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Forbes
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Jeff Lemire & Letizia Cadonici Deliver Superhero Crash Course With ‘Black Hammer' One-Shot In Honor Of Free Comic Book Day
'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' Whether you're a newcomer to the Black Hammer series or a longtime fan of the Eisner Award-winning title, you won't want to miss acclaimed writer Jeff Lemire's one-shot yarn featured in Dark Horse's Free Comic Book Day issue (out this Saturday, May 3). Illustrated by Letizia Cadonici (Book of Slaughter) and narrated by the dependably time-displaced Colonel Randall Weird, 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' conveniently recaps the Black Hammer saga thus far, while delivering a meta crash course in comic book history, particularly its various Ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze, etc. It's a fun little read that showcases Lemire's reverence for the iconic heroes, stories, and storytellers of yesteryear. 'It's always a thrill to get to be a part of Free Comic Book Day, and doubly so this year because Black Hammer gets to join the party,' Lemire said in a statement over email. 'I saw this as a great chance to introduce the 'Black Hammer Universe' to new comic fans, and anyone who may be stepping into a comic book store for the first time in a while. Amazing artist Letizia Cadonici and I tried to craft something that rewarded new readers and long-time fans alike.' Lemire launched the comic with artist Dean Ormston in the summer of 2016 to critical acclaim and a pair of Eisner Awards for Best New Series and Best Lettering (Todd Klein). The original storyline dealt with a group of superheroes who find themselves mysteriously trapped in a quaint American town after saving the universe from a Galactus-adjacent baddie known as Anti-God. In the years since it first debuted, Black Hammer has become a larger banner for an entire creative mythos comprising numerous spinoff books. 'I came up with Black Hammer as a love letter to the history of superhero comics and a way [for me to] put my own personal spin on the genre,' Lemire told me in 2019. 'I really wanted to tell a superhero story that wasn't like any other superhero story. I wanted to focus on the characters and put them in a mundane, everyday situation where they were forced to figure out who they were when the 'super' side of their lives no longer had any purpose.' He continued: 'It really just came from my absolute love of the genre and for the history of the genre. I wanted this book to be a love letter to all the great creators who came before me. Grafting superhero comics history onto real-world history provided a great vehicle for me to juxtapose comic book history and the real world — and find all sorts of interesting parallels and stories. To me, it's not so much about deconstructing superheroes as it is about deconstructing these particular characters and really diving deep into each or their lives and histories.' Dark Horse was kind enough to share five exclusive excerpts of 'To Tomorrow!' with Forbes Entertainment, which you can check out below… 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' 'Black Hammer: To Tomorrow!' Dark Horse's Free Comic Book Day issue hits shelves Saturday, May 3
Forbes
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Danny Phantom' Series Developer Steve Marmel ‘Always Imagined' Danny Died In Ghost Portal Accident That Gave Him His Powers
Danny Phantom Young Danny Fenton had a lot more than his molecules rearranged in the Ghost Portal accident that gave him spectral superpowers, according to Danny Phantom series developer Steve Marmel. 'There's a version of Danny's backstory that some people have alluded to on the internet, and it was always how I wrote it in my head,' says Marmel who, in addition to fleshing out the original concept with creator Butch Hartman (The FairlyOdd Parents), either wrote scripts or came up with stories for over half the episodes produced.' 'My personal Danny origin story is kind of dark and couldn't really be part of a kids' show, per se, but it's how I looked at Danny; how I looked at him getting his powers and how I looked at why he was still such an irresponsible kid with those powers.' So what's the spooky secret Marmel's been holding on to for the last 20 years? Well, here it is, exclusively revealed to Forbes Entertainment: Marmel wrote Danny (voiced by David Kaufman) as though he actually perished in that 'great big flash' depicted in the opening theme song. 'I always imagined Danny saw the 'bright light,' Marmel explains. 'I liked playing it as The Sixth Sense as a superhero show. And so, I always wanted Danny to be like, 'I'm going to live my best kid life,' because he got a glimpse of what comes next and didn't know how long he'd be here. 'I'm going to do all this fun stuff and I am going to protect my family, friends, and planet from all this dark stuff that I know is on the other side of this dimension.'' Danny Phantom While the show was certainly aimed at older viewers who could handle more adult themes, the premise of an undead protagonist felt like it would be a little ghastly for a Nickelodeon original. As such, Danny stayed a regular, earthbound teenage boy who just so happened to have ghost-related abilities. The 'Danny croaked' backstory was simply a way for Marmel to flesh out the main character. 'If it was an older show, it absolutely would have been Danny hanging on to his mortal coil for both selfish reasons and the people he loved,' Marmel continues. 'But [when you're making a] kids' show you don't want to go, 'Hey kids! Good morning! Here's mortality!' Butch has his own backstory — it's in the song! — and that's canon. But in my head, it allowed me to write Danny with a little more depth than just, 'I'm inexperienced and sometimes dumb!' No, you're grabbing life by the horns because you've already experienced what it's like to not be a part of it.' At the same time, Marmel and Hartman often treated the Ghost Zone and its inhabitants not as an afterlife full of departed souls, but as 'another dimension with ghostly powers,' notes the former. 'I don't think we really went too far into supernatural. We were just like, 'If it's a ghost and it's got a power, what is that ghost like?' I don't think we really thought of it as a supernatural show. We just looked at it as a supernatural genre to play with.' Despite the fact that he never saw Danny's rogues' gallery as 'true ghosts, per se,' Marmel does concede that a number of them — like fan favorite Ember McLain (voiced by Tara Strong) — do have earthly backstories. 'If you listen to Ember's song, you can tell she was alive. She's not with us anymore and she's pissed,' he reveals, agreeing with my characterization of the Ghost Zone as 'a dimension of unfinished business' rather than a simulacrum of some existence after death. 'You just don't want to shove mortality in a child's face." Marmel concludes. 'There's enough of that in the real world.' All three seasons of Danny Phantom are now streaming on Paramount+
