Appointment in Paris [Danger Trail #1] by Alex Toth

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Danger Trail #1 (July-August 1950)
© DC Comics
Story by France Herron; Art by Alex Toth

Irwin Allen's 'The Lost World' by Gil Kane Alex Toth

In 1960, Irwin Allen produced the 'The Lost World' starring Claude Raines, Michael Rennie, and David Hedison ('Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'). To help promote the movie Dell Comics produced a comic adaptation with art by Gil Kane (pencils) as part of the “Four Colors Movie Titles” book (#1145). (Amigo Steve Bissette assures me that the art is by Alex Toth. That was my first thought but the 'net said otherwise -- so, never trust everything you read on the web!)

Each month this title presented an adaptation of a different movie or TV show showing at the time. Dell never paid their artists or writers the top dollar offered by other publishers so the work produced by the artists almost always had a ‘rushed’ quality to it. However, the artists experienced little to no editorial interference and usually used this freedom to at least tell a good story.

Here are some of the more interesting pages from the book that also condense the story into 6 pages:

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If you liked these samples you can download the whole book as a VERY LARGE pdf courtesy of Hyperdave at Datajunkie.

As for Gil Kane, he would go on to fame in the 60’s as the artist who would revitalize The Atom and Green Lantern for DC Comics, and become Marvel Comics top cover artist in the 70’s.

The Spookman by Pat Boyette

Charlton Premiere V2, #1 (Sept. 1967). The Spookman by Pat Boyette & © Charlton Comics

Showing the influences of both Alex Toth and Steve Ditko by way of Milton Caniff, the late Pat Boyette continues to be an underappreciated artist, probably due to the fact that much of his work was published at Charlton.

According to the editorial in the first issue of Charlton Premiere, “The Spookman is Pat Boyette’s brain child and it too was mulled over and put aside until the advent of Charlton Premiere”. Despite a the poorly chosen name, The Spookman had an interesting shtick of time traveling to investigate what promised to be problems of the mystical variety – although his first story has him (or rather his assistant) indirectly responsible for the burning of Rome, all for the original desire to make a fast $10,000!

As far as I can tell this was The Spookman’s only appearance.


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The Demon © DC Comics

It’s interesting to note the similarity between The Spookman’s alter ego, Aaron Piper, and that of Jack Kirby’s The Demon, Jason Blood, right down to the white streak through their hair, even though Kirby’s creation was published a full five years after Boyette’s story.

The Origin of The Fox (1940) by Irwin Hasen

The Fox © current copyright holders

The Fox was created by writer Joe Blair and artist Irwin Hasen, and this story is his first appearance and origin from Blue Ribbon Comics #4 (June 1940). Hasen also worked on Johnny Thunder, the JLA, The Flash and The Green Lantern.

Irwin was frequently complimented in print by a Alex Toth who also illustrated some Fox stories for Red Circle Comics back in the '80's (you can see one here).

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Fortunately the goofy costume with the shirt shelves sticking out morphed into a more traditional crime-fighting costume over the course of the strip. As it stands, this story has a nice Bob Burden feel about it - one would almost expect The Flaming Carrot to show up!

The Fox by Alex Toth

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The Fox © current copyright holders