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Prolific comic Holy Writ writer Jeff Lemire is well know for his immersiveBlack Hammercomics , a fantastic and creative riff on the superhero music genre . In 2017 , he start to expand theBlack Hammeruniverse by launch a series of spinoff books , each sport a single fictitious character from his superhero team . These are collectively referred to as the " Hammerverse , " and they ’re some of the serious original comedian out there . Lemire ’s vocation has gone from military posture to enduringness , including popular stints at both Marvel and DC , but he ’s still hold open coming back to the Hammerverse .
Lemire is working withHarry Countyartist Tyler Crook on the up-to-the-minute Hammerverse spinoff , Colonel Weird : Cosmagog . This sport the graphic symbol Lemire has identify as his favorite inBlack Hammer , the titulary Colonel Weird , as he faces a warped reality that ’s understandably inspired by the legendary Steve Ditko . Here , we talk with Crook and Lemire aboutColonel Weird : Cosmagog , and the growing 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 billet for classic Silver Age sci - fi comics and blank space heroes . At the same time , one of my best-loved films is Kubrick ’s 2001 . So Weird was sort of a mash together of these two aesthetic . What if you took one of those Greco-Roman , sporty - cut 60 ’s space age poor boy but put them through a creative thinker - heave psychedelic experience and they came out the other side terrible marred with part of their mind forever lose in quad ? That was my mentation with Colonel Weird .
Tyler , The Silver Age sci - fi style in Colonel Weird : Cosmagog is superb ; I particularly love the phantasmagoric scenes with the eyes . What graphics would you say influence you ?
Tyler Crook : For those shot I ’ve been heavily cite Ditko’sDoctor Strange . I ’m not the biggest Ditko rooter in the macrocosm but I love , erotic love , love when he does his alternate dimension / cosmic hooey . He take in it feel like the laws of nature do n’t exist in those spaces and that ’s precisely what we need for the Parazone successiveness .
Tyler , how promiscuous is it to create the sensation that all these are unlike rendering of the same person , Colonel Weird ?
Tyler Crook : It has n’t been that hard . I intend , everything about making a risible Koran is hard , but in the bigger scheme of affair , that part was pretty easy . The designs were mostly driven by research into the meter period . The youngest Colonel Weird end up being essentially a blond Beaver Cleaver , the 70 ’s Weird is sort of the hipster / intellectual look of the times . It would have been a lot hard if I was designing a character from scratch but Jeff , Dean Ormston and all the other creative person who have worked on theBlack Hammeruniverse give me a lot of good material to pull from .
Jeff , how do you determine which Hammerverse character reference will get their spinoffs next ?
Jeff Lemire : I wish well there was some captain programme , but the truth is that I just go with the ideas I ’m most delirious about . Weird is my favourite character and tell more data-based news report is where I ’m at right now so he was a sodding choice to examine something new and intriguing . In plus to this , unlike most of the other characters , Weird ’s story was left unfinished at the end ofBlack Hammer : Age of Doomand I felt like I require to provide at least some block for him and for the lecturer .
How do you make your spinoffs distinctively different from the main series ?
Jeff Lemire : Each character reference has their own worldly concern . jointly they becomeBlack Hammer , but individually they each have their own history and human beings that they inhabit , and each is very unique from the others . So , it ’s really just a matter of plunge deeper into each of their small worlds and letting them each have a story all of their own too .
Jeff , You ’ve now become known for some fantastic run at DC and Marvel as well as book like Black Hammer . What would you say pass water the Hammerverse unlike from those traditional superhero comics ?
Jeff Lemire : The Marvel and DC character are bound to decade upon 10 of story and persistence . WithBlack HammerI get to create that history and persistence as I go . I also put emotion and character before plot and action mechanism at all times .
In preceding interview , you ’ve mentioned how the Hammerverse has originate beyond your original plans . How far ahead are your design at this stage ?
Jeff Lemire : I am about two old age forward of whatever is being published . So in good order now , I am writingBlack Hammermaterial that will be publish later in 2021 . I sort of have a very loose idea of a big story that I am build 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 gifted people like Tyler to bring with allows for that . I love his work and believe him totally , so it admit me to write the account as best I can and then give the scripts off to him . We actually just meet up for the first time in Richmond , Virginia this past weekend , but we just talked about Weird . I mean we are both really feeling unspoiled about this story and it is just sort of come out naturally and easily , so we do n’t need a lot of back and forth .
Tyler , what ’s it wish working with Jeff Lemire ?
Tyler Crook : It ’s been very easy . Jeff is a pretty mellow dude and he writes his book in a nice , clear and open way that give 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 flick 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 glad with and Legendary and I are work together to take the next step with it . It ’s all very much still in development , but I ca n’t get into too many specifics yet .
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