Number 1107


Up to Speed with Joe Maneely


Since starting this blog I've featured Joe Maneely over a dozen times. I've shown his work on horror, satire, kiddie, Western, crime, international intrigue and even medieval, but I believe this is the first science fiction of his I've shown. Speed Carter was a character in the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet mold. There were several science fiction heroes in that era who belonged to space-military or space-police type organizations.

Speed didn't last a long time. Under its official title, Spaceman, the comic went six issues, and Joe left it after issue #3. His work is dynamic, as always. Like other publishers, Atlas had its star artists, and Maneely was one. What a tragedy that he died of an accident in 1958 at the young age of 32.

From Spaceman #1, 1953: