I will agree that the Fletcher Hanks book is very solid. It's also a wonderful argument for public domain. Who would have guessed that those stories would sell so well until someone put them out there on the market?
and the final story is brutal, but also incredibly well done. It, by itself, is a reason to buy the book. It adds another important element to the other history that we are getting from people like Gerard Jones about the early days of comics. We tend to focus our attention on the big names, the talented few, forgetting all the unsuccessful people following in their wake.