We've been looking at some fun hero vs. mummy stories over at THOIA this month (CLICK HERE if you'v missed 'em!), --and today at AEET we're getting a slightly spooky jump on our "March of the Mummies Monday" with an old, and even older Fantomah Double Dipped Feature! First up, from the May 1942 issue of Jungle Comics #29, foxy Fantomah faces an army of bandaged baddies, followed by an even earlier, but no less fantastic Fletcher Hanks super Fantomah entry via the November 1940 issue of Jungle Comics #11. I've even got another creepy mummy classic lined-up here for later this week too-- stay sarcopha-tombed!
3 comments:
Sometimes it's hard for me to value the later incarnations of Fantomah in light of the special love I feel for the the original, but I have to say, this Daughter of the Pharaohs story is still plenty weird in its own way. Sure, the (quite nice) art may be dialed up into the usual level of golden age jungle girl sophistication, but the plot and character motivations are all still pretty head scratching. Praying everyone to death at the end only falls a little short of Fletcher Hanks weirdness because the deus ex machina is, like, totally literal.
But the real Fantomah is still way more my cup of tea. Hanks draws this stuff in much the same way that Eastern European animation auteurs will be developing character models two or three decades later.* All the information necessary to sense the odd momentum of their movements, the strange attitude of the poses they strike when at rest, and the crackling flow of rays and spectral comet tails, is all right there on the page. I'd love to see a cartoon of this stuff.
*check out Marcell Jankovics' Johnny Corncob (1973), for example.
Daughter of the Pharaohs is a valiant attempt to update Fletcher Hanks' Fantomah and there's a lot to like. It's still firmly in the golden age superhero mystical powers and has the same kind of logic Hanks had, but one thing that bothers me a bit about it is how she is no longer the kind of uber super hero who is barely bothered by the proceedings. As a matter of fact, she has to be rescued by various members of the cast and then remembers her god like powers.
It's still a lot of fun, the murderous mummies with their knives are great, but the real goodness is in Hanks vengeful god form of superheroes.
Sure, she's "blinded" ... kind of? It doesn't seem to stick and she just god-like reverse the ray, and our evil mummy gets chased and falls to the crocodiles. Nobody helps her. She's just there -- in the sky -- waiting for evil to smite.
Arco is absolutely awesome. He's a super cool image, and I love how dismissive that idiot is to Fantomah. Dude, read the room!
Note how much of this can be thought of as "god works in mysterious ways." So much -- even though by Fantomah's hand -- happens without her being around. She never tangles with a mummy; the whole mummy animal fight happens outside of her other than willing it.
I love Hanks work. It's like directors like Andy Milligan where everything they produce feels like it's some important statement pouring out of their head.
I looked online and read that the publisher tried to reboot Fantomah after Fletcher Hanks left, and created this origin story for the skull faced defender of the jungle. It kind of works, though it still leaves a couple of questions unanswered, such as how did she gain her super powers, why does she turn into a skull faced body builder, why did she go from Brunette to Blonde, etc.
Anyway, heres to Fantomah, the heroine of the jungle.
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