hen I first sketched Hip, I didn't really know very much about hippos at all. But back in my teens I had read Alan Moore's "How to Write for Comics" articles in FANTASY ADVERTISER and I remembered his advice that the best way to write was to write what you know, and if you didn't know, you should find out. He felt that the ideal research for a SWAMP THING writer would have been to lie in a tub of mud for a month. I didn't take to wallowing in the Nile, of course, (back then, I didn't realize there weeren't many hippos left in the Nile either) but I did start reading up on the hippopotamus.
Not a lot of people know this, but hippos have killed more people in Africa than Lions, Elephants, Rhinos and Crocodiles combined. They are a fiercely territorial species and incredibly strong and swift. Never get between a hippo and water, trust me. Even so, look in a hippo's eye (you can do this at the LA Zoo, in the rear enclosure at feeding time as part of certain special events, but be warned, they have terrible breath) and there's a soft and wise, more-human-than-human twinkle that can give you the impression that maybe they know something you don't, and that suits them just fine.
Having got to know hippos a little better after the initial gun-toting HIP FLASK: GLADERUNNER and blade-swinging HIP FLASK THE BARBARIAN pieces, I decided that it was important to do the big guys justice. The heroes of my youth were concerned with saving the innocent, not killing the guilty, and in the best stories they used their wit and wisdom to overcome even the most impossible odds. Although Hip was originally portrayed as a big, goofy, shoot-'em-up lug, I realized this was just too easy.
Hippos only attack men when they themselves feel threatened -- as do most large African animals. Rhinos, for instance, are incredibly gentle, skittish vegetarian creatures who have terrible eyesight and only become aware of men when they can smell them. Their beautiful horns are the envy of pouchers who can sell them on the black market for perhaps just ten or twenty dollars (a fortune in certain parts of Africa) to idiots in Yemen who believe that daggers made out of Rhino Horn bestow social status upon their owners. Yemenites pay hundreds of dollarss for these items. Certain endangered Rhinos must now have their horns removed, under sedation, by conservationists so that poachers won't kill them for the fast buck. Unfortunately, Rhinos have been hunted and killed for so many years now that they may not make it through another century. Although hippos are not endangered, their biggest enemy is still man.
The links we've listed here are concerned with the conservation and ethical treatment of animals — and the planet! Ironically enough, amongst the many compelling arguments in favor of genetic engineering are the ones put forward by conservationists who see cloning as a way of saving endangered species, like Rhinos. Unfortunately, it's widely believed that such notions might distract us from the very real plight of animals like the Rhino, the Kakapo or the Giant Panda.
If you're interested in the subject of conservation, check out the sites listed below, and perhaps make a donation to their efforts. I'd also highly recommend the book LAST CHANCE TO SEE by HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY author, the late Douglas Adams.
Ladronn primarily listens to instrumental music and is responsible for most of the recommendations here. If you think Vangelis is merely the composer of the music for films such as Chariots of Fire or Blade Runner, you might like to sample some of the work we have listed here. Along with artists like Kitaro, Jean Michel Jarre and, that name again, Eno, he is producing work of incredible quality and timelessness which I'm sure will one day be regarded as Classical. We threw in the Best of ELO because we're both children of the seventies. Joe Casey would probably want some Springsteen listed here, but, hey, we built him his own site.
Rather than fill our bookshelves here with recommendations of all the comic books and creators we like (although if you do want those recommendations, just check out our Balloon Tales site), we thought we'd share some of the books and music that informed the creation of HIP FLASK in general and UNNATURAL SELECTION in particular.
My reading in the fields of genetic engineering, evolution and conservation often brought up the same names again and again. Douglas Adams, Richard Dawkins, Desmond Morris and Edward O. Wilson are just a few of the authors I was either already aware of or discovered recently that proved not only capable of making intelligent points but also of making them accessible to readers who don't share their scientific or better-informed knowledge.
hen I first sketched Hip, I didn't really know very much about hippos at all. But back in my teens I had read Alan Moore's "How to Write for Comics" articles in FANTASY ADVERTISER and I remembered his advice that the best way to write was to write what you know, and if you didn't know, you should find out. He felt that the ideal research for a SWAMP THING writer would have been to lie in a tub of mud for a month. I didn't take to wallowing in the Nile, of course, (back then, I didn't realize there weeren't many hippos left in the Nile either) but I did start reading up on the hippopotamus.
