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The Hammer To Fall From Jeff Lemire

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by Vince Brusio

We love super hero stories. Especially when the concept of a super hero is turned on its head. Like, who's to say these people (or things) are super? Maybe they're lucky? Or cursed? Jeff Lemire addresses such questions in the Black Hammer Volume 1: Secret Questions TP (NOV160051), on sale in comic shops March 29!

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Vince Brusio: Congratulations on being up for “Weirdest Cover of the Year.” A title we just made up over here. But that’s what came to mind when we saw Black Hammer #1 in the Dark Horse section. So who wants to go first? Who wants to explain how this comic is a brain freeze?

Jeff Lemire: It's certainly not your average super hero comic. It's anything but. More and more my interest in super heroes is about exploring them from a new angle, finding a new way of looking at this genre that I've been involved with in some way since I was four years old. Black Hammer is a family drama and a mystery more than a super hero comic. It comments on and uses many of the genres tropes to create a compelling mystery and explore these characters. I'm extremely proud of Black Hammer. In many ways it's the culmination of ALL the work I've ever done. It takes the mainstream superhero world, which I've worked heavily in the last few years, and explores it through a much more "indie" lens like my earliest work, Essex County etc.

Vince Brusio: Jeff’s variant cover speaks volumes. An homage to Justice League. So what ideas from the past made it into conversations about this book’s premise?

Jeff Lemire: I conceived Black Hammer almost a decade ago, long before I ever wrote any super hero comics for Marvel or DC. In many ways this book was conceived as a love letter to all the comics I grew up reading, so I'm drawing on everything from the Golden Age to the Modern Age. Abe Slam and Golden Gail are very much from the Golden Age of comics, Barbalien and Colonel Weird are pulled much more from the Silver Age, Madame Dragonfly and Black Hammer are Bronze Age influenced characters. So I'm exploring the entire history of super hero comics with this book.

Vince Brusio: If you had to give a presentation at a panel, how would you describe this book to the audience? What visuals would make it into the Power Point? And what would be the tone of your narrative?

Jeff Lemire: A RURAL mystery with COSMIC proportions. Exploring family through superheroes, and superheroes through a family.

Vince Brusio: If you tweeted about your experience writing this book, what key words or phrases would you drop that would invoke the “geek” factor?

Jeff Lemire: Aside from the thrill of seeing Dean's amazing work and seeing Dave Stewart color him and Todd Klien letter my scripts...I love the mysteries built into the story. How do you escape from The Parazone? What evil lurks in the Cabin of Horrors? Who is Anti-God? What happened to Black Hammer? Where the hell are they and how do they leave?

Vince Brusio: If you had to choose a musical score that would best work with Black Hammer, what music would make it into the playlist?

Jeff Lemire: Bob Dylan remixed with the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Click to see at full size!

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.

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