Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth

It’s simply a great book. Packed with exemplary samples and reproduction of Alex’s beautiful work. Great text and Insight about the Great artist and his life and Personal relationships which I did not expect to find. Slight damage to my article on the coverBut I can live with it. It’s a fine publication.

This is a wonderful book--beautifully produced, thoroughly researched and smartly edited. Even a quick perusal of this volume (first of a planned three part collection, this one goes up to 1962) reveals why Toth was often called "the artist's artist"--and a quick reading also reveals why he was called a number of less flattering names by editors, as the well-written biography makes it abundantly clear Toth's passion for his work often put him cross-wise with those he felt were not producing work up to his high standard.Of particular interest in this volume are several examples of Toth's romance comics work which are truly a revelation. Never one to simply hack it out, Toth obviously threw himself into the genre, producing some mini-masterpieces.This is not by any means simply a collection of stories by Toth. There are several complete stories included, but the editors wisely used this format judiciously and uses the space to give us a sample of many more Toth takes on characters and genres. (These appetizers have moved me to re-acquire Toth's Zorro work as well as add the upcoming volume collecting Toth's Standard Comics work to my wishlist.)I eagerly await Volumes II and III!

Of the numerous comic book and newspaper artist retrospectives I've read or own, this is probably my favorite. And that includes the author's Eisner Award winning book on Noel Sickles. This hefty Alex Toth volume is as good...if not better. And what can you say about Toth? No one's comic book pages ever looked like this. The numerous examples in the book are just wonderful....especially in this over-sized format.Many of Toth's more famous colleagues considered him a genius. I completely agree with them. If you are a fan of great comic book artwork, clear off your coffee table and order this book.

Bought for my son. He has been teaching himself animation, and is using the Alex Toth book for his perspective studies. He is thrilled with this book.

This is everything you'd want in a book about the first half of Alex Toth's remarkable career: giant, lunchtray-sized pages, pristine reproductions (often from originals), generous art samples (both the rare and the celebrated are well represented), thorough research (including much input from Toth's colleagues and family), and superb design (bold but tasteful, perfectly balancing content and whitespace; countless smart, attractive choices). I'd guess the art pages make up over half the book, along with relevant spot illos throughout; a fine balance of artwork and info. Even if you have all of the Toth books and reprints of the past three decades, there's plenty here to warrant buying this -- at least, if you're interested in Toth's pre-'60s career. (His later comics -- where his skills reached their apex -- will apparently be covered in the next volume.) Twitter has been abuzz with praise from comics pros since the day this book debuted, for good reason.Some minor quibbles:An index would have been helpful. It's tough to flip through a tome this size in search of a half-remembered reference to this person or that job without an index.A timeline would also clarify things. The narrative necessarily jumps around a bit, following different threads, so a chronological list of key events would have helped readers keep it all straight. When and how many times did Toth move between California and New York? Etc.The authors include many irrelevant details. They forgo a thorough list of Toth's influences, skipping undersung greats like Emil Gershwin, but about other influences they include details irrelevant to Toth's development. Do we need to know that Herbert Stoops's father was Presbyterian, or that Ludwig Hohlwein was born in Wiesbaden, or the names and nationalities of Keith Henderson's early studiomates? The life of writer Kim Aamodt is also covered in some detail, but we're never told which of his stories Toth illustrated -- useful info, given Toth's admiration for Aamodt's writing. And why so much about the men behind Cambria Studios? Etc.It's strange that the identities of two of Toth's wives, and the dates of those marriages, remain a mystery. The book assures us that "dedicated research" was made in vain, but I can't help but think the L.A. or Santa Clara County recorders' offices would have SOMEthing on file. These ladies may still be around and full of interesting memories.I was disappointed to see a combined 32 pages devoted to Zorro and 77 Sunset Strip. The former is readily available in previous reprints, and the latter is among Toth's least enthusiastic Dell offerings. And do we really need yet another entire reprint of The Crushed Gardenia?But again, minor quibbles. This book deserves an award.

Alex Toth's artwork has always been especially a favorite of mine. When I was animating on Super Friends I use to keep copies of the story boards done by Toth because they were so much better then anyone else who was boarding on the show. I believe his artwork can still be inspirational to artist today both in and out of animation. If love comics if you love the action adventure animation of the 1960's and 1970's then you should have this book in your collection.

Great condition. Thank you so much.

A must have for any Toth fan!

Lovely book...problem with company unable to return this at the postage paid!!

Publié il y a maintenant un peu plus de 5 ans, cet imposant ouvrage - premier d'une série de trois du même acabit - ouvre une fenêtre sur Alex Toth (1928–2006), l'un des dessinateurs de BD les plus doués de sa génération, un des plus doués tout court, le genre étant toute de même encore suffisamment jeune et le talent du récipiendaire suffisamment grand pour que cette dernière affirmation soit crédible.Ce premier tome, épais avec ses 330 pages d'un papier costaud, et d'une taille plutôt imposante, est d'une reliure à "couverture dure", mais à dos carré fragile. Il présente la biographie du dessinateur depuis sa naissance au tout début des années 1960, quand jeune trentenaire il quitte sa troisième femme et les quatre enfants qu'il a eu avec elle ! Il a déjà passé la moitié de sa vie à l'activité professionnelle de dessinateur de comic books, montrant des facilités extraordinaires pour mettre en forme graphique un récit ainsi qu'une aisance folle pour rendre de manière réaliste mais stylisée des scènes de tout genre : western, histoire d'amour, policier, épouvante, guerre etc.Mais, avec un caractère de cochon, ou bien un syndrome d'Asperger ou autre problème non diagnostiqué, Toth a eu le chic de se ménager une carrière relativement marginale, notamment après s'être fâché à l'âge de 20 ans et des patates avec Julius Schwartz, un des pontes du comic book. De plus, bien que plutôt classique, son trait restait plutôt peu dans les codes "mainstream" du comic book de super-héros de l'époque, ce qui ne le rendait pas populaire auprès de plus jeunes des teenagers.Bref, c'est presque un miracle qu'après un tel auto-sabotage Toth ait constamment travaillé - une parenthèse sous les drapeaux mise à part - dans le milieu du comic book au cours de la période 1945-1960+.Le livre propose une douzaine de chapitres, avec quelques pages de textes (avec de nombreux extraits d'interviews ou de lettres de Toth, des interviews spécifiques de sa troisième épouse et de ses enfants, des témoignages de collègues, des photographies) suivies d'un plus ou moins grand nombre de reproductions - scans ou planches originales - d'extraits de récits ou bien de récits complets représentatifs de ses meilleurs travaux. Une bibliographie fouillée est proposée à la fin de l'ouvrage. L'ensemble est réalisé avec un très grand soin. Quel gâchis que, son "run" avec Zorro mis à part, Toth n'ait pas pu associer son nom significativement à un ou plusieurs personnages ou séries de premier plan ! ****1/2Le tome suivant suit Toth dans sa carrière dans le dessin animé.

Il contenuto del volume in sé è stupendo. Il mio voto si riferisce esclusivamente alla copertina: il prezzo del volume non è un regalo, me lo aspettavo in ottimo stato, ma le foto parlano da sole...Mi aspetto un buono sconto o un rimborso parziale da Amazon, perché così è inaccettabile...

SE AMATE IL FUMETTO E NON CONOSCETE ALEX TOTH QUESTO è IL VOLUME CHE FA PER VOI!SE CONOSCETE QUESTO GRANDE AUTORE NON POTETE FARVI SFUGGIRE QUESTO LIBRO PIENO DI CURIOSITà INFORMAZIONI E DISEGNI DEL GRANDE ALEX!QUESTO è IL PRIMO DI UNA TRILOGIA DI VOLUMI :)

Un ejemplo de lo que tiene que ser una edición de calidad. A un tamaño y con un grosor de papel que permite disfrutar de los magnificos dibujos de este autor ilimitado.