Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and eighty-first installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.
As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends.
NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!
COMIC LEGEND:
After agreeing to let DC use one of his commissions as the cover to an issue of Birds of Prey, Alex Toth then refused to sign the authorization form for the payment, so the cover had to be replaced.
STATUS:
True
My pal Devon S., of Seven Hells fame, asked me this last month:
I have a question about the unused Toth cover for BoP #66 that I’ve never been able to find answers to. The cover seems to have been a commission done in the 70’s and was retooled as a cover for issue 66.
I remember really looking forward to this one because not only did it sport a Toth cover but had Michael Golden on interior art, as well. Just a few weeks before publication, it was announced that the Toth cover was pulled for unspecified reasons and was eventually replaced by the Dan Brereton/Phil Noto cover. It’s a fine cover but let’s be honest, it’s nowhere near as great as the Toth cover.
Any ideas on why it was pulled? I know Toth could be incredibly prickly at times and would pull art away for various artistic and moral reasons. Was this another one of those?
Alex Toth first drew Black Canary when she became an honorary guest of the Justice Society in All Star Comics #38...
He later drew a legendary Black Canary story (from a Denny O'Neil story) in Adventure Comics #418...
This led to Toth being asked for a lot of Black Canary commissions over the years...
The always innovative DC editor Mark Chiarello came up with the idea of having one of those Toth commissions turned into a Birds of Prey cover...
However, sure enough, it never saw print and instead Dan Brereton had to do a Toth-esque replacement cover...
As it turns out, another pal, Timothy M., brought this topic up on Facebook in an Alex Toth fan group last week and Mark Chiarello explained that he had asked Toth if they could use the commission for the cover (and that they would pay Toth as if it were a new cover) and Toth said yes, but then refused to sign the voucher when it arrived, so they couldn't use the cover. No explanation was given.
Oh well, it's a shame, as that cover looked amazing.
Thanks to Devon for the question and thank to Timothy and Mark for the information!
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In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Was Nickelodeon's famous green slime created by mistake?
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Feel free to suggest ideas for future legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com!