OK, bear with me : Elmer is a “window into an alternate Earth where chickens have suddenly acquired the intelligence and consciousness of humans, where they consider themselves a race no different than whites, browns or blacks, and push to recognize rights for themselves as the newest members of the human race.” Talking chickens, indeed. Never mind the Donald Duck conundrum (is this duck a bird-bird or a man-bird ?) – chickens are a race on their own.
And, believe it or not, Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan is actually a pretty good book. Alanguilan takes a quite far-fetched idea and develops it into a quite strong metaphor for racial prejudice and social injustice.
If you want to know more, you can download issue 1, which is out of print, for free as a cbr from his site. Alanguilan is hoping to create enough hoopla about this, to boost sales of his later issues, and later maybe a collected edition.
I also like the fact that he’s chosen the .cbr format to distribute his comic. Shows he’s hep with things.
I’ve got the first two issues and thought it was excellent, looking forward to reading the third once we sort a deal with Gerry and get some sent over to sell on the FPI site again.