Elephantmen vol. 1: Wounded Animals

This is a series that I’ve always been interested in, but just never got around to checking out for one reason or another.  A few Amazon gift certificates from friends last year helped change that.  So after reading this impressively thick and well-priced volume ($20 for over 300 pages of comics), I’ve come away not really compelled to pick up the second but certainly not averse to it at some point in the future.  The series is the creation of legendary letterer Richard Starkings and possesses far more striking art than storytelling.  Lead artist Moritat creates an impressive futuristic cityscape whose most notable inhabitants are the genetically engineered anthropomorphic animals known collectively as the Elephantmen.  Moritat’s work is eye-catching, even if it is trumped by the stunning level of detail invested by Ladronn in the origin story of these creatures.  Tom Scioli and Rob Steen also turn in distinctive work here, as does Chris Bachalo who gives us a memorable pirate story written by Joe Kelly.

So even though this collection is very pleasing to the eyes, it doesn’t really offer up a compelling narrative to convince the reader to come back for more.  Stunning art aside, this volume is almost entirely setup for future stories.  We’re introduced to investigators Ebony (the elephant on the cover) Hip Flask (his hippo friend and fellow investigator), Elijah (a crocodile who lives up to type) and Obadiah (a rhino who has risen to be a very successful businessman–but with a Lex Luthor vibe to him which makes him the most interesting character in the series so far).  Though we learn of their history with Mappo, the company that made them, the only hints of an ongoing story we get involves one of their trainers coming back to settle unfinished business and a mysterious idol that Flask manages to get his hands on.  I wouldn’t be stressing the lack of an overarching narrative here if the individual stories were compelling… but the best one here isn’t from Starkings.  It’s the fantasy pirate hippo adventure from Kelly and Bachalo.  Most of the stories here do decent jobs of introducing the cast, but leave you feeling, “Okay.  Now what are you going to do with them?”  Let’s see if volume two can give me some answers I like.