Happy Friday! I am not actually home right now and I almost forgot to post this, so it is a little late and I don’t think I have my usual energy for an extensive blog post this evening. But I did want to make sure to mention, again, THANKS to everyone who has donated. You guys are amazingly generous. Also, we have had issues with the donation doohickey not actually sending people the email with the wallpaper link. So, I have actually been going in and manually sending it to anyone who donated. If you donated and never received that wallpaper I promised you, send me an email letting me know and I will make sure you get it.
Also, Small Press Big Mouth reviewed Bearmageddon on their podcast yesterday and it was really awesome. Thanks so much for the great review. All promotion is greatly appreciated!
Other than that, we are in a moment here with Joel and his little brother that is important to me because I was the oldest and I have three younger brothers who I love dearly and Louis embodies them all in a way. I will write on that more on Wednesday because it’s a topic close to my heart. I am pretty whiped out because I sat with the sun blaring in myface today and now I look like a grumpy tomato with a beard. So I’ll see you back here on Wednesday. Thanks for reading, and have an awesome weekend.
Ethan
Bearmageddon is really well written. The plot is shaping up to be great, the characters are so real, and this last episode really packed an emotional punch. Great job.
Very true. It is building the tension at a really good pace. It will only make the emotional impact even deeper once the action kicks in.
Thanks both of you. Very encouraging to read these comments.
No, thank you for writing. And being awesome.
Foreshadowing…
I bet by the time this is all over, that wolf is gonna be replaced with teddy.
Great stuff as always… But the lettering in panel 2 is a bit off. There seems to be an extra space in front of “no” which pushes “big” to the very edge of the balloon.
By the way, is the font “web letterer pro”? I know it’s a Blambot font, but was curious as to which one.
I set this up remotely on gotomypc in a rush. Mactually impressed this was the only mistake.
Yes that’s the font.
I only want to tell you, thank you! This is a really great comic and this page is really heartwarming!
P.S. I have the feeling that Louis’ drawing will become true in the future, but with only the one difference that Joel will be holding an octobear.
Thank you!
Ohh….powerful. Nicely done. Desensitized as I am if we ever see Louis in direct danger that’s gonna get me. Funny how moments like this don’t tip people off to how selfish they’re being.
I actually noticed that Louis looks a bit like Malachai. So I’m guessing that’s somewhat intentional?
how you know what his lil bruh look like breh? hella creepy tho
His little bruh is also a semi-famous comics writer (at age 4) has appeared with him in public at panel discussions. just sayin
Grumpy tomato with a beard sounds like a good idea for a comic . . .
Actually, sounds like something from Veggietales to me…
Attack of the Killer Grumpy Tomatoes.
So let me guess, Joel and his friends go out on a camping trip, but it turns out that they are eaten by the God of All Bears.
Oh, wait . . .
Good one 🙂
Aw, his little brother is cool.
1. He looks like sockarang, which i like.
2. I really enjoy the build up you have, so far the comic has really not let me down. I came into Axe Cop only a few days ago so I was able to get a very heavy dose of that all at once however with Bearmageddon its a gradual buildup that has me coming back every wed/fri to see new episodes.
I can honestly say this is the first comic I’ve ever purposely looked for on its update days. Also your art is immensely entertaining.
Thanks on all accounts! It’s gratifying to know that people are this into it even at this early stage of the story.
As long as he doesn’t come back and eat dad first, that is
DONT GO DOWN THE STREET THEY GOT DIRT
RIGHT JUST DOOR WHERE THE GIRL GOT MURKED
WHEN SHE AINT DO OLD BOY AND GOT HURT
I just wanted to thank you for blogging along with this project. Your posts have been nothing short of inspirational and are really probably the only truly, down-to-earth, nitty-gritty guiding force on my own personal demented journey through Comic Book Land. The fact that you pull no punches, tell it like it is, and honestly get at the root of the fact that it’s all hard work- all of it- really has made you kind of a Jedi Master in my life. (I mean, let’s face it, I was really hoping some of Jhonen Vasquez’s postings would do that for me, but between being disturbing, hilarious, outlandish, and dubiously hating on his fans, he really doesn’t have all that much space for being inspirational.)
Every time you post a new page I get excited because I know that there’s going to be some kind of gold nugget of wisdom down in the writings at the bottom, and you should know that on the days you post up new material, I’m always mysteriously more productive. Go figure.
I wanted you to know that a lot of what you’ve taken the time to say here has changed my life, in positive ways, and I think every person who’s changed the life of someone deserves to know it. Hell, I’d like to think that some of the things I’ve drabbled on about in my time have helped people.
I go on and on about some things you’ve said in a post of mine over at my blog, Fever-Induced Paranoid Ravings. You should also know I called you a meany-pants for making me think honestly and critically about my course in life, and I raved a bit about how awesome Bearmageddon is. If your ears are tingling at the thought of someone talking about you and you have a burning desire to know what I said, lest I’m lying and gave you a scathing review of terrible-osity, here’s the link: http://thetomface.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/bears-nano-and-cyanide-pills/
Keep being awesome!
-Tom
Thanks so much Tom! Yes I read your blog and was very honored. I saw it in the Ping backs for this post. I’m glad that what I write can be of help. When I was in your position, Doug TenNapel was the guy who was writing brutally honest blogs about creating comics and even when it was discouraging I took everything he said to heart. People who share their knowledge and are willing to answer questions have always been a blessing to me and I want to be that blessing to others whenever I can.
O_o … now it makes me wonder even more; Is Joel the false protagonist?
You make a great cartoon and have some great blog posts. Keep em comin’ 😉
thanks 🙂
Wow, Ethan, keep it up. I can’t wait to see some bearviolence, but you’re doing a fantastic job setting up the story!
reading for a few months now, first time poster. I am extremely impressed with not only the quality of art and writing, but the scope that you are putting into this work. It is quite obvious from the pages we have thus far that you intend to wow us with an epic tale, and as such aren’t skimping on the character development.
Last week I said to myself, “Self, that pick of his little brother looks curiously like a potention faded flashback” Seeing how you are further developing the love of the older brother for the younger brother I honestly can’t tell if the younger brother will live, die, or become master of the Octobears gaining their powers.
Looking forward to the many pages of bliss that I’m sure are yet to come!
I’m loving this so far, but I must admit that I am somewhat nervous about what’s to come. After all this great storytelling and character development, I feel like it is going to be a letdown when we get to the inevitable bear-fueled gorefest part of the story.
I know, many are looking forward to that, and I don’t really expect that you will suddenly DROP the character development and good storytelling, I just worry that it will get overpowered, for me anyway, by scenes of bear mayhem.
If that happens, I will really only have myself to blame, of course. I’m not a fan of gory stuff, and yet I still let myself get sucked into reading a comic that OBVIOUSLY is going to have that as a significant part at some point. But darn it, I couldn’t help it, the comic was so good…
I’m sure it will stay good in the character development. It seems clear that Mr. Nicolle knows that if the action and gore does not feature characters we actually care about, it’s just pointless violence. If it was going to simply become page after page of bears eating people, it probably would have started that way. The bear violence will be the “promise of the premise” and will drive the characters to learn something about the world, their friends, themselves, and bears.
So don’t say the comic *was* so good, it *is* so good!
What I mean is, even if, as seems likely, the comic STAYS good, it might still drive me off with gore and graphic mayhem, since that’s not to my taste. I was only pointing out that, IF that happens, I’ll have only myself to blame since I can’t have failed to notice that was LIKELY to happen from the beginning. And I was trying to explain that my choice to read it to this point anyway, in SPITE of that likely event, was really down to the high quality exhibited.