Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954 [Paperback]

Greg Sadowski (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2011

A massive anthology collecting one of the medium’s indispensable masters: Alex Toth.

Toth’s influence on the art of comic books is incalculable. As his generation was the first to grow up with the new 10-cent full-color pamphlets, he came to the medium with a fresh eye, and enough talent and discipline to graphically strip it down its to its bare essentials. His efforts reached fruition at Standard Comics, creating an entire school of imitators and establishing Toth as the “comic book artist’s artist.” Setting the Standard collects this highly influential body of work in one substantial volume.

Toth began his professional career at fifteen in 1945 for Heroic Comics, but quickly advanced to superhero work for DC. Responding to the endless criticism of editor Sheldon Mayer and production chief Sol Harrison, the young artist strove toward a technique free of “showoff surface tricks, clutter, and distracting picture elements.” Simply put, he learned “how to tell a story, to the exclusion of all else.”

After falling out with DC in 1952, Toth moved west. He freelanced almost exclusively for Standard over the next two years, contributing classic work for its crime, horror, science fiction, and war titles. But perhaps most revelatory to the reader will be the romance collaborations with writer Kim Ammodt, Toth’s personal favorites. “I came to prefer them for the quieter, more credible, natural human equations they dealt with — emotions, subtleties of gesture, expression, attitude.”

To explain his take on comics, Toth would quote such proverbs as “To add to truth distracts from it,” or “The beauty of the simple thing.” He employed these axioms “to make clear how universal this pursuit of truth, clarity, simplicity, economy, in all the arts and many other disciplines really is — and has been for 6,000 years.” These and other observations regarding the comic book form will be collected in an essay based on Toth’s published and unpublished letters and interviews. Every page of Setting the Standard is restored to bring Toth’s unsurpassed graphics and page designs into full clarity, making this an essential edition for anyone with an appreciation of the art of graphic storytelling. 304 pages of full-color comics

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Five years after his death, comic-book artist Alex Toth is finally getting his due. Largely unknown to most comics readers, he’s recognized by knowledgeable fans and his fellow artists as one of the most skilled and innovative talents ever to ply the medium. He was recently the subject of the first volume of a massive, three-part biographical project (Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, 2011), and now comes this hefty collection of all 62 stories he illustrated for Standard Comics in the early 1950s. Working in the popular genres of the era—crime, horror, war, romance—Toth produced a string of stories more visually sophisticated than anything the field had seen. Particularly revelatory are the romance stories, in which the human-scaled, if formulaic and melodramatic, plotlines played to Toth’s strengths: economic yet expressive illustration, artful design, and incisive characterization. And when he was matched to a worthy script, such as the noirish crime tale, “The Crushed Gardenia,” the results were something to behold. Toth would go on to produce even more impressive work in subsequent decades, but this is where he began to leave the rest of the profession in the dust. --Gordon Flagg

Review

“The presentation of the comics themselves proves crisp and strong. The manner in which the increasingly valuable Sadowski and his publisher chose to present the supporting material is even better.” (Tom Spurgeon - The Comics Reporter )

“Greg Sadowski and Fantagraphics’ Setting the Standard is perhaps the best book on Alex Toth that has been published thus far... The book’s assemblage and design are very well done to make a package which is pulpy but tasteful, not cheap nor overly slick, not high/low cute or old-boy sentimental. It provides a complete and important body of work by a great cartoonist.” (James Romberger - The Hooded Utilitarian )

“If you’ve ever wanted to see what the 'big deal' is with Alex Toth, I can think of absolutely no better place to start. There’s no better bang for your buck this year than Setting the Standard.” (Alonso Nunez - Giant Fire Breathing Robot )

“Toth's work has long been admired for its distilled simplicity of black and white design, but these early pages fizz and bubble with life.” (Eddie Campbell (From Hell, Alec) )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics; First Edition edition (August 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606994085
• ISBN-13: 978-1606994085
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.1 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #532,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Genius Isolated August 3, 2011

By aglaess

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'll leave myself open to all kinds of debate, but I think this is a better book than the first volume of IDW's "Genius Isolated".

Why? Its the comics stupid! This has the entirety of Toth's Standard work, nicely restored and in color. I've seen some of these stories reprinted all over the place for the last 30 years or so, but almost never in color--as originally published.

Thats how comics should be. For all of its size, tons of space is devoted to copies of orginal artwork in the "Genius Isolated" book, but not much in complete, as published, color stories. As much as I love IDW's reprint books, I was dissapointed in that.

Overall, I find this to be better quality work than his early DC and later Dell work. The Dell stuff more than likely didn't pay well and I don't think that Toth devotred as much time to it, and early on at DC his was still learning his craft. Gems in there at places for sure, but overall, story for story, his Standard Comics output was outstanding.

You also get more total biographical information in Setting the Standard than in "Genius Isolated", with a long interview and then a biographical article in the back of the book.

I went for both books, but it you want only one Toth book this year, I'd go for Setting The Standard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Toth becoming Toth September 6, 2011

By F. Sean Burns

Format:Paperback

Editor Sadowski seems intent on putting as many worthwhile pages of great old (and sometimes forgotten)comic book art into print as he can- must be a thousand pages of top-notch stories so far in his books for Fantagraphics. SETTING THE STANDARD continues the run in excellent fashion.
We used to have to buy various B&W fanzines and the like to get perhaps one or two of these stories, printed in B&W; here are all of Toth's STANDARD comic stories, in carefully restored color, in one place. It's a textbook for serious comic fans, and SHOULD be a textbook for many modern comic illustrators that know how to draw exaggerated breasts and massively-muscled superheroes, but don't have a clue as to layout, pacing, realistic anatomy, etc. etc.
As usual for FANTAGRAPHICS, the cover is terrible (especially when compared to Dean Mullaney's GENIUS PERSONIFIED- you really CAN'T judge a book by its cover!). A dated 1950's juvenile delinquent, with a garish red background, probably will not impel many who are unfamiliar with Toth to pick up the book. Unfortunate, because this volume shows Alex Toth developing and becoming the artist we remember NOW over a seminal two-year period (that also included his only work for EC, considered masterpieces of comic art).
Get past the cereal-box cover and things immediately get better. Sadowski's keen graphic design sensibility gives a better idea of Toth's art in the first few pages. After a lengthy and informative interview with Toth from 1968,where he clearly defines his graphic philosophy, we have the stories where he first put his ideas to paper. We see Toth shrug off the ugly, pedestrian DC Comics house style he worked in prior to coming to Standard over the first few stories, and he soon blossoms into an artist with his own style and vision.
Although he was usually inked by others back then, the stories Alex inked himself are heads and tails above the rest. He seemed to already know where he was going, graphically. Eliminating the superfluous, spotting his blacks, using silhouettes effectively; all the traits we know him for now were being developed. It's interesting to compare the various styles the inkers bring to the table- some are excellent, some not so much. All are worth looking at.
The real eye-opener is how good the romance stories are. Toth really WAS the master of the small gesture; he brings a low-key "human-ness" to his characters, making them more real than what is usually found in four colors. The faces and expressions of the women he draws are priceless. Quietly, he conveys their emotions- an arched eyebrow, a smug smile, the upturned edge of a mouth, a petulant pout; he turns these talky, "not-much-happening" stories into tour-de-force showcases of how to draw a realistic comic story.
As usual, Sadowski's notes are concise, informative, and help illuminate the picture.
There are probably not enough zombies, breasts, fist fights, or explosions here for the average comic fan of today. That is their loss. "All" you get is a book with almost 400 (400!) pages of art by a master who is considered one of the greatest graphic illustrators that ever worked in comics. There is a reason Toth is called "The artist's artist" and held in the highest esteem by his fellow illustrators. This book shows us Alex Toth on his way to that reputation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding September 2, 2011

By Paul Bonanno

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've always been a big fan of Alex Toth. He is absolutely one of the finest (if not the finest) storyteller ever to draw comics. This book is one of the better collections of his work, and the interview with him was outstanding showing great insight to his life and thinking about his art. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in comics and wishes to see a fine collection by a great master of storytelling.