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Elephantmen 007 January 2007; Elephantmen 008 February 2007; Elephantmen 009 March 2007
02/02/2008 . Source: Paul Skevington 
pub: Comicraft. 36 page comicbook. Price: $ 2.99 (US) each). Buy Elephantmen in the USA - or Buy Elephantmen in the UK  check our websites: www.comicraft.com and www.hipflask.com
These issues of 'Elephantmen' show it going from strength to strength in terms of quality and originality. The diversity of material here is quite astounding If you can't find something in these books that you love, then you should probably give up reading comics completely.
Surrounding the central story of issue seven is a framing piece written by Richard Starkings and illustrated by series regular Moritat that has Hip, our half-hippo hero, telling a story to the little girl Savannah who has run away from her mother and now refuses to return. The story in question is 'Captain Stoneheart And The Truth Fairy' written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by Chris Bachalo, whose current work on the 'X-Men' comic will be familiar to many. According to an interview conducted by comicbookresources.com, this particular work stems from a sketch by Bachalo and has taken over five years to reach us in its current form. I can conclusively say that it was well worth the wait.
'Stoneheart' is the tale of a vicious pirate who one day, quite by chance, stumbles across a caged fairy in the hold of a captured vessel. His first thought is to turn this creature to his own ends and he attempts to use his prisoner to find the fabled treasure of Mystery Island. As the fairy guides the motley crew through the terrifying dangers that lie between them and their goal, we see the true cruelty that lies within Stoneheart and discover why this malicious streak blossomed within him. Then a turning point comes, one that Stoneheart himself would never have expected...
'Stoneheart' is a classically told fairy tale that will capture you from the first sentence with its charm and wit. Although it uses a conventional structure, Kelly twists the traditional into a much more satisfying shape. For instance, when Stoneheart faces the terror of the Slithering Sea we are not encouraged to feel fear on behalf of the captain, but rather pity at the helpless snakes that he mows down in order to reach his destination. It's a wonderfully simple and precisely constructed piece that oozes craftsmanship like a squished snake does its guts. This is combined with the beautiful art of Bachalo who here produces some of his best work to date, capturing equally well the darkness of the first part of story as he does the joy and heart-breaking sadness of the latter. There is some stunning bits of composition here. Witness the caged fairy resting atop a mirror that reflects Stoneheart's avaricious face and the two-page spread that depicts his fight against the sleepless sailors. Image are currently about to release this story as a standalone hardback. Buy one as a sure-fire way to shut-up even the most annoying kid for at least an hour.
Issue eight returns to the main setting with a story by Moritat and Starkings entitled 'Moxa Cautery'. The piece focuses on police officer and Elephantman Trench who is of a markedly different character to previous protagonists Hip and Ebony. Instead of embracing the 'rehabilitation' that was offered to the Elephantmen when they were liberated, he is still fighting a war, this time against the whole world. The plot gives Moritat a chance to show us some brutal scenes from the Elephantmen's days as slaves, illustrating the links between them and the deadly deeds that Trench is still enacting in the present. Starkings plot also drives home the point that war is only ever over for the dead.
This story is accompanied by an amusing contribution from guests Jill Freshman and Rob Steen that does little to enhance the world of Elephantmen but is entertaining enough nonetheless.
In issue nine, Moritat and Starkings combine a quiet story about Hip collecting groceries with the tale of a trucker whose fate will entwine with Hip's for one fatal moment. Starkings imbues this trucker with great pathos, we get a glimpse of his life just before it is snatched away from him and this aspect of the tale is almost more important than our favourite hippo's involvement. Moritat manages to capture everything that the writer is striving to achieve here, in particular the creation of a strong emotional link with the characters.
Its companion tale, 'Silent Running', which boasts a David Lloyd cover centres on the amoral assassin, The Silencer, as he attempts to kill the stool pigeon that Trench arrested at the end of the last issue. The story is told entirely without dialogue, a challenge that the young artist Chris Burnham admirably meets with his gritty images of mayhem.
I must mention that all of the issues feature excellent covers by Ladronn, although none of them match up to his cover for the 'Abandoned By God' issue.
Finally, we come to the unusual pilot issue that is a real treat for long-term fans of the series. Before the whole Hip flask project arrived in its current enthralling state, Hip existed mainly as a way of advertising Comicraft wares. Over the years Starkings gathered together a whole bunch of eclectic material that would be entirely unsuitable for the Elephantmen universe as it currently stands. Still, Starkings wanted to make this material readily available so he came up with the idea of creating this 'pilot' issue that contains all of these embryonic representations of Hip and his world. To do this Starkings utilised yet another framing device as Cab driver Miki of the massive mammaries looks at wild comics about the Elephantmen that she has discovered on the Internet. As she says herself, "Comics full of boobs and guns?! What's not to love?"
A variety of authors and artists including Kurt Busiek, Jeph loeb, Joe Kelly and Brian Bolland contribute to the strange abortive visions of Hip and it's a fascinating vision of what could have been had Starkings chose to follow any of a number of different directions for the Hip Flask project. In this issue we get a gallery of gorgeous art also taken from the early days of Hip, with my favourites being 'A Girl's Best Friend' by Henry Flint and Rob Steen and also 'Kiss Catch' by the massively talented Bachalo. Both images capture elements of the series that would follow in an eerily accurate way and I can't help but think that they were influential in the creation of the Mystery City and what a city it is. If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town. If you want to read something special then, baby, it's definitely your kind of place.
Paul Skevington
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