Elephantmen Characters

[Jennifer Leos]

Elephantmenis an American ongoing monthly comic book published by Image Comics and written by Richard Starkings with art by Moritat and a number of other artists. Issue #1 was released in July 2006.

Some 200 years from now, the MAPPO Corporation, headed by the misanthropic and megalomaniacal Japanese scientist Dr. Kazushi Nikken, breeds human/animal hybrids in a secure, top-secret facility somewhere in North Africa. The Hybrids are composed of numerous African animal species including warthogs, elephants, camels, zebras, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, hyenas and crocodiles. The process involves implanting embryos into the wombs of kidnapped local women who are disposed of after giving birth. Each child is branded after birth, marking them as the property of MAPPO.

These Elephantmen are trained from birth to be the perfect emotionless super soldiers and merciless killers. They are indoctrinated with an Orwellian mindset to think of themselves as property of the MAPPO Corporation and to deny any concept of free thought.

Upon discovering these experiments, the United Nations send in an army to storm MAPPO's secret base. While their mission has not been elaborated at this stage, it seems to be a combination of liberating the Elephantmen, investigating the attacks on the local populace, and ending the development of MAPPO's illegal army.

MAPPO turns the Elephantmen on the U.N. troops, and horrendous casualties are inflicted on both sides. Ultimately, the U.N. succeed in subduing the Elephantmen and the MAPPO personnel are arrested. The Elephantmen are rehabilitated and released to establish their own lives in the outside world, where they are generally treated with distrust and horror from humans. Many of the Elephantmen were assigned jobs by the government.

Living with humans has proven to be incredibly difficult for the Elephantmen. The war in which they fought had great consequences as people from both sides (Elephantmen included) lost many loved ones. Not all of those who survived retained their sanity; in fact, some became active hunters who tracked down Elephantmen and then executed them. The series shows that the characters are haunted by memories that are still raw, with some people being driven to insanity due to being unable to let go of the past. It is evident that the Elephantmen themselves show some level of regret towards what they did during the conflict. It is also evident that crimes such as the ivory trade are seen as a good excuse to commit murder, and that even the Elephantmen themselves are involved with the seedy underworld and drug abuse. Women who befriend and become romantically involved with the Elephantmen are treated as outsiders, frowned upon, yet some have nightmares about their offspring and the chances of survival during childbirth. At this time in the series, the species do not accept each other.

The Elephantmen series is a spin-off from the series Hip Flask, set in the same universe and expanding on details of various minor characters from that series. Elephantmen: War Toys is a three-issue mini-series prequel.

At WonderCon in 2010 Comicraft/Active Images said the option of their Image Comics series Elephantmen was bought by Zucker Productions for development into a film. Starkings himself was working on the draft treatment: "Jerry [Zucker] and I can't wait to bring the stories of Hip, Horn and Sahara to life on screen in a way that will simply take your breath away".[1][2] The project's status is unknown.

Ladrnn, your artist on the series, seems to hit a new high in this issue (which is saying a lot!), can you talk a little about your process with him? Where do the two of you work independently and where does collaboration begin?

With your encouraging Ladrnn to explore different modes of working and approaching the page, did he present you with any new ways of thinking about your characters and settings? Were there any story elements that you thought were concrete before he came along?

As a letterer, how does dialogue and other text placement play into cover and page design? Do you leave dialogue placement to Ladronn, or is the page breakdown process a collaborative one?

When we first learned of Ouroborous, it was teased with a July 2006 street date. Can you talk a little about how the Elephantmen ongoing affected this release? Is it a situation where time got away from you, or did the story and art decide that there was something else that needed to happen?

While a high concept, sci-fi noir book on the surface, you use Hip Flask to examine a variety of ethical questions the world faces. From animal rights, to scientific boundaries, to proxy wars, all manner of neo-ethical questions are raised. When in the creation of the series did you know you wanted to incorporate this element of the story?

Mike Romeo started reading comics when splash pages were king and the proper proportions of a human being meant nothing. Part of him will always feel that way. Now he is one of the voices on Robots From Tomorrow. He lives in Philadelphia with two cats. Follow him on Instagram at @YeahMikeRomeo!

The books themselves, Elephantmen from Image Comics has been consistently brilliant for years. Richard has created a world of hybrids and humans searching for meaning in a world that long ago has given up any aspirations for logic. Who knew that the most striking noir heroes of our time would be a hippo and an elephant in fedoras?

Hands down, Elephantmen is a prize example of the type of stories our medium can tell. With an infinite budget, we no longer are trapped telling sci-fi stories about explosions and clone farms. Instead, you get delicate character drama wrapped in some damn fine mystery storytelling.

JHF: What I love most about you, Richard, is that you treat your art like a business and your business like an art. How important is it to balance your creative juice with your dollars and (common) sense?

JHF: In Elephantmen you've taken a gigantic idea and made it feel exceptionally grounded and realistic, telling stories with huge brains AND heart. Where do you think that comes from? Is it from having the world so well established in your mind that you can just let the characters do their own thing?

RS: Yes, I try not to overthink the whys and the wherefores, but I have come to realize that the big, big story is stored in all the nooks and crannies in my head. Often all I need to tap into that story is a nice long walk on the beach at about 7am.

If my stories have heart, I think it's because my Mum has such a big heart, and I like to think that I take after her, or perhaps I'm writing stories that might move her, even if she doesn't read Elephantmen. I'm not a big fan of superheroes per se, and have always gravitated to relationship based science fiction stories like Doctor Who, Star Trek or The X-Files; and I do feel strongly that Superman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and The Hulk are at their best when they are relationship based science fiction stories, otherwise we wouldn't care about the death of Johnny Storm, right?

JHF: Obviously, your company, Comicraft, is known for it's amazing packaging and design. How important do you think all of that is for independent comics, especially in this digital age?

RS: Well, it IS important and I often see books that have forgotten that comics books need to be cool and accessible. I sometimes forget that myself because it's easy to miss the wood for the trees on your own book. I love what Hickman did on his Image books, and Brandon Graham's King City comics have a wonderful, personal design sensibility. Brian Wood is another writer/designer that knows exactly what he's doing, but there are some pretty horrible looking books out there lately and a lot of them are mainstream titles that are being put together inhouse without a coherent graphic vision. You can always pick out covers from DC's output that Mark Chiarello has had a hand in because he has such a good eye for the combination of art and design. The designer at Oni Press is pretty sharp too. There are good designers out there! Obviously our very own Secret Weapon, John JG Roshell has a very healthy track record too. But boy, is he expensive!

Elephantmen has always been an unusual title, and Elephantmen #43 is no different. This latest issue certainly seems to offer a little bit of of everything. With a complex plot that seems to be splitting into several parallels, this issue does a decent enough job managing to contain it in one issue, without confusing the reader too much.

Near the end, however, the title does pick up a bit. Its definitely clear the writers are holding back, rather than unloading streams of information to a confused audience. The ending to Elephantmen #43 focuses on one of the human characters, and definitely shows a lot of character. In a title that crosses the lines between human and animal, the actions near the end might seem like an obvious metaphor, but it works.

The hippo in a coat on the cover looks interesting enough for me to get the book. I've no idea what Elephantmen is. Well, according to wikipedia, The Elephantmen series is a spin-off from the series Hip Flask, set in the same universe and expanding on details of various minor characters from that series.

This book is the concept art book for the comic series drawn by Jos Ladrnn. Since the story is character based, there are tons of character designs for the unhumans as well as the humans. These are sketches, lineart, paintings and character profiles. There are lots of iterations included and you can see what works and not, and they are all explained.

Particularly impressive are the ridiculously detailed paintings which took months to draw. There are several pieces and each are shown with the work-in-progress shots from sketch to the colouring stage.

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