Number 2094: Space Smith and the 7th son of the great Skomaw

A couple of weeks ago I showed the first Stardust story by Fletcher Hanks. There are two stories by Hanks in Fantastic Comics #1 (1939), Stardust and Space Smith. Hanks got to sign his Stardust story with his own name, but used a pen name, Hank Christy, for Space Smith.

Not that it matters. Both stories are off the wall, but Stardust really wins the prize for most oddball of the two. I have read many Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers imitations from the early years of comic books and Space Smith fits into the space hero oeuvre. He travels with his girlfriend, Dianna — and did anyone complain about Flash and Dale, Buck and Wilma, not to mention all of their imitators, traveling with partners without being married? Oh, the scandal! — so like many other space heroes, Space and Dianna meet some crazed dictator who wants to take over the Earth, and by the way, wants to marry the girlfriend, too. (Considering her status as girlfriend, maybe Dianna should have considered the offer.)

In this case the dictator is Skomaw, “the 7th son of the great Skomaw.” (I am glad he made his lineage clear for the sake of anyone looking into his claim to the throne.) Also typical: Space and Dianna bust out and encounter some Martian horrors along the way, including a giant mosquito. With that, Skomaw and his giant brain and the “imp men,” I think Fletcher Hanks hangs on to his reputation as creator of some of the screwiest of screwy early comics.

Posted in: Pappy Comics