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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 3, 2016 23:26:57 GMT -5
Stan Lee has sung the praises of Joe Maneely, but has he ever suggested what he would have had him do had he lived? Are there any interviews in which he says something along the lines of "when I thought up XXXXXXX, I pictured it as a Joe Maneely character"?
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Oct 4, 2016 0:57:34 GMT -5
I get the feeling Maneely's presence could've shaped early Marvel into something very different than what it became. His style doesn't seem to meld with traditional superhero work (which you could argue was true of Ditko as well), and he might've pulled Marvel in a different direction by diluting Kirby's influence on the early titles. I know his work mainly from horror reprints, and the "texture" of his work would be pretty unusual for superhero books at the time. And his style leaned more to "caricatured reality" (think Bill Elder or Johnny Craig) rather than "hyper-reality" (like Kirby and Ditko). Then again, he might've meant less of a focus on costumed superheros. The final question is how he would've adapted to "Marvel Method" and what kind of concepts/stories he would've come up with in a primary creative role. This reflects a lot of how I saw this, I dont really know the dudes work, but would his creativity have suited what Stan, Jack, and Steve were doing in the early 60's ? My first thought was ... you can draw but can you create like Jack? ... but there were plenty of other artists at the time who werent erupting with ideas like Jack and/or Steve , so I guess there would have been a place for him, still a lot of War and Western books from Marvel through the 60's. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2016 8:37:50 GMT -5
The tragic death of Joe Maneely in 1958. He was only 32 years old when he died, a speed demon artist but maintained great quality a la Jack Kirby. Was able to handle all genres. Really excelled on the Atlas series Black Knight. Was supposedly Stan Lee's favorite bullpen artist at the time of his passing
First one I thought of when I saw the topic. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2016 8:38:51 GMT -5
Aaaand second one I thought of, especially considering his extraordinary kindness to me (which I've recounted before) via the mails. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 4, 2016 8:55:42 GMT -5
I get the feeling Maneely's presence could've shaped early Marvel into something very different than what it became. His style doesn't seem to meld with traditional superhero work (which you could argue was true of Ditko as well), and he might've pulled Marvel in a different direction by diluting Kirby's influence on the early titles. I know his work mainly from horror reprints, and the "texture" of his work would be pretty unusual for superhero books at the time. And his style leaned more to "caricatured reality" (think Bill Elder or Johnny Craig) rather than "hyper-reality" (like Kirby and Ditko). Then again, he might've meant less of a focus on costumed superheros. The final question is how he would've adapted to "Marvel Method" and what kind of concepts/stories he would've come up with in a primary creative role. This reflects a lot of how I saw this, I dont really know the dudes work, but would his creativity have suited what Stan, Jack, and Steve were doing in the early 60's ? My first thought was ... you can draw but can you create like Jack? ... but there were plenty of other artists at the time who werent erupting with ideas like Jack and/or Steve , so I guess there would have been a place for him, still a lot of War and Western books from Marvel through the 60's. My guess is that an artist's skills would have dictated what kinds of titles he'd've been considered for. Maneely did lots of horror, Western and historical work. He also could draw superheroes, though he wasn't assigned more than a couple of covers during the relatively superhero-free 50's. Those covers give a hint of what he could have done for Stan in the early 60s. When you think about Maneely's style and skills, think of the srt of John Severin, Bill Everett, Wally Wood, and Dan Adkins. That's the kind of draftsmanship and illustrative qualities his work had. I would think that his style would have fit well with many of the titles and strips Marvel was doing in the early years: Sgt. Fury, Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, the Western comics, the back-up horror stories, and SHIELD. Just imagine Maneely working on Tales of Asgard, War is Hell, Master of Kung Fu or King Kull! |
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Post by Farrar on Oct 4, 2016 10:33:10 GMT -5
Romita Sr. has mentioned in many interviews that when he was a young artist Stan sent him to pick up pointers from Maneely. For one thing, JR says Maneely's the one who showed him how to depict bone structure (via feathering for example). It's clear that Stan loved working with Maneely. Had he lived Maneely certainly would have received many more assignments from Stan when business picked up. As others here have noted, perhaps a new Sub-Mariner comic or feature would've appeared, also a Black Knight comic, and I can definitely see Maneely on Thor or a similar comic revolving around a god or mythological protagonists. Comic strip by Stan and Maneely (1958).  allthingsger.blogspot.com/2011/06/say-it-aint-so-joe-tuesday-comic-strip.html |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 4, 2016 13:18:22 GMT -5
I mentioned thinking Maneely would have replaced Don Heck on super hero titles so Iron Man would be logical (Hey, if he could draw a guy in armor like the Black Knight, why not). Another would be taking over Thor when Kirby left after it began. But if Maneely was the Thor artist, would Kirby have been able to reclaim it so easily later on?
We'll never know because so much depended on how Maneely would be able to handle the so-called Marvel Method. No doubt he could have drawn just about anything. And being so young when he died he would only have improved.
But how would he have handled actually plotting stories. Could Stan Lee just give him a paragraph of story idea to Joe and then he be able to turn it into a 20 page story? Would he have been able to do his own writing totally? Don't think this can ever be answered. And dying at age 32, no one can say how he would evolve in the 4-5 years when the Marvel Super Hero age began |
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 4, 2016 13:26:27 GMT -5
We'll never know because so much depended on how Maneely would be able to handle the so-called Marvel Method. No doubt he could have drawn just about anything. And being so young when he died he would only have improved.
But how would he have handled actually plotting stories. Could Stan Lee just give him a paragraph of story idea to Joe and then he be able to turn it into a 20 page story? Would he have been able to do his own writing totally? Don't think this can ever be answered. And dying at age 32, no one can say how he would evolve in the 4-5 years when the Marvel Super Hero age began Which opens up the possibility that he might have gone to DC. Hmmm. Rip Hunter? Blackhawk? Aquaman? War titles? Tomahawk? hawkman? |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 4, 2016 13:45:57 GMT -5
We'll never know because so much depended on how Maneely would be able to handle the so-called Marvel Method. No doubt he could have drawn just about anything. And being so young when he died he would only have improved.
But how would he have handled actually plotting stories. Could Stan Lee just give him a paragraph of story idea to Joe and then he be able to turn it into a 20 page story? Would he have been able to do his own writing totally? Don't think this can ever be answered. And dying at age 32, no one can say how he would evolve in the 4-5 years when the Marvel Super Hero age began Which opens up the possibility that he might have gone to DC. Hmmm. Rip Hunter? Blackhawk? Aquaman? War titles? Tomahawk? hawkman? Since he was supposedly even faster than Kirby, he could easily have worked for Gilberton's Classics Illustrated or Dell Movie/TV adaptations Probably could have worked for Mad Magazine as well
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Post by Farrar on Oct 4, 2016 14:08:46 GMT -5
Which opens up the possibility that he might have gone to DC. Hmmm. Rip Hunter? Blackhawk? Aquaman? War titles? Tomahawk? hawkman? He did some work for DC in 1957-58 (when the Atlas work dried up)--he penciled mystery stories, no covers. According to Mike's, his DC stuff was inked by Joe Sinnott |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2016 14:46:07 GMT -5
Another great gone far too young, in this case by his own hand -- Jack Cole died at 43.
And Wally Wood was 54. That seemed sort of old to me back when it happened. Now I'm 57, & it very much does not.
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Post by MDG on Oct 4, 2016 15:15:51 GMT -5
And Wally Wood was 54. That seemed sort of old to me back when it happened. Now I'm 57, & it very much does not. I didn't realize Wood was that young--I think part is because he seemed to do so much different stuff, especially in the 60s. After he left MAD (and his work for Feldstein's MAD may be his best stuff ever), you could find his work at Warren, Topps, SF digests, Witzend, commercial art, Gold Key, not to mention the occasional job for Marvel or DC (of course, I've seen most of this well after the fact, in the internet age). I saw him in 79 or 80 at a show in Syracuse, though, and he looked like hell. |
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Post by Bronze age andy on Oct 4, 2016 16:01:09 GMT -5
I've always thought if Maneely had lived he would have been Stan's troubleshooter. Righting the ship when it needed it. Daredevil and X-Men by
Lee and Maneely has a nice ring to it.
I also would have loved to see Mike Parobeck work on some indys. His style was as unique as Darwyn Cooke's.
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 4, 2016 18:30:24 GMT -5
Which opens up the possibility that he might have gone to DC. Hmmm. Rip Hunter? Blackhawk? Aquaman? War titles? Tomahawk? hawkman? He did some work for DC in 1957-58 (when the Atlas work dried up)--he penciled mystery stories, no covers. According to Mike's, his DC stuff was inked by Joe Sinnott. I did not know that! But now I will look for them. Thaks, f! |
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Post by Farrar on Oct 4, 2016 19:00:51 GMT -5
He did some work for DC in 1957-58 (when the Atlas work dried up)--he penciled mystery stories, no covers. According to Mike's, his DC stuff was inked by Joe Sinnott. I did not know that! But now I will look for them. Thaks, f! I'd read about this a while back, so I checked Mike's and there it was. www.dcindexes.com/features/creator.php?creatorid=739And evidently he did do a cover for DC--this one, House of Mystery #73.  Annnndddd...just checked GCD and did a spot-check comparison of GCD's credits vis-a-vis Mike's: GCD lists him (and not Sinnott) as the inker on these DC stories--which as discussed in earlier posts, was his normal way of working. |
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