Elmer is a Philippine comic book written by Gerry Alanguilan.
Set in a world where chickens suddenly and inexplicably acquire the sentience and intelligence to stand in equal footing with human beings themselves, the story focuses on Jake Gallo and his family of chickens, specifically on Jake's father, the titular Elmer's experiences, as they strive to live and fight for their rights in a world that was once alien to them.
Elmer contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguously Gay: Francis, Jake and May's brother, is suspected of being gay by his siblings on account of rumors and his tendency to groom up way more than he should, though nothing's confirmed or denied on his end.
- Blood Knight: Joseph, Elmer's brother who was a fighting cock before the chickens gained sentience. He even admits that fighting is the only way of life that he knows. In an interesting twist however, as despite this, he refuses to join the more bloodthirsty Mitra Gang, wanting to go down fighting the way he would want to, in glory, fighting for what he believes is right so naturally, he goes down fighting two gun-wielding men in a bid to protect Elmer and Helen, just as he's always wanted.
- Cultural Translation: The story is non-explicitly but clearly set in Alanguilan's native Philippines, probably Laguna Province where he lives, and entirely written and presented in English. So "Farmer" Ben would almost certainly be Mang Ben (Mr. Ben) instead in the original Filipino context.
- Fantastic Racism: Between the humans and the chickens. It's best seen with Jake, who explicitly hates humans with a fiery passion before Character Development kicked in.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Jake towards his little sister May's fiance after he finds out that her husband to be was actually a human.
- Supporting Protagonist: Arguably Jake, as the bulk of the narrative focuses itself not on him, but on his father, Elmer's experiences from the time the chickens first gained sentience.
- Talking Animal: The chickens of course. Unlike most examples of this trope however, they don't immediately start off as such when they first "awakened" and gained awareness as they had to learn the humans' language first like infants before they could fully communicate outright.
