the hammer: kelley jones' complete series preview

8/10/2019 The Hammer: Kelley Jones' Complete Series Preview

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THE COMPLETE SERIES


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ISBN: 978-1-63140-125-1

THE HAMMER: KEL LEY JONES CO MPLETE SERIES. OCTOBER 2014. FIRST PRINTING. The Hammer 2014 Kelley Jones. All Rights Reserved. 2014 Idea and Design Works, LLC. The IDW logo is registered in theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. Withthe exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

Originally published by Dark Horse Comics as THE HAMMER issues #14, DARK HORSE PRESENTS #129, THE HAM MER: UNCLE ALEX, and THE HAM MER: THE OUTSID ER issues #13.

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Ted Adams, CEO & PublisherGreg Goldstein, President & COORobbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic ArtistChris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial OfficerAlan Payne, VP of SalesDirk Wood, VP of MarketingLorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital ServicesJeff Webber, VP of Digital Publishing & Business Development

IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

Story and Art by Kelley Jones

Colors by Les Dorscheid

Letters by Ken BruzenakOriginal Series Edits by Scott Allie

and Barbara Randall Kesel

Collection Edits by Justin Eisinger & Alonzo SimonCover Colors by Michelle MadsenCollection Design by Clyde Grapa

The Hammer created by Kelley Jones

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Anyone who enjoys Kelley Jones work enough toread the introduction to such a bizarre collectionof his comics knows that he is a singular talent.And I doubt hell mind me saying that he is alsonot the most popular artist in comics. In fact, lots

of people hate his work. Hate it! His linework iscertainly unmistakabledeeply saturated withatmosphere and black inkiness, especially when heinks his own work, as he does on The Hammer.

But where other people (lets be honest, theyrestupid) see grotesque lines and unrealisticdistortions, fans like you and I see nothing butexpressive genius. Soaking in the abundance ofdeeply deformed ideas that are packed into thesepagesthats what were here for. The bulgingweirdness of Conans musculature. Freaky Batman

and the too-long ears of his mask. The giantwalking vagina monster/succubus from SteveNiles Last Train to Deadsville. (I edited thatscriptnever was there any mention of thesuccubus turning into a giant vagina. Not even ahint. That was all Kelley!). I was also his editor onthe only other entirely creator-owned comicKelley has donethe absurdly terrifying The 13thSon. The titular character of that book is one ofthe most God-awful creations youd ever want tomeeta 10 foot-tall creature with one glowingred eye who rummages through graves for bone-meat pickins after savagely raping the villagemaidens in an attempt to impregnate them withseeds that will turn into the most powerfulmonster ever. And that character is theprotagonist!

This is why we love Kelley Jones. Because hisideas just dont know when to stopthe moreludicrous and horrific and cartoonish, the better.Especially when its a horror story hes telling. Andhe can draw the hell out of whatever he imagines,so why not see these ridiculously monstrous ideasthrough to the end?

If you are an editor working on his books, talkingon the phone is The Thing with Kelley. Have youever heard the trope about the pent-up artistworking in solitary conditions while he drawsderanged scenarios of bloodlust and depravity?Thats not a trope. That artist is Kelley! So whenit comes time for an editor to give Kelley a call todiscuss deadlines, or to choose a colorist for anew project, one quickly realizes those calls are

the only human contact Kelley has had outside ofhis immediate family in weeks. Months, maybe! Bythe time that phone finally rings, and Kelleysgnarled, black-stained hands reach out for thereceiver, you know hes been salivating alone inthe dark just waiting to hear a human voice thatsnot emanating from the TV screen. Or from thehole cut into the door of his penI mean office!through which his family feeds him bowls of fetidgruel to keep the unhinged aberration slavingaway for endless hours.

All this considered, its no wonder Kelley draws atleast a smidge of inspiration from that otherbeloved and hermetic horror icon, H.P. Lovecraft.In fact, its not hard to picture Kelleyif one canindeed picture something as unknowably

miscreant as that face!living the life of CharlesDexter Ward, or more probably, a character likeErich Zann, who plays his cursed viol in solitudefor insanely nefarious purposes. Picture Kelley ina scene like that, all lumps and pustules,composing his vile and forbidden works in tributeto something far more terrible than his own putridself. There might be a decomposing body on icein a vat somewhere in the room. There are mostcertainly brains in jars lining every shelf. And dareyou enter that malodorous chamber, or dial upthat northern California area code, who knows

what raving abominations will be unleashed?

This is what Kelley would have you believe,anyway. But the truth is, he is almost notcompletely abnormal. And he does truly flourishduring those occasional breaks to converse withother humans after untold hours spent hunched atthe drawing board. Those calls reveal everything,and they are bonkers!

Its during these hours long, utterly ridiculousconversations with Kelley that youll learneverything that matters about his art; what hethinks is funny, what he thinks is gross, what hethinks is brilliant. Hell tell you why he wants hiscomics to be colored like Mario Bava films, andwhy he thinks the female body is the best, ickiestthing around. He will spare no details. He willrecommend 15 horror movies youve never heardof. He will tell you all about his unusual affectionfor Star Trek Christmas tree ornaments. Andsomewhere in the midst of all of this, his veryessence will be revealed, and you will know him.This is my long-winded way of saying that it takesweird people to create weird stories, and youwont find a more bizarre story on any bookshelfthan The Hammer. I would try to explain a bitmore about the story here, but I truly believe itsbetter to go into this a little cold. Not keep-your-undead-self-alive-in-a-tub-of-ice cold, but almost.Gird your eyeballs, and your sanity, for a cosmictrip through koo-koo land horror fans, becauseyou are about to embark on an adventure thateven H.P. Lovecraft would have a hard timedescribing.

Shawna GorePortland, Oregon

The Thing at the Drawing Board


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the hammer: kelley jones' complete series preview

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