Stocking Stuffer: I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!
Today's recommendation is in stock at Amazon and can be shipped overnight if you're really running late but I've also consistently seen it on the shelf at my local comics shop and you very well might be able to find it there.
If you have a friend with a taste for the genuinely bizarre, a friend whose ultimate dream is a movie written by Ed Wood and directed by David Lynch, get them this: I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!, a collection of fifteen comics written by the otherwise-unknown Fletcher Hanks between 1939 and 1941. Frankly, Hanks' writing is strangely stilted and his art approaches the two and a half dimensions of hieroglyphs; the characters are cruel, the characterizations inconsistent and the resolutions sometimes wickedly ironic; but the work itself remains almost disturbingly compelling. It's pretty plain that there is a degree of madness at work in the engine of his ideas, and the behind-the-scenes offered by this collection doesn't at all shy away from that, but this collection and the light it sheds on Fletcher's work never feels exploitative. Rather, I felt that reading this book was a rare opportunity to appreciate the complex world Fletcher constructs out of the stream of pulp consciousness on which popular culture moved at the time, a world very nearly lost to us along with countless other forgotten creators and creations, within a larger context of how an artist's work can be appealing even if the artist himself is not. Highly recommended for those you know who enjoy analyzing the blueprints of great works and the DVD extra features more than the works themselves at times.
Klarion
Posted to Trade Paperback on 21 December 2010
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Other stuff like this: Fletcher Hanks
Thanks for the kind comments about my Eisner Award-winning collection. This book, combined with a second volume, "You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation", comprise the complete works by the artist whom R.Crumb called, "A twisted dude". (I also have a very few Fletcher Hanks t-shirts for sale over at my website: www.fletcherhanks.com).