Comments on: 365 Reasons to Love Comics #147

By: ming the artmaker

ming the artmaker — Thu, 31 May 2007 03:09:34 +0000

thanks for that.

it's the first time i heard the name alex toth. and i like him already... may he live forever!

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:28:58 +0000

Alex Toth is possibly the single best artist the medium has ever seen, but that rant... sheesh!

By: "O" the Humanatee!

"O" the Humanatee! — Tue, 29 May 2007 03:01:03 +0000

I confess that I've never really been a fan of Toth, but so many people I respect love Toth that I just figure I have a blind spot. (For all my belief that comics art should be primarily about storytelling, I just don't find Toth's drawings "pretty" enough for my taste.) But I wanted to note an observation about Toth that I, as a former copy editor, find interesting: In his art Toth tried to strip things down to bare essentials; I've read about his inking in black shadows over areas that he had fully drawn becuase he felt it improved the composition and storytelling. But in notes like the one Bill includes above, Toth not only crammed the page full of too tightly spaced (IMO) handwriting but engaged in the most annoyingly redundant, run-on verbiage. It's as if he had no idea how - or at least no desire - to bring to bear on the written word the same ideals he applied so assiduously in his art.

By: random

random — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:31:17 +0000

Does anyone know when that letter was written?

By: chroom

chroom — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:33:48 +0000

All I can say is "amen" to the rant.

By: chase G.

chase G. — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:59:07 +0000

The sad thing is he died on my birthday last year... That's how I found out who he was, as I've only been reading comics for two years.

By: The Kirbydotter

The Kirbydotter — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:52:26 +0000

You said it Bill, there are very few comic book artists that have mastered all and every aspect of the sequential art. Alex Toth is a true master.

Not only did he have his very own unique signature style, but he was brilliant with layouts and page composition. A magnificient storyteller. It is often an overlooked aspect of this medium and I am glad you pointed that out.

Weird that Alex Toth is today's reason to love comics (and what a great reason too), because just last nigh I bidded on Ebay for a Dell RIO BRAVO comic book adaptation of the John Wayne/Dean Martin movie drawn by Toth.

I think I own every book every written about the great Master (most of them written by Manual Auad) and try to get as many Toth drawn books I can find. A couple of fun and affordable suggestions:

DC COMICS PRESENTS # 84 featuring a team-up of Superman and the Challengers of the Unknown. It was partly drawn by Challenger's creator Jack Kirby himself and partly drawn by Alex Toth! It looks like an unfinished Kirby story that Toth completed. Must be one of the very few times these two Gods of the medium appeared together in the same book.

SUPERMAN ANNUAL # 9: by the 80's it was rare to see new Toth art. Most of the times it was limited to pin-ups or very short stories if we were lucky. Imagine a full annual of Toth goodness in 1983! Well, not full as a short back up story was also included, but still! Again, this is a meeting of two great craftsmen at what they do best. Toth was always his best inker, and normally any inker that worked on the masters perfect pencils could only make it worse. But here, Toth is paired with the best pure inker in the business: Terry Austin! Terry had an impossible job to do, inking someone unique like Toth and he pulls it off with a very decent job. If you are going to get someone else than Toth to ink himself, you might as well get Terry Austin. Of course, an all-Toth art job is always preferable, but the experiment was still a very enjoyable project.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Mon, 28 May 2007 10:20:19 +0000

Enemy Ace.
Nuff Said.

**********

Joe Kubert drew that.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: stephen cade

stephen cade — Mon, 28 May 2007 06:52:33 +0000

Space Ghost makes it--thanks to Alex Toth--well desreved to be on your list.

By: thekamisama

thekamisama — Mon, 28 May 2007 05:39:14 +0000

Enemy Ace.
Nuff Said.

By: John Trumbull

John Trumbull — Mon, 28 May 2007 02:42:21 +0000

One quick correction: I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but your text seems to imply that Alex Toth was main character designer on Jonny Quest, as he was with Space Ghost, Birdman, the Herculoids and Super Friends. That was not the case. The main designer on JQ was the creator of the show, the late, great Doug Wildey (who would also be a great addition to the list).

Not to take anything away from Toth, though. He was absolutely one of the all-time greats.

By: Ian Astheimer

Ian Astheimer — Mon, 28 May 2007 01:53:16 +0000

(Thanks to frequent CSBG commenter Ian Astheimer for the suggestion!)

Any time, man.

I can't believe it's been a year since his passing.