I’m trying to imagine how I would react if a crazy looking guy in a coon-skin cap with a hummus-smeared beard looked me in the eye and told me that bears had declared all-out war on mankind. The guy seems to know his bears. I’d probably go sit on a stump and go into a thousand yard stare.
Man alive, life is crazy. My life anyway. It’s all good stuff, but also overwhelming. I have a lot on my plate. I am considering doing an intermission with Bearmagageddon here at the Act Break. It would be a good spot to take a breather for the colorists and give me a chance to catch up as well. Some of the upcoming pages are double-work and I’d like to give the color guys extra time to get them done, plus I am behind on all three comics I am working on right now, including this one. Hopefully only for a month or so. I figure TV shows come in seasons, why can’t this web comic? I need to think on it, but it would help a lot. If we do it, I will break at page 66.
Thanks for keeping up on the comic so far. After the Act Break we’ll be seeing some bearicatures pop up. I will probably be able to start opening up sales on them soon too. Maybe. I’m excited to move into Act Two here, where the real fun begins. Yes, Bearmageddon has only begun. See you Friday.
By the way, as I mentioned before, check out the Manga Studio Webinar I will be doing next week and be sure to come see me at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle at the end of this month!
Ethan
I am so happy that Dickinson knows what quail vomit tastes like. If I’m ever lost in the woods with a bag of pita chips, I’ll know what to look for!
And yeah, you probably deserve a break. I’m sure we’ll all still be here when you get back.
The circumstances behind getting lost in the woods with only pita chips would make a good story. Kinda like The Hangover, but involving a Medeterranian restaurant.
+1
Thank YOU sir! for this amazing comic.
A break huh? I can already feel the withdrawal syndrome coming on…
As do I…
While I’ll be extremely sad during that month-long hiatus that I’m not getting my Bearmageddon fix, I certainly won’t hold it against you. You guys have been doing quality work, and if a break is what you need to maintain that level, it’ll be worth the wait.
So long as you make a solemn vow to return, break all you like. Nothing like some time off to recharge the old creative battery … not as though you’ll really be taking the time off though.
Must say, so far … most riveting new comic around! Let’s all hope that this book gets picked up and it sells a kajillion.
I agree with everyone else so far. If people can wait 7 months for a new season of Walking Dead, I think we can allow you some time off to catch up with life! We’ll even keep coming by to get those page views going to get you some revenue.
That is true; I will even set bearmageddon.com as my home page!
After season 2, I think I can wait until October! But season 3 had better be awesome.
After the first half of season 2 I couldn’t keep watching the series. Ugh.
Looking forward to more Bearmageddon after the upcoming break!
Don’t worry about your break. I’ll just be sitting here in the corner, rocking back and forth while softly singing to myself and sucking my thumb. (Darn autocorrect!) I mean, sure. Take a break!
That last panel is pretty intimidating, and yet . . . somehow . . . comforting.
Kudos to whoever did the background; I can almost hear the scratchy whine of stings crescendo as the startling truth is revealed!
Now I just need to figure out how Killdeer knows that -every- bear on the planet is in on this. Perhaps he is able to fly . . .
Anyway, Ethan, you and your team deserve a break. The work which has been presented to us thus far has been impeccable, and I can imagine that it is quite a burden to maintain this quality week in and week out. In fact, if I were you, I would pause right now, and let the suspense of Dickinson’s revelation build for a month or so. (Unless, of course, something even more suspenseful is going to happen on page 66!)
A break! Awwww….well, do what ya gotta do.
What’s your third comic besides Axe Cop and Bearmageddon?
You need to find some like minded individual from Russia to write a companion piece if bearmageddon really is world wide. Russia’s gotta be screwed, too.
I think he has two Axe Cop projects that he’s working on right now. He’s got the one that he’s updating weekly online and another book that we haven’t seen yet.
yeah exactly, I am working on TWO Axe Cop series as well as Bearmageddon.
Cool!
He sure has a lot of teeth. And they all seem to be fronts and canines.
Dickenson Killdeer IS Dr. Medved!
(or maybe his son?)
Yes yes YES! Now that is a crazy powerful last panel! I really felt the change in the story and got a little shiver up my spine while reading it. Good work man!
Also, it was fun seeing you and your girlfriend this weekend at WonderCon. If you need to take a break then do it. I know I will be patiently waiting for the next part. 🙂
Bearmageddon has only just begun… Waiting patiently for mutant bears!
Also, you totally deserve the break. If you feel like it, then I am sure that every Bearmageddoner will accept your choice.
Honestly, with the amount of work you currently do, you should be able to take a break between comic “seasons”
The guys from Penny-arcade and PvP just came back from their “season break” on their collaboration comic, The Trenches
that wham line! Now I’m even more excited about this comic!
but will we see panda bears killing people now?
that’s what i’m hoping for, a montage page (or parallel story lines) showing the global implacations
I say go for a break if you need it. As was already mentioned, The Trenches went on a “between seasons” break, and that was fine. I think there are a few reasons it worked so smoothly. For one thing, they still had an update on every regular update day, but it was just some light filler stuff: concept art, splash-y wallpapers, etc. And they ended their break exactly when they said they would.
Honestly, I’m always a bigger fan of concrete, planned hiatuses over unplanned, sporadic breaks. With the former, if its held to, then it’s easy to trust that the comic hasn’t really been interrupted. With the later, the more an update schedule falls apart, the more it feels like the comic is dying before its time (which I think we’ve all seen to often).
Anyhow, that’s my two cents.
Oh, and since this is my first time posting, I suppose I should mention that, of course, I’m way digging this awesome comic.
With approximately 200,000 bears in the world ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_bear ) and a bear eating about 35lb per day ( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_pounds_of_food_can_the_black_bear_eat_daily ), which I’m going to average out at 1 person every 2 days, and being active for 6 months of the year, which gives 90 people per bear per year, it would take between 300 and 400 years for every damn bear to eat every damn human on the planet.
Also, awesome comic.
this assumes they had not been multiplying in secret of course.
Multiplying isn’t that scary. If the bears had been learning calculus and topology in secret: then I’d be scared!
My girlfriend decided independently, before reading Bearmageddon, that she was very afraid of bears. So obviously she’s now reading it too.
Or learned the secrets of refrigeration.
Is it a rule that they have to eat them?
I think there are more motivations than hunger going on here. So I would expect more than one kill every two days. But you are right, the bears have a lot of work to do. Perhaps it is force multiplication they are going for.
He only said they want to kill all humans, not eat them. I’d wager a bear in a populated area could kill a fair number of people in a day.
I’m against seasons in TV too. But a break doesn’t make the comic “seasonal”, and I don’t mind a webcomic taking one. Thanks for the heads up that you might!
I love bears… polar bears that use chunks of ice as projectile weapons, clever devils like the Mud Creek bear (look it up), what’s not to like?
This shit just got ursine…
I’m totally cool with the comic taking a break for awhile. I wouldn’t want demand to undermine the quality of the comic. Plus, I figure you’re awesome and even awesome needs a breather.
Dare I ask why Killdeer was eating that stuff to begin with? I agree though, Humus is an acquired taste. It’s not bad actually.
That last panel is awesome.
Ugh god, hummus.. of all the legumes in the world.. no matter how long you cook the garbanzo, it never softens.. it’s like a damn peanut.. you have to grind it into a paste to eat it, and then it has all the greasiness of peanutbutter but none of the rich roasted heartiness..
Dickensen has a Bear sense. He knows what all bears around the world are doing ALL THE TIME>
We’re conveniently reading some Shakespeare in my literature class, so I think I might just have to say something about the Mantagues and the Bearpulets.
Killdeer reminds me a bit like axe cop. With that brutal random personality. Except axe cop is more laid back when he is fighting. Thanls ethan for both of you comics, they are funny and have great art, they are by far
My favorite of about 20 that I read.
I’m currently working on the assumption that all of Ethan’s comics are set in the same universe and Dickie is some long-lost cousin or decedent of Axe Cop
Oh, and enjoy your break!
come on mutant bears!!!!
I… don’t know how i’d react to a statement like that.
On the other hand, i probably wouldn’t have survived up to this point.
Oh, and if you need a break, go for it! We can take a break (or have you considered just one page a week?), we’ll still be here when you start up again.
How do you make a quail vomit?
I think you have to be careful with breaks. Yes, you deserve a break and a well timed break, that helps you catch up and eases your burden is a good thing…but I have read a few web comics that go a break and never come back…or worse come back and then go on break again…because it was easy to just let and not get the work going again. I think if you are taking a month break and still working on the project in some ways then it will be a good break.
Sooo… I think he’s a failed experiment.
A human-dominant bear hybrid! So whatever is affecting the bears is affecting him too and that’s how he KNOWS!
hmm, would you be open to some sort of Bearmegeddon fan comic releases to fill the gaps?
I want to see someone make a comic of polar bears attacking an arctic research base!
totally!
maybe like… a sidestory with other characters going through similar things? Kind of like an EU of Bearmageddon (obviously not canon though, unless approved of)
Another vote to “allow” you to take a break. Your truest fans understand that the better rested, relaxed and unstressed you are, the better your output is going to be. People who yell and scream about how their favorite FREE comics don’t update frequently enough… well, they should find something more important to get angry about (not that this is happening here, of course, but we all know places where it has).
Quail vomit, huh? Clearly a graduate of the Bear Grylls school of wilderness survival.
I’m afraid I’m not feeling the bear-fear yet: as mentioned earlier on this thread, the bears are badly outnumbered and we have all the guns. Where are the cyborg bears and octo-bears and vampire bears your header picture promised us? At least give us some bears reproducing by binary fission, darn it!
But I shall await further developments before I go all Comic Book Store Guy.
Stumbled upon this, sorry that it’s a meme, but it’s just too fitting for this comic:
http://9gag.com/gag/3506685
Its 11:00, do you know where your Bearmageddon is?
I was wondering also…
Sorry! Failed big time. Left home and forgt to post ahead of time. When I get back I will post it. Around 1:00 pm pacific time.
You’re building the anticipation!
I really like bears, but these poor creatures don’t stand a chance…
Since the mutants could stay hidden so far, obviously only a minority has non human limbs or the brain power to build enough weapons of mass destruction to back “wipe out humanity” plans up, and I wish them good luck achieving that goal with raw physical strength alone, we already wiped out far more intimidating creatures long before we even had gunpowder.
On a side note, I have heard about Tigers hunting and eating bears, but never the other way around.