I'd love to see those if you do! Just you saying that makes me tempted to try. I don't know if I still have my copy of I Shall Destroy... He was obviously a strange and troubled man, and the morality that he displayed in his comics is such an austere and retributive morality, quite different from modern heroes unless you're getting into Alan Moore or Grant Morrisson territory. There's even a touch of Lovecraft in it, in that mortals cannot comprehend the systems that "higher" beings operate within.
Hank's stuff is peak strange but Golden Age superheroes were weirder in general than today. The genre was being invented. I love that so many of the characters are loose in the public domain!
He was going further down the road of symbolic iconism than the rest of the industry eventually would with recurrent images and types, he was creating his own visual language (as just about all of them were forced to at that time). I really like how you've expanded on that in the elongated anatomies. Have you considered redrawing one of his original stories, or does that not appeal?
I've just realised... is this Fletcher Hanks inspired?
Definitely. I've done illustrations of both Stardust and Fantomah. If I can ever carve out the time I'd like to draw some comics that feature them.
I'd love to see those if you do! Just you saying that makes me tempted to try. I don't know if I still have my copy of I Shall Destroy... He was obviously a strange and troubled man, and the morality that he displayed in his comics is such an austere and retributive morality, quite different from modern heroes unless you're getting into Alan Moore or Grant Morrisson territory. There's even a touch of Lovecraft in it, in that mortals cannot comprehend the systems that "higher" beings operate within.
Hank's stuff is peak strange but Golden Age superheroes were weirder in general than today. The genre was being invented. I love that so many of the characters are loose in the public domain!
He was going further down the road of symbolic iconism than the rest of the industry eventually would with recurrent images and types, he was creating his own visual language (as just about all of them were forced to at that time). I really like how you've expanded on that in the elongated anatomies. Have you considered redrawing one of his original stories, or does that not appeal?
I hadn't thought of that. Not a bad idea!