Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection - Hardcover

RICHARD STARKINGS learned the ropes of comic book production at Marvel UK in London. Moving to California in 1989 he founded the Comicraft studio with John ‘JG’ Roshell and together they revolutionized the art of comic book lettering & design -- introducing US publishers to the practice of digital lettering (covered in detail in their book COMIC BOOK LETTERING THE COMICRAFT WAY) which is now the industry standard. Starkings created the HIP FLASK character as a mascot for Comicraft's line of comic book fonts before developing the critically acclaimed UNNATURAL SELECTION storyline which details the origin of HIP FLASK and THE ELEPHANTMEN.

LADRONN was born and raised in Veracruz, Mexico. After leaving Art School at the age of 21, he managed a design studio and later worked for Televisa Veracruz as a designer of animated station promotionals. His goal was always to work as a painter, and he never considered creating comics, especially not for the American market, until after he visited the San Diego Comic convention with a friend in 1995. Ladronn was invited to submit samples of his work to Marvel Comics and shortly thereafter he landed a regular job penciling the monthly X-MEN spinoff comic book, CABLE. He was later joined on CABLE by Joe Casey and they created a memorable run on the title from issue 51 through to 70. Ladronn's incredible painted work was first published in a short story for Marvel’s THOR 2000 before he pencilled and inked the first three issues of THE INHUMANS with Carlos Pacheco. This was his last work for Marvel before starting his career over again painting HIP FLASK for Active Images.

JOE CASEY is the co-creator of the avant garde comic book series, CODEFLESH and AUTOMATIC KAFKA. He has also written some of the most recognizable comic book franchises in the world, including SUPERMAN and THE X-MEN. He plays rock'n'roll and p*sses people off on a regular basis. He is a founding member of the MAN OF ACTION creative thinktank, creating original properties in all forms of entertainment media.

This may be the most gorgeous graphic novel ever devoted to a corporate mascot. Hip Flask, a hippopotamus/hard-boiled detective, was originally created to illustrate Richard Starkings's computer lettering site, Comicbookfonts.com. This European-style oversized hardcover graphic novel presents the character's origin as an absolutely straight-faced science-fiction melodrama: Hip Flask and his half-animal brethren, readers learn, were created by an evil Dr. Moreau-ish 23rd-century scientist to be unstoppable killing machines for a wicked corporation. This story shows very little of Hip Flask himself; the story is mostly a setup for future volumes (at the end readers meet Obadiah Horn, a rhinoceros who means to "create the new future, unfettered by weak, human morality"). It's a ridiculous exercise, but it's enhanced with stunning painted artwork by Mexican artist Ladronn, equal parts Jack Kirby, Moebius and H.R. Giger. Ladronn turns every gigantic panel into a tour de force of riotously complicated machinery, terrifying biological workings and minutely stippled color. His vision of Hip Flask is of a genuinely bestial creature, so finely detailed readers can sense the texture of his skin. His outdoor scenes are landscapes on steroids, rust-stained and rubble-strewn. While not much of a story, this volume will delight fans of fantasy and science-fiction art.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.