The Atlas Comics Library No. 5

About the Author

Joe Maneely (1926-1958, b. Philadelphia, PA) blazed a trail through Marvel's 1950s comic books that is unsurpassed in both quantity and quality. Maneely was revered as a lightning-fast talent, and he launched most of Marvel's character features during that time, excelling at every genre -- westerns, horror, humor, and war. He is best remembered today for his signature character, The Black Knight. Maneely's career was tragically cut short in June 1958 when, at the age of 32, he accidentally fell between the cars of a moving commuter train. Eugene Jules Colan (1926 - 2011) illustrated many war comics for both Timely/Atlas and DC Comics. He flourished after Atlas became Marvel, with notable stints plotting and drawing on Daredevil and Captain America in the 1960s, before co-authoring Howard The Duck with Steve Gerber and Tomb of Dracula with Marv Wolfman. Bob Powell (1916-1967) first made his mark in pulp comics for Fiction House and the Eisner / Iger studio, where he was a prolific artist on "Sheena the Jungle Queen." He carried on to Will Eisner's solo shop, where Powell co-wrote the first "Blackhawk" story and wrote & drew "Mr. Mystic" for the weekly newspaper insert The Spirit Section. During the 1950s, he freelanced for Atlas, Fawcett, Harvey, Street and Smith's Shadow Comics, and many more. From 1961 until his death, he worked as the art director for Joe Simon's satirical Sick magazine, with other freelance work including several Marvel superhero stories, and penciling the art for Topps' famed Mars Attacks series of trading cards. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo is a noted historian on Marvel's early pulp, Timely and Atlas periods. A Manhattan dentist, he spends his free time attempting to bring recognition to artistic creators of the 1940's and 1950's. He has also written introductions to 20 Timely and Atlas Masterworks volumes, dissecting the credits for posterity and providing historical context, as well as writing the detailed captions to the first 210 pages of Taschen's 75 Years of Marvel coffee table book. He lives in Westchester County, New York.