Melvin The Monster Day!

Joe Maneely was born on this day in 1926. Maneely was a key artist in Marvel's Atlas years, and he illustrated many of their stars including the focus of today's Dojo celebration -- Melvin the Monster. Maneely was Stan Lee's favorite artist and without his untimely death, the Marvel era might have never happened since there would have been less need for Jack Kirby. 

The success of Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace created in 1951 brought on a predictable wave of imitators, all with various and sundry names. The 1956 Atlas version dubbed "Melvin the Monster" was one. 

The beautiful cover above by Joe Maneely catches that "Ketchamesque" feel wonderfully while still maintaining a particular unique character which is distinctly Maneely. To read a Melvin the Monster story check out this link. 

Marvel brought out these stories in reprint at the very beginning of the Bronze Age, but for some reason changed Melvin's name to "Peter the Little Pest". I guess that name seemed less robust and so less potentially offensive.

Or more likely the scions at Marvel wanted to avoid confusion with John Stanley's Melvin Monster created in the 60's. 

The title was even called "Petey" for one issue, a name even less vivid. (I have the lame notion somehow when I see these that they might interpreted by some archiving "Marvelite" someday as the boyhood adventures of a rascally Peter Parker.) Comparing some of the covers above, you can see how Melvin/Peter changed, not only in name, but in demeanor over the decades. Somehow the idea of what kids were seems to have undergone a fundamental adjustment, shifting from threatening beasts over to cute creatures. 

But the "Peter the Pest" name sure is less potentially toxic than what Atlas changed Melvin's name to in the last issue of the original run. Here the tyke gets called "Dexter the Demon". Yikes!


Someone once suggested that Peter the Pest might be Peter Gyrich all grown up. Although I find no indication of it on the official websites regarding Henry Peter Gyrich's history, I think it's a very compelling and interesting theory. His desire for secrecy might explain the myriad names associated with this past and Gyrich sure deserves the description of "Monster", "Demon", and "Pest" if any character in the Marvel Universe does.

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