Elephantmen #33

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Shaky Kane

The best science fiction is the kind that takes a social, cultural, or political notion prevalent in contemporary society, and extrapolates to see where it may lead in the future.  Elephantmen frequently taps into the current concern over transgenics and genetic modification, to suggest an extreme possiblity, albeit one that is fascinating in its adherence to noir-ish storytelling.

With this bizarre done-in-one issue, Richard Starkings instead focuses on another of society's questionable applications of science - the cosmetic surgery industry.  Dr. Bone (great name) is a renowned plastic surgeon who marries a woman obsessed with optimizing her own beauty through surgical and scientific means.  She, and her husband, both become obsessed with the notion of replacing her bones with ivory taken from the elephantmen.  This story fits within the series quite well, explaining the string of dead, ivory-less elephantmen we've been seeing lately, but it also provides a nice change of pace from the last bunch of issues.

Shaky Kane, with his strange art (a blend of Mike Allred, Keith Giffen, Frank Quitely (around the faces), and a vaguely European approach to layout), is the perfect choice for this issue, which displays an interesting approach to horror.

I've been meaning to check out Kane's The Bulletproof Coffin for a while now, and this comic reminded me of why I was interested in that other series.  This is a great issue of a very good series - I recommend checking it out.