From the DailyDead.Com: “Curiosity killed the cat…but what it did to this man is more horrorble than a thousand deaths!” Available now from Fantagraphics, The Atlas Artist Edition Vol. 1: Joe Maneely is a gorgeous, oversized edition that features 256 pages of never-before-reprinted stories from the golden age of comics! Just for Daily Dead readers, we have the horror comic book story The Little Black Box that you can read right now!
From the Press Release: “Fantagraphics is celebrating one of Marvel Comics’ top artists of the 1950s, Joe Maneely, with The Atlas Artist Edition Vol. 1: Joe Maneely, a full-color, oversize collector’s volume featuring 38 complete and never-before-reprinted stories, including 11 electric and spine-tingling stories written by Stan Lee. Sadly, Maneely died at the age of 32, but left behind a sprawling and impressive body of work. The book showcases the full range of his artistic chops, with 256 pages of glorious genre storytelling from the golden age of comics — including horror, humor, crime, science fiction, war, and westerns.
Joe Maneely was known for his draftsmanship, his versatility, and his speed. He could draw horror, science fiction, war, crime, Mad-style humor, Westerns, and funny animals with equal dexterity. His tactile, chiaroscuro graphic approach to storytelling has made him a legend among the comics cognoscenti, but because he rarely drew super heroes and his life ended tragically at age 32, he has never been given the attention his short but incandescent career deserves.
As Dr. Michael J. Vassallo writes in the book’s introduction, “Unlike many other artistic contemporaries of his Atlas tenure, who all entered the industry around the same time, dabbled there and then further blossomed in the Silver Age — Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and John Buscema, for example — Maneely never had that second act, and in the 1950s, he was considered more accomplished than even that talented quartet. It’s hard to say how comic-book history might have been different if Joe Maneely had lived, but, unquestionably, whatever he would have done would have been wonderful.”
