Kelley Jones' The Hammer: Uncle Alex, by Kelley Jones

(pb; 1998: single-shot comic book.  Loosely connected follow-up to Kelley Jones' The Hammer and Jones's story "The World in Which We Live," published in Dark Horse Presents, issue 129)


The plot:

A new infernal threat presents itself, in the form of the worm-like Alexander Eastman - a.k.a. "Uncle Alex."  When Eastman was a human sorcerer, he "defiled women and corrupt[ed] men"; now, as a transformed being, he devours townsfolk within his backwoods hell-portal.

Alaric Malleus - "The Hammer," in modern English - and his human associate (Carl, also from the first Hammer miniseries) become aware of Alex's earthly presence via Malleus's quirky food version of reading tea leaves, and off they go, to take down this loathsome man-worm.


Review:

Uncle Alex has all the humor, ickiness and pulp-horror charm of its source miniseries.  If you liked that miniseries, chances are that you'll enjoy this single-shot comic book.

Malleus's next appearance, also created by Jones, was in a two-page installment miniseries, "The Sticky-Fingered Homunculus," which ran in several issues of Dark Horse's Diamond Previews magazine.  Malleus later appeared in the three-issue miniseries Kelley Jones' The Hammer: The Outsider.