Atlas Artist Edition #1

This handsome hardcover from Fantagraphics opens the Atlas Artist Edition series with a spotlight on Joe Maneely, whose cover art immediately announces his range and power: a wide-eyed, terrified man dominates the foreground while an attacker looms behind him wielding a blade, and three medallion portraits above — a medieval knight's helmet, a robotic figure, and a menacing man in a wide-brimmed hat — hint at the genre-spanning work collected within. Maneely handles both pencils and inks himself, and that confident linework gives every face a raw, expressive charge that holds up beautifully in this large-format presentation. Featuring "Chow a la 'T.I.'" and other stories written by Hank Chapman, this is a genuinely rewarding showcase of mid-century comics craft given the archival treatment it deserves.