Black folks save the world constantly in speculative fiction. Look no further than Rembrandt Brown in the final episode of Sliders. Or Captain Michael Burnham kicking AI butt so that the Alpha Quadrant could continue to exist. Super-powered Keramats like Stronghold and Paragon of One Nation fame regularly save the day within the pages of their comic book series. We’re heroes. Saving the world is what black folks do.
And it’s happening again in the upcoming HAMMER, ACT 1: John Henry vs The Robot Apocalypse. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, where Machines and AI have taken over the world, the book focuses on the protagonist, John Henry, as he attempts to “save mankind from their suffering”. Yup, that John Henry.
From the series summary, “Hundreds of years have passed and the Machines and Artificial Intelligence have taken over, now ruling a post-apocalyptic world. Human beings are fuel, entertainment, and labor to help advance the supremacy of the Machines. Born through the pain, blood, and tears of the suffering humans who continually pray to the Mother Earth Asase for strength and salvation, a new John Henry – the steel driving man now made of root – is born to help bring down the current threat to humanity.”
The story started as a “semi-spinoff” from the 2020 Glyph Comics Award-winning comic book, Is’nana the Were-Spider: the Ballads of Rawhead & John Henry. In this latest return to the story of John Henry, Greg Anderson-Elysee (Is’nana the Were-Spider, One Nation: Stronghold, Marassa, Akim Aliu: Dreamer) and David Brame (Safe Passage, After the Rain, Parable of the Talents) have teamed up to continue the award-winning tale of this storied legend, bringing the web-comic into a collected edition. To say this series is critically acclaimed is an understatement, as the web-comic recently picked up three 2025 Glyph Comics Awards (Best Comic Strip or Webcomic, Best Artist, and Best Writer).
The duo took time to take part in an email interview to discuss the story, its beginnings as a Patreon-exclusive web comic, and how black folks stay saving the world.
“While I am advertising it as a spin-off, technically Hammer came out of my head first, before The Ballads of Rawhead & John Henry. I initially started writing Hammer not too long after the first volume of Is’nana the Were-Spider in 2016,” Elysee explained.
“Tim Fielder at the time was attached to be the artist and given we knew each other personally through work, he was on my ass about finishing a script. [laughs] When it was finished, he got attached to some other work and had to drop out of mine, which I understood. I have no hard feelings and the work he produced has been amazing. So this book was collecting dust and I didn’t want to let go of the concept of John Henry in the Robot Apocalypse yet so I reworked it into the Ballads idea, this time with John Henry meeting Is’nana. But now that I’m finally releasing Hammer, I reworked it further to connect to the Is’nana story so now it’s a “spin off.”
As mentioned, the series began on Elysee’s Patreon channel. Many comic book creatives have utilized the platform to connect with new and existing followers.
“Technically this was done on Greg’s Patreon and he managed and interacted with the followers. A lot of our network and followers are similar so connecting was fairly easy,” Brame said. “He took the lead on uploading and building a community and marketing the story. I mostly just make art, discuss world-building, and post images to get people salivating for a deeper read.”
Elysee continued, “Man, Patreon is such a beast. It’s a side hustle on its own and you have to stay on it, stay consistent. I fail at it at times, but I always do my best to keep updating”.
“It worked well for me because I can raise funds and pay David on a reasonable schedule that wouldn’t break my pockets. A page a week is very affordable, and I think it would allow David some breathing space for other projects as well. I have a good amount of subscribers, but engagement could be better.”
With each page released on Patreon, it became very apparent that the duo was creating something special. Readers were provided with a story that was both visually striking, complex, and insanely fun. Speaking to this, the creators expounded more on their individual processes for creating and what appeals to them about each other’s talents.
“I take a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite creators, Gojima, Otomo, the Coen Bros, and Inoue for their vast cinematic vistas, Mura for his attention to detail and brutal imagery, Alexander Mcqueen, Jae Lee, Robert E. Howard, Shiro, Paul Pope, Ridley Scott, Geiger for their dark, strange and beautiful world building. Bill Watterson and Miyazaki for their vulnerability and emotional quality,” Brame said.
“I was also watching a bunch of 70’s and 80’s anime and Sword and Sorcery flicks while working on this, Conan, Guyver, Robot Carnival, Iria: Zeiram the Animation, Fist of the North Star. So, I guess my favorite part is cooking all that up into a Gumbo and serving that to the readers. Building characters and worlds–my thoughts are always, “How can I surprise the audience but not take them out of the world?” Characters should be unique, cohesive with the opportunity to evolve.”
When speaking about working with Greg with bringing this post-apocalyptic universe to life the artist explained, “Greg has a great sense of media and cultural history. So do I. We enjoy a lot of the same weird creepy and surreal creators out there so because of our shared love of that stuff, I know I can let loose. He doesn’t give much direction, which is great because it allows us to cook. I get hype because honestly his scripts aren’t prescriptive or didactic, they are immersive and funny and brutal with space for me to add just a little bit to the sauce.”
Elysee expanded more on this creative process with bringing Hammer to life, explaining, “Well for one: he’s (David) so easy to work with, and second: his talent and skills are insane. David is right that we have a lot of the same interests and tastes, and it even goes beyond art.”
“With our work, I can give a small description or an idea and he produces things that I was either thinking of to an exact or even adding to that vision, making it even more powerful. His work is bold, intense, soft when it calls for it, zany and wonky, direct, experimental, fluid and free… It’s everything all at once.”
What’s especially interesting about the release of the Hammer is how elements of the story parallel current events within our world, as it applies to current technological advancements.
“Man, what’s funny is that, again… I wrote this story around 8-9 years ago. It’s just now coming out and the whole debate about AI has blown up over the past few years. It’s truly been disheartening seeing how AI has started being used to take jobs and gigs from a lot of creative folk. It’s not just fine arts… but people are starting to use them for videos and movies,” Elysee said.
“I get its easier for the ones using it, but people are literally losing work and money due to machines. And that goes back to the original John Henry story, no? Henry stood up against the steam drill taking opportunities from human beings trying to make a living and fought to show that humans can still do the job… but with the advancements of technology drove to his death as well.”
At the end of the day, Hammer tells the story of a black man simply trying to save the world from corrupt forces that seek to destroy it. And how cool is that? Especially within a media landscape that often shunts black people to the side when it comes to stories with stakes such as these.
“For me it’s a historical achievement. I’m inspired by so much and to add to that lexicon is a crowning experience. I’ve always been an Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist (I just didn’t know it until we created the words) so being able to tell stories in that sort of narrative space is the absolute dopeness,” Brame said.
“It really be like we are Mann from Rosewood with our Colt M1911’s of storytelling and art against an onslaught of Eurocentric sameness. BLAKA BLAKA! A peckerwood never could!”
“You see why I love this dude?” Greg responded. “It’s beyond cool, Robert. Black folk doing cool shit and winning the day, saving the world in the future is the only thing I really care to write and I am not ashamed to say it. And while I love Mad Max and Dune and they may sprinkle some diversity here and there, it’s still a very white. With Hammer, while it’s diverse in race, gender, and sexuality, I wanted it to be a very Afro-centric story with a largely Black cast, some even being bi-racially Black.”
“And of course, I’m drawing in a lot of Black spirituality into the story. Our cultures and skin tones are cool enough for post-apocalyptic shit too.”
Can’t think of any better way to end the article. 😊 Head here to support HAMMER, ACT 1: John Henry vs The Robot Apocalypse, and spread the word.
Robert Jeffrey II is an award-winning/ nominated professional writer (comic books, video games, tabletop gaming, prose fiction, and journalism) with over 20 years of experience as a creative writer. He has worked with clients such as DC Comics, the Centers for Disease Control, Son of Oak Gaming, 133Art Publishing, RAE Comics, SUBSUME Media, New Agenda Publishing, MV Media, BlackSci-Fi.com, and Nitto Tires. He is a graduate of the 2017 DC Comics Writers Workshop Class, and recently worked as a video game writer for developer Blowfish Studios on such projects as Shadowman: Darque Legacy and Phantom Galaxies. You can find him at www.robertkjeffrey.com and on IG at robertk.jeffrey.
