This chronic feature lets me review what's recently passed my bloodshot pupils. So pull up a chair, break out the sarcasm filter and welcome to:
    Mr. Zad's comic critique
    Elephantmen, Nos. 0 to 7
    (Image Comics, $2.99 each)
    Writer Richard Starkings' dystopian adventures of an anthropomorphic hippopotamus, Hip Flask, are expanded to include tales of his other mutated brethren in a new monthly series.
    Through a handy "origins" issue, numbered 0, readers learn of the events that transpired in 2216, when a megalomaniacal scientist named Dr. Kazushi Nikken bred and mutated a hybrid of humans and Africa's mightiest animals, turning them into trained killing machines.
    The United Nations eventually stepped in and put a stop to the madness of Nikken's MAPPO Corp. and rehabilitated the creatures to live in society.
    Now, in a 2259 version of Los Angeles, hybrids such as the dangerous crocodile morph Elijah Delaney; successful businessman and part rhino Obadiah Horn; and two government information agents, the elephant Ebony Hide and the hippest hippo, Hip Flask, are free to walk the planet but are monitored carefully by usually unaccepting mankind.
    Mr. Starkings never bores us as he layers plotlines with tolerance lessons, covert operations and visual presentations to keep readers always intrigued. One month it could be a "flipbook" (when one story stops, the reader must flip over the book to read the second story), another month a tale punctuated with prose from the Book of Job, and, most masterfully, in issue No. 7, an illustrated children's story.
    The tale, told to a young female by Hip Flask, explores the woeful life of Captain Stoneheart and his encounter with a Truth Fairy. It features the gorgeous work of illustrator Chris Bachalo.
    If readers can get lost in the Elephantmen's world — and I highly recommend that they do — they also will be rewarded richly with a compilation of art styles in almost every issue .
    Spearheaded by the work of Justin "Moritat" Norman, in the main story, contributors such as Brian (Killing Joke) Bolland, Tom (Godland) Scioli, Henry (Judge Dredd) Flint and Jose (Cable) Ladronn also have enhanced the book and covers.