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The Life and Art of Alex Toth
by Bob Gay
Recently, there has been a resurgence in interest in Alex Toth. Considered one of the masters of comic art, Toth was born in 1928 and died in 2006 and holds an interesting place in the history of comics, as the vast majority of his output was not in the super-hero field. Rather, after an early stint at DC doing super-heroes, he moved on to doing just about anything else: from adventure to horror and everything in-between and worked for Dell, Warren and most any publisher you could name. He also spent a time in the 60s working in animation, where many of the Hanna Barbara characters were brought to life via Toth's art. Even today, Toth's art style is instantly recognizable as his mixture of thin lines, large areas of black and open white spaces not only form pleasing images on the pages, but they also tell each of his stories in a clear and concise manner.
In general, the largest amount of information by and about Toth can be found on the Tothfans.com website . This site had Toth's active participation for many years and you'll find material there that you won't find anywhere else. Jon Fury was a Sunday page style comic story done for the base newspaper while Toth was in the military and stationed in Japan. Alex Toth: The Adventures of Jon Fury in Japan Special Edition presents the complete series in color and also includes a never before printed interview with Toth done at some point just before his death. Produced by Paul Power Publications which, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be hooked up anywhere on the web, but the book be out in April of 2011. Fantagraphics had a Toth project that was announced, but has yet to see print (possibly June of 2011?). Setting The Standard: Alex Toth at Standard Comics 1952-54, editied by Greg Sadowski, the book is (was?) planned to be an overview of Toth's work at Standard Comics where he produced a tremendous amount of work that focused on design and storytelling rather than heroics. Lots of comics and biographical information. More info at Fantagraphics. Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, is the first in a 3 volume set (with slipcase) that will explore all of Toth's life and career. When completed, the three volumes will have comprise the most complete biography of Toth assembled to date, along with tons of photos and reprodcutions of original art. The first volume starts at Toth's early years and covers his life and work through the 1950s, including the complete Jon Fury strips, reproduced in black and white. The second volume, Genius, Illustrated starts where the first volume left off and covers Toth's work in animation in the 60s, his work later comic work done for a variety of publishers and the final years of his life. The third volume, Genius, Animated, will feature Toth model sheets and full color presentation pieces done during his long career in animation. This set has also seen its share of delays and more information can be found at the Library of American Comics page for the book. For the completist, is an upcoming volume from Hermes Press, Roy Rogers: The Collected Daily and Sunday Newspaper Strips. While this book will focus on various continuities from the 12 year run of the comic strip, it will feature the complete daily strips Alex Toth drew in the 60s: as best I can tell these would be Dec. 19, 1960 through Jan. 12, 1961. Another collection from awhile back is The Complete Classic Adventures of Zorro by Alex Toth (this is the complete title as it appears on the book, but it is referred to in many different ways). This book features all of the stories Toth did for Dell comics in the 60s and features the Disney version of the Zorro character. Published by Image, this edition is in Black and White. Other Toth work (selected stories and full collections) has come out from a variety of publishers (much of it from Pure Imagination), but availability of these titles is not always a sure thing. The friendly folks at Pulp Fiction can let you know whether any title can be ordered or not. |
| Adelie |
30-04-2011 05:23:13
That's a mold-bareker. Great thinking! |