Although there are some hints of Toth's later genius as a black and white stoy teller, what you see here mostly is how much of his version of the Caniff style ended up in the regular DC house style. The final one page poem is a masterpiece, again.
Showing posts with label Romance Trails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romance Trails. Show all posts
Monday, December 24, 2018
Trailblazer
Sunday Toth Day.
Although there are some hints of Toth's later genius as a black and white stoy teller, what you see here mostly is how much of his version of the Caniff style ended up in the regular DC house style. The final one page poem is a masterpiece, again.
Although there are some hints of Toth's later genius as a black and white stoy teller, what you see here mostly is how much of his version of the Caniff style ended up in the regular DC house style. The final one page poem is a masterpiece, again.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Sunday, December 09, 2018
Toth In The Whole
Sunday Toth Treasures
Some more Toth goodness, again from DC's Romance Trail, #3. As last week, there is also a single page illustrated poem, which is probably better than the whole bland nine page romance story together.
Some more Toth goodness, again from DC's Romance Trail, #3. As last week, there is also a single page illustrated poem, which is probably better than the whole bland nine page romance story together.
Sunday, December 02, 2018
Feel The Love
Sunday Toth Treasures.
Moving on from DC's Dale Evans Comics to another run of books that had a lot of never reprinted Alex Toth stories. Romance Trail was DC's answer to the booming romance genre (alongside their 'regular' romance series), a book combining romance and western. And they weren't even the only ones doing this genre. Prize had not one but two romance western titles. I had four of the six issues and before selling them on eBay I scanned all of Toth's stories. They are not as spectacular as the Sierra Smith stories, since he usually did not ink himself. The first story here is inked by Bernie Sachs and I remember reading somewhere that Toth hated it so much that he used one of the inked originals to wipe his brush clean. Storytelling-wise it is interesting, as you see Toth here trying to invent a new style, using more close-ups and more symbolism, to replace the action of his other stories. He would further develop this later on, when he did romance work for other publishers, such as Standard and Fawcett. In fact, the symbolic tricks he devised, were picked up there by other artists (such as Mike Sekowsky, Ross Andru and VInce Colletta), who would use it so much it seems a little bit old hat here.
Don't miss the bonus at the end. In some of these books, Toth also did a one page illustrated poem or song. The one in this set from Romance Trails #2 is inked by John Giunta.
Moving on from DC's Dale Evans Comics to another run of books that had a lot of never reprinted Alex Toth stories. Romance Trail was DC's answer to the booming romance genre (alongside their 'regular' romance series), a book combining romance and western. And they weren't even the only ones doing this genre. Prize had not one but two romance western titles. I had four of the six issues and before selling them on eBay I scanned all of Toth's stories. They are not as spectacular as the Sierra Smith stories, since he usually did not ink himself. The first story here is inked by Bernie Sachs and I remember reading somewhere that Toth hated it so much that he used one of the inked originals to wipe his brush clean. Storytelling-wise it is interesting, as you see Toth here trying to invent a new style, using more close-ups and more symbolism, to replace the action of his other stories. He would further develop this later on, when he did romance work for other publishers, such as Standard and Fawcett. In fact, the symbolic tricks he devised, were picked up there by other artists (such as Mike Sekowsky, Ross Andru and VInce Colletta), who would use it so much it seems a little bit old hat here.
Don't miss the bonus at the end. In some of these books, Toth also did a one page illustrated poem or song. The one in this set from Romance Trails #2 is inked by John Giunta.
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