Monday 24 September 2012

Elephantmen #43

Art by Dave Sim
Click image to enlarge.
Elephantmen #43: Sleeping Partners Part 2
by Richard Starkings, Alex Medellin & Dave Sim
Image Comics, $3.99
On Sale: 26 September 2012

Synopsis:
Behind a wraparound cover by Prophet and King City's Brandon Graham, Hip Flask and Vanity Case enjoy a cup of tea and sympathy, and Miki meets Apostrophe. Preview here.

RED-HEADED MULE:
Once again, Richard Starkings & company have pulled off an amazing feat. Elephantmen is one of THE best books on the market today. It goes to show that not all comic books need to have super heroes in them. They just need an amazing story to catch the readers attention. Mr. Starkings is one of the industry’s best storytellers today and proves it time and time again in the Elephantmen saga.

Starting with the cover by Brandon Graham, I was immediately hooked. It has a simple, yet elegant, beauty to it. It reminds me of the painting “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Simply inspiring.

With most of the art being done by Axel Medellin (which is a brilliant artist that utilizes an astounding variety of color to bring the pages to life) and dream sequence being done by my favorite Elephantmen newcomer, Dave Sim (I LOVED THE CROSS-HATCHING!), you are once again treated with a ton of eye candy and more story than you can shake your fist at (Seriously, try it. Your arm will get tired before you are done!).

Another great thing about this book is that not only are you treated with the reason you bought it, but you also get a look at the amazing art other artists have done over the years with the Elephantmen characters. It’s always cool to see how other artists interpret characters and this is no different!

Last, and certainly not least, is a great treat!

UNLEASH THE FANBOY:
...In this issue, there’s a certain focus on Hip Flask. In particular, there is a segment that evokes the focus on Ebony in the previous issue. Unfortunately, its much shorter. Whilst the artwork in this segment is, again, a welcome break full of detail and mood, the writing itself just doesn’t compare. Ebony’s inner monologue focused on his personal feelings and cowardice towards himself. Whilst this was touching and atmospheric, Hip Flasks monologue focuses more on his base nature as a hippo. Its effective, definitely, but it doesn’t seem to connect with the character as well. Still, its something I would like to see more of in the series...

1 comment:

Slumbering Agartha said...

The line-work on that hippo is just incredible.