Alex Toth is an artist who I first became aware of in the 100-page DC issues, particularly in DETECTIVE 438-443. I recall his story with Goodwin in 442, and Eclipso reprints in various titles. And some great stories in HOUSE OF MYSTERY. And stories in DC's war books.
But similar to Jack Kirby, his 1960's-forward material was so vastly different from his work on 1940's material like GREEEN LANTERN and HAWKMAN that despite being credited in reprints, I didn't initially make the connection that the same guy was drawing in both eras.
Toth in particular shares my perspective and lament of comics in the modern era:
LEGACY
Toth did much of his comics work outside superhero comics, concentrating instead on such subjects as hot rod racing, romance, horror, and action-adventure. His work on Disney’s Zorro has been reprinted in trade paperback form several times. Also, there are two volumes of The Alex Toth Reader, published by Pure Imagination, which focuses on his work for Standard Comics and Western Publishing. Brian Bolland has cited Toth as one of his idols.[26]
Journalist Tom Spurgeon wrote that Toth possessed "an almost transcendent understanding of the power of art as a visual story component," and called him "one of the handful of people who could seriously enter into Greatest Comic Book Artist of All-Time discussions" and "a giant of 20th Century cartoon design."[27]
Toth was known for his exhaustive study of other artists and his outspoken analysis of comics art past and present. For example, in a 2001 interview he criticized the trend of fully painted comics, saying "It could be comics if those who know how to paint also knew how to tell a story! Who knew what pacing was, and didn't just jam a lot of pretty pictures together into a page, pages, and call it a story, continuity! It ain't!"[3] Toth lamented what he saw as a lack of awareness on the part of younger artists of their predecessors, as well as a feeling that the innocent fun of comics' past was being lost in the pursuit of pointless nihilism and mature content.
