Another one of the greats is gone.RIP Alex Toth.
I know I saw a lot of his art in various DC, Warren, and Petersen publications previously, not to mention all his animation character designs...but strangely enough, the first time I remember really noticing his work and how innovative and dynamic it was was the almost simultaneous releases of Detective Comics #442, "Death Flies the Haunted Sky", (August/September 1974) and House of Secrets #123 (September 1974) with a nondescript story titled "A Connecticut Ice Cream Man in King Arthur's Court", a sort of patch on Twain's A Connecticut Yankee... in which Toth drew the lead to look just like Phil Silvers. At the age of 14, yet another creator had made a deep impression on me. After that, I kept my eye out for everything else he did, which wasn't much- by the time I discovered him, he had pretty much decided to get out of the comics industry, except for the occasional special job. And, of course, the excellent Bravo For Adventure feature which ran briefly a couple of years later in a Warren magazine, The Rook I believe.
Anyway, I'd like to post more art of his in the next week...wish I still had that old issue of House of Secrets and my Rooks...
Update 5/28: I've added, at left an example of a fairly recent page; I have no idea where it first appeared, but it showcases two things I loved about the man's later work: first, his unparalleled command of lights and darks, and his incredible lettering style with its lively and energetic balloon placement. As I said before, I'm hoping I can post more as I find it.
Here's another panel, which I had posted a couple of years ago, from an Adventure Comics Black Canary story. Love the way this is laid out...
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