Review by Win Wiacek

Cartoonist, caricaturist, designer, educator, actor and big fan of old movies Greg Houston delights in the baroque and comically grotesque. He positively revels in taking taste-free pot-shots at societal and popular culture icons and Elephant Man #1 has a go at the very bedrock of the comics medium by parodying and pastiching the classic superhero scenario.

Baltimore has its own Costumed Crusader and he is the perfect symbol of a city with so little to recommend it. He doesn’t have any proper powers, but the people love him and on the fifth anniversary of his first appearance the minor metropolis is holding a week of commemorative events.

Local paper the Daily Crab is following events, particularly feisty journo Tracie Bombasso, cub reporter Dud Cawley and mild-mannered, colonically-challenged reporter Jon Merrick (yes, that kind of Elephant Man). This is despite the rantings of unpopular on-air TV presenter Handsome Dick Denton – but he’s just jealous, right?

Also determined to spoil everything is sinister conjoined villain the Priest, the Rabbi and the Duck, twisted victim of an old joke and a tragic accident involving alcohol and science.

Can Merrick keep his identity secret from his fellow reporters, foil the machinations of Denton and stop the three-headed Hydra of Pique? Of course he can, but along the way there’s bizarre characters old and new. Keep your eyes peeled for cameos from Boss Karate Black Guy Jones and other alumni from Houston’s previous material Vatican Hustle), cripplingly painful embarrassing moments and enough ugly hilarity to have a very good time indeed.

And lest you think he’s being unkind to the place, Houston is Baltimore born-and-bred!

Beneath the outrageous parody and extreme mock-heroics is another witty and genuinely funny adult romp which pokes edgy fun at everything from politicians to donuts, weathermen to beauticians. Houston makes some telling observations about heroes and how to treat them, all rendered in a busy, buzzy, black and white line that appeals and appalls in equal amounts.

Warning: this book contains six-foot talking flies and shaved, car-racing monkeys.