What becomes a legend?

If you’re like me and you’re a child of the sixties there are some things you can tap into - vivid memories, touchstones of childhood. They are the things you can look back upon fondly and they are only enhanced by the prism of memory.

I imagine every generation since mine has grown up with their own Satuday Morning Cartoons. Consequently, I think those cartoons are the things which tie us into others of our generation. When I was growing up, Spider Man was a decent cartoon (at the time done by Ralph Bakshi), the Fantastic Four, the Banana Splits, there are others to be sure I’m just throwing a few out there.

One of the really good cartoons was Johnny Quest. Johnny Quest has managed a pretty long shelf life, I don’t know what they’re doing with the property right now but, I can remember the theme music to the cartoon, remember that the stories were always really good and that the animation was superlative. It came on towards the end of the slate of cartoons, I think it was on ABC at the time and it ran sometime after noon. It might have even been the last cartoon on the schedule before ABC switched over to Wide World of Sports r some other sports programming (of little interest to me as a kid).

Still, it was something to look forward to and savor.

If you get a chance or if you are a regular watcher of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the current series they broadcast, The Venture Brothers, is a tongue in cheek jab at the whole Johnny Quest thing. I love it for that very reason.

Years later as a teenager, I would buy these black and white horror magazines. They weren’t comics per se, but they always had great stories and great art. I had my favorites among the artist but, theree was one guys’ work which stood out so noticeably different from anyone elses. It was the simplicity of line, the clarity of storytelling, the deft use of tone that all combined to make something that was exceptional and extremely difficult to pull off look deceptively easy.

The man responsible for the work just passed away this weekend. Alex Toth, part of an ever dimmishing group of creators who blazed trails in a number of worlds. Click on the image below to be taken to a site where you can see some of the man’s wonderful work - his is truly a legacy to be admired.