PAYING TRIBUTE TO FLETCHER HANKS

[MattBrady]

by Zack Smith

“There is no use resisting, my friends! You must go to our royal blood-testing laboratory!”

“Those who murder the jungle-born shall die by the wrath of the jungle power!”

Who is Fletcher Hanks, and why is everyone from Robert Crumb to Kurt Vonnegut paying tribute to him?

From 1939 to 1941, Hanks, aka Henry Fletcher, was responsible for some of the strangest comics ever published, churning out stories about such characters as “Space” Smith, Fantomah (who some argue was the first female superhero) and “Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle”., His stories have earned a cult following for their bizarre plots, offbeat characters, and over-the-top violent ends for the wicked.

Now, writer Paul Karasik (Paul Auster’s City of Glass) has compiled 15 of Hanks’ “best” stories into one volume, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets, which Fantagraphics will publish in June. We spoke with Karasik about Hanks’ work…and why it still obsesses people six decades later.

Newsarama: Tell us a little bit about this project.

Paul Karasik: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks features the work of a comics genius so obscure that even some of the serious collectors from whom I borrowed the original comics to shoot from, were unaware of Fletcher Hanks.

His work is everything that you want a comic book to be but so rarely is: weird, violent, stupid, fun and breathtakingly beautiful all at once. It's like a memory of a comic book story you read as a kid, a story that got you interested in comics in the first place, but are now not certain whether it really existed or not because nothing else has ever lived up to that particular type of thrill. It really existed, believe me. And it was written and drawn by a guy you never heard of: Fletcher Hanks. Welcome home.

NRAMA: How did you first become aware of Hanks' work? What was your reaction to it?

PK: Back in the early ‘80s I was the Associate Editor of Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's RAW magazine. We were introduced to the work of Fletcher Hanks by the cartoonist and painter, Jerry Moriarty. Years and years went by before I saw any more work by Hanks, but once you see this stuff it is impossible to forget. It gets etched into your memory bank like a snowplow through a snow bank.

NRAMA: So that readers will know what they’re in for, describe a typical Fletcher Hanks story.

PK: A typical Hanks story begins with the God-like hero gazing mystically down at earth from afar, witnessing some thugs with a distinctive looking ring-leader up to no-good, like, destroying civilization, f'rinstance. Usually by page three of a seven-or-eight-page story, the thugs have had just enough time to begin their deadly plot (ridding the earth of gravity, setting lions loose in New York, suffocating every “big-shot in America”) when the hero descends with the burning sword of justice, or, perhaps merely the magnetic reversing anti-gravity ray of justice. The hero then proceeds to torture and terrify the thugs for the remainder of the story.

Various Hanks villains have met this list of fates: Frozen in a icy cell to contemplate their crimes for all eternity; chased by gigantic disembodied pink hands; crushed by an entire island, then eaten by a golden octopus; torn limb from limb by a horde of gorillas.

Hanks was cranking these stories out at a breakneck speed, and the plots tend to be very formulaic. Part of what makes his work so remarkable is how little he repeats himself visually. The 15 tales in this book follow similar plotlines, but each one is graphically distinct.

NRAMA: What will be the format of the book? Is it reprint, biography, a combination?

PK: The book is a collection of 15 of the best Hanks' stories. After you finish them you might wonder, as I did myself, who the heck was the mad genius behind these tales of violent retribution? Hanks worked for only the first 3 years of the comic book, 1939-1941, and then...disappeared. My book concludes with a 16 page comic story by myself that explains who this mad genius was and uncovers the mystery, “Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?”

NRAMA: Without giving away too much, what did you ultimately find out about Fletcher Hanks?

PK: Let's just say that for a guy who meted out brutal punishment for his thugs in the pages of a funnybook, this character received a double dose of poetic justice

NRAMA: Yikes. Why did you decide to undertake this project?

PK: What's the opposite of a prolific cartoonist? Whatever it is, that's me. I admire cartoonists who can sit down at the drawing board day-in and day-out and produce consistent work. Most of my very favorite cartoonists are journeymen. But I seem to only get the job done when it comes racing at me point-blank, grabs me by the lapels and drags me down kicking and screaming.

This Fletcher Hanks project has been a lapel-grabber.

A few years back a friend sent me a link to a Hanks story on-line. After reading it I figured that there might have been more. Googling that name “Fletcher Hanks” was a pivotal moment like Alice choosing to chase the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole. Not that there were many other Hanks stories on the internet, but rather, that search led to a series of small coincidences and revelations that forced me to create this book. I really had no choice in the matter.

NRAMA: Do you remember the specific story, and what your initial reaction was to it?

PK In RAW we ran the Stardust story from Fantastic Comics #7. I have a few others that come in at a close 2nd, but panel-by-panel Art and Francoise chose the best one (as usual). I could not help but reprint it in my book. I figure it has been 20 years so what the heck. It has a fabulous anti-gravity sequence straight out of Magritte, but I truly doubt that Hanks ever saw a Magritte. Almost every Hanks story has a telltale panel of silhouettes against a pure color background (100% yellow, blue, or red). In this story there are dozens of people floating away from Earth in silhouette. The guy was doing several stories a month and featureless figures helped speed up the process...it also part of what gives his work a relentless graphic impact.

NRAMA: Do you have a favorite Fletcher Hanks story?

PK: I love 'em all. Currently my favorite single panel comes at the end of a Fantomah story in which she has transformed two thugs into green monsters and sent them back to civilization to be scorned by their fellow man as freaks. In the final panel, we see their plane silhouetted against a pure yellow sky with two word balloons coming from the creatures in the cockpit: “Crime doesn't seem to pay!” remarks one of the thug/monsters. “You're right!” replies the second.

Simple, direct, sad, funny, beautiful.

NRAMA: Do you attribute some of the strangeness in Hanks' work to the relative newness of comics as a medium?

PK: Absolutely. Comic strips had been around for years, but Superman began in 1939, the same year that Hanks' first tale appeared. At that time there were no set rules, no standard formats, no censorship. Most importantly, there were no marketing studies determining what a comic book could or could not be. Hence, the twisted Hanks was free to roam the craggy corners of his angry mind to dig up nuggets of brutal retribution.

NRAMA: What kind of following is there for his work? You mentioned that Jules Feiffer, R. Crumb and Kurt Vonnegut are all fans of the material...

PK: I am grateful that all three of these fine fellows (as well as Kim Deitch, Greil Marcus, and Gary Panter) were kind enough to write pithy blurbs for this book. I hope that these names will help to get people to open the front cover. Because, once you do, chances are you will find the work as thrilling as they did.

NRAMA: You've talked about how obscure Hanks is – when you recruited these other fans to write blurbs, did you have cases where they knew the work, but not the creator's name? Also, what kind of advance reaction have you received for the book?

PK: Unfortunately, Will Eisner died before I had really begun to compile the stories. Eisner was one of my teachers at the School of Visual Arts and I called him up to ask him if he remembered Hanks. Given the fact that Eisner, among many other talents, was a consummate businessman (he was the guy to successfully inaugurate the bullpen system of production line comics) it should have come as no surprise to me when he remembered Hanks only as “the guy who drew worse than Basil Wolverton but always got his work in on time.”

As to the other blurbists, most of them recalled him from the appearance in RAW 20 years ago...I tell ya, all you have to do is see this stuff once, and you'll never forget it. In Vonnegut's case, I have no idea if he knew of Hanks work or not. I just sent him a dummy of the book and he came through with a gem of a quote that anyone would be proud to have on their book, “The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a major work of art.”

It was one of the greatest days of my life when I found that envelope from him in my dusty mailbox.

NRAMA: What were some of the challenges you faced in compiling Hanks' work?

PK: The greatest challenge was finding the work. It took years. Not only are these comics old, but they were produced by one of the worst of the early comic book publishers. The print runs were low, and because they did not feature characters that later went on to become famous, they were not collected to the same degree as books of similar vintage featuring Batman, Superman, or Captain America.

Fortunately I was aided by several kind collectors who generously provided copies of the essential stories I needed. May God bless the lowly comic book collector.

NRAMA: Why, in your opinion, is Hanks' work so compelling?

PK: In part because there is nothing else like it. It is close to looking like the Spacehawk strips of Basil Wolverton, which they just barely predate. But there is a subtle difference. Wolverton's early work is primitive but very much in control. One gets the feeling reading Hanks' work that although he drawing appears tight it is somehow, just under the surface, almost magically out of control like a hissing pressure cooker.

Everything is illuminated in the Hanks' landscape. The foreground, the background and the figures are all cast in a bright shadowless light. Yet darkness lurks under the surface as the heroes of Hanks’ tales torture and maim the hideous villains.

It is important to try to appreciate this work not as campy primitive nostalgia. To do this is to miss the point entirely. Hanks’ work stands up against the strongest work in comics. Single creators doing the writing, drawing, lettering, and inking, has produced most of the greatest comics. Given the assembly line approach to most comic-book-making, it is very rare to find masterwork in comic books. Certainly there are a few exceptions: Kurtzman, Boody Rogers, Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Robert Crumb. All of these artists produced work that was fueled by a single-minded purpose and towers over the rest of the schlock. Hanks belongs on this list.

NRAMA: Any final thoughts on Hanks, and your book?

PK: I have to say that Fantagraphics (in particular Kim Thompson and Art Director Jacob Covey) has stuck to this project through some up, downs and long waits. We have put together a very good-looking book.

I have spent over four years of my life on this book and never really figured that it was going to get much attention, but the reaction the work is receiving from people who know little about comics is very promising. Maybe this will be one of those “crossover books.”

Many people have told me that they have given the City of Glass graphic novel as a gift to a literate friend, maybe a Paul Auster fan, as a way of turning them onto the medium. Perhaps this book can serve the same bridging purpose. There is something about this stuff that affects people who are visually literate much the same way they might react to Outsider Art. As a matter of fact, for a while I considered titling this book: “The Outsider Art of Fletcher Hanks.” It may have sold more copies in museum bookstores with that title, but ultimately it just seemed too pretentious. I mean, after all, it's just comics...I think.

[Gamma Duck]

I'll definitely be getting this...it looks like a scream.

It's too bad Ed Wood isn't alive...one of these books could've been his big comic book movie.

[Drcharles]

Looks good, I'm interested.

[vbartilucci]

At first glance I noticed the similarity to Wolverton, but there is a sense of chaos underneath.

In a market that is ravenous for material, all sorts of crazy stuff can get seen. Some pretty wild music got published during the heyday of 45's. Just another reason to try to get the comics market back up to a level that all sorts of stories can see the light.

[gokujam]

These stories seem like a lot of fun. Unfortunately it looks like this guy was a real rat bastard :

http://www3.lehigh.edu/News/news_sto...archive.asp%3F

[Primate]

This guy's artwork serves as a backdrop for the cover copy of the paperback version of Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Borth of the Comic Book, one of my favorite scholarly tomes on the golden age.

[iyamwhatiyam]

I have been waiting for this book FOREVER. God bless Fantagraphics.

[Michael C Lorah]

bizarre and peculiar. can't wait to read it!

[Bill_Nolan]

This is going to be awesome! Already preordered.

- Bill

[Kolimar]

Freaky fun stuff in a cool Golden Age way. I like it.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by gokujam

These stories seem like a lot of fun. Unfortunately it looks like this guy was a real rat bastard :

http://www3.lehigh.edu/News/news_sto...archive.asp%3F

Not a much information there.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

From 1939 to 1941, Hanks, aka Henry Fletcher, was responsible for some of the strangest comics ever published, churning out stories about such characters as “Space” Smith, Fantomah (who some argue was the first female superhero) and “Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle”.,

Nice links.

[Kid Doozer]

Originally Posted by gokujam

These stories seem like a lot of fun. Unfortunately it looks like this guy was a real rat bastard :

http://www3.lehigh.edu/News/news_sto...archive.asp%3F

doesnt seem that way at all. seems like he led a pretty full and adventurous life that most people would be envious of.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by Kid Doozer

doesnt seem that way at all. seems like he led a pretty full and adventurous life that most people would be envious of.

That article is about the artist's son, Fletcher Hanks Jr.

Eighty-two years ago, atop another stairway in Oxford, he said something - he doesn’t remember what - that enraged the volatile man for whom he was named. Fletcher Hanks Sr. responded, his son recalls, with the mindless fury of a drunken, paranoid bully, throwing a four-year-old down those steps and into a world in which the words inside the child couldn't escape. The son could think, but he could not articulate his thoughts. The voice that had ignited his father's demons had been effectively silenced.

"Something slipped in the computer upstairs," Hanks says, his casual diagnosis belied by an edge in his voice all these decades
later. "I couldn't talk. Well, I could talk, but nobody could understand me."

The condition, he says, persisted for five years. His loathing of his father has lasted much longer. "My father was the most no-good drunken bum you can find," he says, declining to elaborate.

But many details of the life of Fletcher Hanks Sr. may appear soon in print. The elder Hanks, an early comic-book artist, is the subject of a biography under way by a contemporary author and cartoonist, Paul Karasik.

Karasik says Fletcher Sr.-known as "Christy" because his pitching drew comparisons to base-ball great Christy Mathewson-favored an older, healthier son over Fletcher Jr., who suffered from rickets and nearly died of diphtheria. But the father's cruelty may have been a blessing of sorts.

"As a result of his father's abusive behavior, Fletcher really took it upon himself to be the best person he could be," Karasik says. "Here we have a man who was really debilitated when he was young, who went on to tremendous achievements. He took all that abuse and turned it around."

I agree with Gokujam: he was a mean sob. It's a miracle the kid turned out so good.

[Diego Maya]

Pretty cool, love the simplicity of the cover also. Very elegant