I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets! (Paperback)

~ (Author), Paul Karasik (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of the strangest cartoonists of American comics' Golden Age, Hanks had a short career—the 15 stories collected here were all published between 1939 and 1941—but the deranged, nightmarish vigor of his work has made it something of a cult item. Hanks created pulpy characters like Stardust the Super Wizard, the scientific marvel whose vast knowledge of all planets has made him the most remarkable person ever known and the jungle heroine Fantomah, whose face becomes a snarling skull when she uses her magic powers. The artist's manic obsessions turn up again and again: global-scale atrocities, miraculous rays and, most of all, poetically apt punishments. In a typical story, Master-Mind De Structo tries to suffocate America's heads of state with an oxygen-destroying ray, so Stardust turns him into a giant head, then hurls him into a space pocket of living death occupied by a headless headhunter. Hanks's artwork is crude and technically limited (each of his characters has exactly one, wildly caricatured, facial expression), but nearly every page has some image that sings out with deep, primal power. In an afterword, editor Paul Karasik explains how he tracked down Hanks's son and learned a bit more about the artist's sad life and death. (July)
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From Booklist

Hanks, who plied his trade in the late 1930s and early 1940s, has been called the Ed Wood of comic books, but his narratives are far more bizarre than Wood's film scenarios, and his naive artwork resembles that of outsider artists like Henry Darger. His creations include jungle queen Fantomah, who morphs into an all-powerful, skull-faced avenger; he-man lumberjack Big Red McLane; and his chef d'oeuvre, Stardust, "master of space and interplanetary forces," a tiny-headed, barrel-chested, eight-foot superhero with limitless powers. Hanks definitely had a vision, albeit a loopy one. In every story here, justice is meted out in cruelly imaginative ways to "spies and grade-A racketeers," "a gigantic fifth column," and other miscreants. Stardust transforms them into icicles that melt away, or giant rats he then drowns. Hanks' crude but powerful draftsmanship makes such grisly executions laughably nightmarish. In a comics-format afterword as sensitive and nuanced as Hanks' work is harsh and blunt, compiler Karasik tracks down the fate of the elusive Hanks, who vanished from the scene after producing a handful of hauntingly demented works. Flagg, Gordon

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Product Details

• Paperback: 124 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; illustrated edition edition (June 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560978392
• ISBN-13: 978-1560978398
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raw, Primitive and Super Strange!, July 3, 2007

By	Riley0091 (Concord, NH) - See all my reviews

Fletcher Hanks, pioneering comic artist, created the most surrealistic comic environments brimming with wonder and unspeakable evil at every page turn. His larger than life heroes, Fantomah (mysterious jungle woman), Stardust (omnipowerful wizard), Big Red McLane (two-fisted lumberjack), and Buzz Crandall (space ace), all rendered with slight heads and powerful bodies, use occult powers, super science or just a powerful right hook to banish the legions of offbeat and oddball villains -- with fatal results.

Hanks' rough-hued, boldly primitive artwork and "pre-comic code" visceral storytelling, makes this volume a must for anyone who enjoyed early comic collections like Dick Briefer's The Monster of Frankenstein or Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important collection of comics I've ever read. , July 28, 2007

By	Katie - See all my reviews

by Glenn Phillips (Atlanta GA)

I've collected comic books for 50 years, and this was probably the most important collection of comics that I've ever read. The work of Hanks is surreal, crude yet beautiful (and impossible to take your eyes off), highly imaginative, and more importantly, it's a one-of-a-kind direct connection to a man's subconscious that exemplifies the power of the creative process.

What really put this book over the top for me, though, was the afterword by the book's editor, Paul Karasik, told as a 10-page graphic novel. In it, Karasik tracks down Hank's son and uncovers the disturbing story of Fletcher the man. This puts the violent and retributive nature of Hank's comics in an entirely different light, and is filled with surprises (including the fact that Hanks foreshadowed his own death in one of his stories, and the ultimately redemptive legacy that his son was able to wrestle from his upbringing).

For me, this book was an unforgettable journey into the world that lies just beyond the realm of imagination, yet is, nonetheless, forever linked to reality.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars probing the bizarre to the Nth degree , November 8, 2007

By	M. M. Smith "Avid Goldenage Fan" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a long overdue collection of the most mystery of comic book creators. Not only are his drawings strange and weirdly naive but the story are simply out-of-this-world bizarre. Hanks style is immediate and wholly idyosyncratic on par with Wolverton for oddity and inventiveness. Fletcher and Basil are probably the lone standouts in the form. It wasnt until the underground movement began that we again see the clear awareness of artist manipulating the mark and structure of the medium in such interesting and individual ways.

Everytime I look at his work and read the stories I feel as though I am tapping into some primal awareness; some strange clarity of the world in absolutes. Having the original comics is best(I have accumulated only a few) having this book however is a rare gift-- share it with any who want to investigate genius. I only wish we knew more about him. Come check out the wonderous world of Fletcher Hanks.