What I'm Not Reading (For Now): Elephantmen
I will gladly admit that I am a soft touch when it comes to new comics.
When I saw the first issue of Elephantment on the shelf at my super-awesome local comics shop, I immediately picked it up and flipped through it. Something about that slightly forlorn, trenchcoat-clad elephantman abroad in the lonesome night reached deep into me and made me want to read it. It was not difficult to imagine the pipe-riddled, rusted setting as a rainy street lit by neon. I scanned the first few pages, read the first few words and bought it. The person working the counter that day asked if I wanted to add it to my bag, to get every issue, and I impulsively agreed. Something about it resonated with my scattershot, disorganized sense of taste so that I felt sure I would enjoy it.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that, hey, I did enjoy it! The first few issues painted a fascinating picture of a marginalized population with tenuous and limited legal protections, rich and misunderstood underground social and economic networks and an internal tension between those who seek to integrate with the larger society and those who seek to protect their unique culture.
Sound like anyone you know?
I loved those first few issues, too: classic styling, a loving celebration of noir sensibilities and compelling characters eternally torn between ideals and compromises. Mixing all that together in a sci-fi setting that liberated the creators so that they could tell as many different stories in as many different places and times as they wanted produced this intoxicating, fizzy book I would gobble up when it came out.
Then the publishing schedule seemed to go off the rails. I wouldn't get any new Elephantmen for months and when I did I either wouldn't remember what was going on or the story would be about a character we've never seen before or only briefly. To be honest, I just couldn't keep up with the storylines anymore. I couldn't remember who anyone was or what they were doing or why. The sense that the disparate stories being told were wending their way towards some narrative intersection seemed to fade. I stopped reading and started flipping through it to admire the artwork.
So now, finally, I've dropped it from my bag at the local shop. I hated to do it. Breaking up is hard to do and breaking up with a story, with a unique world, with an idea is somehow even harder. The simple truth is that I love Elephantmen too much to endure the rocky road of month-to-month instability. I want them to keep making it and I think it is valuable both for the quality of its content and for its uniqueness on the shelf but I have to stop reading Elephantmen as issues and start reading it as trades. As they come out, over time, I will not hesitate to pick them up. Until then, though, I think it's time I start seeing other subscriptions.
Klarion
Posted to Comics on 16 October 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: Elephantmen
Elephant men is a great comic series. Parts of the story and visual style remind me of 'bladerunner'. There's even an issue with alternate cover art which is bladerunner themed but with the characters in elephant men replacing virtually all of the characters for bladerunner. :D
Wasn't klarion most recently in '7 soldiers'?
I have got to find an image of that cover. (Or maybe I have it and just didn't notice?) And yes, Klarion the Witch-Boy had a cameo in Infinite Crisis but his last substantive appearance, to my knowledge, was in Seven Soldiers, a book I recommend to anyone who hasn't read it.
Yay for Elephantmen.
I've had much the same problem with it, as with some other titles. Forced to go for trades, kinda lame I hate waiting sometimes.
I wonder if the increased amount of comci readers willing to wait for trades is what actually kills some comic lines ??? Who knows, someone smarter and with much more time then me should go find out :P
Yay for Elephantmen.
I've had much the same problem with it, as with some other titles. Forced to go for trades, kinda lame I hate waiting sometimes.
I wonder if the increased amount of comci readers willing to wait for trades is what actually kills some comic lines ??? Who knows, someone smarter and with much more time then me should go find out :P
That double entry was my fault, sorry guys