Blue Moon Blog

Less is more.

That’s the mantra applied to Alex Toth concerning his art and comics, the maxim by which he worked and urged other artists to follow. Though there have been many publications, interviews, reprints, features and sites devoted to Toth’s work, much of it by Toth’s own hand, I still can’t get enough. For me as an artist, disciple and fan, when it comes to learning more of the man, reading, studying, analyzing and immersing myself in his art and creative process, more is more.

For over thirty years, I’ve collected as many Toth comics as I could find at conventions and on dusty comics shop shelves. I’ve bought just about every tome on Toth as released during that span, many now out of print. I’ve compiled long lists of comics by Toth, culled from The Comic Book Price Guide, most of which I could never find or afford. I’ve researched those artists he cited as influences. From the tothfans.com site, I downloaded and poured over pages I’d not yet seen, finally viewing stories from comics I’d had on my list (as scanned and generously shared by fellow Toth fans). I read again and again his stories, annotations, thoughts and insights…and still craved more. As much as I’ve discovered about my favorite comics artist, something was missing.

Photo by wingsart.net

The first volume of three, Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth begins to fill in some of those gaps for this fan, providing context to his history, personal life and character, his creative development, approach and methods.

This book is huge (approx. 10′ x 13″), a fitting and worthy format and size for its subject, allowing comics pages to be printed over-sized (though not as large as the original art, most of which were done around 200%). At over 325 pages and five pounds, the volume covers the first half of Toth’s life and career: his start in the field as a teen; how he set the pace for the rest of the industry; his stint in the army; his first three marriages; and tons of photos and art presented as never before.

Portrait of the artist as a young man – “Genius, Isolated,” pages 70 & 71

The photos of Toth as a child and in his younger days are a revelation. Til now I’d been able to picture Toth only in his elder years, by the photos of him I’d seen, and his self portraits. He cut quite a dapper and dashing figure as a young man, and one gets to piece together the fragments, pinpointing what work he did at what age. Though his earliest work from the late ’40s, done in his teens never held much interest for me, by 1949 he was already showing signs of the genius to come, displaying tendencies which bear a startling resemblance to his most mature work. And this, when he was but twenty years of age.

From “The Unexpected Guest,” Green Lantern #37, page 7 (1949)

By 21 he was setting the standard in comics and storytelling, inspiring and influencing his peers. By 22 & 23, he’d drawn comics masterpieces that still stand among his best work, like The Crushed Gardenia, Thunder Jet and Battle Flag of the Foreign Legion (below).

From “Battle Flag of the Foreign Legion,” Danger Trial #3, page 5 (DC, 1950)

Throughout the ’50s and into the ’60s, Toth drew stacks of comics, during a period when it was somewhat difficult to continue in the field and find work (thanks to Dr. Frederic Wertham and U.S. Senate). Toth persevered and was in demand, drawing romance, sci-fi, war and western comics, strips, and many comics adaption of movies and TV shows, all of which are well represented in this volume.

In 1955-’56, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving in Tokyo, Japan. During this period he wrote and drew his Jon Fury comic strip for his camp newspaper. The strip is reprinted here in it’s entirety on light violet stock. Most of the strip is printed from poor photocopies, so the subdued color helps smooth out the rough patches. Some have wondered why Fury takes up so much of the book at 45 pages. But if not here, where? There’s some awfully good stuff in it. Just take a long gander at that second panel (below).

From Jon Fury, strip #3

One can take their time with this tome, get lost in it as an art book, flip to and fro, and/or read as an insightful biography. It’s filled with early illustrations, previously unpublished pencils, and numbers of pages printed from the original art. When comparing the originals printed herein to previously reprinted black-and-white art, scanned color from the old comics themselves or even from the recently released Setting the Standard, it’s astounding to take in the difference between Toth’s line to the poorly-printed 4-color on newsprint. One’s mind boggles if Toth had been given the treatment to match production standards of today’s comics.

Panel 1 of “Too Many Cooks,” This Is War #6 (Standard, 1952).

Line art (left) and color scan from printed comic (right).

(I’ll compare more panels from this page next week.)

For me, this volume fills in the blanks, fleshes out the body of Toth’s work, and provides a clearer vision of the man and his art. This book is a must have for any student of art and design and/or lover of comics. And to think it’s just the first of three!

My Facebook pal, David Reddick posted today his version of that old cartoon and cereal favorite – Quisp!

So I opened up Sketchbook Pro and took my stab at the looney little spaceman:

I still have plenty to learn with that program, but this tutorial by Where the Rainbow Ends author, Carsten Bradley has helped me get a bit more on the right track.

Watching the news the last couple weeks, I was struck how dour and sour were the two main spokesmen for Standard & Poor’s during interviews. If ever there two guys’ mugs perfectly cast to deliver the discouraging news of a downgrade, it’s these chipper-monkeys…

Given that this is the very same agency that gave mortgage-backed securities a clean bill of health before the economic collapse in ’08, should we really take their word for it now? Maybe that’s why the DOJ is investigating them for that very thing – or is that a political move? Ah, two fine organizations to be highly trusted! GAH!

Thanks a lot, S&P: Sour Puss.

BTW  – I drew these with the Pen Tool in Manga Studio.

After a crazy-busy week+ of drawing for work (all fun, if stressful), I took a bitty break to draw just me own self, spurred on by the Saturday Sketch-Day blog.

I drew both in Photoshop with a pencil-brush, the first from a still photo from Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder. It’s not his best, but well worthwhile, despite being derived from a stage play and filmed for 3-D. He opens it up, takes it outside where he can. There are some really suspenseful sequences, especially the murder scene with scissors! And Grace Kelly, as always is yummy!

For the second sketch, I liked the admittedly skimpy outfit on a gal from a photo a grabbed for reference while on a job, but not her figure/pose. So I made up my own. I may color up the latter another time…

With the news of the passing of two creative gents yesterday, comic artist Gene Colan and actor/artist, Peter Falk, it dawned on me they would have made a great pair. Wouldn’t a Columbo comic drawn by Colan have been great? So, as best I could sketched up what that might’ve looked like, with apologies to both men.

Both men had a distinctive style about them. Their personalities came through in their work, real passion and character. They were, each of them, one of a kind.

Peter Falk was a great character actor for some time, somehow finding a long career as a leading man as seemingly bumbling and fumbling detective Columbo – my favorite fictional detective, followed closely by Chandler’s Marlowe and Chesterton’s Father Brown. I’m not a big fan of the mystery, solving the puzzle of the Whodunnit. I don’t really care to solve a riddle, preferring to go along for the ride with a Why’d-TheyDoit? or How’s-He-Gonna-Figgerit-Out? This approach focuses instead on the cat-and-mouse dance, the characters and situations, philosophies, ethics and world view. Peter Falk as Columbo was the best. And who could forget his fine turn as the grandfather in The Princess Bride? Marvelous and pitch perfect.

Gene Colan was a superb comic book artist, handling superheros in a unique fashion, but really found his niche in the horror genre, with his long run on Tomb of Dracula, his black & white Blade tales, and his Creepy and Eerie stories for Warren. After those of Alex Toth’s, Colan’s just may be my favorites from these series. Nobody created mood, movement and drama on a comic book page like Colan, with an illustrative style and flamboyant sense of page layout.

Here’s to ya’, Peter and Gene. You did it your way, and well.

A larger version of this drawing can be viewed at the Saturday Sketch Day blog. Just click the small image there.

Whether on Law & Order, as the dad in Juno or J. Jonah Jameson in the Spidey movies, or where ever he shows up (the Coens’ Ladykillers, Raising Hope, Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking, Burn After Reading, etc.),  J. K. Simmons is great character actor. He can be funny, serious, scary and warm, all while not appearing to be acting at all.

After 4+ years with my Cintiq, I like drawing digitally more and more, this one done completely on the computer.

No thick-necked grump today, but a Pencil Neck Geek.

Name and title borrowed from the novelty song featured on Dr. Demento all those years ago, some of you may recall…

Tell me these aren’t a great couple of panels! Interesting cropping and expressions in the first frame, nice angles and texture in this semi-close-up inside a spaceship. And in the next, outside, the ship in silhouette, framing Space Girl in the background. Do you think this is Toth inking himself, or Mike Peppe? The latter, I think. And something tells me had Toth lettered this himself, he would’ve placed the word balloons a tad lower in the second panel.

I can’t help it, but those two Space Mates remind of another pair…

Probably done around the same time (or decade, at least…) that sidekick sure reminds me of Space Porky! Or is it just me…?

Forever and always my favorite baseball player, Johnny Bench.

I can’t believe the season has started…

PLAY BALL!

And thanks to Cedric & Jennie Hohnstadt for a great idea and all their work in putting together Sketchbook Month. I had a blast!

I’ve been sketching since I was a kid, a lot this month, and will continue for the rest of my life. Stop in at this blog for more in the future, and check out past doodles in the Sketchbook category here, or in my Facebook Photos.

The Bedbugs and I hung out with lotsa kids at a premiere Minneapolis book store on Saturday, March 5: Wild Rumpus.

We watched Bedbugs music videos, I juggled Bedbugs beanbags/stuffed toys, we drew together during my cartooning workshop, we sang the Bedbugs Lullaby, and afterward I signed books and sketched. What a great place! It was busy and bustling with parents, kids and animals, and there’s plenty to take in and look at. Make sure you make a visit soon or when next in town.

Professor Fricke conducts the cartooning workshop.

Jugglin’ ‘Bugs!

A view of the crowd and shop from behind the easel.

The Wild Rumpus ceiling, as startling and creative as the rest of the store – a surprise around every corner, wherever one looks!