When I set out to write the Bearmageddon story, I did not set out to write a big sci-fi story about bears.  I wanted the bears to be like zombies in the sense that they require little explanation, they are just there to make the story awesome and provide a backdrop for the characters involved to go through hell.  The thing is, with zombies, our culture already had an idea about them, so when you do a zombie story you can often get away with no explanation… and if you do choose to explain, you can usually get by with about two seconds of some exposition about radiation or some government experiment gone awry.  This story introduces a new monster, so I can’t get away with such simplicity in this story, but that doesn’t mean it has to be e=mc².

I just saw Planet of the Apes this weekend and I did really enjoy it, though my main gripe with it is that it took itself so seriously.  This is my main gripe with a lot of recent comic movies.  They take a premise that is silly-fun absurd and then try to be as dead serious realistic and believable as possible.  Think of the premises of certain recent movies that try to be ultra real:  Transformers: alien robots from space turn into awesome cars and trucks.  Planet of the Apes:  Apes take over the human race.  Spider Man:  A teenager gets radioactive spider powers and becomes a super hero that can shoot webs out of his hands (in this case I am speaking of the upcoming Spider Man reboot.  I loved the Raimi version).  These stories are not awesome because they are believable, they are awesome because they are unbelievable.

Axe Cop really taught me that this genre, and by this genre I mean anything in the realm of fantasy, sci-fi and comic books, is about fun.  That’s why I am setting out to tell a story that is more fun than believable, more outlandish than it is water-tight in its logic, and rather than going for ultra-reality, I am aiming for the ultra unreal.

So that’s my approach to the bear explanation, which today’s page begins to tell.  The premise of the bears is fun, ridiculous, and it’s as dumb as the premise: bears take over the world.  It’s got lots of similarities to other campy animal apocalypse movies like Planet of the Apes and Man’s Best Friend (a hilarious film).  I am not going to make the explanation any less insane than the premise itself.

I want to thank everyone who has shared links to Bearmageddon with their friends.  We had a good first week and the comments section has been incredibly uplifting.  Another page will go up Friday morning.  See you then!

Ethan

Support this content on Patreon
Become a patron at Patreon!