Q-boy Short #48 The Drunken Master Or The ODB Of The Group / The History Of Q-boy Part 46 (Censored)

Flint Henry is based on Fletcher Hanks.  Fletcher Hanks was an artist in the very early days of comics who wrote and drew some really whacked out stories.

The site “Dangerous Minds” has an article ( which you can check out here http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_astonishingly_incompetent_superhero ) that describes how “Hanks drew superhero comics for a terribly short time—1939 to 1941—before dropping off the map altogether. It’s a bit of a miracle that we have so many of his comics in print, and much of that is due to the heroic labors of Paul Karasik”.  It adds that “In 2007 Karasik published “I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!” and in 2009 “You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!“” which collects pretty much all of his comics.  The article also states that “I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets”  “contains a 16-page comic by Karasik about discovering Hanks’ work and meeting with his (it turns out) estranged son”.  This story clearly shows that Hanks was an abusive drunk, who ended up abandoning his family and freezing to death.

The article goes on to add that “Hanks’ work had two primary characters, “Stardust the Super Wizard” and “Fantomah the Mystery Woman of the Jungle,” and a host of less interesting characters like Space Smith, Big Red McLane, and Whirlwind Carter”.  In the article Karasik is quoted as saying that “part of the fascination Hanks exerts is that he is a rare early case of a true auteur, a comics artist who “wrote, penciled, inked, lettered, and, I think, colored his work”.

I’ve read “I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!” and ““You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!“ and honestly I think only the Stardust comics are even “so crazy their good” good, and even those start to get stale especially when Stardust gets a bunch of kid sidekicks.  Still there’s something interesting about seeing these angry weird tales  that were made before the “rules” for making comics were established.

Anyways that’s that for this week. Next time we see Flint Henry’s Q-boy story.  Tuesday- Thurday there will be new Criminal And Crimefighter Conversations.  Hope you enjoy and see ya next time!

@rjoynesjr

rjoynesjr@gmail.com