The late Alex Toth was born June 25, 1928 — 91 years ago.
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Usually, we do a 13 COVERS selection when we celebrate birthdays at 13th Dimension. But when it comes to the great Alex Toth, we present 13 of his fantastic animation model sheets.
Last year, it was all Super Friends (click here). This year, we’re gonna go back to a wider survey, with some Super Friends mixed in with Fantastic Four and some Hanna-Barbera adventure characters, like BirrrrrrrrrrdMAN!
(By the way, these are culled from various places on the web. I’m not 100 percent certain whether some of these were colored by others after the fact, so if you have the intel, by all means note it in the comments!)
Far out.
OK, this isn’t a model sheet, but it might as well be. It’s a page from Adventure Comics #418. Brilliant.
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MORE
— 13 Great ALEX TOTH Model Sheets: 2018 Edition. Click here.
— 13 Great ALEX TOTH Model Sheets: 2017 Edition. Click here.
June 25, 2019
I love the Fantastic Four model sheets! Alex really gave the design the Jack Kirby look! I also think the H-B’s Fantastic Four is one of H-B’s underrated action series!
June 25, 2019
I love the Black Canary page and I vaguely remember it when it first came out. But looking at it now I think the lettering is too big and overdone, distracting from the action. Same with all of the orange stars at the bottom. Too much and too cartoonish. Sometimes a little can say a lot.
June 25, 2019
Happy birthday to the late Mr. Toth. I like his designs for Space Ghost, Birdman, and the Super Friends the most.
June 25, 2019
Every year, you do these galleries of 13 great Alex Toth model sheets and every year, you include several that he either did not draw at all or which were heavily altered by other artists. The ones that do not have his signature are wholly or mostly the work of others.
June 25, 2019
And none of them were colored by Alex. In fact, I don’t even think any of them were colored at Hanna-Barbera. Opportunists often take images of old model sheets, Xerox them onto transparent film, paint the backs and sell them as “production art” from the original studio. Looks to me like all of those that are colored were colored recently, not when the show was actually produced.
June 26, 2019
I appreciate the input, Mark! Always feel free to contact me with any info. Anything that clarifies the situation is helpful.
June 26, 2019
Like the Scarecrow in the duster, too bad we didn’t see that look on “Challenge on the Super Friends”.
Best season of the show in my opinion.
June 29, 2019
I love Toth’s panel-progression-without-panel-borders on the Black Canary page. With Alex’s mastery of time, space and motion on a page, he should have been given at least one Flash story to draw, just so he could show how it should be done.