3 crampons out of 5

includes the Hip Flask and War Toys one-shots / books published up through 2011

This is a perfect example of a series for which I bought the hype… then fueled the hype… riding it (and the ripples which I added to it) for 40 issues or so before realizing that I’d completely lost connection with the series, then… then wondering if I’d ever had a connection with the series.  And a re-read seemed to lay it all bare:

Nope.

Elephantmen is an interesting concept that’s dressed up like it’s really thought out, but when you lay the storyline down, there’re too many questions bouncing around that just aren’t asked… in fact it seems like the “pop” presentation is purposefully asking for your suspension of disbelief so that it can barrel ahead with its main concept so that Starkings can stick in his clever human nature/animal nature parables.  …Again and again.  This seemed to be what I eventually picked up on when I got bucked off the cool wave the book rides – that Ladronn is no longer drawing the book and that all the cool images of Hip Flask the Hippo in a trench coat can’t cover up that the story, essentially, hasn’t moved beyond issue 1.  Sure, some aliens have popped up, I think, and some ivory has illegally been sold, but the series is written like perpetual one-shots, like time hasn’t progressed.  Or, alternatively, something that happened one issue ago is treated like revered history.  Richard has a lot of ideas for these characters, and a generalized understanding of who they are (which isn’t hard – everyone is pretty much a stereotype, and don’t get me started on the girls, who are written as “strong” female types the way “strong” females are written by doofy guys), and I can’t say that he doesn’t have a story map somewhere because I’m sure he does, but you could draw a circle around the whole thing and then a charging elephant on top of it with some kind of humanizing element – like a baseball cap or something – and boom, you’ve got the gist of the entire run of Elephantmen.

There was a scientist who bred human / animal hybrids and then trained them to be soldiers.  He was shut down, and the soldiers were reincorporated into society, but they’re treated, mostly, as second class citizens.  They have jobs, some of them mate with humans, but mostly they’re called “munts” behind their backs, and they have to have separate restrooms because you can’t very well practically use the same toilet as a giraffe, can you?  Is it a valid sci-fi setup?  Absolutely.  Is there room to grow there?  Absolutely.  Have we moved beyond the obvious race / class parallels to modern society?  Not so much.

I know, I know, I’m hating on the book.  Which isn’t fair.  Starkings has attached some fun artists to it and the books look great and are often packed with a lot of nice extra materials.  Richard appreciates his fans, and the books show that.  It’s totally workable sci-fi, and there’s not enough of that on the rack (that isn’t a Star Wars book or a mini-series), so I get how the hype machine started and how it keeps going.  Plus, all you have to do is hand someone the gorgeous over-sized “Mystery City” book that was one of the starting points for Hip Flask / Elephantmen (minus 10,000 points though for how confusing it is to try and pick up the “start” of Elephantmen, with its one-shot with 4 different covers that’s partially reprinted in “Mystery City,” which is ‘helpfully’ labeled as book 2 on its spine… I still doubt now and then that I read everything I needed to, but this also adds to the evidence that the plotting has never been there to back up the series).  This hardcover, painted with unbelievable detail and love by artist Ladronn, depicts an amazing Blade Runner world and gives us glimmers of a noir story.  It’s a wonderful little snapshot.  …It’s magic that’s never really re-captured in the book, as we trade noir for repetitive character drama, but, *sigh*, I can still look at that hardcover and imagine that this Elephantmen series is going to be sumthin’ special…

Alas.

I’m glad the world exists, and I can’t tell you what more I would’ve done with it.  For better or worse, Starkings started down the path of mish-mash from issue 1 and never quite got out of it.  The concept and characters and look are enough fuel to keep you reading, but don’t be surprised if you close the final page of whenever this tale ends and wonder if there was ever a point to it.