{"id":35374,"date":"2026-04-27T17:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35374"},"modified":"2026-04-27T17:22:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:22:38","slug":"elephant-man-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/04\/27\/elephant-man-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Greg Houston<\/strong> (NBM)
\nISBN: 978-1-56163-588-7 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced for comedic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cartoonist, caricaturist, designer, educator, actor and major fan of old movies, Greg Houston delights in the baroque and comically grotesque; positively revelling in taking taste-free pot-shots at societal and popular culture icons (see Vatican Hustle<\/a><\/strong> for more of his measured, manic musings) and this marvellous and madcap monochrome missal has a go at the very bedrock of our medium by parodying and pastiching the classic superhero scenario.<\/p>\n

Baltimore has its own Costumed Crusader and he is the perfect symbol of a city with so little to recommend it. This crusading costumed boy scout doesn\u2019t 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…<\/p>\n

Local paper The Daily Crab<\/strong> is following events, particularly feisty journo Tracie Bombasso<\/em>, cub reporter Dud Cawley<\/em> and mild-mannered, colonically-challenged reporter Jon Merrick<\/em> (yes, that <\/em><\/strong>kind of Elephant Man), despite the rantings of unpopular on-air TV presenter Handsome Dick Denton<\/em> – but he\u2019s just jealous, right?<\/p>\n

Also determined to spoil everything is sinisterly macabre conjoined villain The Priest, the Rabbi and the Duck<\/em>: twisted victim(s?) of an old joke and a tragic accident involving alcohol and Science…<\/p>\n

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 are bizarre characters old and new (keep your eyes peeled for cameos from Boss Karate Black Guy Jones<\/em> and other uber-odd Vatican Hustle<\/strong> alumni), cripplingly painful embarrassing moments and enough ugly hilarity to have a very good time indeed.<\/p>\n

And lest you think we\u2019re being unkind to the place let me reveal that Houston is Baltimore born-and-bred, and gets a pass on being nigh-litigiously critical…<\/p>\n

Beneath the outrageous parody and extreme mock-heroics is a witty and genuinely funny adult romp poking edgy fun at everything from politicians to donuts, and weathermen to beauticians, gleefully making some telling observations about Heroes and how to treat them, all rendered in a busy, buzzy, black-&-white line that appeals and appals in equal amounts.<\/p>\n

Warning: this book contains six-foot talking flies and shaved, car-racing monkeys.
\n\u00a9 2010 Greg Houston. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1952 scriptwriter Hilary Bader<\/strong> (Batman<\/strong>, Superman<\/strong>, Star Trek<\/strong>) was born, followed by Brazilian Rafael Gramp\u00e1<\/strong> in 1978; Christina Strain<\/strong> in 1981 and Zeb Wells<\/strong> in 1983.<\/p>\n

1902 today saw the start of Ed Payne<\/strong>\u2019s strip Professor O. Howe Wise and Professor I.B. Schmart<\/strong> with Stan Lynde<\/strong>\u2019s outrageous comedy western feature Rick O\u2019Shay<\/strong> launching this date in 1958. However in 1991, Spirou<\/strong>\u2019s creator Rob-Vel<\/em><\/strong> (Fran\u00e7ois Robert Velter<\/strong>) passed away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Greg Houston (NBM) ISBN: 978-1-56163-588-7 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for comedic effect. Cartoonist, caricaturist, designer, educator, actor and major fan of old movies, Greg Houston delights in the baroque and comically grotesque; positively revelling in taking taste-free pot-shots at societal and popular culture icons (see Vatican Hustle for more of his … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Elephant Man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[280,351,113,75,125,105,108,225,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-antics","category-apes-monkeys","category-comedy","category-crime-comics","category-humour","category-mature-reading","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-mystery","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9cy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35377,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35374\/revisions\/35377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}