#joe maneely

[tomoleary]

Joe Maneely (1926–1958) “Your Name Is Frankenstein” Menace #7 (1953) Source

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Mad Mamba! - art by Joe Maneely (1954)

[alternateworldcomics]

Cover by Joe Maneely.

[curtvilescomic]

Joe Maneely

Joe Maneely was born 18th of february 1926, a hundred years ago. He was a gifted illustrator who did comics in his school magazine but really got in to comics after military service in 1948.

For about 10 years he drew about everything during one of richest eras of American comics

Funnies to Science Fiction, pin-ups, war, westerns, romance.

And he was fast. Partly due to very loose pencils, mere ovals and stick figures Maneely brought to life inking him-self.

I found his work through comics about other comics creators such as Maneely's friend Stan Lee

High praise but why then I had not heard of such a master?

Yes he died only 32 years old falling between subway cars. Yes he had lost his glasses and was drunk. Coming from a party with other Atlas comics ( precursor of Marvel) who had been let go.

I can't say it was a Suicide, but the subway refused to compensate and selfharm was more of a taboo in june 1958.

[kekwcomics]

ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS #25 (Marvel, 1952)

"The Mad Mamba!"

Art: Joe Maneely.

[pulpsandcomics2]

Marvel Tales #116 July 1953 cover by Joe Maneely

[thepopculturearchivist]

The lighter side of Atlas war comics

Writer Hank Chapman was the same man who did many of Atlas' grimmest, grittier war stories. Artist Joe Maneely was Atlas' ace penciller and reportedly Stan Lee's best friend in the bullpen. Combat Kelly (did any soldier in a real war ever nickname himself, or get nicknamed, 'Combat?') is a vestige of the old wild Irishman stereotype, a relic of an era when a penchant for fighting made many a man lovable, at least in fiction. Despite the realistic violence and death above, Kelly's is often a slapstick war of superheroic stunts, the man himself is a bit of a meathead, and the book's tone, to be fair to Chapman, is tongue-in-cheek. This is most obvious (or most cheeky) when you consider Kelly's prime antagonists.

Above and below from COMBAT KELLY Issue 2.

No wonder the war dragged on, if North Korea, notorious for its autarchic austerity, secretly harbored an army of dragon ladies to ensnare the naively horny Americans. The lady in red above lures Yank yokels into captivity by pretending to protect other GIs. Kelly avoids the same trap only because he and sidekick Cookie had a ringside seat for the previous performance. Yet how can a he-man like Combat Kelly overcome these concentrated, weaponized female wiles. Were this a typical Atlas war comic, he'd probably kill them. But because he stars in what aspires to be an actual comic book, he relies on a strange, almost hidden charm.

Similarly, when Kelly's unit arrives to rescue him from the "North Korean WACS," they find him and Cookie jitterbugging with the Juche Amazons, having introduced them to swing music. I've only browsed through other issues, but they seem to show Kelly consistently engaged with Communist cuties of this sort. If that was Kelly's war, perhaps one can understand why he calls himself "Combat."

[charnel-grounds]

Adventures Into Terror #29 - Atlas, March 1954.

Cover art by Joe Maneely.