Creepy Presents Alex Toth by Alex Toth

​I’ve somehow never heard of Alex Toth before picking up this book at the library based solely on cover appeal. I mean, how can you not? Just look at that cover.
The thing is that cover is in color, but all the inside art is done in striking, stunning black and white with staggering mastery.
I haven’t really read either Eerie or Creepy comics (before my time and all that), but I do have an appreciation for that sort of thing. Now more so after reading this book.
The stories themselves are very much in line with TZ, Outer Limits and the like, but  some are slightly cheaper slightly cheesier gotcha thrills and scares and a bunch are quite dated…but the art…that art.
What the artist could do with black and white, with contrasts and shadows, it’s just epic. Panel after panel looks good enough to be a cover on its own.
This book is worth checking out just as an art book, just for looking at the artists’ work. Although he did also write and this volume does feature some of his stories.
And here’s a weird thing…an aside, if you will. Why did people draw women so shabbily back then? I’ve noticed it reading some old Stan Lee presents comics form the 60s and 70s. I mean, some men too, but mostly the male characters had sophisticated portraiture, complex and varied features, etc. All women look like weird dolls with the same tiny almost skeletal features. It’s like some really weird form of sexism.
Anyway, forgive the digression. The book itself was awesome. Toth did the darkness a great service. Recommended.