Osgood has let me add one of my favorite artists (& thanks for the help, Osgood!)

Alex Toth

As an eight year old child, I was exposed to DC comics in July of 1960 (Atlas comics would come to me a few months later). I loved Infantino/Anderson, Jim Mooney, Schaffenberger, Boring, Kane, Swan, and yes- even Andru/Esposito (loved those Wonder Woman/Suicide Squad art). My first experience with Alex Toth art was House of Mystery #109 (April 1961), “The Track of the Invisible Beast”.

I remember the first time I viewed the art, I didn’t care for it. But as I looked at it more and more (and I did re-read a lot of these as an 8 year old), I REALLY liked his art. It wasn’t smooth like my favorites (infantino/Anderson), but it hooked me. I was delighted whenever I would come across a rare DC story, and soon found his work in some Dell comics (77 Sunset Strip among others), and Big Daddy Roth (!). Alex had been away from DC for 8 years, but here is his fourth art piece upon his return to DC.



image

MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #60, “The Alien Within Me”

Our fantastic story starts on a sunny day with our protagonist (and soon to be a hero), a geologist, observing a sphere descend onto the nearby road. The sphere is picked up by two local scientists, as our geologist observes through his binoculars. Suddenly, we get the first observation of a strange creature as it appears through the woods:
image


We find our geologist feels a strange sensation, and his body is immobilized until nightfall, when astonishingly, he realizes the creature he observed earlier is rising from his body:
image


The geologist trails the creature with the strange “tracking” device, as it heads toward town:
image


The creature makes its way to town with our protagonist following. The police try to stop it with their guns, but to no avail. Perhaps a flare might scare it off? The flare appears to affect the creature, and it seeks refuge once again in our geologist. But this time…:
image


…the police observe the creature shrink, and to their eyes, it appears (and does) change into a man! Our hero flees the scene before the police (“Shoot him!”) can bring him down.

Meanwhile, thieves make off with the sphere from the scientist’s laboratory (don’t ask how they knew about the sphere, after all, this is an 8 page DC story- but they DO realize this sphere could be worth millions!).

Our hero races through the night towards the laboratory, with the “the Alien within him”. But once again, the creature leaves his body:
image


Instead of being hostile, the creature kneels next to our geologist, and drew into the ground an interesting story, told in simple pictures. The sphere is a ticking time bomb, and is designed to ignite the sun on the dark side of the creature’s alien world (don’t ask!)- but it went off course and landed on Earth. Now the geologist understands the creature’s intent is to retrieve the bomb, and save our world by finding the sphere and returning it back to its planet.

The creature further explains in pictures that it is not really on our Earth, but is transmitted through space to our planet:
image


Although an image, the creature has some substance. The downside is that the creature can only come out at night, and needed our hero’s body to survive during the day. Now the race is on to find the bomb with both alien and man on the trail of the bomb/sphere.
They find the bomb in the thieves’ hideout:
image


Our hero and creature are about to broach the hideout, when the creature begins to fade away. Alone, our geologist bursts through the door:
image


Luckily, the police must have been tracking the creature, and enter the hideout right behind the geologist. The professors, who came with the police, recognize our hero, and inform the police not to interfere with our hero’s actions.

With the help of the professors, the sphere is lifted…
image


...into the creature’s hand. Just at the right moment too, as the creature fades away, but with sphere in hand!
The disaster is averted, and the hero of the story is not only our geologist, but the “alien within him”:
image


GREAT Alex Toth art (he signed on last page in case you didn’t know). This has the Toth sound effects, the starbursts, the “radiating lines” from the hero’s head, great inks,- just everything one comes to appreciate in Toth art. And this story may just kind of remind you of another character Toth would draw in another few years with a similar type of gimmick – but I really don’t need to say anything further to the true DC fan.



[Edited for formatting]


.

Last Edited By: Osgood Peabody Aug 25 11 10:31 PM. Edited 2 times.