Alex Toth (25 June 1928 - 27 May 2006; USA)
Alex Toth was one of the most influential artists in American comics. He ranked Dan Spiegle among his main graphic influences.

While still at school, he began his career at the age of 15, working in the comic book field through Steve Douglas' Famous Funnnies shop, illustrating true stories for Heroic magazine. After graduating from the High School of Industrial Art, Shelly Mayer hired him to work at National/DC Comics and he worked there from 1947 to 1952. He worked on superhero stories starring among others 'The Flash', 'Dr. Mid-Nite', 'The Atom' and 'Green Lantern'.

Toth also started working with Warren Tufts on a daily newspaper strip called 'Casey Ruggles'. In 1952, Toth moved on to Standard Comics, where he worked on crime, war and romance comics. During his military service in Japan (1954-56), he did a weekly adventure strip called 'Jon Fury' for the base paper Depot Diary.

After his army service, Toth joined Western Publishing Company, where he specialized in drawing comic book versions of motion pictures and television shows like 'The Land Unknown' and his most famous one, 'Zorro'. By this time he also settled in California.

It was a small step to television, and in 1960, Toth became art director for the 'Space Angel' television series. He worked as a storyboard and design artist on realistic Hanna-Barbera shows during most of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, he illustrated and wrote his own stories for the Warren magazines Eerie, Creepy and The Rook, including 'Bravo! for Adventure', starring the character 'Jesse Bravo'.

Alex Toth was a strong graphic influence on José Delbo, Raye Horne, Primaggio Mantovi, Lucas Nine, Paul Pope, John Romita, Sr., Julio Shimamoto and Ron Wagner.
Source: Lambiek