• Publisher: Image Comics
• Release Date: Dec 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781607063377

Elephantmen: Dr Moreau meets apocalyptic noir science fiction comic

Elephantmen Volume 1: Wounded Animals Revised Edition TP reviewed by Cory Doctorow (boingboing.net)

I'm late to the party on Elephantmen -- the comic has been running since 2006 and there've been three collections to date. I've just read the first one, Wounded Animals and I've got that happy, warm feeling that comes from discovering something great, finishing it, and realizing there's plenty more where that came from (I discovered the series on a visit back to LA's Secret Headquarters, where the curated collection of comics never lets me down).

Elephantmen (which spun out of Image Comics's Hip Flask) is the a Dr Moreau-esque story of a race of human-animal chimeras created by a mad, savage doctor who wants to breed superwarriors to fight in an African war. The Elephantmen (who are not just elephant-human hybrids, but also hippos, rhinos, crocs, etc) are rescued from their maker and brought back to human society, the living brutalized evidence of the horrors of 23rd Century warfare. They are rehabilitated, given jobs and stipends, and eased into "normal life."

But life can never be normal for the Elephantmen; they were brainwashed to be merciless killers, they are traumatized and stigmatized. Some are cruel, some are wounded -- some are hunted.

Full of pathos and told in a series of disjointed, flashbulb vignettes, Elephantmen is great apocalyptic noir fiction, and the pulpy, over-the-top artwork (half EC comics, half Metal Hurlant) is a perfect complement.