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Elephantmen: Wounded Animals HC (Image) — Stunning. Really, that’s the only word that comes to mind when I look at Richard Starking’s sci-fi comic series about a future where genetically altered humans resemble animals. The art is phenomenal and the story’s not bad either. We follow the Elephantmen, a group of military experiments that have been freed from their scientist captors and allowed into society, though the humans care little for these monstrosities. Though called Elephantmen, the group is composed of various animal-human hybrids, like giraffes, camels and warthogs. The main characters are Hip Flask the hippopotamus and Ebony the elephant, two friends that work for the crime-preventing Agency. So far this first volume sets up the villainous rhino Obadiah Horn as a wealthy Elephantman and fight over an ancient artifact. And of course these creatures of fate can’t escape their bloody pasts. There is a lot in this series, such as racial tensions, which is surprising, as there is little dialog. While the futuristic world is interesting and compelling, I liked the short story Captain Stoneheart and the Truth Story the best. Told by Hip Flask to a little girl, this is about Elephantmen hippo pirate Stoneheart and his quest for fame and fortune. Written like a fairy tale, this was a beautifully illustrated part of the book with a bittersweet ending. Starking really shines here, as he weaves this fantasy story into the sci-fi story, using both to comment on the other, and ultimately show how everyone just wants to be loved. Elephantmen is an easily accessible series available in a nice hardcover (no annoying dust jacket!) and one book this elephant will never forget.

The Surrogates (Top Shelf) — Another dystopian foray into the future, The Surrogates shows Americans living their lives through robotic proxies. It’s like Larry from Arrested Development; only you experience and feel everything your surrogate lives through. A metaphor for our computer obsessed culture, people sit in their apartments hooked into their robots rather than, say, walking to the table to eat dinner. Of course, not everyone is happy with this lifestyle. The story unfolds as a mysterious vigilante Steeplejack destroys these perfect robot doubles, trying to usher in a new era of reality — where people interact in person rather than through machines. I enjoyed reading this comic, but the only trouble comes in its relation to other fictions — Fahrenheit 451, Equilibrium, and most recently V For Vendetta (comic and movie), where each follow a similar formula. A cop investigates an anti-establishment movement in the future that is oppressive, only to uncover he wants to be a part of the very rebellion he was charged to stop. V tries to wake people up from political slumber, while Steeplejack opposes a societal slumber. While dystopian sci-fi stories tend to cliché each other out of the marketplace, I think it is also important to remember that the differences are in the details. While The Surrogates may feel like books you’ve seen before, it is a different kind of sci-fi story, and if you choose to read it, let’s pick it up at the store rather than ordering it online, hmmm? A sequel to this series is slated for 2009 and Bruce Willis (Die Hard, Bruno the Kid) is will to star in the movie adaptation, directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3).