Of all the tragedies that have befallen the comics industry the untimely death of Joe Maneely looms as one of the largest. He was really good, really fast, and versatile. He died in a way as gruesome as the horror stories he illustrated so magnificently: in a fatal fall off a Long Island commuter train. This was in 1958: he was thirty two years old.

     After growing up and going to art school in Philadelphia, Maneely's work began appearing in comics—including Hillman's Airboy—in the late 1940s, but it was while working for Stan Lee at Atlas in the "pre-Marvel" days of the early 1950s that his style matured. Lee and Maneely worked well together, and the vast majority of his art appeared on and in Atlas titles.

     Astonishing #7 (December 1951) is an early Maneely classic, with Joe providing a lurid cover and illustrating two stories inside. "Nightmare" is a seven-page exercise in psycho-horror, as a young woman has a terrifying dream where her husband's old flame shows up at their third anniversary party and seduces him and persuades him to murder his wife. But the plot gets desperately deeper when she wakes to find it is the morning of the party and everything goes just as she had dreamed. After a couple of loops of that she is ready to snap...

     The second Maneely yarn closes the book, a six-page sci-fi epic, "Out of the Darkness." After the atomic war of 1999 contaminated Earth people moved underground to survive, but after 2000 more years they began giving birth to blind ratlike babies, and their chief scientist concludes that they must reclaim the surface world or be overtaken by their rodent progeny. However, they find the surface to be inhabited by dinosaur-like monsters who are resistant to their atomic ray blasts. There's scant suspense as the scientist has them construct bows and arrows to fight the beasts, but it's a fun read anyway and Joe's pictures yield potent pleasure.

     This ish also includes a good horror story that was one of John Romita's first Atlas efforts. What a team Marvel-Atlas was building back then!

     Adventures Into Weird Worlds #3 (March 1952) features an outstanding Maneely cover; plus he not only drew the story that goes with it but wrote it as well! "The Thing That Waited" has a dying Yankee fighter pilot over Korea discover that aliens have invaded Earth and—disguised as people—are about to launch their final takeover. There's a political twist ending that has been done many times before but still packs some punch especially when combined with the luminous intensity of Maneely's art.

     This issue contains a second intriguing political parable, "The Quiet Men," where the ship that dropped the first cosmic bomb and began the war that destroyed Earth becomes a "Flying Dutchman" of space, mystifying aliens as it drifts by on its ghostly course. Also therein is another tale of interplanetary invasion by beings that take the shape of humans, "The Empty City." It's nothing surprising, but it's readable and well-drawn.

     Our next "Marvelous" Maneely masterpiece is the cover to Adventure Into Weird Worlds #27 (March 1953). This castle of horror scene shows Joe's ability to distill narrative into a vivid image. Although he didn't draw any of the stories, there's some incredible art inside, including work by two more towering giants, Matt Fox and Robert Q. Sale.

     In mid-1954, Atlas began toning down their covers in preparation for the brave new world of censorship that was due to take over after the Senate investigations issued a "clean up or else" ultimatum. But Maneely could still turn out powerful covers, as he did for Journey Into Unknown Worlds #30 (August 1954). A more psychological approach was applied—inside and out. Joe's cover focuses on the facial reactions of those around the invisible man. Inside, the new trend is exemplified by "The Madman" about a battle-scarred Navy captain who's still living in fear of a Jap attack while his greedy relatives are trying to get him certified as insane. But on the day they succeed the long-dreaded assault begins... It's a winner, handsomely drawn by Mort Lawrence.

     Atlas ran into problems in 1957 when publisher Martin Goodman attempted an end run around his distributor that backfired and forced them to cancel most of their titles and sever relationships with their creators. Based on the evidence of Tales of the Unexpected #22 (February 1958), Maneely ended up at DC. He illustrates a yarn in that ish, a book made even more Marvel-like by having a monster cover and story by Jack Kirby. But this was just before his fatal accident.

     Be that as it may, it is Maneely's Atlas work that's most memorable. Stan Lee once said that `Joe was so fast and so good we could have just about put out a line of books drawn solely by him." This look at some of his fantasy art only hints at his output; he was also adept at war, western, humor, and historical adventure. While it might be fun to speculate about the wonderful work he could have done on pre-hero Marvel monsters and even the superheroes; it is the work he did do that will endure. He was one of the shining stars of the pre-Code era, working for what I feel is the greatest company... during the greatest era of comics!

Pat Calhoun has been collecting, researching and appreciating comic books since the early 1960s, and is a nationally recognized comic book historian. Pat resides in Santa Rosa, California.