Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

So, I find out that two people that were important to my youth have died in the past couple of weeks. And no one told me a darned thing.


One is Alex Toth. Toth was one of the most influential comic book artists of the 1950's and 60's. He wasn't associated with any comic book that was particularly "hip," his best work was on a comic book adaptation of Disney's Zorro television series, and his work was also featured in such unremembered comics as Rex the Wonder Dog and Scotland Yard. The highest profile superhero comics he did were occasional issues of Green Lantern or the DC team up book, The Brave and the Bold. Some of his best known work was not done for comic books at all; he designed the characters for Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost, Jonny Quest and The Herculoids.

Unlike many comic book artists today, Toth wasn't about drawing as many details as possible. It was more about putting a little shadow there, leaving out a line or background there. He understood that the medium was not about making the readers go "gee, that's nicely drawn..." but instead he was interested in telling a story.

Howard Chaykin, long time artist for Batman, described his work this way in an introduction he wrote to a collection of Toth's Zorro books:

As always, his draughtmanship is extraordinary - by this I don't mean that masurbatory rendering beloved by too many comics fans, who seem to judge the quality of work by the number of lines - but instead, a gift of staging, of placement of figures and objects in space, combined with an uncanny strength of characterization, makind Alex an object of acute envy for any artist with a brain.

Toth's son has set up a website detailing his career and it contains a fascinating gallery of rough drafts and character designs. It also contains a rather amusing reply to an e-Bay seller who was trying to sell Toth's work, an example of his famous cantankerous personality.


A nice aside here: Space Ghost, you may remember, had two sidekicks, Jan and Jace. Space Ghost was voiced by, of course, Gary Owens. Who voiced Jace?


Ian Copeland also died. Copeland along with his brothers Miles and Stewart can be regarded as key figures in the development of New Wave music, and has a great deal to do with the way "alternative" bands are marketed and developed today. He discovered Squeeze and REM, and brought them to the attention of his brother Miles, who owned a small label called IRS records. He will be missed. Oh yeah, he also helped promote some band that his brother was in called the Police.


Jace was voiced by, of all people, the Vice President of United States, Tim Matheson.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.