Number 260

The Beast From Fifty Million, Trillion, etc…

Here's a funny story from Atlas' Crazy #2, 1954. The artwork is by Joe Maneely, a great cartoonist who seemed to work almost exclusively for Atlas before his accidental death. Maneely was reputedly one of the fastest artists in the business, able to draw six or seven pages a day. Considering how fast he was nothing in this strip looks rushed.

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On a personal note:

The news is that Steve Gerber died. I corresponded with Steve during the ditto'd fanzine days of the early '60s. We were both about 15 at the time. Steve did what I always wanted to do, make a living as a writer. I wouldn't have wanted to go through the ugliness of his fight with Marvel Comics over Howard the Duck, but I admired him for sticking up for his principles. I also enjoyed those first few issues of Howard, which seemed fresh to me at the time.