Number 33


Frankenstein Friday: Your Name Is Frankenstein!



Stan Lee once said of Joe Maneely, "He could draw anything." Maneely was a staple of 1950's Atlas Comics, doing horror, mystery, westerns, science fiction, even a continuing character called The Black Knight. He had an interesting pen style, and was said to be fast enough to draw and ink seven pages in one day.

Regardless of the speed, Maneely was very good, and could strike a dramatic mood in the stories he was handed to draw. "Your Name Is Frankenstein," from Menace #7, is a good example of Maneely's pen work, his dramatic staging, and solid drawing.

Maneely died of an accident at age 32 in 1958. It's fun to speculate what he could have meant to comics had he lived. Would he have been part of the Marvel Comics of the 1960s? I haven't ever seen any superhero work by him, but don't doubt that he could probably draw them as well as anyone.

Unfortunately, my copy of this story is in terrible shape, with holes in some of the pages and the residue of years-old Scotch tape, which has left brown stains (a really good lesson in how not to take care of your Golden Age comic books).

Even though I consider this to be one of the better stories in that particular issue of Menace, apparently the editor didn't feel it warranted inclusion in the blurbs on the cover, which show every other story but this. It might have been a late addition to the lineup.