound by the age of 36. The MS went into a remission leaving permanent nerve and sensory damage in both of his hands, and Donald stopped drawing.

In December 2021 Donald and Aaron reconnected and Aaron through encouragement and support convinced Donald to pick up the pencil again and “draw anything”. Aaron went on to suggest using harder lead pencils for lighter line sketching, thicker art markers to assist with grip, and went as far as displaying various line work and shading techniques to see what would cause the least amount of hand fatigue.

Donald’s favorite artists as an adult are Darick Robertson & Chad Hurd who draw for the Archer series on the FX channel with the bolder line style because he finds it visually appealing and physical creatable.

Donald’s artistic journey can be followed on his IG page (dpartlow2) where you can see the progression from his early December 2021 pencil work to his current creations.