Gayest. Cover. Ever.

One of the artists very important in the history of the company that was variously known as Timely Comics, Atlas Comics, then Marvel Comics, was a fellow named Joe Maneely. He was widely considered to be one of the finest artists around by other such draftsmen working in the comic book industry.

While Maneely was working at Atlas (which would later be known as Marvel Comics), it was well known that he was indispensable to Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee. Whatever Lee needed, Maneely could do it. Knights in shining armor? No problem. Cowboys and Indians? Fine. Cops and Robbers? Johnny on the spot. Cartoony kids' comics? That, too.

And it wasn't just that Joe Maneely could create any kind of character that Lee asked for, he could do it on deadline and with a style that floored just about everyone who viewed his work. In later years, it would be the gentleman genius we know as Jack Kirby who would serve this purpose for Stan Lee. But in the mid 1950s the well-spring of creativity at Atlas Comics was Mr. Maneely.

Maneely died young under mysterious circumstances. After working late he was making his way home via light rail. It was assumed that he stepped out of the car for a breath of fresh air and, in his exhausted state, fell between the cars and was crushed under the wheels of the train.

And it was just as Maneely was about to break out of the Atlas ghetto. He had been noticed by DC Comics and was about to gravitate to that company for the much larger paychecks they offered top talent. And they had apparently come to consider Maneely as top talent.

I don't have much of his work in my collection. And one of the most infamous pieces of artwork he produced was the cover for TWO GUN KID #29. Widely considered to be one of the most unintentionally gay covers ever produced for a comic book. So, I nabbed one for my collection. Just for the Maneely art. I swear.

Gayest mainstream comics cover ever. Art by Joe Maneely.

"What Did They Hunt?" Indeed.

Tales of Suspense, Covering Previous Territory

By the time TALES OF SUSPENSE was an entrenched title at Martin Goodman's publishing outfit, the art team assembled for the book was also well established. Stan Lee was always searching for artists who could produce the work in a timely manner and who also had a certain style that would appeal to the fans. In Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck he had managed to assemble such a reliable team. I think Lee was always looking for someone like Joe Maneely who had died in such a horrible manner some years earlier. Maneely could draw anything and do it well and on time. He was the glue that held the books together and Stan Lee had him exclusively for a time. Just before Maneely's untimely death he was getting ready to head out for greener pastures, wider exposure, and richer pay checks. His death had been a major blow, especially to Stan Lee who had come to depend on him.

Well, it didn't take him too long to land several more artists to fill that creative void. Jack Kirby in particular was a workhorse unlike any other the comics industry had seen. I've read that in one year he produced well over 1,200 pages of penciled pages. This is a phenomenal pace, especially when you understand that he was also writing most of the stuff that was credited to a certain someone else. Most of the monster and sci-fi comics that Goodman was publishing were held up by the three guys editor-in-chief Lee came to depend upon: the already mentioned Kirby, Ditko, and Heck.

Often joining in to add to that triumvirate was Joe Sinnott and Dick Ayers and a host of other artists who later filtered into the Marvel offices as the small company grew into a publishing juggernaut. But in those early days it was mainly Kirby, Ditko, and Heck.

I already had a copy of this issue (#5), so I'll sell off the lesser of the two books.

This was another book I kept trying to nab on Ebay but always failed to get. There's something about the cover that I really like. It's not the monster--Kirby created some really striking monsters and this isn't one of them. I think it's just the construction of the scene that appeals to me.

I've never run across this book before, so it's going to be fun to see what's inside. I'll post interiors of some of these books after I've read them and gone through the tales.