Wednesday 14 November 2012

Elephantmen #44

Trench Dreams
Art by Dave Sim
Elephantmen #44: Sleeping Partners Part Three
by Richard Starkings, Axel Medellin & Dave Sim
Image Comics, $3.99
On Sale: 14 November 2012

RED-HEADED MULE:
(from a review at Red-Headed Mule, 12 November 2012)
Once again, Elephantmen left nothing to be desired. This was another amazing issue in what is truly one of the greatest continuing stories to date. The way Richard Starkings draws on past issues and makes it relevant to the present issues is one of the many reasons why I love this series so much. There is an established timeline he draws from that makes the Elephantmen history important. THAT is something that I desire in other books. Once again we are graced with a dream sequence by the talented Dave Sim. The sequences he draws are so different that, as I am sure was intended, you can tell the dreams feel real to the dreamers at the time in which they take place. As always, Axel Medellin brings the Elephantmen world to life with vibrant colors and amazing art. This is one book I have come to enjoy over the years and I hope to for many more.

UNLEASH THE FANBOY:
(from a review at Unleash The Fanboy, 13 November 2012)
After some rather complicated issues, Elephantmen #44 begins to put the pieces together, whilst still being vague and mysterious. Still, there’s a sense of things moving in this issue, even if it dialogue heavy... This issue carries on from a lot of the previous arcs, uniting many of the Elephantmen. Its only when you see them together that you realize some of them don’t interact that much; Elephantmen can be a difficult series to get to grips with plot wise, and new comers might not feel at ease. This mainly focuses around on Trench (the Zebra). More of a fringe character recently, the series does its best to bring him into the fold. This is done via the third dream sequence shown so far. These, like previous issues, demonstrate a fantastic level of art, even if the images are very ‘static’, showing the same scene over and over. Still, with some reasonably written dialogue, its a very atmospheric couple of pages. Trench always has a certain ‘noir’ feel about him, and the writing and art captures that well, especially through its use of a moody New York at night time. Of course, if there’s one thing Elephantmen can do, its bring characters together only to leave more questions and potential plots. The dialogue is good, but its obvious suggestions towards a certain path might be too obvious for some. The dream sequences are referenced a lot, but it sometimes feels too obvious; although its hard to criticize a world full of talking anthropomorphic animals for not being realistic.

3 comments:

Eric Hoffman said...

Those pages make me want to find this book right now.

Dominick Grace said...

Yes. Stunning, aren't they?

JLH said...

I kinda wish Dave would do a photo-realistic "Flaming Carrot dreams" story someday.