Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #2

I have mentioned in several previous posts that Alex Toth was one of the master comic illustrators to come out of the Golden Age.  He started working in the late 1940's and was active through the 1970's...with a smattering of books in the 80's and 90's.  He passed away not that long ago in Southern California.

                 

One of his earlier, and scarcer, books is The Adventure of Rex the Wonder Dog.  This is issue #2 from 1952.  The title alone smacks of early 1950's nostalgia!  The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide lists the first three books in the run as "scarce".  And the Gerber Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books says that these issues rate a 7 out of 10 on scarcity...so probably only about 20 to 50 copies remain.  Well...whether all that is true or not doesn't really matter...these are very cool books with great Alex Toth art!

I picked up this book at a Heritage Comics auction last week, and while the dog on the cover is perhaps a little stiff, the girl is pure Toth.  Where Toth excelled was in the layout of the page to communicate a story.  While this is not so much in evidence here or in the interior art of this book...by the late 1950's he had matured into a master graphical story teller.

Oh...the Daisy air rifle ad on the back is just a bonus!

Until next time...

Blogging here on Sundry Collectibles and at Disney Postcards on, you guessed it, Disney Postcards!