Hammer Vol 1: The Ocean Kingdom by Jeyodin
Feb. 8th, 2026 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
HAMMER
Left on his own again, Stud gets sucked into one of his father’s journals down into an ocean kingdom grappling with the murder of its king. Can Stud use his hammer hands to solve the case?
Our hero Stud is a fourteen-year-old boy whose father regularly goes on expeditions that he catalogs in his own journals. Having to fend for himself, Stud isn’t like most kids - he can turn his hands into hammers! Unfortunately, the kids in the village don’t think its cool and do not allow him to join their own fun adventures. Stud’s father has always advised him that friends are the most important accomplishment a person can make, so what’s a boy who can turn part of his body into metal to do? Go on his own adventures, of course!
14-year-old Stud Hammer lives in the forest outside New Mallet Town with his dad, who leaves him on his own a lot as he travels a lot on adventures, which he then writes about in his journals. Lonely, Stud desperately wants to make friends with the kids in New Mallet Town because his dad has always told him that having friends is an important achievement. When Stud finally develops powers - the ability to turn his hands into metal hammers and his fingernails into flying projectiles - he thinks that the kids will finally accept him only for them to reveal that they think he’s a weirdo and a danger junkie.
Hurt and upset, Stud retreats to his dad’s study and decides to read one of his journals, only to find himself sucked into the watery world known as the Ocean Kingdom that his father has written about and whose king has just been murdered! Stud is finally going to have an adventure of his own and - if he’s lucky - he’ll make some real friends along the way …
Jeyodin’s self-illustrated manga-style graphic novel (the first in a series) is richly imagined and has a lot of thought put into its world building while Stud is a naive but sweet natured character. However the black and white drawings are difficult to follow including when it comes to distinguishing between characters plus there’s a lot of set up with the main plot only really getting going in the final quarter, at which point the book ends.
I should begin this by saying that I haven’t read a huge number of graphic novels or novels told in a Manga style so I have no doubt missed a lot of the subtleties of the genre and probably do not have the same appreciation for the art work as people who are more into it.
I like the way Jeyodin throws you straight into the story and his characters without providing all the backstory. Although it’s a little disorientating at times, you do quickly work out who Stud is as a character with Jeyodin really getting across how desperately he wants to fit in and yet finds it difficult to find common ground with New Mallet Town’s youth. He has a loving relationship with his dad and there’s a mystery as to what’s happened to his mum, which is tied to why his dad spends so much time travelling. I liked the fact that he’s sweet natured, if a little clueless, and the enthusiasm he has when he discovers his powers is a lot of fun. I was confused as to whether everyone has powers or whether it’s just Stud and his dad and I can’t say that I found this any clearer at the end of the book but at the same time, I’m not convinced that I needed it to be given that by this point Stud is in a world completely different to his own via the Ocean Kingdom.
When it comes to the Ocean Kingdom, I did find myself a little confused at times by the characters of Diane and her brother Dan, who are detectives investigating who killed the Ocean Kingdom’s ruler. This was partly because Jeyodin’s black and white illustrations coupled with the small frames makes it difficult to make out what is happening or who is who but also because having been thrown in the deep end with Stud and his world, you then get thrown into the deep end with Dan and Diane and their world and here that lack of explanation meant that I just found it a little too discombobulating and as a result my attention wandered at times. This is a shame because I enjoyed Dan and Diane’s relationship and there is a central mystery there of who killed the King together with a villainous suspect who denies any involvement.
Ultimately, I wished that the main plot line had got going sooner than it did because it means that the whole volume feels like a lot of set up and just as it starts to get going, it ends on a cliffhanger. That said, there’s a lot of promise here and I cared enough about Stud to be interested in knowing more of him and his search for friendship and a way home to want to check out Volume 2.
The Verdict:
Jeyodin’s self-illustrated manga-style graphic novel (the first in a series) is richly imagined and has a lot of thought put into its world building while Stud is a naive but sweet natured character. However the black and white drawings are difficult to follow including when it comes to distinguishing between characters plus there’s a lot of set up with the main plot only really getting going in the final quarter, at which point the book ends.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Left on his own again, Stud gets sucked into one of his father’s journals down into an ocean kingdom grappling with the murder of its king. Can Stud use his hammer hands to solve the case?
Our hero Stud is a fourteen-year-old boy whose father regularly goes on expeditions that he catalogs in his own journals. Having to fend for himself, Stud isn’t like most kids - he can turn his hands into hammers! Unfortunately, the kids in the village don’t think its cool and do not allow him to join their own fun adventures. Stud’s father has always advised him that friends are the most important accomplishment a person can make, so what’s a boy who can turn part of his body into metal to do? Go on his own adventures, of course!
14-year-old Stud Hammer lives in the forest outside New Mallet Town with his dad, who leaves him on his own a lot as he travels a lot on adventures, which he then writes about in his journals. Lonely, Stud desperately wants to make friends with the kids in New Mallet Town because his dad has always told him that having friends is an important achievement. When Stud finally develops powers - the ability to turn his hands into metal hammers and his fingernails into flying projectiles - he thinks that the kids will finally accept him only for them to reveal that they think he’s a weirdo and a danger junkie.
Hurt and upset, Stud retreats to his dad’s study and decides to read one of his journals, only to find himself sucked into the watery world known as the Ocean Kingdom that his father has written about and whose king has just been murdered! Stud is finally going to have an adventure of his own and - if he’s lucky - he’ll make some real friends along the way …
Jeyodin’s self-illustrated manga-style graphic novel (the first in a series) is richly imagined and has a lot of thought put into its world building while Stud is a naive but sweet natured character. However the black and white drawings are difficult to follow including when it comes to distinguishing between characters plus there’s a lot of set up with the main plot only really getting going in the final quarter, at which point the book ends.
I should begin this by saying that I haven’t read a huge number of graphic novels or novels told in a Manga style so I have no doubt missed a lot of the subtleties of the genre and probably do not have the same appreciation for the art work as people who are more into it.
I like the way Jeyodin throws you straight into the story and his characters without providing all the backstory. Although it’s a little disorientating at times, you do quickly work out who Stud is as a character with Jeyodin really getting across how desperately he wants to fit in and yet finds it difficult to find common ground with New Mallet Town’s youth. He has a loving relationship with his dad and there’s a mystery as to what’s happened to his mum, which is tied to why his dad spends so much time travelling. I liked the fact that he’s sweet natured, if a little clueless, and the enthusiasm he has when he discovers his powers is a lot of fun. I was confused as to whether everyone has powers or whether it’s just Stud and his dad and I can’t say that I found this any clearer at the end of the book but at the same time, I’m not convinced that I needed it to be given that by this point Stud is in a world completely different to his own via the Ocean Kingdom.
When it comes to the Ocean Kingdom, I did find myself a little confused at times by the characters of Diane and her brother Dan, who are detectives investigating who killed the Ocean Kingdom’s ruler. This was partly because Jeyodin’s black and white illustrations coupled with the small frames makes it difficult to make out what is happening or who is who but also because having been thrown in the deep end with Stud and his world, you then get thrown into the deep end with Dan and Diane and their world and here that lack of explanation meant that I just found it a little too discombobulating and as a result my attention wandered at times. This is a shame because I enjoyed Dan and Diane’s relationship and there is a central mystery there of who killed the King together with a villainous suspect who denies any involvement.
Ultimately, I wished that the main plot line had got going sooner than it did because it means that the whole volume feels like a lot of set up and just as it starts to get going, it ends on a cliffhanger. That said, there’s a lot of promise here and I cared enough about Stud to be interested in knowing more of him and his search for friendship and a way home to want to check out Volume 2.
The Verdict:
Jeyodin’s self-illustrated manga-style graphic novel (the first in a series) is richly imagined and has a lot of thought put into its world building while Stud is a naive but sweet natured character. However the black and white drawings are difficult to follow including when it comes to distinguishing between characters plus there’s a lot of set up with the main plot only really getting going in the final quarter, at which point the book ends.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
