Prolific comic book writer Jeff Lemire is well known for his immersive Black Hammer comics, a fantastic and creative riff on the superhero genre. In 2017, he began to expand the Black Hammer universe by launching a series of spinoff books, each featuring a single character from his superhero team. These are collectively referred to as the "Hammerverse," and they're some of the best original comics out there. Lemire's career has gone from strength to strength, including popular stints at both Marvel and DC, but he's still kept coming back to the Hammerverse.
Lemire is working with Harry County artist Tyler Crook on the latest Hammerverse spinoff, Colonel Weird: Cosmagog. This features the character Lemire has described as his favorite in Black Hammer, the titular Colonel Weird, as he faces a warped reality that's clearly inspired by the legendary Steve Ditko. Here, we talk with Crook and Lemire about Colonel Weird: Cosmagog, and the growth of the Hammerverse.
Jeff, Colonel Weird is one of the most fascinating characters in the Hammerverse. What was the inspiration for him?
Jeff Lemire: I always had a soft spot for classic Silver Age sci-fi comics and space heroes. At the same time, one of my favorite films is Kubrick’s 2001. So Weird was sort of a mash together of these two aesthetics. What if you took one of those classic, clean-cut 60’s space age heroes but put them through a mind-warping psychedelic experience and they came out the other side terrible scarred with part of their mind forever lost in space? That was my thinking with Colonel Weird.
Tyler, The Silver Age sci-fi style in Colonel Weird: Cosmagog is superb; I particularly love the surreal scenes with the eyes. What art would you say influenced you?
Tyler Crook: For those scenes I've been heavily referencing Ditko's Doctor Strange. I'm not the biggest Ditko fan in the world but I love, love, love when he does his alternate dimension/cosmic stuff. He makes it feel like the laws of nature don't exist in those spaces and that's exactly what we need for the Parazone sequences.
Tyler, how easy is it to create the sense that all these are different versions of the same person, Colonel Weird?
Tyler Crook: It hasn't been that difficult. I mean, everything about making a comic book is difficult, but in the bigger scheme of things, that part was pretty easy. The designs were mostly driven by research into the time periods. The youngest Colonel Weird ended up being essentially a blond Beaver Cleaver, the 70's Weird is sort of the hippie/intellectual look of the times. It would have been a lot harder if I was designing a character from scratch but Jeff, Dean Ormston and all the other artists who have worked on the Black Hammer universe gave me a lot of good material to pull from.
Jeff, how do you decide which Hammerverse characters will get their spinoffs next?
Jeff Lemire: I wish there was some master plan, but the truth is that I just go with the ideas I’m most excited about. Weird is my favourite character and telling more experimental stories is where I’m at right now so he was a perfect choice to try something new and challenging. In addition to this, unlike most of the other characters, Weird’s story was left unfinished at the end of Black Hammer: Age of Doom and I felt like I needed to provide at least some closure for him and for the readers.
How do you make your spinoffs distinctively different from the main series?
Jeff Lemire: Each character has their own world. Collectively they become Black Hammer, but individually they each have their own history and world that they inhabit, and each is very unique from the others. So, it’s really just a matter of diving deeper into each of their little worlds and letting them each have a story all of their own too.
Jeff, You’ve now become known for some tremendous runs at DC and Marvel as well as books like Black Hammer. What would you say makes the Hammerverse different from those traditional superhero comics?
Jeff Lemire: The Marvel and DC characters are bound to decade upon decade of history and continuity. With Black Hammer I get to create that history and continuity as I go. I also put emotion and character before plot and action at all times.
In past interviews, you’ve mentioned how the Hammerverse has grown beyond your original plans. How far ahead are your plans at this stage?
Jeff Lemire: I am about two years ahead of whatever is being published. So right now, I am writing Black Hammer material that will be published later in 2021. I sort of have a very loose idea of a big story that I am building towards at the end of 2021.
Jeff, How closely did you collaborate with Tyler Crook on Colonel Weird: Cosmagog?
Jeff Lemire: I am a pretty hands-off writer. But choosing very talented people like Tyler to work with allows for that. I love his work and trust him totally, so it allows me to write the story as best I can and then hand the scripts off to him. We actually just met up for the first time in Richmond, Virginia this past weekend, but we barely talked about Weird. I think we are both really feeling good about this story and it is just sort of coming out naturally and easily, so we don’t need a lot of back and forth.
Tyler, what’s it like working with Jeff Lemire?
Tyler Crook: It's been very easy. Jeff is a pretty mellow dude and he writes his scripts in a nice, clear and open way that gives me the information I need while giving me the room I need to do my thing.
Finally, Jeff, in 2018, the New York Times announced a film and TV deal for Black Hammer with Legendary Entertainment. Are you able to give us an update at all?
Jeff Lemire: Nothing official that I can announce yet. I have written a pilot episode that we are all very happy with and Legendary and I are working together to take the next steps with it. It’s all very much still in development, but I can’t get into too many specifics yet.