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Post by cameronarthur on Jul 29, 2023 21:50:51 GMT
Who else loves Alex Toth. I think he’s my favorite cartoonist. There is a great fan site online with everything he has done. It is so cool to see his progression. Great sense of design. Great visual storytelling. Great cars and planes too. I also love a lot of Toth adjacent artists: Frank Thorne, Kubert, Jesse Marsh, Boyette, Morisi, etc. All cartoonists coming out of that Crane/Caniff/Sickels school of thinking. Cartoon realism
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moe
New Member
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Post by moe on Jul 29, 2023 23:28:12 GMT
What’s the website? Would like to check that out! I haven’t seen anything from him that I haven’t loved. It’s too bad Setting the Standard is out of print, great collection. Agreed with you on that generation of artists. I especially like Pete Morisi. Those Johnny Dynamite comics are fantastic! Have you read this Dylan Williams comic about his correspondence with Toth? So good. dominobooksnews.com/2011/09/15/my-favorite-dylan-williams-comic/ |
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Post by cameronarthur on Jul 30, 2023 0:18:06 GMT
What’s the website? Would like to check that out! I haven’t seen anything from him that I haven’t loved. It’s too bad Setting the Standard is out of print, great collection. Agreed with you on that generation of artists. I especially like Pete Morisi. Those Johnny Dynamite comics are fantastic! Have you read this Dylan Williams comic about his correspondence with Toth? So good. dominobooksnews.com/2011/09/15/my-favorite-dylan-williams-comic/Here it is pangolinbasement.blogspot.com/?m=1 if you are using on the phone scroll all the way down and you can click for the web version. I find it much easier to navigate. There are all the titles he worked on on the side. I have “Setting the Standard”. That Standard work is great. He really comes into his own in that period. He’s one of the best Romance artists in my opinion. Crushed Gardenia is in that one too which is one of his best. Also they have an interview with him from Graphic Stories Magazine at the beginning which is also very informative. The Johnny Dynamite stuff looks cool. Need to get my hands on that. Here’s a really great article on the Journal about him www.tcj.com/dont-move-the-still-life-of-pete-morisi/I have read that Dylan Williams comic. I think that was a pretty common experience with Toth. On that blog they have some of his correspondence. It’s very insightful to the way he thought about his own work. There are some where it’s photocopies of his pages with Toth’s notes on the side. Also check out his thoughts on Steve Rude’s Johnny Quest. Harsh!.. but true www.artofthecomicbook.com/blog/alex-toth-critiques-steve-rude.html |
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Post by mikesheawright on Jul 30, 2023 2:08:38 GMT
wow this archive link is wild, good find. i love all the Toth artwork i've seen but i'm not sure i've actually really read any of his stuff. will be digging around on this site, thanks.
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Post by dominocorp on Jul 30, 2023 3:02:28 GMT
the design/proudciton fo this book is far from ideal, but really interesting stuff in here www.budsartbooks.com/product/dear-john-the-alex-toth-doodle-book/the funniest toth story ive heard is: once, during SDCC, he was talking to the Hernandez Brothers. While he's doing this, someone passes by, recognizes Toth and says 'hey Alex!', very friendly. Toth turns around, talks one look at the guy and says 'you! FUCK YOU!' and then without missing a beat goes back to chatting with the Hernandez brothers. |
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Post by robindh on Jul 30, 2023 12:56:21 GMT
He was a strange guy, I like the story of James Romberger sending him a copy of 7 Miles/second and Toth subsequently burning it in his backyard because of his hatred of painted comics. Speaking of Romberger, I'm reminded of his great articles on Toth he wrote for The Hooded Utilitarian |
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Post by robindh on Jul 30, 2023 15:54:53 GMT
Looking for something else I stumbled upon some Clowes quotes on Toth, not sure I totally agree but certainly interesting for this discussion. Here's the first one:
"We imagine that Alex Toth did really amazing comics in the 50s that really worked, that were like Howard Hawks movies, but he didn't do that. He never made a comic you could read. It's terrible, and I say that thinking that he was one of the greatest geniuses of the 20th Century. But he wasn't interested in telling nuanced or interesting stories."
N: Comics fans, myself included, have a tendency to overly romanticize the past and imagine a world that didn't quite exist. I recall you once remarked how we'd like to think Alex Toth created all kinds of great noir in the 50s. but he didn't. He was a great artist, but he was no Chandler or Hammett.
DC: No, he never did a book you would recommend to a normal person. You would recommend it to someone who was studying the beauty of what ink can do on paper. But you would never tell someone who reads John Updike. "You've got to read Bravo for Adventure!" That would not go over well.
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