Fantagraphics and Marvel Comics are celebrating Marvel’s top artist of the 1950s Joe Maneely in The Atlas Artist Edition Vol. 1: Joe Maneely. Out today in bookstores, the full-color, oversize collector’s volume features 38 complete and never-before-reprinted stories, including 11 electric and spine-tingling stories written by Stan Lee. Today, AIPT can show off a preview of one of them, “When the Vampire Calls.”
In “When the Vampire Calls,” a village suspects a beautiful young woman of being a vampire but her lover tries to warn her to leave before the mob arrives and discovers that it is her brother who is the drinker of human blood.
As you’ll see in the preview below, 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. 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.
Stories in the collection include:
- Westerns (Kid Colt, Black Rider, Ringo Kid, Wyatt Earp, Two-Gun Kid), pre-code horror (“Haunted!”, “The Raving Maniac”, and the classic “Your Name Is Frankenstein”),
- Space Opera (Speed Carter),
- War (Combat Kelly),
- Mad Magazine-style parodies from the pages of Crazy and Riot,
- Cold-war intrigue and paranoia,
- and Maneely’s pride and joy — his Arthurian champion, The Black Knight.
Check out the preview below.
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