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by: Fletcher Hanks  List Price: $19.95 Amazon.com's Price: $13.57 You Save: $6.38 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 741.5973 EAN: 9781560978398 ISBN: 1560978392 Label: Fantagraphics Books Manufacturer: Fantagraphics Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 124 Publication Date: June 20, 2007 Publisher: Fantagraphics Books Studio: Fantagraphics Books Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: A dizzying collection from the Ed Wood of comics. Welcome to the bizarre world of Fletcher Hanks, Super Wizard of the Inkwell. Fletcher Hanks worked for only a few years in the earliest days of the comic book industry (1939-1941). Because he worked in a gutter medium for second-rate publishers on third-rate characters, his work has been largely forgotten. But among aficionados he is legendary. At the time, comic books were in their infancy. The rules governing their form and content had not been established. In this Anything Goes era, Hanks' work stands out for its thrilling experimentation. At once both crude and visionary, cold and hot as hell, Hanks' work is hard to pigeon hole. One thing is for certain: the stuff is bent. Hanks drew in a variety of genres depicting science-fiction saviors, white women of the jungle, and he-man loggers. Whether he signed these various stories "Henry Fletcher" or "Hank Christy" or "Barclay Flagg" there is no mistaking the unique outsider style of Fletcher Hanks. Cartoonist Paul Karasik (co-adapter of Paul Auster's City of Glass, and co-author of The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family) has spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Karasik has also uncovered a dark secret: why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene. This book collects 15 of his best stories in one volume followed by an afterword which solves the mystery of "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks," the mysterious cartoonist who created a hailstorm of tales of brutal retribution...and then mysteriously vanished. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Vengeance is mine and I shall repayFletcher Hanks's bizarre comics for Fiction House from the very early part of the Golden Age of comics are indeed something to see. In his two most memorable series, "Fantomah" and "Stardust," he basically took the idea from the Jerry Siegel-bernard Bailyn series "The Spectre" from National Comics of a nearly all-powerful superhero meting out grim justice to evildoers and ran with it... I mean really ran with it. Both Fantomah and Stardust spend nearly half their time in their stories exacting about ... Read More Rating:  - Great Early Golden-Age Stuff!With art that looks like something Basil Wolverton might've done if he'd drawn used his feet & keeping his eyes closed this is a great collection of early '40's superhero comics. Plot? Characterization? No way! This was when action & good beating evil were what superhero comics were all about. And I've seen enough G-A stuff to know that this may not be the best but it sure ain't the worst (wait til Marvel reprints USA Comics #5, now THAT was the worst!). Oh, its also very well made ... Read More Rating:  - outsider artWonderfully bizarre naif stories. The final chapter recounting the background of the creator is as interesting as the actual stories. Rating: - Twisted and strange, but in a good wayIf you enjoy strange and forbidden comics like The Monster of Frankenstein then Mr. Hank's odd 4-color creations will not disappoint you. The comics are almost as odd as the artist himself! Rating: - Strangely interestingOn at least a superficial level, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks is an unimpressive collection of comics from the late 1930s and early 1940s, and it is apparent why the comics have remained obscure. The art is okay but the writing is definitely missing something, such as characterization or plot development. The greatest number of stories feature Stardust, "the most remarkable man who ever lived." This blond giant lives on a distant asteroid where his seemingly ... Read More 
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