The Alex Toth Thread!

[RodGuen]

marco> ' funny how we meet old long gone friends at funerals, did you ever notice?...
La bise, mon poto.

r.

[Sirspamdalot]

A shame; I know he had so much more to do and say.

(My blog entry.)

[jpaulos]

He was a true original. I doubt there'll be another like him.

[HellboyOne]

One of my heroes....

[Nofret]

Sad news
It's funny...though I didn't know a lot of his work, he seemed to appear everywhere everytime. A little bit here, a little bit there. Without knowing it, I was surrounded by his art in small doses.
It's feeling a little bit emptier now.
Sincere sympathies to his friends and family.

[extremophile]

[CameronStewart]

Very very sad, though with his recent hospitalization I figured it was only a matter of time.

RIP

[ven]

It's a great loss.

[steve-O]

It is. I was only familiar with his name until I heard this news. I checked out his art and... wow. Blown away. It's a shame that all the old masters of comics art are passing on, but it's nice to see other artists taking up the mantle, so to speak, of the classic style. (I'm looking at you, Francesco!)

[dr.hong]

I just bought these a couple of weeks ago and posted them on my blog.

A master in the field of comics and a great source of inspiration. rest in peace.

[Eberhard Faber Ronnie]

Although the news had to come at some time, it still shocked me. He was, and is still, a great influence in my work and personal drawing life. I wish I could have met him. I would not be where I am today if there were no Alex Toth drawings to study.

Back in pre-internet days we traded photocopied binders of his animation and comics work. Studied them and hoarded them like they were texts from lost kingdoms.

His rants, delivered in letters and handwritten in script perfection, were intructional as well as inspirational.

He is a towering example of what both animation and comics can be proud to have had in its ranks of greats. We will miss him.

Ronnie

[The Donster]

Alex Toth has got to be one of the very few animators and comic book artists I was aware of by name at an early age. I wouldn't say I could spot his style right away, but I did notice his name in the credits of Hanna-Barbera action cartoons (reruns, not original broadcasts). Even as a wee kid, I noticed that comic strips pretty well always had the same (credited) credits, but cartoons and comics had different directors, writers and artists. It was probably in a Gold Key or Hot Wheels or other DC comic where I noticed Toth's name as an artist and might have read about his working in animation...or maybe I really became even more aware of him as SuperFriends started up. What I can really recall being distinctively attracted to were the Toth drawn Eclipso story reprints in DC 100 page spectaculars.

Even though I didn't have the same tastes in comic art as a kid as I do now, Toth was probably always a favorite of mine without my really realizing it, but he wasn't as prolifically outputting comics wise then as Gil Kane, John Buscema, John Romita and others I was following as favorites. Over the years, I got more into Toth and bought back issues and reprints of comics with his art and the Eclipse Zorro trades. As the Alex Toth (by Kitchen Sink), By Design, Black and White and One For the Road books came out, I got to appreciate Toth more and more and have considered him as one of my all time favorite artists and main influences for many years now.

I had read of Toth's health problems recently and was surprised and saddened but not shocked to read he had passed away this past weekend. He may not have been as new art visible as we would have liked, but it was always a pleasure to see his letters and doodles in some comics and Alter Ego and other magazines and to read about him on the website (which I never got around to checking out often enough) over the past several/few years. Hopefully, more reprints and sketchbooks of Toth art will be forthcoming.

My condolences to Toth's family and friends and to my fellow fans. He was one of the true masters of animation and cartoon/comicing.

I know Toth is supposed to be pronounced like both, but I still verbally and mentally pronounce it like moth.

[marco m]

... I think he was influencing me before i knew that drawing was important to me. One of my earliest Drawing memories is lying in front of the TV and watching/drawing the Superfriends. This was my introduction to these characters and the world of superheroes. Toth's desings for that show were my introdcution to those icons.

I was lucky enough to correspond with him a few times, some letters were very short and unpleasant, but one was a huge 8 page letter discussing his art and influences from the time he was a kid to the present. It wreaks of sharpie marker and ciggarette and he complains about my printing, but it is one of my most prized possesions...
I'll always regret not keeping up with our correspondence.

[marco m]

... I think he was influencing me before i knew that drawing was important to me. One of my earliest Drawing memories is lying in front of the TV and watching/drawing the Superfriends. This was my introduction to these characters and the world of superheroes. Toth's desings for that show were my introdcution to those icons.

I was lucky enough to correspond with him a few times, some letters were very short and unpleasant, but one was a huge 8 page letter discussing his art and influences from the time he was a kid to the present. It wreaks of sharpie marker and ciggarette and he complains about my printing, but it is one of my most prized possesions...
I'll always regret not keeping up with our correspondence.

[Sirspamdalot]

I'd love to see scans of THAT letter!