Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954

Greg Sadowski, ed.

ISBN 10: 1606994085 / ISBN 13: 9781606994085

Published by Fantagraphics Books August 2011, 2011

About this Item

Thumbing/edgewear with light corner bumps, else tight and clean.

Seller Inventory # 1045851

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books August 2011
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1606994085
• ISBN 13: 9781606994085
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: Paperback 1st.
• Printing: Paperback 1st
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • 15-LIVING ROOM

About this title

Synopsis

• Part of the first generation to grow up with comic books, Alex Toth came to the medium with a fresh eye and enough talent and discipline to graphically strip it down to its bare essentials. His efforts reached fruition at Standard Comics, creating an entire school of imitators. Setting the Standard collects this highly influential body of work in one substantial volume.
• Toth began his professional career at fifteen in 1945 for Heroic Comics, but quickly advanced to superhero work for DC. Responding to the endless criticism of editors, the young artist strove toward a technique free of "showoff surface tricks, clutter, and distracting picture elements." Simply put, he learned "how to tell a story, to the exclusion of all else." After falling out with DC in 1952, Toth moved West. He freelanced almost exclusively for Standard over the next two years, contributing classic work for its crime, horror, science fiction, and war titles. But perhaps most revelatory to the reader will be the romance collaborations with writer Kim Ammodt, Toth's personal favorites. "I came to prefer them for the quieter, more credible, natural human equations they dealt with ― emotions, subtleties of gesture, expression, attitude."

About the Author

Comic book historian Greg Sadowski has produced more than a few books for Fantagraphics, including landmark volumes on Alex Toth, Bernard Krigstein, and Basil Wolverton. He resides in Asbury Park, NJ, where he looks after the B. Krigstein archives and plays the music of Django Reinhardt with his acoustic trio, OG Swing.