It's no stretch of the imagination so say we've gone 100% absolutely bananas over Black Hammer. The series is innovative, taking Silver Age tropes and analyzing them through the lens of modern comic realism. The art is dark and moody, reflecting the strange mystery surrounding the group of former heroes. In general, it's like an award-winning film with each person involved churning out an all-world effort.

One of the people most critical to this book's overall success is Dark Horse editor Daniel Chabon, and he spent some time with us answering questions with candor, and also letting us behind the scenes on what may be the best superhero book on the shelf.

With the talent involved, how hands-on were you during Black Hammer’s development? How did this book evolve from pitch to production to now?

I actually was not there at all during the development. In fact, this project has a long, complicated history.

Black Hammer began in 2007 when Jeff was working on Essex County at Top Shelf. This was before Jeff started to work with mainstream superheroes at Marvel and DC and he was not sure if he’d ever get to work on those characters. So he decided to create his own versions that pushed his interests in stories about family and small-town life.

Jeff initially pitched the project to former Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz and it was accepted. This was to be Jeff’s next project after Essex County, but Jeff also had Sweet Tooth kicking around in his head at the same time and shifted over to draw forty issues of that at Vertigo.

Come 2014, Jeff returned to Black Hammer. Diana had retired from Dark Horse, and Brendan Wright had taken over as editor. Jeff knew he would not be able to draw the book with his busy schedule. He had been following Dean Ormston’s work for years and met him for the first time at the Thought Bubble comic festival in 2011. When Jeff finally wanted to bring Black Hammer back, he brought Dean, who was really a perfect fit for the story—his unique art style pushes the book to really stand out among all the other titles that feature superheroes. Dave Stewart was brought in for colors and Todd Klein for letters, and at that point you had this amazing rock star ensemble of comic book creators.