Exclusive: Nate Powell, Matt Kindt, Dustin Nguyen & More Expand Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer Universe in New Annual
Ray Fawkes and Emi Lenox round out an all-star roster of contributors.
Cover Art by Jeff Lemire
Black Hammer could be a thesis for the themes that have defined Jeff Lemire’s comic library. The Dark Horse ongoing series, illustrated with moody restraint by Dean Ormston, casts a handful of veteran pulp heroes in a small, rural town where they remain trapped by forces unrevealed. The title was conceived following Lemire’s contemplative 2008 family drama, Essex County, but published this year after Ormston recovered from a medical setback.
Black Hammer similarly captures the glacial tempo of agrarian living seen in Essex County, while skirting motifs lined in previous Lemire works like The Nobody (the extraordinary marooned in the mundane), The Underwater Welder (growing into thorny futures) and even his debut graphic novel Lost Dogs (protecting fragile families). But the comic is far from a retread of previous projects, instead refining recurring ideas from one of the most singular, and often subdued, voices in comics around one hell of a narrative hook.
The series has seen the release of three gorgeous, earthy issues that peel back new layers of character with each panel: Golden Gail struggles as an old soul trapped in the body of an adolescent, shapeshifter Barbalien searches for a fulfilling identity that’s rejected every time it’s revealed and Abraham Slam may be the oddest one of all, finding solace in his team’s unconventional jail.
Lemire has invited an inner circle of old friends and like-minded creators to expand the Black Hammer cosmos in a 40-page Black Hammer Giant-Sized Annual, set to debut on January 18, 2017. Lemire, Matt Kindt (Dept. H), Emi Lenox (Plutona, Dustin Nguyen (Descender) and Ray Fawkes (One Soul) will all illustrate a character via flashback, with a framing sequence in the present illustrated by Nate Powell (March). Dave Stewart, who works on the series proper, will color.
Paste communicated with Lemire via email to learn more about this ambitious project, the trajectory of the series and, dare we say it, the advent of the Lemireverse.
Paste: When we first spoke a few years ago, you said your first comics were digests of Justice Society of America and The Legion of Superheroes. I’ve been looking for that influence to bleed through a project, and I think Black Hammer channels that Golden Age romanticism well with your modern touch of character. I know you’ve been contemplating this project since 2008; how has it evolved since then? Did the year of Dean’s recovery lead to any introspection or changes in the characters?
Jeff Lemire: When I first conceived of Black Hammer in 2008, I was going to write and draw it, and at that time I’d never actually written any superhero comics of my own. So the two big changes when restarting the book in 2015 were bringing in Dean, who brings his voice to it as well a whole other set of influences to Black Hammer, and also, I’ve had six years experience writing hundreds of superhero comics now. So the book has evolved a lot since 2008.
Dean’s health issues didn’t really affect me in terms of stepping back and looking at the book differently, because I just kept writing it. I didn’t stop. So at this point I already have 20 issues written.
Paste: And an annual is perfect for this—the format is technically still around, but it had such a higher page count and sense of import during the Golden and Silver Ages of comics. They thrived at a time when your cast would have flourished as superheroes, before, pun intended, being put out to pasture. When did the annual join the conversation?