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Fred "Toby" Bluth, Illustrator

By Jay Bell
© Jay Bell 2003

Cartoon artist Fred "Toby" Bluth, a Texas native who was partially raised in Utah and Los Angeles, CA, was the human-interest feature in the October 1975 After Dark magazine. His art included homoerotic cartoons. Though raised in a "typically programmed Mormon family," as of 1975, his "formal dogma of any denomination leaves him cold." His simple statement of faith is, "My work is my religion:"

There are three words I'd like to see eliminated from our vocabulary. First gay. Then straight. Then bi. They categorize falsely... They should not exist. They put bonds around your spirit, restrictions that say, I can be no more than this or that. The main concern whether you respond to a person shouldn't depend on whether that person had indoor or outdoor plumbing. You're not always going to be using the plumbing anyway.

One of Toby's cartoon characters adorned the offices of The Advocate during its first years of publication. It was affectionately seen as the magazine's mascot. One brother, Don, was an animator, another a sculptor, while a third designed jewelry. "Toby" looked at his life as a series of conflicts: "They're like the hill that's beyond the hill you just climbed. They give you a chance to increase your capability. To grow."

In more recent years, Toby has become, just as his brother Don, a prestigious illustrator, designer, and art director. His work includes children's books such as Babes in Toyland, Tom Sawyer, and Little Luv Angel, and movies such as Babes in Toyland (direction, production design) and The Tigger Movie (production design).

In 1997, Bluth stated the following: "I am absolutely convinced that among other infinite qualities, God possesses an enormous sense of humor. Please don't misunderstand me; I do not pretend to know who God is, however, I do know she exists."

Links:

Toby Talk: In His Own Words...

Toby Bluth--College Friend

Sources:

Toby Bluth, Toby Talk: In His Own Words... Animation World Magazine, Issue 2.8, November 1997.

Viola Hegyi Swisher, "Toby Bluth--Both of Him," After Dark, October 1975, 54-58.

Mark Thompson, "Introduction," Long Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement, Mark Thompson ed. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press 1994), xix.