Preview of Elephantmen #18

Some creepy, internet-snooping led me to artist Marian Churchland's deviantart page where she's posted something from her work on Elephantmen #18 and it's got me all kinds of excited about the next big story arc. The image, a marker-colored drawing of a girl in a studio, painting erotic pictures of one of the Elephantmen getting sexy with a human female suggests a return to the down-to-earth humanist aspects of Elephantmen (it's been fun, but the series has been on some serious Heavy Metal shit for awhile now).

To get a sense of perspective on when the Churchland-assisted issues will drop, Elephantmen's currently on Issue 13 and just started a three-part series called "Worlds Collide", which tossed an alien invasion into the Elephantmen universe, something that will undoubtedly complicate this whole inter-species stuff further. Will humans just have two species to hate? Will human and Elephantmen join up? Will the Elephantmen be forced to muster up their death-crew training and all the emotions attached?

On the website, the cover to 18's been posted--and it seems to be intent on being the big, dumb opposite to Churchland's understated interior work--along with a typically teasing plot summary: "Hiromi Kiyoko -- Miki -- is intent on finding out Hip Flask's deepest darkest secrets... but Miki and her mother, Keiko, have some secrets of their own".