Alex Toth · Comics · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here, Read: “Dirty Job,” with art by Alex Toth

From Our Army at War #241 (February 1972), here’s a four-page classic with story by Bob Haney and art by Alex Toth:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

I love how Toth uses the silhouetted panel that extends across the top of page three to provide variety within the six-panel grid while at the same time he cheekily reestablishes/reinforces the grid by breaking the panel into two halves, each framed by the structure of the building, with a support beam where the panel border/gutter would have been. And those word balloons — the tails all go the way from the visual foreground, where the text balloons reside, between and behind the silhouettes of Roman soldiers caught in the act of brutalizing the native population, and into a doorway in the background! It’s an audacious choice, but Toth makes it work!

Alex Toth · Comics · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here, Read: “Alice in Terrorland,” with pencils by Alex Toth

From Lost Worlds #5 (October 1952), here’s “Alice in Terrorland,” with pencils by Alex Toth and inks by Mike Peppe:

In a previous roundup of links to stories with art by Alex Toth, I sent readers to Karswell’s “The Horrors of It All” blog, where you’ll find a copy of “Alice in Terrorland” as it was reprinted/recoloured in Seduction of the Innocent #1 (Eclipse, November 1985). For those who would care to compare the two versions, here’s that link again.

Alex Toth · Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth” expanded to three volumes!

Today, on the Library of American Comics blog, Dean Mullaney announced that Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth by Mullaney and Bruce Canwell has been expanded to “a three-book set that will be the definitive statement on the restless genius and timeless legacy of Alex Toth.” The lavishly illustrated set will include 1) Genius, Isolated, which will detail Toth’s “life story and work through the early 1960s, when he began his sensational move into animated cartoons”; 2) Genius, Illustrated, which “picks up the story as Toth becomes one of the leading character designers in television animation–continues through his renewed career in comics with Warren, DC, and his creator-owned properties of the 1970s and beyond–and includes an examination of the artist’s poignant final years”; and 3) Genius, Animated, an art book which will reproduce “hundreds of Toth’s model sheets and storyboards,” along with “many full-color presentation pieces designed to sell new series to the networks.” The first book is slated to appear in March 2011, with the others to follow as they are completed, I suppose. And the last bit of good news: “A slipcase for the three-book set will be available with the third book.”

To read Mullaney’s announcement in full, click here.

Alex Toth · Illustration Art · Look Here · Original art vs. printed page

Look Here: Black Canary, original art vs. printed page, by Alex Toth

I know you want it, but I don’t own the following page, so don’t bother asking me if it’s for sale; I also don’t know who does own it, so don’t bother asking me about that, either:

alex-toth_black-canary_originalalex-toth_black-canary_printed

Man, that page looks so much better in black and white than it does in colour! Toth drawing Black Canary was a match made in heaven.