Sunday, February 03, 2019

Totally Toth

The first of three Alex Toth stories from Jimmy Wakely #12. I am not sure about the cover, but inside there are many more Tothism than in the previous stories.

6 comments:

Tom said...

Comics.org says the cover's by Gil Kane - and I agree. But I also agree that this is the issue where the stories start to look like the real Alex Toth ...

comicstripfan said...

A sidebar to Jimmy Wakely and Toth of which I’m sure you are aware Ger: it is reported that during the period Toth drew the stories he had a terrible relationship with Julie Schwartz, the editor at DC that oversaw Wakely; and with Carmen Infantino at DC for whom Toth lacked respect; after Toth had passed away, in a later interview (from “Carmen Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur”) Infantino said that Toth “hated drawing Jimmy Wakely and he wanted to draw only what he wanted to draw. Well you coudn’t take that attitude with Julie.” In a 1968 Graphic Story Magazine interview reprinted in “Setting the Standard-Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954” Toth said “…finally, in 1952, I’d had it. In need of a change of pace and environment, I quit DC and went over to Standard Comics…drawing romance, horror, war and science fiction…until…’54.” With all this negativity, it’s amazing how the quality of the art held up.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Apparently he was allowed to show a little bit of his own style. And don't forget that he influenced many of his (hated or not) compatriots at DC with his unique renderings.

Manqueman said...

Also per the GCD (https://www.comics.org/issue/8995/), there's only two Toth stories in issue 12.
As for National's love/hate thing with Toth, however they felt about Toth and his art, the Toth/Barry team became the house style for ~10-15 years. And IMO, his art very, very early on that first stint was just about the best the company was publishing.

comicstripfan said...

Yes, regarding Dan’s brother Seymour “Sy” Barry - it would be interesting to know his personal relationship with Toth: as Murphy Anderson said in “The Life and Art of Murphy Anderson” (2003) “Alex [Toth] did everything, penciling and inking. But they wanted him just to pencil. He was a very good, sure penciler. Nothing sketchy, everything was very definite and easy to understand. Seymour Barry used to ink a lot of Alex for DC. Everybody wanted to ink his work because it was so clear.”

The Seditionist said...

Slick as the Toth/Barry work was -- light years beyond just about everyone else at National at the time -- I think my favorite inkers on Toth were Mike Peppe on the gorgeous romance stuff at Standard and Toth himself at least till towards the end of his career.