num_pages: 120
description: Welcome to the bizarre world of Fletcher Hanks, Super Wizard of the Inkwell. Fletcher Hanks worked for only a few years in the earliest days of the comic book industry (1939-1941). Because he worked in a gutter medium for second-rate publishers on third-rate characters, his work has been largely forgotten. But among aficionados he is legendary. At the time, comic books were in their infancy. The rules governing their form and content had not been established. In this Anything Goes era, Hanks' work stands out for its thrilling experimentation. At once both crude and visionary, cold and hot as hell, Hanks' work is hard to pigeon hole. One thing is for certain: the stuff is bent. Hanks drew in a variety of genres depicting science-fiction saviors, white women of the jungle, and he-man loggers. Whether he signed these various stories "Henry Fletcher" or "Hank Christy" or "Barclay Flagg" there is no mistaking the unique outsider style of Fletcher Hanks.Cartoonist Paul Karasik (co-adapter of Paul Auster's City of Glass, and co-author of The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family) has spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Karasik has also uncovered a dark secret: why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene. This book collects 15 of his best stories in one volume followed by an afterword which solves the mystery of "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks," the mysterious cartoonist who created a hailstorm of tales of brutal retribution...and then mysteriously vanished.2008 Eisner Award WINNER: Best Archival Collection/Project &amp;mdash; Comic Books2008 Eisner Award Nominee: Best Short Story, "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?" by Paul Karasik
language: English
title: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!
titlecomplete: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks, #1)
characters: Big Red McLane, Paul Karasik, Fletcher Hanks Jr., Fantomah, Stardust The Super Wizard, Buzz Crandall
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Art, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Fantasy
ratings_count: 1030
series: The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks
awards: awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
category: Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
publisher: Fantagraphics