Hip Flask started out as a corporate mascot for Richard Starking’s lettering company. I remember seeing the trench-coated hippo showing up on ads for fonts, usually accompanied by one or two attractive females. Who was this hippo? Why did he look like Sam Spade or almost any other Humphrey Bogart character? Maybe it was just a simple idea for a mascot but Richard Starkings created a character who needed to have stories told about him.
In Elephantmen Pilot, we see a character in search of his story. Starkings, with the help of a lot of his creative friends, created short stories featuring Hip Flask in a number of genre pieces. Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen do a Spirit homage with Hip Flask. Joe Kelly, Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly have a fun science fiction/morality tale setting up Hip Flask as an explorer of new worlds. Jeph Loeb and Ian Churchill end up doing a story that’s probably closest to the current Elephantmen series in plot if not in tone. While you can see kernels that would later be expanded upon in the Hip Flask graphic novels and the Elephantmen series, these are one offs, done for kicks and done in exchange for favors.
These stories lack the sophistication that Starkings would later develop with Ladronn and Moritat. Those stories would be Blade Runner meets Animal Farm. The stories here are rather simple compared to what would later be done. These are Starkings’ friends trying to flesh out a simple character. That’s not to say these stories aren’t good. The Busiek/Immonen story is a nice little piece on acceptance. It nicely mimics a good Eisner Spirit book where the Spirit (in this case, Hip Flask) is only tangentially invovled in the main story. Loeb and Churchill’s story is fascinating. You can see the groundwork being laid for what this story would later become. The plot and characters aren’t too far removed from what we have today.
This Pilot issue is an artifact, a neat look into the evolution of the character and his story. Starkings and regular Elephantmen artist Moritat create a framing story that does tie this issue into the current series (complete with a “to be continued” disclaimer at the end) but it’s not essential to the main story.
Elephantmen Pilot
“The Victory of Sammy Thrace”
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Drawn by: Stuart Immonen
“Planet of the Ungulates”
Written by: Joe Kelly
Breakdowns by: Peter Gross
Finishes by: Ryan Kelly
“Jungle to the Zoo”
Plotted by: Richard Alan
Written by: Jeph Loeb
Drawn by: Ian Churchill
[tags]Elephantmen, Richard Starkings, Hip Flask, Moritat, Ladronn[/tags]
