Showing posts with label Joe Maneely. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Maneely. Show all posts

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Space Force Saturday SPACE SQUADRON "Judgment of Boz!"

Behind this spooky (if off-model) Sol Brodsky/Joe Maneely cover...
...from the never-reprinted Atlas' Space Squadron #5 (1952) is an apocalyptic tale about a delusional, obese, but dangerous potential dictator in the 21st Century!
(Who does that remind us of?)
If this tale was produced today, it would be a book-length story with full and double-page splashes!
Yet artist Allen Bellman and the unknown writer pulled it off in only five extremely-crowded pages!
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Friday, April 30, 2021

Friday Fun RIOT "Mother Goosepimple's Nursery Rhymes"

Atlas Comics' numerous 1950s MAD comic clones...
...gave their creatives a chance to flex their artistic muscles in ways rarely-seen by their readers!
This never-reprinted short from Atlas RIOT #5 (1956) gave amazingly-versatile artist Joe Maneely a chance to show his humorous side.
OTOH, writer/editor Stan Lee was already well-known for his snarky prose.
This was the first installment of what was intended to be an ongoing feature.
A second Mother Goosebumps appeared in the next (and last) issue.
You'll see that one next Friday.
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Friday, April 16, 2021

Friday Fun CRAZY "Robert the Robot!"

Here's a long-lost tale from the era when MAD comic clones filled America's newsstands!
(Which bring up the question...does anybody under 30 even know what a "newsstand" is?)
While the story's not a classic, it's not bad, either!
The amazingly versatile Joe Maneely handled the art for this never-reprinted tale from this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Crazy V1N7 (1954), but the script is not nu Stan Lee...who would've had his name on it if he had penned the story!
Maneely could do anything; sci-fi, horror, war, romance, western, even humor, as this story demonstrates!
If not for his tragic death falling from a New York suburban commuter train, he would have been one of the major talents of Marvel Comics in the 1960s.
Atlas had no less than three MAD clones going at once; CrazyWild, and Riot!
MAD themselves commented on the proliferation of clones, not only from Atlas, but virtually every other publisher with this opener for their spoof of the 1950s movie Julius Ceasar by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood...
When MAD converted to a b/w magazine, Atlas dropped the three color comics and launched the b/w Snafu,which only lasted three issues!
Atlas/Marvel would revive Crazy twice more!
First, in early 1973 as a reprint book of Not Brand Echh stories.
Then, in late 1973 as a b/w magazine going head-to-head with MAD, and surviving until 1983 for 96 issues!
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Saturday, March 27, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE SQUADRON & SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "Famous Explorers of Space" Part 4

Both Atlas' Space Squadron and Speed Carter: SpaceMan had "future history" features...
...set in the "past", like this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Space Squadron #4 (1951), which took place in the then-future of 1965!
So the scientist let a guy with no depth perception fly his experimental ship?
He's lucky they didn't crash into anything!a
Let's look at how such "Future History" was told in Speed Carter...
Ah, the good ol' days of 2006, when a spaceport sat outside New York City...
...funny, I don't remember the skyline looking like that in 2007!
I guess I developed amnesia after I hit my head falling out of my flying car...
I'm wondering what Joe's gonna do when he runs out of cigarettes!
Nicotine withdrawal is rough enough on Earth.
But on Jupiter...without even nicotine gum...
This story from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #4 (1953) references previous Famous Explorers tales in its' first paragraph, mentioning the explorations of Venus, Mercury, and Mars.
Written by Hank Chapman, and illustrated by Joe Maneely, in his final Speed Carter interior art job.
Joe would later do the cover for #6, the final issue of the series.

Note: the astronauts in this story, which takes place three generations in the "past" of Speed Carter, have different uniforms and lower-end technology than what's shown in the Maneely-rendered Speed Carter tales.
But since Mike Sekowsky, who illustrated the rest of this issue, redesigned both the uniforms and tech in the "present-day" stories, that whole aspect now falls by the wayside for the remainder of the series' run.
Besides "Famous Explorers", Space Squadron also presented "future history tales" about the guy who was young hotshot Jet Dixon's crusty Commander-in-Chief when he was a young hotshot pilot...
While the writer for this never-reprinted tale (also from Atlas' Space Squadron #4 [1951]) is unknown, the artist is George Klein, who's best known as an amazingly-versatile inker, but could pencil (albeit slowly) as well!
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(under the pen-name "Paul French") Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn

Monday, March 1, 2021

Monday Madness RIOT "Pascal the Rascal by Yank Kitchen (or: a Comic Strip is Born!)"

65 years ago, one of the many MAD clones did a spoof of the then incredibly-hot new comic strip...
...Dennis the Menace illustrated by an artist whose identity you probably won't guess!
Was I right?
Did you guess who it was?
Atlas' MAD rip-off RIOT #6 (1956) ended the book's run with some spectacular (and never-reprinted) artwork by Bill Everett, John Severin, Dan DeCarlo and this piece by an unrecognizable Joe Maneely!
Joe, whose art normally looked like this...
...totally-suppressing his own style to match Hank Ketcham's style down to the thickness of the linework while making the character look just different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement!
It was a beautiful job, and an example of this sadly-ignored artist!
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Saturday, February 20, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "Core People"

"Watch the Skies!" they cried in the 1950s!
They should have said "Look out below!" as this subterranean saga from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #2 (1953) proves!
OK, science pretty much gets tossed out the porthole on this one, but, hey, it's fun!
Written (as are all the Speed Carter stories) by Hank Chapman and illustrated with his usual flair by Joe Maneely.
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(under the pen-name "Paul French")
Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!
David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn

Saturday, February 6, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "BEMs"

There's never a dull moment in the future world of Speed Carter...
...as this never-reprinted tale from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #3 (1954) aptly shows!
The aliens in this story aren't identified by planet of origin or species.
The name given them, "bems", was a popular sci-fi slang term for "bug-eyed monsters"!
So, where are they from?
What species are they?
We'll never know, since they never appear again!
Written (as are all the Speed Carter stories) by Hank Chapman.
Illustrated by original artist Joe Maneely in his swan-song to the series.
Note: this was the last story in #3, but the first one from that issue we're presenting.
Maneely would later do a Famous Explorers short and a cover, but this was his last Speed Carter story.
There are two more Maneely Speed Carter tales to come...
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
(under the pen-name "Paul French")
 Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!
David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn