Alex Toth is definitely one of my top favorite artist to date.This man just inspires me to keep pushing and perfecting my craft.A superior draftsman and story teller!
SPOT ON. The best, so true-- my favorite too. So underrated which amazes me. Dynamism, narrative clarity. Almost every time I make comics, I crack that book open. It kills me how good this phase of his is. Ty so much for covering this book.
Another great show,guys! I never knew about One for the Road, but I do now! I have the 3 bigass hardcovers from IDW& started to read them! More TOTH PLEASE? Keep up the great work! Thanks again!
Ed & Jim this is an excellent video, packed with great information and almost as fun as breaking this down with some artist friends. Since the Kayfabe effect has now liquidated any back stock, hopefully Auad Publishing can put this out in a digital format like Comixology.
I have many Toth collections and agree that this is one of his best too. He not only did this for the money but because he was a true gear head, so the low page rate was more than offset by the opportunity to draw cars. As you note, the sense of speed and movement in these stories are incredible and instructive. Like a lot of artists, I don't love drawing cars, but regardless, I've always wanted an opportunity to portray a car chase in one of my stories to capture the same sense of movement and, of course, this book is my top reference and inspiration for that!
The best, fellas! Yeoman cartoonist geeking out here. Craft-tint, ZIP-a-tone, lettering, storytelling, animation, character design - this is THE cartoonist water cooler talk! Thank you!
This is such a great episode. It’s always fun to see an artists having fun (Toth must have had some humorous days, right?). My only question WHERE CAN I GET A COPY!?! Did everyone who watched this buy every remaining copy?
I have to say this...I have been following you guys for a little while now. Found you completely by chance and I just love listening to you guys. The passion that comes out from the both of you, and the odd pairing between Ed's energetic passion and Jim's laid back appreciation is such a great combo. I can't believe you guys basically read old magazines and I am listening, loving it! Thank you for doing this! Also.. I love the Toth's car strips. They don't always hit the mark story wise but the art is always amazing!
Also surprising are the "Fox" stories Toth did (one of which was reprinted in Auad's Toth: Black and White) that were drawn print size and are just powerful distillations of the elements of comics.
The morning this video was released I was putting this book in my amazon cart and getting some other stuff, while i was getting my other stuff the one i put in my cart was not available anymore, so they 4 or 5 other vendors selling and I put one of those in my cart and purchased. got a notification to day that i would be refunded the the price of the book. went to amazon, all copies are sold out and Abe books which had it listed for $45 2 days ago is now selling it for $155 HAHAHAHA absolutely amazing!
I bought this when it first came out. Great book!! I’m surprised it’s a low-seller. Another great Toth book I own is Zorro, The Complete Classic Adventures. Toth schools us every time.
Well, a great watch it was! Now I want more... Jim was dead-on linking this to the Warren collection, these do go great together. Reminds me of Noel Sickles doing Scorchy Smith, just testing out different techniques, killing it and moving on to the next one... Speaking of the "fun" element- I do see that in a lot of Toth' work, I think he did often have fun drawing and certainly wanted it to look fun for the reader. For all his perfectionism and so forth, his stuff (from an early point on) never-ever looks labored to me. Man was he good... I believe most of his difficulties came more from being unable to deal with other people/them not meeting his standards in his mind or whatever... Sure, he was also hard on his own work, especially looking back (those commentaries he did are pretty harsh), but he still was confident in his abilities, as a cartoonist at least. Not so much as a writer... Still, I agree that these Hot rod shorts are especially fun looking, which probably comes 100% down to him being allowed to do his thing without any interferences by an editor who doesn't know shit in his mind. There are some racing comics here in Europe, but as far as I know they are pretty uninteresting. Just look up Michel Vaillant and try not to fall asleep. Pretty much the opposite of Toth, visually.
Toth once commented that varying panel size could be an unnecessary distraction, and that he thought in terms of a movie screen, which is always the same size. If you need to see someone's reactions, you just bring the camera in close. If you need to establish a locale, you pull back. It creates a flow that probably registers almost subconsciously, compared to attention-grabbing layouts.
I've been wanting some CARtoon books so maybe this is my pick. Mostly I've been wanting some Shawn Kerri items. I wish they would hurry up and make a book for her.
He was incredibly picky about everything and believed( rightfully so in most cases I guess) that he could other people's job better than them. When I was on Super Friends, he was just supposed to be character designer but ended up redoing boards and designs for everything and coming up with plans to make the production possible. He had a hard time with scripts too from what the book says..He would change scripts because he figured he could do them better which made editors at DC upset.. Things like that. That's from the book on his life, the Genius illustrated ones. Great books to read!
Goddamn he was a master at his craft. Here's to more Toth coverage in the future.
Alex Toth is definitely one of my top favorite artist to date.This man just inspires me to keep pushing and perfecting my craft.A superior draftsman and story teller!
Beautiful. Toth is amazing. No line is wasted.
This was great, guys! My love and appreciation for Alex Toth's work has grown ten-fold since becoming a Kayfaber.
BIG DADDY ROTH LOVED HIS WORK.
SPOT ON. The best, so true-- my favorite too. So underrated which amazes me. Dynamism, narrative clarity. Almost every time I make comics, I crack that book open. It kills me how good this phase of his is. Ty so much for covering this book.
Another great show,guys! I never knew about One for the Road, but I do now! I have the 3 bigass hardcovers from IDW& started to read them! More TOTH PLEASE? Keep up the great work! Thanks again!
Alex Toth is my all time Favorite artist. Love his work
I didn’t really “get” Toth until watching this video so thanks for the walk through!
Ed & Jim this is an excellent video, packed with great information and almost as fun as breaking this down with some artist friends. Since the Kayfabe effect has now liquidated any back stock, hopefully Auad Publishing can put this out in a digital format like Comixology.
Kayfabe effect must be real, this book is impossible to find now
I have many Toth collections and agree that this is one of his best too. He not only did this for the money but because he was a true gear head, so the low page rate was more than offset by the opportunity to draw cars. As you note, the sense of speed and movement in these stories are incredible and instructive. Like a lot of artists, I don't love drawing cars, but regardless, I've always wanted an opportunity to portray a car chase in one of my stories to capture the same sense of movement and, of course, this book is my top reference and inspiration for that!
The best, fellas! Yeoman cartoonist geeking out here. Craft-tint, ZIP-a-tone, lettering, storytelling, animation, character design - this is THE cartoonist water cooler talk! Thank you!
This is such a great episode. It’s always fun to see an artists having fun (Toth must have had some humorous days, right?). My only question WHERE CAN I GET A COPY!?! Did everyone who watched this buy every remaining copy?
I have to say this...I have been following you guys for a little while now. Found you completely by chance and I just love listening to you guys. The passion that comes out from the both of you, and the odd pairing between Ed's energetic passion and Jim's laid back appreciation is such a great combo. I can't believe you guys basically read old magazines and I am listening, loving it! Thank you for doing this! Also.. I love the Toth's car strips. They don't always hit the mark story wise but the art is always amazing!
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Probably my favorite Toth book too, although I am heavily drawn to the Warren collection of Toth stories as well.
Hands down the best collection of Toth work.
Amazing stuff. Thank you for showcasing some Toth since we can both enjoy it and learn a ton!
Also surprising are the "Fox" stories Toth did (one of which was reprinted in Auad's Toth: Black and White) that were drawn print size and are just powerful distillations of the elements of comics.
The morning this video was released I was putting this book in my amazon cart and getting some other stuff, while i was getting my other stuff the one i put in my cart was not available anymore, so they 4 or 5 other vendors selling and I put one of those in my cart and purchased. got a notification to day that i would be refunded the the price of the book. went to amazon, all copies are sold out and Abe books which had it listed for $45 2 days ago is now selling it for $155 HAHAHAHA absolutely amazing!
I bought this when it first came out. Great book!! I’m surprised it’s a low-seller. Another great Toth book I own is Zorro, The Complete Classic Adventures. Toth schools us every time.
I've been waiting for a video on Toth, looking forward to watch it! And I even got the book...
Well, a great watch it was! Now I want more...
Jim was dead-on linking this to the Warren collection, these do go great together. Reminds me of Noel Sickles doing Scorchy Smith, just testing out different techniques, killing it and moving on to the next one...
Speaking of the "fun" element- I do see that in a lot of Toth' work, I think he did often have fun drawing and certainly wanted it to look fun for the reader. For all his perfectionism and so forth, his stuff (from an early point on) never-ever looks labored to me. Man was he good... I believe most of his difficulties came more from being unable to deal with other people/them not meeting his standards in his mind or whatever... Sure, he was also hard on his own work, especially looking back (those commentaries he did are pretty harsh), but he still was confident in his abilities, as a cartoonist at least. Not so much as a writer... Still, I agree that these Hot rod shorts are especially fun looking, which probably comes 100% down to him being allowed to do his thing without any interferences by an editor who doesn't know shit in his mind.
There are some racing comics here in Europe, but as far as I know they are pretty uninteresting. Just look up Michel Vaillant and try not to fall asleep. Pretty much the opposite of Toth, visually.
This was very rad, thanks!
I'm in love
Picked up that bad boy at Half-Price Books. Gorgeous work.
Kayfabe in effect. Now 60 bucks on amazon.
Now $109! I'm gonna have to wait until the Kayfabe heat settles down before I buy now.
I've been working a lot with the six panel grid lately, so this is really enlightening.
Toth once commented that varying panel size could be an unnecessary distraction, and that he thought in terms of a movie screen, which is always the same size. If you need to see someone's reactions, you just bring the camera in close. If you need to establish a locale, you pull back. It creates a flow that probably registers almost subconsciously, compared to attention-grabbing layouts.
Excellent recommendations
Well, another book I have to find. Looks amazing, the work of a master for sure.
🤞I think I’ve hunted a copy down, but until it turns up I’ll be sweating! The print quality on this looks beautiful. Thank you
The DC Title ‘The Witching Hour’ turned me onto Toth. Herculoids took me over the top.
I only know Toth from his work on horror books like The Witching Hour or Red Circle.
I've been wanting some CARtoon books so maybe this is my pick. Mostly I've been wanting some Shawn Kerri items. I wish they would hurry up and make a book for her.
I'm a big Toth fan, and this is my favorite book on him also.
His Zorro is some of my favorites
The third panel on page 124 reminds me of a panel from that Hulk/Wolverine comic Sam kieth did, I wonder if he was referencing this.
I didn't know burn bridges in the work environment was a thing Toth used to do.
Anyone could tell more about it?
He was incredibly picky about everything and believed( rightfully so in most cases I guess) that he could other people's job better than them. When I was on Super Friends, he was just supposed to be character designer but ended up redoing boards and designs for everything and coming up with plans to make the production possible. He had a hard time with scripts too from what the book says..He would change scripts because he figured he could do them better which made editors at DC upset.. Things like that. That's from the book on his life, the Genius illustrated ones. Great books to read!
Buying this ASAP
Currently going for $500 a copy… 😭
Theres a copy on the shelf of Lancaster pas "the comic store "
I keep checking if anyone is going to reprint this
You guys keep making me run out and buy more books... and it ain’t cheap... stop it.
There's only one on eBay at 75.00. Sigh....