Fletcher Hanks

• Born 1889-12-01 · Died 1976-01-22

Fletcher Hanks was an American cartoonist from the Golden Age of Comic Books. In 1939, in the wake of the success of Action Comics and Superman, Hanks began producing comic book stories. Some of Hanks' work was for the Eisner & Iger comic book packaging company. Will Eisner recalled Hanks as a punctual artist whose work was reminiscent of the early work of Basil Wolverton. Hanks did all the work on his comics, from the writing to the lettering, and was considerably older than the other artists who worked there — many of whom were teenagers. The primary publishers he produced work for were Fiction House and Fox Features Syndicate. His creations include Stardust the Super Wizard, Tabu the Wizard of the Jungle, Big Red McLane, and Fantomah—one of the first female superheroes, predating Wonder Woman. Hanks left the comic book industry in 1941. A cult following developed around Hanks' work. His stories and art have been reprinted in the magazine Raw and several comics anthologies, and archival material of his work has been the subject of two books edited by Paul Karasik and published by Fantagraphics Books: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (2007) and You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (2009). Hanks was found dead, frozen on a park bench in New York City in 1976.