He was a raging alcoholic. He was prone to violent streaks and physically abusive to his family. And one fine day in 1930, he stole his son's money from his piggy bank and disappeared, never to be seen by them again. He also became a comic book writer and artist who created some of the most bizarre, mind-boggling and mind-blowing stories in the history of comics. His name was Fletcher Hanks.
Hanks was born in 1887 in Paterson, New Jersey and grew up in Oxford, Maryland on Chesapeake Bay. His father was a Methodist preacher and his mother was the daughter of English immigrants. As a boy, he loved comics and baseball (his nickname was "Christy", after New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson), but he was also known as a problem child around the neighborhood. In 1910, his doting mother paid for a correspondence course from the W.L. Evans School of Cartooning and Caricaturing and from then on he referred to himself as a cartoonist. At some point thereafter he made his living painting murals for rich New York clients.
He married and had four children. According to Fletcher Jr. (where most of Fletcher Sr.'s biographical information comes from), his father was abusive and violent, and in an interview with Paul Karasik, curator and editor of Hanks' comic book work, he said: "My father [injured me] while in a drunken state when I was three that left me autistic. I was not accepted at school until I was nine. This is the first time the story of my miserable childhood has been told as it would have affected my career". It was up to Fletcher Jr. to fend for the family as his father spent his own earnings on drink. When Fletcher Sr. left with his son's piggy bank money, Fletcher Jr. recalled his mother saying: "It's a small price to pay to be rid of the bum."
In 1939 Hanks began to draw comic books for the Eisner and Iger studio that packaged comics for Fiction House and Fox Features Syndicate, quickly learning to adapt his fine line work to a heavier style that reproduced better on the cheap newsprint that comics were notoriously printed on. Even though his work was basically as rudimentary as the next artist during this period, he had something going on that was distinctive from the others' typically flat characters and vacant backgrounds. Often, Fletcher crammed his unorganized panels full of text boxes, dialogue and hordes of dazzling death rays and flying space creatures.
When he had the opportunity, he created Stardust, the Super Wizard for the first issue of Fox's FANTASTIC COMICS in 1939. Stardust's M.O. is this: he suddenly appears from space after a catastrophe or criminal event takes place, cleans up on the villains, then flies back into space without so much as a "good-bye".What makes this corny character significant is that he is one of the very first super-heroes--that is, characters that had super powers--in the history of comic books. After all, only a handful of issues of SUPERMAN had been published by that time (and it's interesting that DC Comics didn't go after him like they did Eisner's hero Wonder Man in 1939). Also significant is the fact that he was somehow allowed total control over his stories; writing the script, penciling and inking the art, lettering and possibly the rest of the pre-press production process such as color-separations. What is unusual that he was able to do all of it without apparent interference from his editors.
Another one of his creations, Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle was also possessed of super-powers. Fantomah debuted in Fiction House's JUNGLE COMICS #2 (February 1940), over a year-and-a-half before the first appearance of psychologist and comic book writer William Moulton Marsten's Wonder Woman in ALL STAR COMICS #8 (October 1941), making her the first female super-hero. Using over a dozen pseudonyms, he created more characters for Fiction House and Victor Fox, including Tabu the Wizard of the Jungle, lumberjack Big Red McLane, King of the North Woods and a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers-type hero, Space Smith.
Hanks worked for less than three years in the comics business, and just like he did with his family, he disappeared again in 1941. One source states that he popped back up again as president of the Oxford, Maryland town commission from 1958-1960, after which he fell off the grid once more.
On a frigid January, 1976 morning in Manhattan, Fletcher Hanks was found frozen to death on a park bench. He was 86 years old and is believed to have died destitute.
For years, Hanks' art was dismissed as being "crude", "clumsy", "childish" and "incompetent", as well as anatomically incorrect to the extent that one critic later wrote that all his characters looked like they suffered from acromegaly, but also added, "His compositions are often unwieldy and random, [but] he occasionally pulls off a stunning, beguiling image.
As with a number of artists who have been forgotten or neglected over the decades, Hanks was suddenly "rediscovered" through today's critical lens and transformed into another revered ground breaker and innovator. It is often said that Hanks' style resembles Chester Gould's Dick Tracy in some respects. Will Eisner compared his art to the early work of Basil Wolverton. I even suggest that the Space Smith story seen here today contains dragon-like creatures that look like they could have inspired some of Matt Fox's demonic WEIRD TALES covers and comic art.
Personally, I consider his work unique and fascinating, and if you took all the color out of these stories, I'd swear they were from an underground comic from the 60s or 70s. Robert Crumb was aware of him and called him "one wasted dude". Even Paul Karasik, who discovered Hanks while working as an associate editor for Art Spiegelman's RAW magazine and has another book out on his work (see below) containing all 53 of his known "batshit crazy tales” says this: "Hanks comics are incredibly violent, incredibly stupid, and incredibly beautiful".
FANTASTIC COMICS #1 (Fox, December 1939) "Stardust, the Super Wizard":
FANTASTIC COMICS #1 (Fox, December 1939) "Space Smith":
EXTRA! Published by Fantagraphics on November 4, 2025:
Turn Loose Our Death Rays And Kill Them All! The Complete Works Of Fletcher Hanks
A gigantic compendium that collects the complete stories written and drawn by the 1940s outsider superhero artist Fletcher Hanks.
Hanks wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all of his own stories. Between 1939 and 1941 he created nearly 50, all unified by a uniquely artistic vision — primitive, bizarre, and singularly idiosyncratic. Whether it’s the superhero Stardust doling out ice cold slabs of poetic justice, or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers limb from ragged limb, contemporary readers will be stunned by the pop surrealism and unfiltered violent mayhem of Hanks’ work. This new paperback edition brings back into print all of Hanks’ previously published material and is the most complete collection of his work.
Includes Karasik’s brilliant graphic story about finding Hanks’ son and how little Hanks Jr. (who was a friggin’ WWII hero) knew about his own father. And how little he thought about him. It’s a brilliant little 16-page piece, written and drawn by Karasik as he, a super fan boy, goes through the process of learning the convoluted story about an equally bizarre creator!!! I love it. – Bud Plant
Hank’s son was interviewed for an earlier edition; he was a true hero, having piloted planes over the famous “hump” of the Himalayan Mountains, bringing much-needed supplies into territory attacked by the Japanese. He tells the story of his father being a raging alcoholic who deserted the family. When you look at his stories and their violent themes, somehow that begins to make sense. Here was an unhappy man channeling his fantasies into stories for Fiction House, Fox and other companies in the earliest days of the Golden Age. In 1941 he disappeared from comics, never to be seen again. Hanks was found frozen to death on a park bench in NYC at the age of 88, probably sleeping off another drunken binge.
The fascinating introduction tells us as much of the story as is known. Hanks, born in 1887, was taking an illustrator correspondence course in 1910 and in 1915 enrolled in the well known W.L. Evans School. Other students included Chester Gould, Hank Ketcham and E. C. Segar! Even more interesting is his student work shown here, more of which is held in the Billy Ireland Museum in Columbus, OH.
Once dismissed as merely a bad artist, his work is now celebrated for its so-very-weird elements, much like the work of Basil Wolverton or Munson Paddock. Hanks was full-steam-ahead with over-the-top tales of vengeance and revenge, violent retribution and giving the bad guys their just desserts! The stories are actually quite readable and among the strangest of the Golden Age.
Foreword by Glen David Gold, Introduction by Paul Karasik. Student Portfolio.
ISBN: 9798875001444
376pg
Softcover
8" x 10"
Full color
Retail price: $44.99
"The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a major work of art." — Kurt Vonnegut
"Want to suspend disbelief while reading Hanks? Wear a truss. But you'll take much more pleasure in reading this if you ignore the disbelief and truss. For everybody who grew up watching '50s-era low-budget SF and horror films on Saturday afternoon TV." — The Book Beat
"I say it with absolutely zero hyperbole that Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All provided me with a shot of the purest joy I've gotten from comics in the last few years." — We The Hallowed
"Fletcher Hanks' work, thoroughly covered in this volume, brought me back to the days of wildly inventive drawing. The artistry Mr. Hanks brought to his work is extraordinary." — Michael Maslin
"This book thoughtfully archives a great deal of his work in the usual Fantagraphics quality, which opts for recapturing the original colors rather than recoloring, giving you the most Golden Age experience possible." — AIPT Comics [italics mine]