Stardust will swallow your soul
He's a ten foot super giant with ginger hair and a neck as thick as a Sequoia. He's Stardust, one of the proto-superheroes that appear in Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1939-1941 by Greg Sadowski, and he is creepy as hell.
Supermen! features an assortment of obscure early superhero comics produced in 1939-41. The comics are glorious, primitive works of pulp science fiction, crude ancestors of the modern superhero. Yet there's something vital and imaginative about these unsophisticated comics which clumsily explore superhero stories and ideas long before they calcified into cliche.
And holy shit, some of those early superheroes were bizarre and terrifying. Stardust is certainly unnerving, but nothing matches the sheer weirdness of Fantomah, the face-melting heroine. Like many "heroes" of her time, Fantomah had seemingly unlimited supernatural powers that she used to protect her jungle domain, but what set her apart was her tendency for her face to transform into a hideous grinning skull.
Bleach blonde skull face woman! She is a nightmare.
Stardust, on the other hand, embodies an entirely different type of weirdness. He's a red haired space giant who lives in a space castle and saves Earth from giant vultures - from space. Stardust's super powers are all over the map, ranging from flight to the ability to transform enemies into worms to a deep, penetrating, inappropriate stare.
He also has a HUGE, baby swallowing neck. If Stardust ever perished in the Sahara, scavengers would fight over Stardust's thick, juicy neck. You could feed a pack of hyenas with that neck meat. He should change his name to Neckro. Or Golden Throat. Or Dr. Bigneck.
Anyway, you can really get an idea of how freakishly huge Stardust's neck is when the hero saves a helpless and unnamed girl from the space vultures:
Nameless Girl, look out! Stardust wants to swallow you!
I honestly can't tell if Stardust is meant to be that frickin' huge, or if the artist just had no concept of proportion and perspective whatsoever. Regardless, the end result is strangely compelling.
After wiping out the space vultures, Stardust returns to the girl (who begins every phrase with the word "oh") and , looming uncomfortably close and staring at her, he invites her back to his space castle. "Oh, Stardust! I'd be crazy about it!"
I'm guessing that Stardust routinely "rescues" women like Oh Girl, takes them back to his star, feeds them fattening foods for a few months, and then eats them. That's just how superheroes rolled back in the late Thirties.
Supermen! features an assortment of obscure early superhero comics produced in 1939-41. The comics are glorious, primitive works of pulp science fiction, crude ancestors of the modern superhero. Yet there's something vital and imaginative about these unsophisticated comics which clumsily explore superhero stories and ideas long before they calcified into cliche.
And holy shit, some of those early superheroes were bizarre and terrifying. Stardust is certainly unnerving, but nothing matches the sheer weirdness of Fantomah, the face-melting heroine. Like many "heroes" of her time, Fantomah had seemingly unlimited supernatural powers that she used to protect her jungle domain, but what set her apart was her tendency for her face to transform into a hideous grinning skull.
Bleach blonde skull face woman! She is a nightmare.
Stardust, on the other hand, embodies an entirely different type of weirdness. He's a red haired space giant who lives in a space castle and saves Earth from giant vultures - from space. Stardust's super powers are all over the map, ranging from flight to the ability to transform enemies into worms to a deep, penetrating, inappropriate stare.
He also has a HUGE, baby swallowing neck. If Stardust ever perished in the Sahara, scavengers would fight over Stardust's thick, juicy neck. You could feed a pack of hyenas with that neck meat. He should change his name to Neckro. Or Golden Throat. Or Dr. Bigneck.
Anyway, you can really get an idea of how freakishly huge Stardust's neck is when the hero saves a helpless and unnamed girl from the space vultures:
Nameless Girl, look out! Stardust wants to swallow you!
I honestly can't tell if Stardust is meant to be that frickin' huge, or if the artist just had no concept of proportion and perspective whatsoever. Regardless, the end result is strangely compelling.
After wiping out the space vultures, Stardust returns to the girl (who begins every phrase with the word "oh") and , looming uncomfortably close and staring at her, he invites her back to his space castle. "Oh, Stardust! I'd be crazy about it!"
I'm guessing that Stardust routinely "rescues" women like Oh Girl, takes them back to his star, feeds them fattening foods for a few months, and then eats them. That's just how superheroes rolled back in the late Thirties.
This entry was posted by David Campbell, on
Monday, May 18, 2009.
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May 20, 2009 2:26 AM
What I need to know is how many issues Stardust ran back then. And if so, it must be collected as a trade paperback. No basement dwelling sod should go through life without Stardust.
Dave you did it again.
May 20, 2009 5:01 AM
Stardust and Fantomah were both written and drawn by Fletcher Hanks. There is a collection called "I Will Destroy All the Civilized Planets". Worth tracking down--Hanks's perspective wasn't all that great, but his art is still vibrant and one of a kind.
May 20, 2009 9:51 AM
Yeah, if you aren't familiar with the Fletcher Hanks book, you really, really need to be.
May 20, 2009 11:22 AM
Yes, we have been blessed with one volume of Fletcher Hanks reprints (I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets), and another is on the way shortly (You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!). Amazing stuff.