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I'm sure that most everyone around these parts has already discovered the madness that is Fletcher Hanks, but for those who have not, get on it.
I discovered him through Dan Nadel's excellent collection of forgotten cartoonists, Art Out of Time. Little is known about Hanks' life except that his career was very short (about three years), and that he was a violent alcoholic, who is remembered by his son, Fletcher Hanks Jr as "...the most no-good drunken bum you can find."
Hanks' art on the other hand, is quite vivid. Although he was not entirely without drafting skill, his concept of anatomy was fast and loose at best. His bizarre science fiction super hero Stardust the Space-Wizard is characterized by a elephantitcally huge torso that extrudes up into a massive neck, surmounted by a kidney bean of a head, almost always shown in a three-quarters profile.
His layouts are bulding-block simple, but with a breaktaking, hammering visual rhythm. His character designs, especially for the villains are amazing grotesques. And the plots: fever dreams of crime and the subsequent weird murderous vengeance visited upon the criminals by Stardust. In one story, Stardust takes on a Fifth Column after they have sabotaged the defences of the United States. The rank-and-file communists are simply murdered. Memebers of lower-echelon party leadership are transformed into icicles and simply melt away. The rest of the dirty reds are turned into rats, and Stardust manifests a hungry panther and sets it on the hapless rodents.
Every one of Hanks' stories is as weird and lumpily beautiful as this one. There are available online. Fantagraphics has a collection, I Shall Destroy all Civilized Planets, edited by Paul Karasik, due out soon.
So, is anyone as intrigued as I was? |
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