Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!: The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks

A gigantic compendium that collects the complete stories written and drawn by the 1940s outsider superhero artist Fletcher Hanks.

Publisher Marketing: This book thoughtfully archives a great deal of his work in the usual Fantagraphics quality, which opts for recapturing the original colors rather than recoloring, giving you the most Golden Age experience possible.-- "AIPT Comics" Review Quotes : The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a major work of art.--Kurt Vonnegut Review Quotes : Fletcher Hanks' work, thoroughly covered in this volume, brought me back to the days of wildly inventive drawing. The artistry Mr. Hanks brought to his work is extraordinary.--Michael Maslin Review Quotes : Want to suspend disbelief while reading Hanks? Wear a truss. But you'll take much more pleasure in reading this if you ignore the disbelief and truss. For everybody who grew up watching '50s-era low-budget SF and horror films on Saturday afternoon TV.-- "The Book Beat" Review Quotes : I say it with absolutely zero hyperbole that Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All provided me with a shot of the purest joy I've gotten from comics in the last few years.-- "We The Hallowed" Review Quotes : Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All! delves into another element that set Hanks apart from his peers. At a time when the comic production process was highly stratified, he made all his comics himself, writing, drawing, inking, and lettering them. He thus stands as one of comics' earliest auteurs.-- "Hyperallergic" Review Quotes : By the 1960s, superhero artists were inspired by the pure dynamism of Jack Kirby and since the '70s, scores of budding creators have aped Neal Adams when starting out. No one ever aped Fletcher Hanks. Hanks is very definitely in a category by himself.-- "Forces of Geek" Publisher Marketing : Fletcher Hanks was arguably the first great comic book auteur: He wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all of his own stories -- an unprecedented solo act in the 1940s comic book industry. Between 1939 and 1941 he created nearly 50 comics stories, all unified by a uniquely artistic vision -- primitive, bizarre, and singularly idiosyncratic. Whether it's the superhero Stardust doling out ice cold slabs of poetic justice, or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers from limb to ragged limb, contemporary readers will be stunned by the pop surrealism and unfiltered violent mayhem of Hanks' work. This new paperback edition brings back into print all of Hanks' previously published material and is the most complete collection of his work.

Format: Paperback | Pages: 376 | Publication Date: 2025-11-04