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Rare Early Illustration By Famed Comic Book Artist Joe Maneely (then aged 19!)
Charming vintage pictorial map of Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, from the immediate post-World War II period, drawn by a 19 year old Joe McNelly, who would become one of the major comic book artists of his generation.
The map is quite scarce because of the ephemeral nature of having been published in a newspaper; the map was on page 8 of the March 30, 1946 issue of The Masthead.
The present example of the map was removed from the newspaper so that a sailor could jot notes on it and mail it home. He has written notes about where his barracks was and "Had my tonsils out here".
The map is similar to the Ashore in San Diego maps that were given to sailors upon their arrival in that city during the Second World War.
The map is filled with irreverent and politically incorrect cartoons.
Rarity
We were not able to locate another example of the map.
Joseph Maneely was an American comic book artist best known for his work at Marvel Comics' 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics, where he co-created the Marvel characters the Black Knight, the Ringo Kid, the Yellow Claw, and Jimmy Woo.
He attended Ascension BVM Elementary School and Northeast Catholic High School; at the latter, he created a school mascot, the Red Falcon, that also starred in a comic strip in the school newspaper. After dropping out in his sophomore year, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving three years as a specialist in visual aids and contributing cartoons to ship newspapers. He was discharged in 1947.
Maneely worked at Atlas with Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr. Writer/editor Stan Lee commented that, "Joe Maneely to me would have been the next Jack Kirby. He also could draw anything, make anything look exciting, and I actually think he was even faster than Jack."
While at Atlas, he became a favorite of editor-in-chief Stan Lee, who assigned Maneely covers and stories throughout virtually the entire range of Atlas comics. With superheroes experiencing a lull in popularity, Maneely drew Westerns, war, horror, humor, romance, science fiction, spy, crime, and even period-adventure stories — that last most notably with the medieval series Black Knight, co-created by Maneely and writer and editor-in-chief Lee, and first reprinted in 1960s Marvel Comics at the behest of editor Roy Thomas, who as a teen had "devoured the Black Knight comic, and became an immediate fan."
Talented and well-respected, he died in a commuter-train accident shortly before Marvel's ascendancy into a commercial and pop-cultural conglomerate.
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