Thursday, December 14, 2017

More Alex Toth Supergirl



One of my all time favorite artists in comics is Alex Toth.

Literal books have been written describing his genius so I won't try to encapsulate it here. But his dynamic and economical style was brilliant. Everything is just incredible.

I always found it vexing that there just wasn't much Toth Supergirl out there. The most I found was a single panel in the Super Friends Treasury edition. And even then it is of a Supergirl statue.

So imagine my utter joy when this Toth image of Bronze Age Supergirl was forwarded to me.

Talk about hot pants. This is about as cheeky a Kara as you're going to see. But it amazes me just how much Toth is able to convey with his lines. This is just gorgeous.


So kudos to @Charlton_Hero and Rob from the Fire and Water podcasts for sending this to me via Twitter.

It is concept art for an Underoos ad campaign.

Be still my nostalgic heart!!!!

You can also see Toth takes on Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Superman as well!! Just gorgeous.


I felt obligated to post this Toth image from the Super Friends treasury. I thought for sure I had shared it here before but I couldn't find it.

Incredible. Toth always did a jaw-dropping Black Canary.


And I have to say I like Toth the man as well as the artist. In the Super Friends treasury is his credo. Here is how he ended it, a quote so perfect that I printed this and had it taped to my office door for a week a while back.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great finding. That Bronze Age Kara is gorgeous and fierce.

An underoos ad campaign? Funny how back then Supergirl and Batgirl were considered at the same level than Superman and Wonder Woman... before DC decided the best way to lure readers into their universe was torching the franchise, fridging heroines and damaging characters.

Anonymous said...

Interesting noob artist error though, spike heels on Supergirl's boots...Silver-Bronze Age Kara always sported modest flat heels on her multivarious footgear down thru the years save for her self consciously mod "new costume" circa 1970 and a four panel ball gown variant that same year.
:)
But there is here yet another "Road Not Taken" I can only imagine how awesome an Alex Toth Drawn Supergirl feature could have been....

JF

William Ashley Vaughan said...

Toth was one of the great masters of comic book art. Zorro, Batman, Space Ghost, Bravo for Adventure, there was nothing his expressionistic genius couldn't render unforgettable. I agree with 2nd Anonymous that his never having illustrated a Supergirl story is a great loss to comics. Imagine if he had illustrated Supergirl in the dollar Superman Family comic instead of Don Heck and been allowed to ink himself. Heck was a capable professional to be sure, but not a game-changing genius who reinvented comics every time he put pencil to page. The Doom Patrol guest shot would have been dazzling. IDW would probably be doing an artists edition of it today.

Anonymous said...

"Talk about hot pants. This is about as cheeky a Kara as you're going to see. But it amazes me just how much Toth is able to convey with his lines. This is just gorgeous."

The flight picture, graceful, the middle one, fierce. But the one on the right...HELLO YOU FOXY BABE! Kara is SEXY!