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Birth/Death

June 25, 1928, NYC; Died May 27, 2006, Burbank, California

Occupation/Title

American artist/comic book designer

Bio Summary

Alex Toth was an American cartoonist who not only worked in the comic book industry but also designs for many animated series. Initially aspiring to creatye newspaper strips but opted for comic books. Eventually he made the transitions to animated cartoon industry. He participated in production of Hanna-Barbera shows like Super Friends, Birdman, Space Ghost and The Herculoids.

Early Life/Family

Toth was recognized by one of his teachers in his junior high school poster class. Since then, he pursued illustration as a career. At the age of 15, he sold his first artwork. His first job was illustrating for Heroic magazine.

Education/Training

High School of Industrial Arts

Career Outline

1943: Illustrations for Heroic Magazines for Famous Funnies shop?1947-1952: National/ DC Comics?1952: Romance comics for Standard Comics?1954: Jon Fury for Depot Diary in Tokyo, Japan?1956-1960: Dell Comics ?1960: Space Angel animated show?1960-1968: Storyboard/ design artist for Hanna-Barbera?1973: Production on Super friends in Australia

Comments On Style

Toth’s contributed to the comic book world by gving us the Golden Age design of DC Super Hero, The Flash. It is this style of drawing that had also proivided many audiendce with the ideal of a super hero physique, as seen with Space Ghost and Birdman.

Influences

Although known for his adaptability, Toth has been compared to Will Eisner and Jack Kirby

Personality

Toth was a very observant outspoken person whose passion made him very critical of the industries he worked in.

Anecdotes

”It could be comics if those who know how to paint also knew how to tell a story! Who knew what pacing was, and didn’t just jam a lot of pretty pictures together into a page, pages, and call it a story, continuity! It ain’t!”- Alex Toth Interview- Comic Book Artist#10- TwoMorows Publishing

Miscellaneous

Alex Toth’s original design for Birdman were later used in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim’s Primetime show, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law.

Filmography

“Jonny Quest” (layout artist) (1 episode, 1965)
“Space Ghost” (1966) TV series (character designer) (unknown episodes) (layout artist) (unknown episodes)
Jack and the Beanstalk (1967) (TV) (layout artist)
“Birdman and the Galaxy Trio” (1967) TV series (character designer) (unknown episodes)
“Shazzan” (1967) TV series (character designer) (unknown episodes)
“Fantastic 4” (character designer) (1 episode, 1967)
“The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (character designer) (1 episode, 1968)?- The Eye of Doorgah (1968) TV episode (character designer)
“Skyhawks” (1969) TV series (layout artist) (unknown episodes, 1969)
“Josie and the Pussy Cats in Outer Space” (1972) TV series (special model designer) (unknown episodes, 1972)
“Sealab 2020” (1972) TV series (special model designer) (1972)
“Super Friends” (character designer) (16 episodes, 1973) (animation supervisor) (1 episode, 1973)
“Devlin” (1974) TV series (character designer) (unknown episodes, 1974)
“Clue Club” (1976) TV series (character designer) (unknown episodes)
“The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour” (character designer) (16 episodes, 1976)
“The All-New Super Friends Hour” (character designer) (15 episodes, 1977)”The All-New Super Friends Hour” (character designer) (15 episodes, 1977)
“Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics” (1977) TV series (character designer) (1977-1979)
“Challenge of the SuperFriends” (1978) TV series (character designer)
“Battle of the Planets” (1978) TV series (character designer: “7-Zark-7”)
“Dynomutt Dog Wonder” (1978) TV series (character designer) (1978)
“Space Ghost Coast to Coast” (1994) TV series (original character designer) ?”Thundarr the Barbarian” (character designer) (10 episodes, 1980)
“Cartoon Planet” (1995) TV series (original character designer) ?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 6:32 PM and is filed under Alex Toth, biography.