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The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks #1-2
Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!: The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks
Fletcher Hanks was the first great comic book auteur: he wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all of his own stories. He completed approximately 50 stories between 1939-1941, all unified by a unique artistic vision.
Whether it’s the superhero Stardust doling out ice cold slabs of poetic justice, or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers from limb to ragged limb, contemporary readers are stunned by the pop surrealism and outright violent mayhem of Hanks’ work.
Originally featured in two paperback volumes, this deluxe hardcover collects—for the first time—all of Hanks’ previously published material, plus several gems newly discovered for this volume, making this the very first complete collection of the works of Fletcher Hanks.
Whether it’s the superhero Stardust doling out ice cold slabs of poetic justice, or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers from limb to ragged limb, contemporary readers are stunned by the pop surrealism and outright violent mayhem of Hanks’ work.
Originally featured in two paperback volumes, this deluxe hardcover collects—for the first time—all of Hanks’ previously published material, plus several gems newly discovered for this volume, making this the very first complete collection of the works of Fletcher Hanks.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2016
11 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Fletcher Hanks
14 books19 followersFletcher Hanks, Sr. was a cartoonist from the Golden Age of Comic Books, who wrote and drew stories detailing the adventures of all-powerful, supernatural heroes and their elaborate punishments of transgressors. In addition to his birth name, Hanks worked under a number of pen names, including "Hank Christy," "Charles Netcher," "Chris Fletcher", "C. C. Starr," and "Barclay Flagg." Hanks was active in comic books from 1939 to 1941, when he left for reasons still unknown. In those years, he abandoned his wife, Margaret, and his children Douglas, Alma, Fletcher Hanks Jr. and William.
He continued to live in Oxford, Maryland, where he became the president of its town commission in 1958–60. Years later, his body was found on a park bench in Manhattan in 1976; he had frozen to death, penniless and likely drunk.
He continued to live in Oxford, Maryland, where he became the president of its town commission in 1958–60. Years later, his body was found on a park bench in Manhattan in 1976; he had frozen to death, penniless and likely drunk.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 20, 2018
Bizarre and amazing! If you want a break from predictable comics, check this out. It's like overhearing a kid playing with action figures.
February 9, 2018
When I read a large collection of comics from a single creator, I usually jump right in and come back to the introduction after having read several of the stories themselves. I did so this time as well, enjoying the strange, wacky tales of Stardust, the interplanetary being scouring planets for any hint of "racketeering," as well as the stories of Fantoma, Mystery Woman of the Jungle, and other oddball heroic characters. The ideas here are so wacked-out featuring fundamental "crime must be punished" plots carried out by supermen and superwomen who seem omniscient and all-powerful, often Old Testament-like. All the villains want to either take over the world (or simply the jungle) and/or ruin civilization. Don't expect any of these stories to make any kind of scientific, practical or narrative sense; they won't. The wildness of their illogic is staggering. Hanks repeats himself endlessly, but the stories are still fascinating. Yet they're also disturbing on many levels: innocent people are killed, sometimes horribly, sometimes through torture. Some of the stories are so weird and disturbing you'd swear Hanks snatched them from the Book of Revelation.
The book covers Hanks's complete body of work, which covered only two years, 1939-1941. He wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered his own work. He did everything. A guy to be admired, right?
Then I read the introduction. Hanks was a drunkard who abused his family, spent all their money on booze, and even once kicked his 4-year-old son down a flight of stairs. Hanks abandoned his family, who never heard from him again and that was just fine with them. Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All! is a fascinating look at how Hanks was no doubt trying to deal with his own demons in the form of justice carried out in his stories, the bizarre nature of punishment, and the immovable sovereignty of a higher power who will one day set everything right. In an age where we're all trying to figure out just how (or even if we should) separate the artist from the art, this collection of comics provides just one more fascinating chapter.
The book covers Hanks's complete body of work, which covered only two years, 1939-1941. He wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered his own work. He did everything. A guy to be admired, right?
Then I read the introduction. Hanks was a drunkard who abused his family, spent all their money on booze, and even once kicked his 4-year-old son down a flight of stairs. Hanks abandoned his family, who never heard from him again and that was just fine with them. Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All! is a fascinating look at how Hanks was no doubt trying to deal with his own demons in the form of justice carried out in his stories, the bizarre nature of punishment, and the immovable sovereignty of a higher power who will one day set everything right. In an age where we're all trying to figure out just how (or even if we should) separate the artist from the art, this collection of comics provides just one more fascinating chapter.
January 19, 2020
I read about a third of this massive collection of Hanks’ work. It is a showpiece item. No need to rush through it.
Aside from the bizarre, “touched” creations Hanks beautifully rendered in the earliest days of the superhero comic (they are a true oddity for those who love oddities and, not only appreciate, but respect cartooning as an art form), the introduction by Karasik is what complicates an already superficially complicated collection of work. Hanks was a nasty creature of a person, likely struggling through many issues and taking it out handsomely on those around him. It is especially appropriate in today’s social-political-cultural climate to consider the somewhat monstrous existence of Hanks and how that informs his otherwise purely offbeat, experimental (to today’s eyes) comic work. The last few lines of Karasik’s essay hit something right on the head about everything at play here—what that something is, I don’t totally understand, and that’s part of the sober, “responsible” consumption of Hanks’ work.
Aside from the bizarre, “touched” creations Hanks beautifully rendered in the earliest days of the superhero comic (they are a true oddity for those who love oddities and, not only appreciate, but respect cartooning as an art form), the introduction by Karasik is what complicates an already superficially complicated collection of work. Hanks was a nasty creature of a person, likely struggling through many issues and taking it out handsomely on those around him. It is especially appropriate in today’s social-political-cultural climate to consider the somewhat monstrous existence of Hanks and how that informs his otherwise purely offbeat, experimental (to today’s eyes) comic work. The last few lines of Karasik’s essay hit something right on the head about everything at play here—what that something is, I don’t totally understand, and that’s part of the sober, “responsible” consumption of Hanks’ work.
Read
March 27, 2023basinski's disintegration tapes as golden age comics: the same set of events play themselves out over & over, wearing the tape out, getting wobblier & more staticky w/ each repetition regardless of whether it's fantoma, the star guy, the other star guy, or the lumberjack in the driver's seat: hero becomes aware of villain's nefarious plans; seemingly allows villain to start executing said plans; hero puts an end to the carnage and/or racketeering & wreaks horrible punishment on villain. stately or demented in its single-mindedness depending how you look @ it... probably both? under no circumstances skip the astounding biographical capsule at the tail end.
February 22, 2020
*Índice pendiente de completar*
Edición integral y definitiva de los trabajos de Fletcher Hanks, con numerosos extras, apéndices, introducción de Glen David Gold y hasta una historieta de Paul Karasik contando cómo conoció a Fletcher Hanks Jr.
Incluye todas las historietas de Fantomah, Big Red McLane, Space Smith, Tabu, Buzz Crandall, Whirlwind Carter, Tiger Hart, Yank Wilson, Moe M. Down y Stardust realizadas por su creador, Fletcher Hanks, vario bajos seudónimos.
Contenido:
00 índice
I Foreword: "I Shall Now Leav You To Your Fate" por Glen David Gold
V Introduction: "I Shall Destroy, You Shall Die!" por Paul Karaski
XIV Student Portfolio
XX Moe M. Down "Me vs. Tony Pimento" Great Comics #1 (nov. 1941)
XXII Moe M. Down "Moe Gets a New Manager" Great Comics #2 (dec. 1941)
1-328 (51 historietas realizadas desde diciembre de 1939 hasta el invierno boreal de 1941)
337 Afteword: "Hateves Happened to Fletcher Hanks?" por Paul Karasik
I Aknowledgments
Edición integral y definitiva de los trabajos de Fletcher Hanks, con numerosos extras, apéndices, introducción de Glen David Gold y hasta una historieta de Paul Karasik contando cómo conoció a Fletcher Hanks Jr.
Incluye todas las historietas de Fantomah, Big Red McLane, Space Smith, Tabu, Buzz Crandall, Whirlwind Carter, Tiger Hart, Yank Wilson, Moe M. Down y Stardust realizadas por su creador, Fletcher Hanks, vario bajos seudónimos.
Contenido:
00 índice
I Foreword: "I Shall Now Leav You To Your Fate" por Glen David Gold
V Introduction: "I Shall Destroy, You Shall Die!" por Paul Karaski
XIV Student Portfolio
XX Moe M. Down "Me vs. Tony Pimento" Great Comics #1 (nov. 1941)
XXII Moe M. Down "Moe Gets a New Manager" Great Comics #2 (dec. 1941)
1-328 (51 historietas realizadas desde diciembre de 1939 hasta el invierno boreal de 1941)
337 Afteword: "Hateves Happened to Fletcher Hanks?" por Paul Karasik
I Aknowledgments
September 17, 2020
A collection of the strange, cult-following cartoons of Fletcher Hanks
Fletcher Hanks was a cartoonist from the Golden Age of comics. He was active under a range of pseudonyms 1939-1941 (and his work has very dated themes from that era, including some racism, colonialism, American nationalist jingoism, etc.). He apparently stopped doing comics in 1941 with no explanation (he died in 1976 - police found him frozen in a park bench in Manhattan). He has apparently acquired a cult following in the modern era, even though his work is so dated and often kind of absurd. I was turned on to it by a Kickstarter for an RPG product - a supplement for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, "Leopard Women of Venus," inspired by the bizarre cartoons of Fletcher Banks for some "gonzo" gaming inspiration! I'm enjoying these comics more than I thought I would - lots of inspiration and "gonzo" concepts here! Since it has inspired a DCC RPG game supplement, I tagged this book as "Appendix N," even though it is NOT on that venerable list!
Fletcher Hanks was a cartoonist from the Golden Age of comics. He was active under a range of pseudonyms 1939-1941 (and his work has very dated themes from that era, including some racism, colonialism, American nationalist jingoism, etc.). He apparently stopped doing comics in 1941 with no explanation (he died in 1976 - police found him frozen in a park bench in Manhattan). He has apparently acquired a cult following in the modern era, even though his work is so dated and often kind of absurd. I was turned on to it by a Kickstarter for an RPG product - a supplement for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, "Leopard Women of Venus," inspired by the bizarre cartoons of Fletcher Banks for some "gonzo" gaming inspiration! I'm enjoying these comics more than I thought I would - lots of inspiration and "gonzo" concepts here! Since it has inspired a DCC RPG game supplement, I tagged this book as "Appendix N," even though it is NOT on that venerable list!
August 2, 2021
Fascinating. Hanks is a bizarre mystery, and his work is somehow both ridiculous and shockingly beautiful, despite its total predictability.
November 13, 2019
Fletcher Hanks created some goofball comic book stories. This collection is an oddity. It is a beautifully produced, well researched, hefty hardcover filled with the complete works of an obscure comic auteur, but don't expect too much. The revelations are amusing but not really amazing. Fletcher was influenced by the work all around him, particularly Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy and Sheena of the Jungle. He absorbed his influences and spit them out in a warped, fun house mirror style. Along the way, there is some enjoyable and unexpected weirdness. Unfortunately he never transcends second rate status. His writing is clunky and his art is stiff. If you are looking for inspired and weird comic book stories, you would be better off with Steve Ditko or Jack Cole.
Want to read
January 19, 2019A shiftless, violent, alcoholic wife-and-child abuser, he deserted his family nine years before starting to churn out fodder - Booklist
April 16, 2021
This collection of Fletcher Hanks comics is a must-read for anyone passionate about the medium of comic books. The work itself reflects Hanks' personality, his savagery, his comics are not about "valiant" heroes saving the innocent, they're about sadists practicing their craft on villans.
There's no overarching theme that links his comics, and some plots are left unfinished despite the author promising to offer us a satisfying conclusion in the next issue. I felt at times I was taken on a dizzying drunken car ride with Hanks as the driver. You know that the author's mantra was "stick fork in it, I'm done." I'll never know if I can say that Hanks is a genius or an imbecile, but it doesn't matter as his comics abound in originality. Nobody could ever have taught to have a villain enlarged to show that the hero can beat him, then shrunken to his normal size, after that abandon him on a primitive planet.
His comics offer diverse settings from outer-space, to jungles, to cities, to the underworld. The heroes that he creates are just as diverse, he even created the first female superhero Phantomah the blonde negligee-wearing protector of the jungle, who transforms into a skeleton. Some of them have powers, others like the Big Red McLane or Space Smith don't and have to rely on their own physical strength and cunningness to win. All of them, apart from Phantomah, use rays either emitted from guns or from their own bodies.
The drawing style is odd, to say the least, I don't think that anyone, apart from Hanks, had the idea to draw "sexy" women surfing tigers, a head as big as a forest, a floating head encased in an aura, lots of floating heads. Then one issue of Space Smith (page 179( is just one giant shlong fest, the Bloodu have long hanging noses, their colorful laboratory has elongated equipment some of it dripping, some of it having a rod and two handing orbs, you get the idea. However, there isn't any real nudity anywhere in the comic apart from the first issue of Phantomah where her negligee is transparent.
The book itself is a masterpiece, the colors are vibrant, the binding looks set to last, the intro is well-written. It is the only book, that I know of that has the actual death certificate of the author, as well as a comic panel made by the author that highlights the difficult genesis of the work.
There's no overarching theme that links his comics, and some plots are left unfinished despite the author promising to offer us a satisfying conclusion in the next issue. I felt at times I was taken on a dizzying drunken car ride with Hanks as the driver. You know that the author's mantra was "stick fork in it, I'm done." I'll never know if I can say that Hanks is a genius or an imbecile, but it doesn't matter as his comics abound in originality. Nobody could ever have taught to have a villain enlarged to show that the hero can beat him, then shrunken to his normal size, after that abandon him on a primitive planet.
His comics offer diverse settings from outer-space, to jungles, to cities, to the underworld. The heroes that he creates are just as diverse, he even created the first female superhero Phantomah the blonde negligee-wearing protector of the jungle, who transforms into a skeleton. Some of them have powers, others like the Big Red McLane or Space Smith don't and have to rely on their own physical strength and cunningness to win. All of them, apart from Phantomah, use rays either emitted from guns or from their own bodies.
The drawing style is odd, to say the least, I don't think that anyone, apart from Hanks, had the idea to draw "sexy" women surfing tigers, a head as big as a forest, a floating head encased in an aura, lots of floating heads. Then one issue of Space Smith (page 179( is just one giant shlong fest, the Bloodu have long hanging noses, their colorful laboratory has elongated equipment some of it dripping, some of it having a rod and two handing orbs, you get the idea. However, there isn't any real nudity anywhere in the comic apart from the first issue of Phantomah where her negligee is transparent.
The book itself is a masterpiece, the colors are vibrant, the binding looks set to last, the intro is well-written. It is the only book, that I know of that has the actual death certificate of the author, as well as a comic panel made by the author that highlights the difficult genesis of the work.
October 24, 2025
An exhaustive collection of all (known) work by the infamous early American comic book creator, Fletcher Hanks. (Atypically for the time, he both wrote and drew his own comics.) His best-known creation is probably Stardust the Super-Wizard, a sort of grey leotard-clad alternate universe Superman who enjoys inventing and inflicting ever-more-agonizing torments for his powerless foes. Few would call Hanks a top-tier writer or artist, but his distinctive style in both pictures and prose is unmistakable for anything else; with its stark surrealism, indifference to convention, and lack of logic, it seems at times like AI-generated slop that somehow appeared 80 years too early.
As the book makes very clear, Hanks was not a sympathetic figure; a violent, selfish, hypocritical domestic abuser who seems to have hated the whole world and his place in it. Reflecting this outlook, the "heroes" that he wrote and drew were all-powerful sadists. They could essentially do whatever they wanted, at any time, to anyone; yet they're curiously lazy when it comes to stopping crimes before they start. Hanks deserves at least a little credit for creating one of the first super-powered women, Fantomah, but otherwise his work carries all the typical prejudices of his time (plus some new ones).
Perhaps this book is best approached as one might approach the collected writings of Albert Speer or Richard Nixon: Interesting, perhaps even fascinating, for the skewed perspective and damaged psychological insights, but not something to be elevated or celebrated (or emulated).
That said - when read in the right frame of mind, it is pretty damn funny.
As the book makes very clear, Hanks was not a sympathetic figure; a violent, selfish, hypocritical domestic abuser who seems to have hated the whole world and his place in it. Reflecting this outlook, the "heroes" that he wrote and drew were all-powerful sadists. They could essentially do whatever they wanted, at any time, to anyone; yet they're curiously lazy when it comes to stopping crimes before they start. Hanks deserves at least a little credit for creating one of the first super-powered women, Fantomah, but otherwise his work carries all the typical prejudices of his time (plus some new ones).
Perhaps this book is best approached as one might approach the collected writings of Albert Speer or Richard Nixon: Interesting, perhaps even fascinating, for the skewed perspective and damaged psychological insights, but not something to be elevated or celebrated (or emulated).
That said - when read in the right frame of mind, it is pretty damn funny.
January 31, 2025
Hanks' art is pretty fascinating in its crude, naïve, outsider way. He's got some great designs, especially in his faces (the villains are very reminiscent of Dick Tracy), and it's really interesting to see something outside of the ordinary comics of the era. The stories were nigh unreadable though. They are at least, again, different from anything else of the era I've read, but the writing is even more amateurish than the art and the ideas are constantly repeated. I only made it about a third of the way in, then flipped through the rest just to see how weird the art could get. Definitely worth a look for someone interested in comics history and/or outsider art, but I couldn't possibly recommend it for anyone else.
March 26, 2025
DNF at 22%
If I were rating this collection based on the quality of the presentation, I'd give it five stars. Seriously, they did a brilliant job with it. I especially like the line "bear in mind as you read these stories that they were created by a man who once kicked his four-year-old son down a flight of stairs" that was snuck into the forward.
Fletcher Hanks is an interesting character for sure, and his work is amusing in small doses, but it didn't hold my attention for the duration of this very thick book. The "so bad it's good" qualities only come through intermittently... often times these are just very wordy, very poorly structured stories, with mediocre to bad art, and not much else beyond that.
If I were rating this collection based on the quality of the presentation, I'd give it five stars. Seriously, they did a brilliant job with it. I especially like the line "bear in mind as you read these stories that they were created by a man who once kicked his four-year-old son down a flight of stairs" that was snuck into the forward.
Fletcher Hanks is an interesting character for sure, and his work is amusing in small doses, but it didn't hold my attention for the duration of this very thick book. The "so bad it's good" qualities only come through intermittently... often times these are just very wordy, very poorly structured stories, with mediocre to bad art, and not much else beyond that.
Read
August 6, 2021Interesting survey of primitive comic books predating some of the tropes codifying into rules. Kind of a buzzkill to read the whole thing, including the biographical material, and get the sense that Hanks may have written and illustrated some wild fever dream oddities but as a human being he was pretty much trash.
August 6, 2025
Excellent collection of Hanks comic book work, which was extreme for its time but when accompanied by his biography, it easy to explain why. Hanks was a true oddity and his comics are brutal and strange but never boring, and in many ways forgotten gems. Seeing characters like Stardust brutally kill and punish criminals is a grim delight. A nice gem of this largely unknown creator.
October 1, 2020
Fantomah, first female superhero !
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzGFFghU...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzUjHQBK...
Beautiful !
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzGFFghU...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzUjHQBK...
Beautiful !
February 2, 2021
Pure beautiful madness. Such a bizarre mind, but by god did Hanks have a vision.
December 11, 2022
I'm usually not a fan of "so bad it's good", but I quite liked this one.
August 14, 2025
new obsession unlocked...easily the greatest work of the Golden Age (at least that i know about so far!) and just perfectly up my alley...informative of everything "subversive" comics would do decades and decades later
also rolled my eyes initially at the addendum but i'm glad i stuck with it...recontextualizes the work into more than just silly fun, great symbolism and myth and a meditation on the relation between author and their work, even when it's "disposable"...some artistic geniuses also deserve to die alone..."there will never be another bad day in my life"
also rolled my eyes initially at the addendum but i'm glad i stuck with it...recontextualizes the work into more than just silly fun, great symbolism and myth and a meditation on the relation between author and their work, even when it's "disposable"...some artistic geniuses also deserve to die alone..."there will never be another bad day in my life"
February 7, 2020
Integral que recopila prácticamente todas las páginas conocidas de Fletcher Hanks, incluyendo varias no recopiladas en los dos libros anteriores (que conforman el tronco de este) y hasta algunas apócrifas que se trata de historietas de Hanks redibujadas o recoloreadas por autores posteriores.
February 1, 2017
too much ... just enough
November 20, 2018
There's more fairly standard stories here than you might expect, but when Hanks really goes unhinged, there's nothing like it.
December 31, 2021
An interesting look at what is considered to be the odd and weird comics of the time but, I guess I prefer the more mainstream stuff.
April 22, 2017
¿Qué se obtiene de la suma de I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! y You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! más un par de yapas? Nada menos que Turn Loose Our Death Rays And Kill Them All!, los ahora sí Complete Works Of Fletcher Hanks. Buen gusto del peor.
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