Alex Toth is regularly touted as one of most influential and important comic book artists of all time. But I would hazard a guess that in the early 1970’s your average comic book fan was either unaware of his work or considered his style as old fashioned and not as exciting as that of the likes of the great Jack Kirby or the then “new kid on the block”, Neal Adams. The first time I became aware of Toth’s work was in the pages of Action Comics issue 406 (1971) where they reprinted the Atom and Flash tale from “The Brave and the Bold” issue 53(1964). Although I enjoyed that story (by Bob Haney) and really liked Toth’s interpretation of the Atom (see page below) this would be the last Alex Toth art I would see (other than the occasional Golden Age reprint) for some time, and gradually I forgot about his work. Thankfully, I managed to pick up several comics from the mid 1970’ onwards that featured Toth’s art that would make me a life long fan of the artist known as one of the "grumpiest" in the industry. Below are just a few of my favourite Alex Toth pages to enjoy along with above illo of the "Black Hood" (from " Black Hood" issue 2 from 1983).
Action Comics (DC) issue 406 from 1971
Our Fighting Forces (DC) issue 146 - 1973. Toth excelled at War and Western comics creating some of the most visually stunning comics of the genre.
Black Hood issue 2 (Red Circle Comics) 1983:
The Witching Hour (DC) issues 1 - 1969: Toth provided the framing sequences for the early issues of "The Witching Hour" which contained some of his finest artwork. Toth also provided a 7 page story in issue 1 . As a side note, I managed to pick up issue one of "The Witching Hour" about 5 years ago for only £4 (smug!).
Green Lantern (DC) - issue 171 - 1983.
Superman Annual (DC) - issue 9 - 1983
Blackhawk (DC) issue 260 - 1983. - A 7 page back up tale.
Savage Sword of Conan (Marvel) Issue 64 -1981 - One of Alex Toth's stranger pieces of work was providing a series of Conan posters for this issue of SSOC.This llustraton was also used as a variant cover for Marvels 300th issue of "Conan the Barbarian" - Cover from the Grand Comic Database.
Hot Wheels (DC) Issue 1 (1970) - One of my all time favourite comic book finds is this six issue series of "Hot Wheels". Based on the the enormously successful Mattel's toy this series featured art by Alex Toth, Ric Estrada and Neal Adams (on issue 6).
Weird Western Tales (DC) issue 14 - 1972 - This 8 page western tale (Anachronism) was printed in landscape format.
Star Spangled War Sories (DC) issue 164 - 1972 -One of the genuinely all time great War stories.
Super Friends (DC) Limited Collectors EditiONS (C41) -1975. Toth provided the cover , a 6 page framing story and several pages of art on TV Cartoons for this Collectors edition.
Alex Toth spent a large part of his career working as an animation design artist for Hanna-Barbera on various cartoon series including Super-Friends, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Birdman and the Fantastic Four. The above design page of the Skrull is taken from the excellent book "Toth by Design" by Darrell McNeill.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
Toth was a true "artist's artist". He distilled the form to its essence and worked always to whittle it down more. In the Bronze Age he was already working in animation and his work was rare but always eagerly accepted.
ReplyDeleteI've become a bigger fan of Toth's work the older I have become. Some of his page layouts are a joy.
DeleteI liked some of Toth's work, but not all of it impressed me for some reason. If you look at that Conan piece, his left leg looks stunted and his right leg seems broken, so perhaps it was things like this that prevented me embracing his art wholeheartedly. Generally, he was good though.
ReplyDeleteSome of his Conan posters are a bit strange and are not (imo) his best work , but I do like the one shown here.
DeleteI think that the first time I encountered Toth’s work was in Hot Wheels #3 (a back issue that I picked up in 1972), and did not find it particularly memorable - probably too cartoony for my taste at that time, although Vince Colletta’s inking may have taken some of the detail out of it.
ReplyDeleteMy second encounter was of Toth’s work on Detective Comics #442, “Death Flies the Haunted Sky” in which the panel of the bi-plane shooting up the skyscraper apartment in the prologue is stunning, as is the entrance of Batman on the full splash page 2. Toth was inking his own work on that one, and credits the story as an homage to Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos and Neal Adams, incorporating elements of their work into the story. I have no idea who coloured it, but the colours are a major contributor to the impact of some of the panels.
I recently bought the artbook “Treasures Retold - The Lost Art of Alex Toth” on a whim, and have come to appreciate his work a lot more as a result.
Hi Ian, I didn't find the Hot Wheels comic until the mid\late 1980s but I really loved Toth 's (and others) art and it was a nice change of pace from wall to wall superhero comics. Duh! I have that issue of Detective 442 and I should have added that splash page , your right it's cracker (it may appear as a favourite comic at some point). I don't have that Toth book but I have a few others including 2 massive books showing his animation model sheets. Have you seen Chris Samnee's art? it's very much influenced by Toth and is stunning.
ReplyDeleteYes, Paul - I can certainly see Toth's influence in Samnee's work. I liked his stuff both on Daredevil and the IDW Rocketeer issues he did a while back. It's only the art of the likes of Samnee, or Jorge Fornes (or the late, lamented Darwyn Cooke) that draws me to read any new comics these days. I do gravitate to that cartoony style.
DeleteI'm not aware of Jorge Fornes art, so I will need to check his work. Although as a teenager my comic book art heroes were those with more realistic styles ( Neal Adams) I now prefer a more minimal art style ( although prime Adams always appeals to me).
ReplyDelete