I’ve been pretty eager to get to this page. It’s one of my favorites.
I don’t want to comment on the story much here, I just want you to enjoy it as it plays out, so instead I will shared some more of the commissions I did for people. I have been getting Facebook posts and tweets letting me know that people are getting their commissions in the mail now, so if you ordered one it’s coming! There is always that part of me that wonders, when I leave that stack of 97 drawings with the strange man at the Post Office counter, if they will suddenly go missing for some weird reason.
Here are a couple of commissions posted by fans on their Flickr accounts. Two pretty awesome mash ups. First, Axe Calvin and Dinosaur Hobbes. Then there’s Axe Cop VS. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
Here is a picture of Gogs in a Praying Mantis fighting stance:
And here are some of the Artist’s Choice drawings I did. These ones people totally left up to me, so I just had fun with them and usually came up with something on the spot.
Death from Chumble Spuzz book 2!
skull monkey sparkle demon
My personal favorite.
So that’s 9 of the 97. See you next week, when we find out what you do when a bear is about to kill you and you are chained to a tree.
Ethan
I take back my earlier comment about wanting Andrea to get eaten. She seems less annoying than she did before. But, I do think the hipster sitting on the other side of her is going to get it next!
Fear makes many annoying people docile… I still wish for her to get eaten, but I guess she won’t so soon.
At this point, it would still be pretty funny if she got picked off by a bear. Like you’re expecting her to be a love interest for Joel and she turns out to be a random casualty.
but we all know thas just cause you wanna smash
Nice. That has got to suuuck. So is this updating 3 times a week now?
I’d Love it if this updated more often but somehow I doubt it.
I’d love it too but right now there isno way that will happen.
I thought the bear was gone! I’m actually more scared of bears now.
Um, Andrea, when Joel says don’t look, it definitely means you don’t want to look. I think another one is on the way…..
If I may make a request – if the Bear does suck that up Lady and the Tramp style, could you please make the onomatopeia “schlup!” I have no idea why this is so, but when I read the alt-text, my memory conjured up an homage to William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch.
“Poor Bobo came to a sticky end – he was riding in the Duke Devanche’s Hispano Suissa when his falling hemorrhoids blew out of the car and wrapped around the rear wheel. He was completely gutted leaving an empty shell sitting there on the giraffe skin upholstry. Even the eyes and the brain went with a horrible “shlupping” sound. The Duke says he would carry that ghastly “shlup” with him to his mausoleum.” – Naked Lunch
Ha! Naked Lunch reference. Well played.
I just found of Bearmageddon today. It was a pleasure reading through the entire archive!
I crave more pages like mutant bears crave intestines.
Welcome!
I could swear that in the last panel, all that was left of the guy was legs and a spinal cord, while in this one, his torso is still there. Can someone explain?
Let’s see you draw two different angles of a headless, disemboweled corpse!
i never talked about angles and stuff. What i wondered is why he got his entire body back. I mean compare them you’ll see!!
Yeah, it does look like his left shoulder is completely gone and the ribcage is exposed on the last page. But, at least we get the point. Dude got ATE!!!
Yeah I didn’t pull off the angles well. The basic idea remains though… He died.
i never talked about angles and stuff. What i wondered is why he got his entire body back. I mean compare them you’ll see!!!
What do you do…? Well, you hope the hippie was stoned in sufficient concentration with something that the bear that ate him will just stumble past you with a dumb “peace, man…” look. Obviously.
He then proceeds to use the dead hippie’s corpse as a bong, because ya know like “Waste not, man!”
I was thinking the same thing. The bear might be to stoned to do anything.
*reads alt text*
CALLED IT.
Ohhh….the bear only ate that guy because he just got there and that’s all he’s had time for. Question from last comments page answered.
Those commissions are fantastic! Definitely getting one next year!
I just got my commission, its the sophisticated monkey. So much awesomeness. I kind of wish I wasn’t giving it to my brother for Christmas. Thanks Ethan!
It is SO ON now!! The full Bearmageddocalpyse is upon us!
What a Bearmageddocalpysastrophe!
So, what are the asterisks in Andrea’s speech bubble in Panel 3 supposed to represent? Surely, given the amount of uncensored profanity on previous pages it can’t be for that reason. Is there some phonetic meaning to them I’m just not getting?
I think it’s meant to be sort of a gagging thing, like when you dry heave before puking.
Yeah I was trying to imply gasping… like she ran out of air she was so shocked.
I would have just used dash marks.
Like, ‘HUUUUHH—-‘
PUNCH THAT BEAR! PUNCH HIM DEAD!
I feel the one-punch kill coming. If it isn’t here, then it will get saved for the final showdown. The only problem I see with the final showdown is that Teddy has a relatively exposed brain, making the one-punch far less impressive.
Gogs will have his day.
So, I JUST realized that I’ve been missing all of the alt text. Time to reread the entire comic!
Joel is remarkably calm about the disemboweled hippie four feet away, until be actually spots the bear he still seems to be trying to get with Andrea
I was trying to make his expression start in disbelief and escalate into utter terror by the last panel. I guess it’s debatable if I pulled it off.
Wait, was the skullmonkey sparkle demon supposed to actually be the sparky demon monkeys from the game “skullmonkeys”? It’d make sense….
Anyhow, this is my favorite page yet, everything looks ace! The people, the guts, the terrifying bear!
It was totally random, in reference to nothing… but I spend a lot of time around Doug, the creator of Skullmonkeys, so maybe it rubbed off on me.
Ah, yeah I knew you were good friends with Doug, that’s why I was wondering.
The bear needs to floss, got a little bit of something stuck in his teeth.
Great job on the commissions, Ethan!
I was very impressed with the artist’s choice ones,
I assumed you’d just try to do something simple for those,
but it looks like you really went out of the way to make some great stuff.
I love how droopy the dogs face looks!
I might consider getting one next time if I have the money for it by then.
Keep up the good work,
-Benjamin
thanks!
I love that Calvin and Hobbes Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier picture.
As for the comic–That bear is merely an artist. A graphic artist. A very very graphic artist and no one seems to appreciate his work.
Well you’ve succeeded in making me feel sorry for hippies.
I’m quite curious to see how they all get out of us… or maybe there is just one page left.
GoodGOD man! NATURE BITES THE HAND THAT CHAINS ITSELF TO A TREE IN A SELF-RIGHTEOUS ATTEMPT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT USING IT’S IPOD!
How do we find the monster? Just follow the small intestine…
FUN FACT! Goes the length of a bus!
I noticed everyone (or almost) has a bear as their gravatar so I am an octopus
And by the way I love how the art really is getting better fast, as an artist myself I congratulate you, are you getting much faster also?
Most of those are the defaults that Ethan chose. I didn’t set my avatar to anything.
I chose a bear simply because this is the only place I use a gravatar.
also, where better to have a mutant bear then here XD
I chose mine.
I FK’N LOVE BEARS.
Yeah if you don’t set an avatar it gives you a random bear avatar. Also, one reason the art got better faster is because around this point in the art was when I started working on the pages again after working on Axe Cop for a year and a half.
The looks on Joel’s face remind me a lot of Ichabod Crane from that Disney cartoon.
Dude! That Gogs sketch is fantastic. Can’t wait for it to arrive. 🙂
And the bear’s still around… I wonder who’ll get devoured next.
I did two, but I think that one probably is yours. Glad you like!
Yo ethan you spelled intestinal wrong. You spelled it intesitnal. Just trying to help! =P
What no I didn’t see?
I love that cute little thing with bat wings. Next year, I’m buying “artist’s choice” and hope I get something even half as awesome. I hope you’ll be using walnut ink again.
I love this page, the best way to view is to scroll up from the bottom. “Organs…organs…bush…bush. BEAR”
Man, this comic is getting better and better. I LOVE the art style!
Also, Ethan, you might consider an additional comma in the final panel for Andrea’s line, between “this” and “Joel” for clarity sake, if the grammar part is a priority. 🙂
grammar becomes less of a priority once the page is done and posted and I have moved on in life, but I’ll try to be careful next time.
Oh, man. This just got 10x more intense!
The funny thing is, I saw this coming from the last page.
Those guts are leading somewhere.
Prediction: We are going to see the Grizzly Adams character sometime this week jump out of the woods and fight the bear. Meanwhile, Nigel craps his pants and recovers the key!
Man I need page 38!!!
Wow, I always come along late to things but I’ve just found my way over to Bearmageddon via a bunch of complicated google searches. I’m very glad I did, the last web comic I cared this much about was Freakangels. There’s a hole in my web-life that has needed something in it. I’m more than willing to let gratuitous violence, bears and Hippy Clunge fill that hole. (Yes I said clunge, deal with it, it’s out there…)
Anywho, Hi! This is awesome, I’m really looking forward to how this’ll play out
Also Ethan, I thought you might want to know that I’m citing you as a reference in my doctoral thesis. That’s surely a first for you!
haha welcome! I know that Axe Cop has been used on college papers before but not sure if any of them were doctoral! I hope it’s good.
why is everyone saying these are mutant bears?
they look like normal bears to me
their just excited.
I think the mutants are coming a bit later. What I want to know is where are all of these bears coming from and why are they so aggressive towards humans?
WELL IF YOU WOULD GIVE ETHAN TIME HE WOULD EXPLAIN IT TO YOU
I just went back to Page 3. Dr Medved developed a chemical that enhances bear reproduction. That explains why there are so many bears.
I made a nascent TV Tropes page:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Bearmageddon
nice!!
Looks like George Lucas is about to get his face ripped off