Sunday's small, relaxed convention took me back decades. Boxes of old comics, artists sketching, and that was about it -- but quite enough for a pleasant time.
A highlight was getting to know Rick Hoberg, who preceded me into the field by a few short years so that we have many people and experiences (he's done a lot more storyboarding than I ever did, though) in common.
He told an anecdote from his earliest days about the collision of two great Comics Artist Egos: Alex Toth and Russ Manning.
Rick, Dave Stevens and Bill Stout were working for Manning as assistants at the time, getting out Tarzan comics in Manning's style for a European publisher.
Alex brought in a backup story he'd done. Masterful comic art, of course: Tarzan in the desert. I can imagine the simple, graphic curves of dunes Alex would've played with like nobody else.
Manning thought it was great, but...
"Beautiful job, Alex. Of course we'll have to redraw the faces to match the way I do Tarzan."
Instantly the hair on the assistants' neck hairs prickled. "That's not gonna happen," said a steely Toth.
So they went at it, verbally, while the assistants tried to keep their eyes on their boards. The shoutfest ended when Toth tore the art pages to pieces.
"He took them with him," says Rick. "He probably knew I would've picked 'em all up and taped them together the minute he left!"
I wonder: were those pages among Toth's effects when he died? Or did he throw them out?
Tragic.
Jeez, how many times did Toth tear up pages? The more stories I hear about him, the clearer it becomes that my youthful picture of Toth as the gallant victim of a crushing System was romantic poppycock. Toth seems to have been a complex and flawed individual whose main enemy was himself. Of course that description could fit many of us...but most of us aren't as talented or as skilled!
Posted by: ron harris | April 29, 2009 at 04:26 PM