Pin-Up illo.

This is an incredible find! Purported to be from the late 1950's, this piece seems to be from an earlier prime period in the artist's short but illustrious career, about 1950 by my estimate.

The image area is a big 10 by 13 inches on thick board and it is unknown at the present time where this piece came from or what it was created for. It could be a promotional piece or even an advertising piece of some sort. The model is likely Joe's wife Betty Jean, an extremely beautiful young woman and the female model for a great deal of his female cover figures.

Maneely came out of the Philadelphia Bulletin's advertising division and landed in comics in 1948 at Street & Smith. From there, after dabbling at Avon, Ziff-Davis, Hillman (in Airboy) and Pflaum (in Treasure Chest), he spent the next 8 years exclusively at Timely-Atlas until branching out at National, Charlton and CRACKED in late 1957/early 1958 after the Atlas implosion. Maneely also began the newspaper comic feature MRS. LYONS' CUBS with Stan Lee in late 1957 and died tragically at the age of 32 in June of 1958 the very week Jack Kirby returned to Marvel to launch the pre-hero fantasy era in STRANGE WORLDS #1.