Dean L. Norton

Dean L. Norton, also known as DLNorton (born in July 7, 1962 in Evroux, France), is a Pin-Up Artist, Graphic Artist and Cartoonist who lives with his wife, Colleen, in Colorado, USA.

Biography
Born in Evroux, France in July 7, 1962 to American parents, his late father, Reginald L. Norton was a United States Air Force airman at the time, and his mother, DeeAnn Norton. He only lived in France for 5 months before his family moved back to the States. He also has a younger brother Alan, who is also an artist. Dean started drawing at an early age and animals and objects of technological interest populated his art. His art started to blossom in high school and by the time he was in college, it started to turn towards the female form in large proportions. This was also about the time he discovered Japanese animation, and the particular crowd that came with it.

By 1986, he and a small group of friends started up the Inland Empire, Riverside, CA./San Bernardino, CA. chapter of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, and with that, he started a small zine that was mostly dedicated to anime, and animation in general, but did also break boundaries once in a while and touch on unrelated subjects.

His works have been featured in both anime zines and furry comic books, such as Desert Storms, which he drew and inked.

Fandom involvement
Around 1991, cartoonist Joshua Quagmire, of Cutey Bunny fame, saw some of his art, and got in touch with him. From there on, Dean cut his first tooth in the comic book industry doing various ink jobs for Quagmire, and attending the various conventions when and where he could, such as the San Diego Comic Convention, which he'd usually attend with his late friend, Al Davis.

From 1992 to around 2000, Dean submitted work to the various indie comic book publishers and eventually got published. Some of his work was published by Radio Comix, such as his favorite, Blazin' Charlotte, a WWII based comic series that mostly ran in Radio's anthology series, Furrlough. It was also around this time that he got involved with another APA, Richard Chandler's Gallery. He was published in around 25 issues before the zine finally folded in around 2004 due to lack of talent submissions, and the burgeoning internet journal (blog) culture.

Dean's artwork also appeared in AnthropoMORPHINE #6, Foxtailz (4 issues) and Airlock #3

He drew and inked Desert Storms, a story written by Michael Hirtes and published in three parts in Genus #27, #28 and #39, but gave up doing it mainly due to creative burnout. Getting tired of comic books, he decided to pursue other ventures, mainly kustom kulture, pin-striping, and hot rod art within the "low brow" art scene.