Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 25, 2016 | 1 comment

The artist’s artist was born June 25, 1928.

—

Whenever I ask artists to list their influences, inevitably Alex Toth’s name comes up. Not all artists, but most, it seems. I gotta say, I wish more artists took a cue from Toth’s masterfully expressive storytelling, which was simultaneously clean and detailed, busy but never over-rendered. Always evocative.

The average fan, however, probably knows him from his Super Friends work, or maybe Space Ghost and other ’60s Hanna-Barbera superheroes.

From Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-41, DC’s Super Friends treasury.

Now, normally, we do 13 COVERS for our birthday retrospectives. (Click here to check out last year’s.) This year, though, we bring you a two-part salute.

Below, you’ll find 13 of his coolest animation model sheets. It’s amazing what’s out there on the web and if you have your own favorite, feel free to add it in the comments below or in whichever social-media thread you found this.

But make sure you also check out PART 2 of our salute: On 6/29, IDW is publishing the Best of DC War Artist’s Edition — and it includes a number of brilliant, rare Toth original-art pages (as well as greats like Kubert, Kirby and others). I guarantee you will not want to miss this, so click here.

Here’s a small example, but you can see it much bigger after the link:

Screen Shot 2016-06-25 at 1.20.54 PM