Fletcher Hanks

Fletcher Hanks Sr. (December 1, 1889 – January 22, 1976) was an American cartoonist from the Golden Age of Comic Books, who wrote and drew stories detailing the adventures of all-powerful, supernatural heroes and their elaborate punishments of transgressors. In addition to his birth name, Hanks worked under a number of pen names, including Hank Christy, Charles Netcher, C. C. Starr, and Barclay Flagg. Hanks was active in comic books from 1939 to 1941.

Early life Little is known of the life of Fletcher Hanks. He was born on December 1, 1889, in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in Oxford, Maryland. His father, William Hanks, was a Methodist minister, and his mother, Alice Fletcher Hanks, was a daughter of English immigrants. They married . Fletcher himself married Margaret . In 1910, his mother paid for her son to take the W. L. Evans correspondence course in cartooning; as early as 1911 he described himself as a cartoonist. His nickname was "Christy", in reference to the great baseball pitcher Christy Mathewson.

Career Around 1936, Hanks worked on the Federal Art Project creating drawings of furniture and metalwork for the Index of American Design in New York City. Seven of his drawings are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

In 1939, in the wake of the success of Action Comics and Superman, Hanks began producing comic book stories. Gradually, he abandoned the crosshatch-heavy style he had learned in his Evans courses and settled on a cleaner, thick-lined style that reproduced better in the cheaply manufactured comic books.

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, Fantomah debuted in February 1940, predating Wonder Woman by a year.

He produced work for three publishers under a number of alias names, including Hank Christy, Charles Netcher, C. C. Starr, and Barclay Flagg, the last of which he signed to his Fantomah stories. He used his real name on his Stardust the Super Wizard stories. In all Fletcher Hanks created 51 stories. His name was also used as an alias for other unknown comic-book artists, as is the case with "The Brain Men of Mars" and "The Solar Pirates". Hanks left the comic book industry in 1941. The reason is still unknown. He continued to live in Oxford, Maryland, where he served as the president of its town commission from 1958–1960.

Hanks's non comic work can be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

Personal life and death Hanks had four children: William, Fletcher Jr. (also nicknamed "Christy"), having frozen to death. He died penniless.

Legacy His stories and art have been reprinted in the magazine Raw and several comics anthologies. A complete edition of his work has been 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), as well an omnibus collecting both previous books titled Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Destroy Them All! (Fantagraphics, 2016).

His grandson Ian also works as an artist.