After he was dismissed from the army, Don went back to live with his parents. He had recommenced his education, but didn´t know which subject to choose. But his father had already made his decision for him: Don had to go into the financial world, where his father had made his own living. The only problem was that Don had no interest whatsoever in this kind of career. His mother reminded him of his talent for drawing and suggested he go to art-school. Don was interested, and though almost no art-schools had vacancies for new students, Don found an opening at the London Borough Polytechnic.
This academy mainly attracted students who had been recently de-mobbed from the army. During the first two years the teachers taught the basics like architecture, anatomy, composition and woodwork. These were good years for Don. But when he had to specialise in the third year, school became more difficult. Life drawing was the area that Don was really interested in, but there was no opportunity to graduate in that subject. He was forced to choose lithography and woodcarving, subjects he found twee and in which he did not excel. Unsurprisingly, Don failed his exam in the fourth year and left the academy without a diploma.

In his last year he met Doug Marler, a graduate who had drawn some comic-strip artwork for various magazines. From that moment on, Don knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: draw comics!