Discovered: More Fletcher Hanks

Moe M. Down by Fletcher Hanks

We published You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! with the sincere belief that it, combined with the previous volume I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!, comprised the complete comics work of Fletcher Hanks. Lo and behold, on Christmas day Seattle-based comics writer Frank M. Young posted scans of two heretofore undiscovered stories on his blog Trick Coin which have been positively identified by Hanks expert Paul Karasik:

"The second story is taken directly from the final Big Red McLane tale with the captions rewritten and the faces re-rendered (possibly by another hand).

"But the first story really had me stumped, so many of the compositions are un-Hanksian but ultimately tiny details such as hair-rendering, crowd-rendering, and big details like, yes, anatomy have made me change my mind.

"I knew that sooner or later it would happen: the undiscovered Fletcher Hanks has been discovered."

A third story is said to exist but has not been scanned; Young comments "In the meantime, the mere existence of these two odd stories is certainly a wonderful effed-up Yuletide gift to the universe!" Head here to see the scans and to read Young and Karasik's commentary in its entirety. Plans to collect and reprint these stories remain undetermined at this time. Pipe that beef trust, slick!