Should You Add the Alex Toth Zorro Remastered Edition to Your Shelf?

[00:00:00]Sometimes an impulse buy is totally worth it. [music] Thanks for joining me. My name is Daryl and I am the host of Read Your Comics.

[00:00:10]Today I am looking at something I backed as a Kickstarter over a year ago and kind of just forgot about it and it showed up this week in the mail. So it was a nice little surprise to be like, "Oh yeah, I ordered that book." And of all things, it's Zoro. Now I grew up liking Zoro. Oddly enough, I think my earliest memory of Zoro was Zoro the gaylbade from 1981 where Zoro's effeminite brother had to step in and be Zoro for him while he was recovering from an injury. And I just remember that like the brother would wear different colored costumes and stuff. But I also think there was a uh cartoon that was coming out around the same time and I did see the Disney show in syndication, you know, some somewhere in that time period. So, you know, early8s, I was definitely a kid that enjoyed watching Zoro. I remember liking it a lot. Now, I didn't continue with my fascination of Zoro. Did I watch the Antonio Banderas movie in the '9s? Yes, I did. But I wasn't buying comics and stuff of Zoro over the years. So I can't really say this is something that would have appealed to me if it wasn't for Alex Toe. So when this popped up in my Kickstarter feed, I was I guess I was browsing Kickstarter or maybe it was suggested to me from another campaign that I had backed and my initial reaction was like kind of like uh that's pretty cool, you know, Alex Toth doing it, but I don't know. like I kind of hemmed and hawed over it and I think I jumped on probably like the last day or two of the of the campaign and I don't know what happened but the book got majorly delayed and took over a year to make its way to my front porch because I've just am not a huge Zoro collector.

[00:02:00]I kind of forgotten about it. I think it was initially intended to show up at some point in like November of 2025 and it didn't show up until June of 26. So yeah, it just kind of left my mind that I had even ordered it, but I was happy to see it show up. So we're going to be looking at Zoro the remastered edition from Alien Books. And it comes in this nice kind of fabricy slip case. You can see it's kind of shiny. It's got a little bit of a gold uh it's not really Well, I guess it's like a foil over the fabric. It definitely has a reflection there. You can kind of see the embossed areas of his hat and his sword going up right here. This is a die-cut Z revealing the hard coverver book underneath. On the other side, we have this cool uh Zoro silhouette that is also embossed as well. Um, you can definitely see the reflection of this velvety, well, not velvet. It's like a satin. It's like a satin fabric over the slip case. So, it's a nice it's a nice slip case to this book. Now, they are selling these through normal retail channels. I don't know if they come with the slip case or not or if the slip case was something unique for the Kickstarter, but the book itself is going to be available probably through anything Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Uh I would assume that your local comic shop would be able to order it as well. So, let's go ahead and take a look at the inside of the book as well. So, we have a nice hard cover.

[00:03:34]So, this these lines were essentially what was embossed on the cover there.

[00:03:40]It's pretty much the same back with that silhouette, just a negative version of it. And it tells us what is collected in this book. Now, I couldn't remember when this showed up if this was newspaper comic strips collected or some to type of comic. It is from Disney comics that were published by Gold Key in the 1960s.

[00:04:00]The TV show I think aired like from 1957 to 58 and these comics are based off of that TV show. I don't know if it's an adaptation of the stories from that show or if it's just version of Zoro that aligns with the show.

[00:04:20]So it is a little bit oversized. You see it to the size of a standard comic right here. So a little bigger than your standard comic book. And I'm always going to approve of oversized format because I love looking at the art. And we're talking about Alex Toth here. So, we're going to get some really nice examinations of Alex Toth art. Let's go ahead and dive in. Um, came with these stickers, like a little sticker sheet that was inside the book when I first opened it up. Kind of neat.

[00:04:54]I like the inside papers right here with the kind of classic colorings. They're keeping some screen tones, at least for this. You can It's blown up so you see the edge of the of the ink lines, which is nice to see on this interior paper.

[00:05:09]The back is the same way.

[00:05:13]And then same thing over here. We have a nice blow up of a panel. So you see that just brush stroke real clear right there. So as I was saying, Alex Toth is kind of the selling point on this to me.

[00:05:28]I think Zoro is a is a cool character. I mean, it inspired much of the superhero stuff and the pulp heroes that we know today, such as Batman. I'm not sure without Zoro would there even be a Batman, at least as we know him. Now, they did recolor this uh and relettered it. That's part of the remastering that they say they did. I don't have any original issues to look at, so I can't really compare if they kept certain color tones and stuff exactly the same.

[00:05:59]I will say I don't think they took the Marvel method of recoloring where they used the eyropper tool in Photoshop, picked a color, and then just paint bucketed down in like a big open area and let that be the recoloring method.

[00:06:14]They actually did take some time and care to uh use modern coloring methods, but it's still it's still flat coloring, so it does look pretty good. Before we even get into it, my only complaint is I think it would have been nice for him to use some screens or some half tones here and there just to give it a little bit more of that authentic feel. As for relettering, if I'm not mistaken, I think Gold Key used a lot of type lettering anyway. So again, I can't compare it. you're removing hand lettering for type lettering uh wouldn't be ideal to me. But if Gold Key was using type face lettering and they updated it with digital lettering digital lettering obvious and they update it with obviously digital lettering, but at least have it have that handlettered look to it. I think that would be kind of an improvement. But here are colorist all credited right here. Looks like we had three different guys working on the recoloring. And then there's a a backup story actually written by Howard Shaen and art by Eduardo Russo. That's obviously a more current story. In the back it says it was something that only saw print in Spain, I think it said. So, and this is the first English printing of that particular Zoro story, but we'll get to it in a few minutes. Um, nice introduction by Howard Chaken just kind of giving a little history of Zoro the character. Oh, there it even mentions Zoro the gay blade and it was a funny movie. I remember it being funny and like when I was trying to remember like what was something that came out in the 80s that made me like watch Zoro and I didn't even know it was called the gay the gayblade. [laughter and gasps] So when I looked it up and I watched the trailer I was like this is the Zoro movie that I started watching Zoro on.

[00:08:11]But it's kind of funny. It it was a funny movie. I kind of wouldn't mind watching it again. Anyway, he's kind of giving a description of Zoro and Dell comics.

[00:08:22]I haven't read read this in full, so you know, it's kind of his appreciation for Zoro and the the mediums that Zoro has appeared in. Alex Sigora, who I believe is kind of the person that put this book together, giving his version of Zoro through the greatest TV era and discussing the Disney TV show here as well. And it's and it's kind of a short um intro and then we jump right into the comics. So often when we discuss Toth, we're talking about, you know, a minimalistic approach. uh fewer lines to convey the story in its core essence, but that doesn't mean that he's a stranger to detail. Look at this opening panel right here. Look at all of these people watching this sword fight on the deck of this ship. Look at the rope right here. Now, you can like zoom in on this rope and see the brush strokes. And it is simple just little, you know, simple brush strokes to convey that this is rope on the mast of a ship.

[00:09:29]But we shouldn't confuse that for lack of detail or lack of backgrounds. I mean, look at this is a background right here. This is a background. Um, you're on a a ship, so you don't need a lot of background in the sky, for instance. And it's more about the character movement and acting throughout these two pages.

[00:09:48]and you can look at the pages instantly and recognize this is just a little practice they're having. Um, obviously right here it looks like a fierce battle, but then he's smiling as he's won the fight. And right here he's giving him his sword back without even reading the dialogue. I get that these two men are actually friends and this is more or less practice.

[00:10:12]Now, one thing that really attracted me to this book about Toth doing Zoro, Zoro is all dressed in black, and that lends itself perfectly to Toth's style. You're going to get a lot of silhouettes.

[00:10:29]You're going to get a lot of drapery of simple brush strokes to convey that drapery. And so, as I kind of flip through here, I'm looking for our first appearance of Zoro. And here we go on this big square panel. He's on the back of his horse tornado. I mean, we have the blues of the coloring, but if in solid black and white, just a brush stroke right here to convey his shoulder underneath his cloak. Here's just another few lines to convey the folds and the fabric. More simple lines to convey the velvet look of the coat of the horse. And we have so much communicated without getting into hyper rendering. Now, when I look at this too, I should mention they did a special black and white edition for the Kickstarter, and now I'm regretting not getting that copy. I believe it was like you had to get both. I don't think you could get one or the other. It was like a they came together or you didn't get any. So, it probably like doubled the price. And since this was kind of an impulse buy, I just got the base tier of the book. But looking at this panel alone and I'm like, man, I wish I'd gotten that black and white version.

[00:11:44]But look at these pages of Zoro. I mean, again, look at the drapery of his cape right here. You see the folds. You see the way it is hanging on his back. And this character clad in black going against the dark of night is the perfect marriage of the artist with the material he's working on. Uh this panel stands out to me for the coloring really. They could have if they wanted to rendered this out with coloring, but instead they chose to go with just flat shading instead of trying to model it out. And with toth you cannot try to model it out. It would look terrible. I mean, if somebody out there has done it for fun, let me see it. Prove me wrong.

[00:12:31]Some beautiful swashbuckling action here. If I recall about the show, now I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but there were these two Spanish police or soldiers, whatever, whatever their role is exactly, and one of them was kind of uh overweight and a little bit of comic relief. He was often bumbling and Zoro getting the best of him over and over again. And that would be this guy right here. Look at this panel. The perspective of him standing on the awning taking on multiple soldiers at one time. I love this swish in the lettering. Lettering like that, I think, is often the artist itself, but I don't know for sure if that was something Toth added or the letter at the time.

[00:13:23]Now, the inside of his cape is not black, so it's a different approach to much thinner lines as opposed to just a broad brush stroke to convey those folds. And then we have the use of silhouettes regularly throughout the whole book.

[00:13:46]I like these opening pages to set it up.

[00:13:49]I think these were part of like anthology Disney books, so they didn't take up a whole issue, so he couldn't do like a full splash page or giving up too much storytelling real estate to do a full splash page. But you get these great half page panels to set it up. And then more cinematic views right here. I mean, talk about backgrounds. You know, don't don't ever say Alex Toth did not use backgrounds or employ backgrounds effectively. Even with this door open to the outside, there's just enough out there though to convey other buildings right outside the door. And even the way this picture is hanging on the wall, you know, it's on one of those wires that kind of hangs off the nail a little bit.

[00:14:30]So, it's tilted off the wall. Over here, we're finding out about uh Zoro's secret passage to where he hides his Zoro gear and stuff. It's behind the fireplace. And I like the detail of the stucco on this fireplace.

[00:14:48]You know, it's not a stone fireplace, but these little blobs of ink convey the texture of stucco.

[00:15:00]I like this panel a lot just with the lighting. Now, I would like to see this one in black and white because this white color and all the way up here is doing quite a bit of work. But these figures and these stairs bleed into the blackness on the side. And that is to he's leading his assistant here through this tunnel which also leads out of a hidden cave into the forest. And this is a great panel as well of just solid black with the silhouette as they come through the vines into the woods. If you look up the trailers or clips of the old show, he manages the likenesses really well.

[00:15:41]Another great establishing shot of this uh Spanish vista as a monastery. Maybe this guy looks like a monk. But look at the garden. Look at this fountain. And this I guess this is like a cornucopia that this uh little kid statue is pouring into the fountain. Just simple lines though conveying everything about this for a book that was definitely a licensed property for Gold Key to have to publish this Disney story.

[00:16:12]To did not just phone it in and just take a paycheck. I mean, he really put a lot of effort into making this Zoro book look fantastic.

[00:16:22]Now, here we have, you know, Zoro and his secret identity trying to act foolish and clumsy. Does that remind you of any other secret identities that we know throughout comics? Bruce Wayne did not act that way, but we all know that Clark Kent came off as a little bit nerdy and goofy to hide who he really was. Same thing is happening here with Zoro.

[00:16:50]We'll kind of zip through again. Some great action sequences here. Anytime there's a big sword fight going on, I I think it's done really well. The choreography is great. And he's gets he's getting shot at here as it's missing over his shoulder and he leaps down onto his horse to escape.

[00:17:11]Another great use of silhouettes. He employs these horizontal panels too. Very well.

[00:17:21]And this was a TV show, not a movie. So everything was in the 43 dimension. So for him to make this a widescreen shot is taking that artistic liberty. Even this where he leapt over with the horse over this canyon or ravine and the silhouettes. This is kind of the silhouette that would be used on the back of the book. Great silhouettes here as well.

[00:17:49]Nice lettering.

[00:18:02]So when you think about toth and his you know influence on animation for instance think of space ghost and the hercuids and so forth and it's so simplistic uh very so minimal uh that was more of a strategy I think for the animation at the time.

[00:18:22]But I'm looking at this and seeing quite a bit of detail the man is is using in all of this. I mean, you can see the brush strokes that he keeps relatively simple. And when you pull back, especially if this had been in black and white, everything would have been conveyed simply by looking at the pages and not having to read the dialogue. The story would have all been there. The dialogue adding extra context, of course. This is an interesting panel where the silhouette actually breaks the panel slightly and there's no panel outline lettering breaking the panel here with the crack of the whip and you get a whip battle on horseback.

[00:19:08]And I love the facial expressions all throughout this book. There's a lot of good closeups of grinning faces, uh, angry faces, and so forth. It does have a placeholder ribbon inside as well. I'm actually going to fold that up.

[00:19:33]anytime the pages cut to Zoro and he's always working at night so it he just blends into the shadows. See, another great closeup and facial expression, these corner faces he's doing. So, you can kind of see over the shoulder of the character. He's employing that trick quite often throughout this book. And this feels like a Disney production, too. The more I look at it, I'm kind of thinking like Pirates of the Caribbean and uh the rides, not so much the the movies, but in those just old 50s60s Disney movies. This it you feel that energy coming off of this. Look at that lettering.

[00:20:18]Another great silhouette of him on the horse is it, you know, bucks up. I think that might be how the show ended a lot as well. So, he employs that technique quite a bit. This panel, you definitely see the simplicity of the brush strokes to convey the the horse and the figure riding it. Very minimal here. No need for a background, but everything we need is conveyed quickly in this one quick panel.

[00:20:55]But when the extra detail is needed, he is there to put it in. There he is doing his trademark Z into the dirt.

[00:21:07]I was looking for a place he would do it with his sword somewhere in the book.

[00:21:12]That's a beautiful opening as well. I love when the way the cape hangs off of him. You know, Zoro also reminds me of the dread pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride as well. I mean, totally inspired by Zoro.

[00:21:31]There's an aloofness to that character as well.

[00:21:37]Beautiful panel right here. Complete black except for his face peeking through. You can't tell me that is not the beginnings of like Batman coming out of the shadow and just his eyes and his mouth appearing.

[00:22:04]I don't have enough Alex Toth in my collection. So that was also part of the inspiration to purchase this book. It was like, you know, I do have a nostalgic soft spot for Zoro, even if I never did collect comics and so forth.

[00:22:21]But adding some Alex Toth, a full colleed edition was the key selling point to picking this up. Uh, this page feels a little bit weak though. Now that I'm saying that, this this panel here feels especially weak. I don't know if maybe he was running out of a little gas for a minute here. Kind of got behind. I don't know. This if it's getting more minimal as it goes along, but you can kind of see the evolution of of him dropping backgrounds and such as he goes along. I'm guessing though that that may have been a product of the monthly grind on it, even though it looks like he's only doing about 10 pages per story chapter. Or maybe it's just when he wants to get to the action.

[00:23:24]I like that each strip seems to be its own little adventure, too. Its own little tale. This one was particularly short.

[00:23:33]Only four pages.

[00:23:41]Can even see the beginnings of like guys like Kelly Jones in this or I want to say Bernie writes. And I'm sure Bernie was inspired somewhat by Tooth, but you know, he he went for more of the hyper realism, but the just the shadows and Spotted Blacks, I think, of those guys that do the the gothic horror type of of storytelling. You can definitely see those influences in here. Harder edges, less organic curves.

[00:24:24]I do think the coloring is pretty decent in this. This is a pretty cool panel right here as well. I like the contrast of the yellow background. I wonder what these reflections in the sword hilt or rapier. What is that? The colorist doing that or do you think to put something there to uh show these like little reflections? There's definitely like a little slight kind of brush stroke here, a dry brush maybe, and then a, you know, heavier shadowing right there. But it's these colored squiggles that kind of seem like that that would have been a colorist edition. That would have been nice to have the black and white edition for that.

[00:25:05]So, you kind of get the gist of the book.

[00:25:08]Um, let's skip to the uh backstory with Howard Chaen and Eduardo Russo. Just take a quick look at it.

[00:25:20]So, you can tell the inspiration that Eduardo Russo had from Toth for these panels alone. He's definitely using the same version of Zoro. Lots of use of spotted blacks. Eduardo Russo, he has that same kind of uh Gothic feel that I was saying about Kelly Jones or Bernie Ryson as well.

[00:25:42]And seeing his stuff right after looking at Toth, you definitely catch that inspiration instantly. He's he likes doing these inset panels on top of each other. That's a trick he employs quite a bit in his work. This closeup, look at the detail of that finger. That's almost pulling a little bit of Kirby on top of a tooth.

[00:26:06]This looks good as well. I'd like to see a an extended Zoro story like this. And I'm sure Chaken wrote probably a pretty good story. And here's some of his pencil roughs.

[00:26:23]So that's kind of neat to have the Russo pencil roughs at least in the back.

[00:26:29]Would have been nice to have some toast stuff like that if it even still exists.

[00:26:36]So, that's pretty much this book in a nutshell. Um, one thing I did forget to point out is the cool ends. Oh, well, let's do it this way. I like how the the printed side. That's a nice little touch on all all sides right there. The two rapiers and the Zoro logo.

[00:26:58]So yeah, impulse buys do pay off. Having a little bit more to in the collection is definitely nice to have. I think Alien Books did a pretty nice job of this package here. As I said earlier, I don't know if this uh slip case comes in the versions that will be in the store or if it was a Kickstarter exclusive.

[00:27:22]I will say I don't really love the die cut out of the slip case though. I feel like these Z's, these things on the inside could easily get caught on a on something in a bookshelf and pull them and mess it up. But, you know, it's it's a nice quality slipcase with the fabric cover and everything. And the book inside, it's terrific. I I do like it.

[00:27:46]My only real critique would be I would have liked the coloring to have a little bit more of a vintage authentic feel to it than what we got, but it does look good. That's all I got for this one.

[00:27:59]Until next time, read your comics.