Genius, Isolated

Written by the Eisner Award-winning team of Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell-who produced Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles-Genius, Isolated includes many examples of Toth's art, from his earliest stories at DC in the 1940s, his defining work at Standard, his incomparable Zorro comics in the 1950s, examples from his thousands of drawings for animations studios, through his mature-and some say best- work, such as Bravo For Adventure, in the 1970s and 80s. A special section collects, for the first time, the complete Jon Fury pages that Toth produced while in the army, a section that alone is worth the price of admission. Alex Toth was more than a unique and influential artist. He was a keenly insightful philosopher about comics, cartooning, and animation-with opinions on how they are created as opposed to how he felt they should be created. He wasn't shy about expressing those thoughts, whether in scathing, personal letters, essays for publication, or letters to the editor. To flesh out the complete story of his life and art, Mullaney and Canwell have conducted wide-ranging interviews with dozens of Toth's peers, friends, and family members. Mark Chiarello has written the introduction. Genius, Isolated is the comics biography everyone will be talking about this year!

Born in New York City in 1928, Alex Toth attended what is now the School of Visual Arts and broke into the comic book field as a teenager. During his sixty-year professional career, he became known as the "artists' artist"—he became very much like his great hero, Noel Sickles—the guy all the others wanted to draw like. In the 1960s he entered the animation field and became equally well-known and respected for his groundbreaking designs for Space Ghost and The Herculoids, among other series.