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Saturday, July 25, 2009

SHEER MADNESS STRIKES AGAIN: Fletcher Hanks' YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION! (2009)

The balls-out loony 2007 collection I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS! was so greatly enjoyed here in the Vault of Buncheness that I awarded it the title of "Comic Book of the Year" after wallowing naked in its clearly insane glory, and now comes a sequel book, bringing us over two-hundred more pages crafted from the gonzo imagination of Golden Age anti-wunderkind Fletcher Hanks. My piece on the previous collection gives you all the background you need, but for those of you already familiar with Hanks' singular charms, what you need to know is that this volume features an avalanche of the bizarro artwork, stilted dialogue, and just plain sheer madness that earmark the author's mind-wrenching work. Negligee-clad skull-faced jungle heroine Fantomah is back, as well as ass-kickin' lumberjack Big Red McLane, along with Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle (a ridiculous Tarzan knockoff, only with superpowers, so think "Super-Tarzan"), Space Smith (a Flash Gordon knockoff whose name is kind of like naming Aquaman "Underwater Pete"), Tiger Hart of Crossbone Castle on the Planet Saturn (kind of a Prince Valiant/Flash Gordon mashup), Whirlwind Carter of the Interplanetary Secret Service (who, along with his female sidekick, is visually indistinguishable from Space Smith and his female companion), 'Yank' Wilson Super Spy Q-4, and of course my man Stardust the Super Wizard, so this volume is bursting at the seams with some of the weirdest shit ever to grace the four-color page. A bargain at $24.99, this belongs on the coffee table of every self-respecting lover of effed-up ess, comics obscura fanatics, and little kids, so this one is obviously HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

2 comments:

John Bligh said...

From now on, I'm referring to Aquaman only as "Underwater Pete".

Satyrblade said...

"Yank Wilson" must now enter the sexual lexicon with obvious connotations.