Born in New York City in 1928, Alex Toth attended what is now the School of Visual Arts and broke into the comic book field as a teenager. His work is still hugely admired to this day, and well-deserving of a three-book series of guides by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell that chart his amazing 60-year professional career.
He became known as the artists’ artist – and very much like his great hero, Noel Sickles, the guy all the others wanted to draw like. In the 1960s he entered the animation field and became equally well-known and respected for his groundbreaking designs for Space Ghost and The Herculoids, among other series.
Three award-winning, fully illustrated books, all available in paperback: Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, and Genius, Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth, have fast proven indispensable guides to his work.
Over three volumes from The Library of American Comics, these glorious books document the life and art of one of the most significant comics and animation artists of all time, winning, respectively, the Harvey Award for Best Biographical Book, the Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book and Best Publication Design, and the Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book.
“What Mullaney and Canwell have done here is nothing short of wonderful,” artist Howard Chaykin enthused in a review for The Los Angeles Review of Books. “They’ve presented a well chosen selection of the first full decade of Toth’s career, arguably his most creative period, in a beautifully designed volume that conveys the artist’s evolution – an astonishingly brief transition that happened in barely five years – from talented beginner to absolute master.”
In comic books, Alex Toth was the foremost proponent of modern design and composition. Starting in 1950, his work influenced almost every one of his contemporaries and has continued to work its magic on the generations that followed. In animation, his 1960s model sheets for Hanna-Barbera are still passed around as swipe sources from animator to young animator in the 21st Century.
Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth was compiled with complete access to the family archives and with the full cooperation of Toth’s children, this biography features many rare comics pages, photographs, and drawings. It also reproduces 20 complete stories, including a previously unknown and unfinished story from 1950, most printed from the original artwork.
Updates in the paperback edition include clarification on Toth’s early married life in the 1950s and the first appearance of the recently-disovered final page that completes the special section collecting “Jon Fury“, the comic strip Toth created in the army, a prize long sought by even the most ardent Toth collectors.
Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, the second book of the series continues the comprehensive review of the life and art of one of the most significant comics and animations artists of all time.
Covering the years from the 1960s to Toth’s poignant death in 2006, this lavishly illustrated biography features artwork and complete stories from Toth’s latter-day work at Warren, DC Comics, Red Circle, Marvel, and his own creator-owned properties. It also includes samples of his animation work for Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and others, as well as sketchbook pages, doodles, advertising art, and other rarities provided through the cooperation of Toth’s family and his legion of fans.
Two of Toth’s best stories are reproduced complete from the original artwork: “Burma Skies” and “White Devil…Yellow Devil“. A full-length text biography charts the path from Toth’s increasingly-reclusive lifestyle to his touching re-connection to the world in his final years.
Finally, Genius, Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth, released in paperback late last year, concludes the series with an in-depth look into the life and art of one of the most significant comics and animation artists of all time.
This companion volume to the award-winning Genius, Isolated and Genius, Illustrated zooms in to focus on Toth’s groundbreaking contributions in the field of animation and features many rarely-seen or never-before-published pieces of art, much of it uncovered in the archives of Hanna-Barbera Studios.
Featuring presentation illustrations for unsold series, character designs and storyboards for old favorites such as Space Ghost, SHAZZAN, and Superfriends, and work taken from both the beginning (Space Angel) and end (Bionic 6) of Toth’s “Saturday kidvid” career, this oversized artbook features observations from animation professionals about his work, plus Alex’s own commentary on the cartoon shows that shaped a generation. Genius, Animated is filled, cover-to-cover, with must-see material, making it essential reading for Toth-fans and animation enthusiasts alike.
If you like these books, the paperbacks reasonably priced given their content and extent, but some “saving up” may still be required, but still want more Toth, then check out two more Library of American Comics titles. Treasures Retold: The Lost Art of Alex Toth is a hardcover collection of rare and little seen stories and artwork, and Bravo for Adventure Artist’s Edition collects the only strip Toth ever kept the original art for.
Dean Mullaney, who lives in Florida with his wife Lorraine Turner, created The Library of American Comics in 2007. He has been an influential force in the comics field since 1978, when he published Sabre, the first graphic novel for the comics specialty market. His pioneering efforts, as founder and publisher of Eclipse Comics, brought many milestones to the field, including creator copyright ownership, the first line of Japanese manga in English translation (in 1988), and the first digitally-coloured comic book. He was inducted in the Overstreet Hall of Fame in 2011.
An Eisner Award winner for his biographical text in Alex Toth: Genius, Illustrated, Bruce Canwell has written about fiction on the page and on the screen for most of his life. He reviewed comics for Amazing Heroes and Comic Book Week, films for the Portsmouth (NH) Herald, and books for Algis Budrys’s on-line magazine, TomorrowSF. He has also published several stories at DC Comics, including the graphic novel Batman: The Gauntlet, teaming with his old friend Lee Weeks. When he is not chained to the keyboard, he is often found during the summer at Fenway Park. When Bruce is not at the ballpark he lives in New Hampshire with his wife Krista.
• Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth | ISBN: 978-1684059478 | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Buy it via Bookshop.org.uk (Affiliate Link)
• Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth | ISBN: 978-1684059577 | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from Bookshop.org.uk (Affiliate Link)
• Genius, Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth | ISBN: 979-8887240510 | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from Bookshop.org.uk (Affiliate Link)
Web Links
A feature-length documentary on Alex Toth that was a bonus feature on the American Space Ghost DVD set
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Animation, Art and Illustration, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, US Comics
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