Jeff Lemire’s creator-owned comic, Black Hammer, has been optioned for television. Via The New York Times, Legendary Entertainment purchased the TV rights to the Dark Horse Comics series, which was created by Lemire and artist Dean Ormston in 2016.
Lemire has described Black Hammer as his “love letter to superhero comics as an indie comic.” The book follows the exploits of a group of once-beloved superheroes: Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly and Barbalien. They were originally the protectors of Spiral City, until they suddenly became trapped in a mysterious town called Rockwood. Unfortunately for them, the town is housed in a purgatory-esque plane of existence. Now living on Black Hammer Farm, named after the fallen hero of the same name, they desperately continue to search for a way home.
Black Hammer received an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2017. That same year, Lemire began expanding the series’ universe with the launch of new spinoff titles. These offshoots include Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil as well as Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows. According to Lemire, the notion of a shared universe will carry over into the book’s small screen translation. “It’s a whole universe with multiple books, and it will be multiple projects for film and television, said Lemire.”
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“With our development team, one of our big initiatives was to bring in a superhero universe. We were lucky enough that this was available,” added Legendary TV’s Nick Pepper. The production company seems to be amassing several adaptations of creator-owned comic titles. They recently acquired the film rights to the Vertigo graphic novel Prince of Cats, AfterShock’s Animosity, and Image Comics’ God Country.
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