The best of the hard sci-fi/adventure illustrators If I could have my wish and could become any artist that I wanted to be- I'd be Alex Toth.
It came as a shock to me awhile back to finally realise that so much of the work that I admired over the years was drawn or designed by the same creative genius (Space Angel, Clutch Cargo, Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, Super Friends, The Rook, etc.)
This is a truly remarkable book that actually gets inside the head of one of the all time great animators and illustrators. Not only do you get hard to find material from limited circulation publications (from Bravo for Adventure, to The Fox, to Zorro), but you also have a great deal of unpublished material from Toth's personal sketchbooks. Not only that, but the artist writes extensive commentary about just how he concieves both characters and plots. Further, he comments on the artists that most influenced his own work and development over the years.
The introduction is written by Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates & Steve Canyon.)