Balladeer’s Blog presents the first in my new series about neglected comic book superheroes and heroines of the distant past. With superhero movies and television shows being so popular right now it put me in the mood for some of the obscure and forgotten figures from the Golden Age. Here are my pithy story-by-story takes on our debut figure.
FANTOMAH – This superheroine was created in February of 1940 by Fletcher Hanks under one of his pseudonyms – Barclay Flagg. Hanks is a piece of work all by himself and is described as anything from “a primitive who created Outsider Art” on the good side to “the Ed Wood of comic books” on the bad side.
All of Fletcher Hanks’ comic book creations read like the chronicled psychotic episodes of a not particularly skilled ten year old artist, but his Fantomah stories are my all-time favorites. In the works of Hanks perspective, relative sizes and coloring can all change from frame to frame and the text often doesn’t even match what is being drawn. Continue reading






