Comic Book Review – Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle (The Big Here & the Long Now)

Writer: Richard Starkings
Cover Artist: Ladronn
Publisher: Image
Publication Date: March 2007
Format: Hardcover

Not for the faint of heart, but recommended for those who’d like food for thought.

Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle was very much what I expected in terms of continuing the stories begun in the Elephantmen: Wounded Animals graphic novel. This volume could be considered a stand-alone volume in some circles, but in my own experience, it was a mistake to attempt to read Concrete Jungle without reading Wounded Animals first. Concrete Jungle offers only the barest recap into previous events which helps jog the memory of readers who are already familiar with the series, but offers little in the way of explanation to readers who are experiencing Elephantmen for the first time. The first attempt at reading this volume was largely unenjoyable because I didn’t have the faintest idea why I should care about any of these characters. After reading (and very much enjoying) “Wounded Animals,” I began reading “Concrete Jungle” again and discovered it to be a far better volume than I’d anticipated.

As with Wounded Animals, Concrete Jungle masquerades as a pulpy, genre action story that centers on Hip Flask, the Elephantman who appears to be a bipedal hippopautamus. He was introduced in Wounded Animals as a private investigator type who’s been contracted by a branch of official law enforcement. His exact employment status and agency aren’t fully revealed, but it’s clear that he’s meant to be on the side of the good guys as much as this series can be said to have good guys.

Once again the artists have gone for a look that while richly textured is decidedly dark and gritty which is fitting considering the hard-boiled pulp noir storyline. This book follows Hip Flask through the partial investigation of a case that clearly involves a hitman, the elephantman Obadiah Horn, and a man named Serengheti. What isn’t clear is exactly how the case will be resolved because this volume, frustratingly enough, doesn’t contain a full story arc. It’s obviously setting up plot elements for bigger and better things to come in the series, though the cliff-hanger ending is less about cheap tricks to sell more books and more about a logical place to end what is, essentially, a single chapter in a much larger work. Concrete Jungle shifts between plot threads fluidly, while only weaving a couple of them into the larger storyline. The reader gets the impression that they can trust the author and artists to resolve all of these glimpses into a coherent whole, especially if that reader has gotten to read “Wounded Animals.” The changes in characters and plotlines are nothing new for Elephantmen and it’s part of what keeps the story so interesting.

The Elephantmen series is a fast-cut action series skillfully melded with noir and near-future science fiction and Concrete Jungle is no exception, however, as with “Wounded Animals”, much larger and deeper issues are at the heart of this story. Concrete Jungle raises issues of scientific ethics and responsibility, racism, economics, and even provokes some thought on law enforcement and prisons. While this certainly shouldn’t surprise readers of graphic novels or genre fiction in general (because much of it does contain worthy statements on society and culture), the simple fact is that the Elephantmen series carries all this issues within a story that brings them up without ever getting horribly preachy or boring in the slightest. Concrete Jungle is one of those books that a person can’t help thinking about after reading it, and that’s certainly not a bad thing at all.

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