Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Dark Horse Comics, Image | Tagged: elephantmen, richard starkings

No More Elephantmen At Image Comics Or Dark Horse

No More Elephantmen at Image Comics or Dark Horse - Instead The Elephantmen return to Comicraft where they all began.

Published Sat, 04 May 2024 15:57:09 -0500

Last updated Sun, 05 May 2024 05:23:55 -0500

Article Summary

Hip Flask and Elephantmen return to Comicraft, the original publisher, via Kickstarter.
Image Comics and Dark Horse's print deals with Elephantmen have ended.
Creator Richard Starkings to release new Elephantmen issues and collections.
A special Fine Art Screen Print by Eric Powell will accompany the release.

Once upon a time, the character Hip Flask first appeared in a number of advertisements for Comicraft comic book fonts in the late nineties, as a hippopotamus private detective. He was created by Richard Starkings when he failed to get permission from Marvel or DC to use their characters in his ads. He later graduated to his own series of three one-shots by Richard Starkings, Joe Casey and Ladrönn, published from Comicraft and Active Images.

A monthly series called Elephantmen was published by Image Comics in 2006 and focused on other human/animal hybrids, as well as Hip Flask, publishing over ninety issues and twenty collections since, but then things ended. Starkings launched new Elephantmen projects, with twenty issues from ComiXology Originals but that meant the print deal moved to Dark Horse Comics.

Bleeding Cool scooped the news in March that Dark Horse had switched that deal so they didn't automatically publish all ComiXology Originals titles in print. And Elephantmen was one of the victims, with the solicited Elephantmen Omnibus from last year being cancelled.

>But now it will be published from whence it originally came, Comicraft themselves, via Kickstarter. "22 years ago, long before crowd-funding, long before social media, I published the first issue of Elephantmen, Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection, under the Comicraft imprint. Now it's time to go back to basics and for Comicraft to publish a new bumper issue of Elephantmen on Kickstarter!" says creator and writer Richard Starkings.

"After this new issue, later in the year we will be crowd-funding the second Comixology Originals collection, the print rights to the series have reverted to Comicraft, so expect that and some special POD collections later in the year!" And what about the final issue of the Hip Flask series by Ladrönn? "I'm happy to say that Ladrönn HAS finished issue #5 of the series and we are putting the finishing touches to that this summer!"

In addition to the new Elephantmen: Yvette comic book, there's a chance to acquire a special Fine Art Quality Screen Print by Goon creator, Eric Powell.