In Praise of Alex Toth
Tom Owens
Alex Toth -- though revered and respected -- is the most underrated
genius in comic book art.
First, there is his influence in the fifties. Look at Infantino art
1950-1955 and you almost see Toth guiding the pencil. Some great
artists have pernicious influence, but not Toth. I think this is
because Toth doesn't have _A_ style. He has a way of mastering style.
In one story, he'll use word balloons to hold the page together; in
another, sound effects; in a third, great areas of black. You
couldn't take from him without learning from him and being led to your
own style, as Infantino triumphed in the late fifties and sixties.
He's a hard man to collect. First, although no prima donna, he loses
interest in a title quickly if he feels it is wrong-headed. I think
he has an upcoming story in _Batman Black and White_. There's also
_Zorro_ reprints, _Bravo for Adventure_, the first two issues of
_Torpedo_, and the Kitchen Sink book _Alex Toth_ edited by Manuel
Auad. If nothing else, Toth's admonishments about the virtue of
laziness will be eye-opening and will give you real insight into the
accomplishment of artists like Mignola.
Quoting Toth from that book on recent comic art: "All of it so well
drawn, and/or colored, and/or painted illustratively to a
faretheewell, is loathesome. In its intent and conception, hateful
garbage! Dehumanized, dehumanizing gore, offal."
Showing that Toth could also teach even these environs about flaming.
------------
Tom Owens
MIT Library Systems Office
ow...@mit.edu
617-253-1618 voice 617-253-8894 fax
Chris Harper
>Quoting Toth from that book on recent comic art: "All of it so well
>drawn, and/or colored, and/or painted illustratively to a
>faretheewell, is loathesome. In its intent and conception, hateful
>garbage! Dehumanized, dehumanizing gore, offal."
Toth knows what he's talking about! A real class act.
CHRIS.
"If you tell a good story, an entertaining story,
whether it be on film or paper or any other medium,
if it's entertaining, the artist who created that
story has done his job."
- JACK KIRBY, July 28th 1993.
JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY, 25 NAPIER DRIVE, THE
PARKLANDS, TIPTON, WEST MIDLANDS, DY4 7NW, ENGLAND.
Tel. (0121) 520 5366. (JKQ #6 out NOW!)
THE JACK KIRBY HOME PAGE:
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ampcon/
(Last updated: April 9th '96.)
The comics journal
> As more and more time passes, I become more and more convinced that
> Alex Toth -- though revered and respected -- is the most underrated
> genius in comic book art.
Toth is a wonderful artist ‹ but considering his output, I think that his
reputation has held up pretty well. Wouldn't it be fun to turn this thread
into a discussion of comics artists who, despite having a major impact on
today's artists, haven't gotten their exact due -- Craig, Crane,
Krigstein, etc....?
>
> First, there is his influence in the fifties. Look at Infantino art
> 1950-1955 and you almost see Toth guiding the pencil. Some great
> artists have pernicious influence, but not Toth. I think this is
> because Toth doesn't have _A_ style. He has a way of mastering style.
> In one story, he'll use word balloons to hold the page together; in
> another, sound effects; in a third, great areas of black. You
> couldn't take from him without learning from him and being led to your
> own style, as Infantino triumphed in the late fifties and sixties.
In his upcoming _Journal_ interview (on sale in about two weeks), Gil Kane
points out, I think rightfully, that almost _all_ of the artists of the
late ą40s and early ą50s were influenced by Toth (in roughly the same way
that most artists in the ą60s were influenced by Kirby's work of that
period). There's also a bit of Toth in some of today's alternative comics
artists, like Pope and Stevens, and R.C. Harvey has recently written about
Toth's influence on the whole new wave of heavy-noir black and white
comics.
>
> He's a hard man to collect. First, although no prima donna, he loses
> interest in a title quickly if he feels it is wrong-headed. I think
> he has an upcoming story in _Batman Black and White_. There's also
> _Zorro_ reprints, _Bravo for Adventure_, the first two issues of
> _Torpedo_, and the Kitchen Sink book _Alex Toth_ edited by Manuel
> Auad. If nothing else, Toth's admonishments about the virtue of
> laziness will be eye-opening and will give you real insight into the
> accomplishment of artists like Mignola.
Seminal Toth would also include those airplane stories he did for EC (UmŠ
Frontline Combat?), which are seemingly always available. The nice thing
about the _Toth_ book from Kitchen Sink is that it includes some of his
beautiful non-comics cartoon illustration. I'd buy a book of the best
animation storyboard and character sketches from Toth, Kirby, Kane, Wildey
and others, wouldn't you?
>
>
> Quoting Toth from that book on recent comic art: "All of it so well
> drawn, and/or colored, and/or painted illustratively to a
> faretheewell, is loathesome. In its intent and conception, hateful
> garbage! Dehumanized, dehumanizing gore, offal."
> Showing that Toth could also teach even these environs about flaming.
Yeah, he's pretty amazing when he gets going, isn't he?
Tom Spurgeon
The Comics Journal
Chris Juricich
> As more and more time passes, I become more and more convinced that
> Alex Toth -- though revered and respected -- is the most underrated
> genius in comic book art.
Brother, welcome to the club!
Toth is a superb designer, excellent storyteller, and was probably,
according to Gil Kane, one of the two most influential artists from the
50s there could be. The other, to my memory, was either Wally Wood or Jack
Kirby, but both of them embraced the bravura style which these days can be
so regularly found in the pages of Image comics. Flash, little substance.
> Quoting Toth from that book on recent comic art: "All of it so well
> drawn, and/or colored, and/or painted illustratively to a
> faretheewell, is loathesome. In its intent and conception, hateful
> garbage! Dehumanized, dehumanizing gore, offal."
Toth is a personal comic 'god' of mine, having been a favorite since the
mid 70s when I came across a self-published title of his (?) which had his
home address in it. He's marvelous. I still have many of his House of
Secrets titles and others. One of his favorite artists was Mort Meskin,
whose art is near cartoony but TELLS THE STORY.
When I lived in Tokyo, I had a brief letter-correspondence with him, and
he would draw little illos in it as he would write to me. We discussed
comics, life, drawing...great! He must've been shocked to get a letter
from a fan in Japan, where he's been stationed for two years in the 50s.
When I returned to the States, I tried to rekindle our acquaintance; even
dropped by at his home un-announced in the hopes of just saying 'Hi', but
no contact. Alas!
Great artist, strong convictions, and hopefully worth his salt someday to
all the Image-lovers around!
Thanks for the post!
--
Chris Juricich
Berkeley, CA
Corey
In article <4lrnsl$n...@newsgate.dircon.co.uk>, amp...@dircon.co.uk (Chris
Harper) wrote:
> fgra...@halcyon.com (The comics journal) wrote:
>
> >Seminal Toth would also include those airplane stories he did for EC (UmŠ
> >Frontline Combat?), which are seemingly always available. The nice thing
> >about the _Toth_ book from Kitchen Sink is that it includes some of his
> >beautiful non-comics cartoon illustration. I'd buy a book of the best
> >animation storyboard and character sketches from Toth, Kirby, Kane, Wildey
> >and others, wouldn't you?
>
> YES!! I know someone with about 800 pages of Toth animation designs.
> Almost *too* much. I just got some of Kirby's animation stuff,
> including some of his designs for the 1983 "Super Friends" show, and
> they're gorgeous.
>
> Problem is, dedicated publications of obscure work on such artists
> hasn't got tremendous commercial potential, so we can but dream.
>
>
> CHRIS.
>
Toth is an all-time favorite of mine and I have to agree many of the
comic book fans probably doesn't know who is Alex Toth. I think it's
a commentary of how times have changed. When I started collecting comics
in the early '70's the hot new artists were Neal Adams, Berni Wrightson,
Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith, Jim Steranko, always Kirby, etc.,
but my comic collecting took me back to the days of Murphy Anderson,
Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Dave & Sy Barry, Jerry Robinson,
Dick Sprang, Wayne Boring, Toth, always Kirby,etc. However, presently
I don't see many new comic book fans seeking out the older works by older
artists. Sadly many don't know Neal Adams (except Continuity always neve
ship on time) or many hot artists of the 70's. I think presently in
American society, history is looked upon as a burden and the only thing
important is the immediate.
corey
Chris Harper
fgra...@halcyon.com (The comics journal) wrote:
>Seminal Toth would also include those airplane stories he did for EC (UmŠ
>Frontline Combat?), which are seemingly always available. The nice thing
>about the _Toth_ book from Kitchen Sink is that it includes some of his
>beautiful non-comics cartoon illustration. I'd buy a book of the best
>animation storyboard and character sketches from Toth, Kirby, Kane, Wildey
>and others, wouldn't you?
YES!! I know someone with about 800 pages of Toth animation designs.
Almost *too* much. I just got some of Kirby's animation stuff,
including some of his designs for the 1983 "Super Friends" show, and
they're gorgeous.
Problem is, dedicated publications of obscure work on such artists
hasn't got tremendous commercial potential, so we can but dream.
CHRIS.
"If you tell a good story, an entertaining story,
TOM PLUNKETT
cor...@best.com (Corey) wrote:
>Toth is an all-time favorite of mine and I have to agree many of the
>comic book fans probably doesn't know who is Alex Toth. I think it's
>a commentary of how times have changed. When I started collecting comics
>in the early '70's the hot new artists were Neal Adams, Berni Wrightson,
>Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith, Jim Steranko, always Kirby, etc.,
>but my comic collecting took me back to the days of Murphy Anderson,
>Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Dave & Sy Barry, Jerry Robinson,
>Dick Sprang, Wayne Boring, Toth, always Kirby,etc. However, presently
>I don't see many new comic book fans seeking out the older works by older
>artists. Sadly many don't know Neal Adams (except Continuity always neve
>ship on time) or many hot artists of the 70's. I think presently in
>American society, history is looked upon as a burden and the only thing
>important is the immediate.
>corey
No kidding. If you look through RAC, you get the feeling that many
people feel Liefeld and Lee are great artists, others think writer
Mark Waid is the second coming, etc.. But, if you ignore their current
competition and look at the past, none of these guys can compete with any
of the all-time greats such as Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Toth,
Steranko, etc.
Tom
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
TOM PLUNKETT (wond...@erols.com) wrote:
: If you look through RAC, you get the feeling that many
: people feel Liefeld and Lee are great artists, others think writer
: Mark Waid is the second coming, etc.. But, if you ignore their current
: competition and look at the past, none of these guys can compete with any
: of the all-time greats such as Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Toth,
: Steranko, etc.
And what's more, Tom, most of them would absolutely agree with you.
- Elayne
--
E-Mail me, the "Firehead Head," for more info about the official ()~~
Firesign Theatre newsletter, Four-Alarm FIRESIGNal, available via ##
snail mail or free online! "I couldn't get you to believe my name ##
was Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, could I?" _##_
Steve Lieber
I don't know if this address is still correct or not, but Greg
Theakston's company, "Pure Imagination," published some excellent
reprint collections which included a lot of 1950's Toth stories.
Pure Imagination Publishing
88 Lexington Ave. 9-c
NY, NY 10016
Bryan Munn
The comics journal (fgra...@halcyon.com) wrote:
: > He's a hard man to collect. First, although no prima donna, he loses
: > interest in a title quickly if he feels it is wrong-headed. I think
: > he has an upcoming story in _Batman Black and White_. There's also
: > _Zorro_ reprints, _Bravo for Adventure_, the first two issues of
: > _Torpedo_, and the Kitchen Sink book _Alex Toth_ edited by Manuel
: > Auad. If nothing else, Toth's admonishments about the virtue of
: > laziness will be eye-opening and will give you real insight into the
: > accomplishment of artists like Mignola.
It would be nice if someone could suggest some cheap and widely available
Toth work outside of these books, which are always mentioned. It is
easy, if time-consuming, for new fans to go through the Overstreet Price
Guide, looking for little "Toth art" pointers beside old comic books but
a guide to the gems of, say, Toth's 70s output for DC or Warren would be
greatly appreciated and save on eye strain.
Thanks,
Bryan
bm...@uoguelph.ca
SRoweCanoe
In article <4m3kld$a...@ccshst05.uoguelph.ca>, bm...@uoguelph.ca (Bryan
Munn) writes:
>It would be nice if someone could suggest some cheap and widely available
>Toth work outside of these books, which are always mentioned. It is
>easy, if time-consuming, for new fans to go through the Overstreet Price
>Guide, looking for little "Toth art" pointers beside old comic books but
>a guide to the gems of, say, Toth's 70s output for DC or Warren would be
>greatly appreciated and save on eye strain.
Toth Some of his 1970s work from Warren and DC as per your request:
note: doesn't include reprints, and starts with 1971,
ends 1980
Adventure Comics 418 -419,425 (1972-1973)
Detective Comics 442 (1974)
House of Mystery 190,194 (1971)
Limited Collectors Edition (Superfriends storyboards)
Our Army At War #235,241,254 (1971-1973)
Our Fighting Forces 134 146 (1971,1973)
Creepy #75-80 ( 75-76 also 1980s)
Eerie #64-65 (75)
Off the subject line, He did Green Lantern #171 (1983) which is easy to
find.
Also Rook and Vampirella magazines in the 1980s
This help?
Steven Rowe
Mark Bernstein
Eminent Usenetter Bryan Munn (bm...@uoguelph.ca) wrote:
: It would be nice if someone could suggest some cheap and widely available
: Toth work outside of these books, which are always mentioned.
This isn't exactly what you asked, but according to the New Comics Releases
List, Kitchen Sink is shipping a TPB of Toth's work this week, with a
retail price of $12.95. How cheap that is will depend on the price-to-
page-count ratio, but it should certainly be widely available.
--
Mark Bernstein
m...@arbortext.com
Robert Faires
> It would be nice if someone could suggest some cheap and widely available
> Toth work outside of these books, which are always mentioned. It is
> easy, if time-consuming, for new fans to go through the Overstreet Price
> Guide, looking for little "Toth art" pointers beside old comic books but
> a guide to the gems of, say, Toth's 70s output for DC or Warren would be
> greatly appreciated and save on eye strain.
Steven Rowe has responded with some fine examples of Toth work from the
70s, but one story he missed and which definitely qualifies as a "gem" is
the tale "The Case of the Curious Classic" from of all things DC's
short-lived HOT WHEELS comic. For those who weren't around or may not
remember, that famous line of tiny metal cars from Mattel inspired a
Saturday morning TV series in the late 60s/early 70s. It centered on the
adventures of a group of teens who were all into cars in general and
stock-car racing in particular. I remember the series as being vaguely
appealing and when DC came out with a comic I went ahead and shelled out
the cash for it. The first few issues were along the lines of the cartoon,
pretty simplistic adventures of high school rivalry that ranged from
pranks and such to the occasional foiled crime, with cartoony art by Rik
Estrada (I think) that reflected the look of the TV show. It was okay, but
it didn't really rev my engine, so to speak.
I recall being on the verge of giving it up when along came issue 5. Wow!
Nothing had prepared me for this. It was a story both written and drawn by
Alex Toth, and it took these teens out of their stilted, simplistic high
school environment and dropped them in a much more complex adult world of
mystery, gangsters, old men, lost dreams, and Thirties cars. There was a
genuine air of suspense and danger and drama in the story, and for once
the characters truly had, well, character. I imagine I recognized Toth's
work from the Eclipso series and occasional guest stints elsewhere at DC,
but this was my first time to be absorbed in his work, and it hooked me. I
was only 12 or 13 and hadn't a terribly sophisticated understanding of
visual storytelling at that point, but from Toth's work in that story I
could grasp the way his art was propelling the narrative. It wasn't just
enhancing the atmosphere, like a lot of my favorites at the time - Neal
Adams, to name one - did, it was telling the story, as much as the text
was. I was an immediate convert to Toth's work. And it was crackin' good
mystery tale, to boot.
When you consider that Adams was the artistic paragon in my book at the
time - I gobbled up his heightened naturalism like candy - it's even more
of a tribute to Toth that I responded to his work. I mean, Toth's style is
virtually at the opposite end of the spectrum from Adams. One enhances his
work with line upon line, building onto the image with more and more; the
other uses as few lines as he can, paring away to convey the image with
less and less. By all rights, my fanboy sensibility ought not to have been
captivated by both. But it was, and to this day I cherish any work by
Toth.
Don't know how affordable that issue of HOT WHEELS is today, but it's
worth having for fans of the artist and fans of good adventure stories,
too. (BTW, the sixth and final issue of the comic contained a tale written
and drawn by Neal Adams. It seemed a curious choice to me then and still
does that these hot artists ended up contributing to this obscure title.
Perhaps it was one of the few places they could write their own stories.
Who knows? I'm just grateful I was there to pick 'em up.)
Robert Faires
Austin, Texas
Neil McAllister
In article <4m3kld$a...@ccshst05.uoguelph.ca>,
Bryan Munn <bm...@uoguelph.ca> wrote:
>It would be nice if someone could suggest some cheap and widely available
>Toth work outside of these books, which are always mentioned. It is
>easy, if time-consuming, for new fans to go through the Overstreet Price
>Guide, looking for little "Toth art" pointers beside old comic books but
>a guide to the gems of, say, Toth's 70s output for DC or Warren would be
>greatly appreciated and save on eye strain.
>
>Thanks,
>Bryan
>bm...@uoguelph.ca
Add these to your Toth bibliography:
There are two Toth stories (both pretty eye-catching, they're what hooked
me on Toth) in the CREEPY TPB that Harris published fairly recently.
I also have at least one issue of CREEPY (the original Warren magazine)
that has a Toth ink-wash story in it... it's called "Proof Positive" in
issue #80, but by this time it's fairly obvious that Toth doesn't want
much to do with what's going on in the comics industry.
--
Neil McAllister (pc...@netcom.com) | San Francisco, California, USA
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
-- Ben Kenobi
Mark Boyd
Check out the first ten issues of The Witching Hour by DC. Should be
really cheap and some excellent layout in them from Toth.
Also, the war comics and horror comics mentioned in the previous posts are
really good sources, but don't forget that he did some wonderful romance
books in the 50's and 60's that are still very reasonable.
Mark Boyd
--
Mark Boyd
illustration, design of web art and comic art
mb...@cyberramp.net
Steve Lieber
Robert Faires hit the nail on the head when he suggested "The Case of
the Curious Classic" from Toth's run on "Hot Wheels." The story is an
excellent introduction to Toth's storytelling;his "camera" work, his
timing, his naturalism and his remarkable touch with mood.
I found it interesting to compare his work in that story, which
appeared in issue #5 with another one he drew for the first issue of
the series. His approaches to the two stories are quite different.
In Issue one's "Wipe Out at LeMans" most of the story is set at the
racetrack and Toth reaches deep into his bag of layout techniques to
give his readers the feel of the place. He whips the camera around,
uses tight close ups, dust clouds, shots of whirring wheels, big sound
effects, blur lines, small insets to slow time down and montages to
condense hours, weeks and years into individual panels. His terrain is
mostly big flat open drag strips and he uses page wide panels for many
of the scenes, and I, as a reader, never lost my sense of how much
flat land and open air there was around the action, even while
squirming at the repeated claustrophobic motif of drivers endangered
by other cars encroaching them on the track. It also probably bears
noting just how hard it is to do an interesting, coherent car chase
scene in comics at all. (I illustrated a long one in a recent Lady
Justice, and it was a real challenge.) Since cars don't have much in
the way of "gesture," the artist really needs to exercise his or her
design sense to communicate the feeling of movement weight and speed.
In other words- it's not so much how the cars are drawn, but where you
put them in on the paper and in the picture space that gives the
reader the story and gives the feeling of action. This issue provides
plenty of fine examples of that aspect of Toth's skill.
The fifth issue, the one mentioned in Robert's post, is a very
different sort of story, and emphasizes a different set of Toth's
talents. Where issue one used a wide variety of panel shapes and
sizes, here Toth uses exactly one. Every page is broken down into 8
identical panels. (Four tiers of two, the "Stray Bullets" grid.) He
also refrains from using sound effects, distorted foreshortening and
broad caricature. The emphasis here is on mood and character not on
movement. (Although there are, again, some very nice driving
sequences, this time at night and on mountain roads.) He doesn't
compress time pictorially here, leaving that instead to the captions,
but he does elongate some moments by leaving the camera in place and
building suspense as an action occurs slowly. He consciously decided
not to use many of the techniques of the earlier story in this one.
Why? As Robert noted, this isn't a racing story, it's a mystery
centered on a car. Different genres, different requirements. There
aren't a lot of artists that can (excuse the pun here) shift gears the
way Toth did between these two stories. If you can find the issues in
the back issue bins, check them out. Just want something to read?
These are nice enjoyable stories, clearly and excitingly told. But if
you're looking for lessons in the art and craft of comics, there's an
awful lot of material worth studying in there.
Lieber
Also- some prime Toth material can be found cheaply in DC's recent Sgt
Rock Classics reprint comics.
Robert Faires
Dear Steve,
Thanks so much for your follow-up to my message about that old favorite
Alex Toth tale, "The Case of the Curious Classic." In writing it, I began
to feel wholly inadequate to the task of praising Toth's talents. I have a
degree in illustration and design, I'm a writer by trade, and I've been
reading - make that devouring - comics for 30+ years, but I still felt I
wasn't going to do critical justice to this astonishing artist's work as a
storyteller. You really came to my rescue, filling in the technical
perspective that I'm aware of but can't always articulate to the degree
that I'd like.
And thanks for bringing up the story in issue 1, about which I'd
completely forgotten! (I suppose my fondness for "The Case of..." cast
such a long shadow that it obliterated my memory of the previous story.)
It's funny, as I read your description, the images began coming back to
me, and I could see panels, even pages, developing in my head like film in
a solution. I'm going to have to root around in my books to see if I still
have that issue and read it again.
Anyway, I appreciate your support and your eloquence in paying tribute
to this remarkable creator. I've noticed your presence on the newsgroups
(not to mention in the comics field itself) for some time, and this note
simply re-affirms what I've thought: You're a class act, sir.
It's a pleasure corresponding with you. Best wishes!
Yours truly,
Robert Faires
Austin, Texas
Bryan Munn
Steve Lieber (72674...@compuserve.com) wrote:
: I found it interesting to compare his work in that story, which
: the series. His approaches to the two stories are quite different.
Wow. You might of found it interesting to compare the two stories, but I
found it interesting reading your comparison. It's rare that I see this
kind of detailed review of any comic and it reminded me that there are
very few cartoonists who's work merits this kind of attention and
appreciation. Thanks.
Bryan
bm...@uoguelph.ca