Blue Moon Blog

When I began this blog feature 16 months ago, I wasn’t sure where it would take me. I thought I’d share some favorite bits by my favorite artist, learn a few things along the way. It takes time and energy to try and keep up with a weekly feature on top of blogging on other things, raising a family, meeting deadlines, staying healthy, keeping the house and grounds cleaned and spruced.

I certainly didn’t expect I’d embark on a 15-part analysis and exploration of a single Toth story, his adventure comic adaptation of the B-movie, The Land Unknown. Over the last two months I scanned many pages, prepared 119 images (scanned, cleaned, enhanced & cropped). All that has been more than worth it, but I might not have made it if not spurred on by those of you who’ve read, followed and sometimes commented. Thanks.

To mix things up, and to avoid being pedantic, I varied the approach to the text and presentation, based in part on my whims and as dictated by the story, art and available resources. I hope as a whole the series isn’t disjointed, then.

Some closing thoughts on The Land Unknown:

• Alex Toth was 29 when he drew this 32-page story.

• He improved mightily on poor source material, aided by a solid script by Bob Ryder, about whom Toth said,

“Good picture scripting…he wrote, into it, many four-panel spreads and placed the action rather well.”

Interesting, as I’d assumed Toth himself may have expanded some panels to cover 1/3 – 1/2 – 2/3 of the 6-panel grid.

• What I’d taken as an okay piece with some great spots is actually one of his best projects of the ’50s. Long time Toth friend and fan, John Hitchcock wrote recently on a fan forum,

“Of all of Toth’s Dell stories, Land Unknown was one of his favorites. About twenty-six years ago, I asked him to sign my copy. He wrote, ‘This is one of my pets.’”

• Thanks to the internet and recently-released Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth book (and interviews for such), I was able to access a few pages of original art, two versions of scanned color comics, along with scans of B&W art from the Pure Imagination reprint book.

• Much of his signature style/approach were already firmly in place by this time, as well as in the early’50s (when he was in his early twenties), not apparent and developed only in his later work. His work was mature for nearly the entirety of his career – amazing!

• Toth was obviously a student of film, employing not only an array of camera angles borrowed from that medium, but also was able envision and depict shots from all angles and points-of-view. There is an incredible intelligence, memory and imagination apparent in these pages.

• This artist worked hard to get things right. He obviously did his research, one way or another to accurately render the ships, helicopter, guns and more in this piece.

• Though the B&W reprint books aren’t perfect (through a “bleaching” process, much of the fine line work and strokes are not reproduced as well as from the originals), they’re still a step up from scans of the printed color comics where much detail and subtlety is lost due to sub-par printing standards. It’s fun to see the color as it originally appeared, but what a sight it’d be if this story were to be shot completely from the originals (no doubt impossible) and given the proper treatment by a current colorist, say, Dave Stewart and printed on decent stock. Glory be, that’d be wonderful!

There we go. Thanks for reading, thanks for writing, here in comments, on Facebook or at the TothFans Forum. I’m not sure I have in me another series this long and involved, but I’ve plenty planned for upcoming installments, never fear.

Next Tuesday, Toth Tuesday’s will return to its regular weekly schedule, kicked off by my review of Genius, Isolated.