Created by Jeff Lemire
Another installment in comic artist and writer Jeff Lemire’s ever-expanding (and Eisner-winning) Black Hammer universe, Jeff Lemire’s oddly engaging, long-running superhero fairy tale, Black Hammer: Spiral City is a 2024 seven-part mini-series, as captivating as ever, with art by Teddy Kristiansen.
Spiral City has risen from the ashes of Black Hammer: The End, the 2023 mini-series which was rumored to be the end of the saga, but it turns out the beleaguered burg is still standing, Â well on its way to complete shit hole status, a cesspool of poverty, violence and despair. But man, the dope’s that there’s still hope.
Wandering through the broken city is private eye INSPECTOR INSECTOR, a giant bug in a trench coat and fedora, on the case and looking for work.
The first issue recaps past events in the sprawling series for newbies dying to catch up, which is great, because I have no friggin’ idea what the hell’s going on. This new series promises a brand-new cast of superheroes struggling to survive in a world determined to wipe them all out.
But there’s something (so far) deliciously low key about this series. The moodiness, the dumbed-down cynicism, the paranoia, and barely articulate rage of a population on the edge, so easier to blame everything on the heroes who had strived to save them, is tempered by the sometimes whimsical, almost Golden Book artwork, and by the optimism of the perennially upbeat Inspector.
He’s right out of a 1940s RKO noir; a human-sized ant in P.I. garb, complete with four extra appendages, and a relentless optimism that just will not die. He even refers to himself as the ” World’s Greatest Detective.”
I guess Batman didn’t get the memo.
I’ve only started the series, and there’s all sorts of ways this could really hit the fan, but right now I’m totally captivated.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jeff Lemire  is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and television producer, the much-in-demand author of a tremendously respected body of work, including the Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth, and Black Hammer. He’s written work for Marvel, DC, Valiant, Image and Dark Horse. He’s also collaborated with musicians such as Eddie Vedder on his Matter of Time animated video and illustrated the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie‘s Secret Path, a haunting 2016 graphic novel about a First Nations kid who died in 1966 while trying to escaping from an Canadian residential school. The latter remains one of my all-time favourite graphic novels.
Teddy Kristiansen is also an Eisner winner. He’s a Danish comic book artist, known for his work in mystery, horror, and dark, suspense-filled comics. Interestingly, he worked on Sandman Midnight Theatre, a 1995 one-shot graphic novel from DC Comics Vertigo, that featured both Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Sandman Mystery Theatre‘s Wesley Dobbs who bears quite a startling resemblance to Inspector Inspector.
UNDER OATH
- “Black Hammer is easily one of Lemire’s best creations.”
— Scott Snyder
COMICS
- BLACK HAMMER: SPIRAL CITYÂ |Â Kindle/ComiXology it!
- (2024, Dark Horse Comics)
7 issues
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Teddy Kristiansen
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
