So I bought this book called Alaska Bear Tales and put it next to my toilet so that whenever I take time to sit and contemplate I can brush up on bear knowledge. I had already written Bearmageddon before I started to read it, but reading it had an effect on how tough I needed to make the bears as I reexamined my script. I knew bears were crazy, but I didn’t realize just how much they have been known to shrug off injuries when they are in kill mode. There are multiple stories of bears who went on killing and mauling after a hunter unloaded on them with a rifle. In some cases, if the bear died, upon examination the bear’s heart had been blown to bits but it had kept fighting for 15-20 minutes. I always thought taking a bears’ eyes out when it is attacking you would scare it off, but I read about a guy who managed to stab out a bear’s eyes with his pocket knife as it was mauling him and it didn’t even react. Of course you would assume if you have a gun you are safe, but there is story after story about a person getting a couple shots off only to have the bear bite the gun and break it or bend it. This is of course not the case with every bear, but these things have been reported, so my bears have to be at least as murderous.
On another topic, Dickinson Killdeer is a character near and dear to my heart. I actually owe his creation to my dear friend and ex-rock-mate Anthony Munoz. Back when we were in our band we were on a desolate “tour” through middle America. We were driving in North Dakota to play a small show in Bowman and we kept noticing all the cool hunter sounding names of all the small towns. At one point, a sign passed us showing an upcoming highway sign that read “Hwy 22 Dickinson Killdeer”. Anthony said “Dickinson Killdeer sounds like the name of some bad ass hunter”. It was one of those moments where something sparked in my head and a character started to form. We started this inside joke where, in our boredom on the road, one of us would talk in an old 50’s announcer voice and narrate the story of Dickinson Killdeer. Something like “Dickinson Killdeer started off a man like any other, but when he became a man of the mountains he had to learn to strangle a bear…” then everyone would sing “Dickinson Killdeer!” in an old west sort of melody similar to the theme song of Davy Crockett. It was really stupid, but it cracked us up and as we drove for hours I kept getting images of this insane Davy Crockett character who is like Tarzan of the forest. He has total command of nature. If he were in a movie I would tell scientists to make a Nolte/Norris hybrid to play him.
The idea to make a Dickinson Killdeer comic came soon after. At first I wanted to do short “Mark Trail” style comic strips, but more insane, about Dickinson swinging from snakes, punching hawks out of the sky and taming raccoons and teaching them to carry him long distances as he slept on their backs. Who knows, maybe I will still do that some day.
Anthony used to also talk about how he wanted to write a song about a small town in the mountains where the bears one day just went nuts and started killing everyone. The government decided that they just had to decimate the entire town and wipe out every witness, because they feared if the general public knew that the bears were capable of such horror, mass panic would grip the nation. This was another idea I thought was awesome.
Both ideas swirled in my head and the idea for a similar story but with bears actually attacking a whole city developed in my brain, with Dickinson being mankind’s only hope. As I wrote it, however, it became abundantly clear that none of the outlines I came up with using Dickinson as the main character worked right. I decided to make him get stuck with a group of tree huggers, but I made the tree huggers side characters. Still didn’t work. From there I tried lots of other ideas. I eventually came to the idea you are now reading.
So, long story short, Bearmageddon would not exist without the influence of Anthony Munoz, and if it ever makes me a boatload of money I’m sure he’ll be reminding me of that, as he should. In such an instance I will gladly buy him something nice, like a tuxedo, or a pet tiger.
That’s the story of where Dicksinson Killdeer came from. And also, the first paragraph is about why the bear in this page gets hit in the face with an axe and just keeps roaring. Also, bears often stand when they are preparing to attack (I got that from the Edge, I don’t even know if that’s true) so that is why the bear stands, and DK smacks him to bring him back down to his level.
Alright, happy weekend!
Ethan
Man vs. Beast! Die Pukeface!
I’m starting to think that there isn’t any problem in the world that can’t be solved with an axe.
Every page still getting better. That last panel may become my new desktop back ground.
Also, “taming raccoons and teaching them to carry him long distances as he slept on their backs” is one of the best things I’ve ever heard, and may be my commission request next year.
look at gogs in the last panel 😀
Andrea gets bear blood on her and becomes Beardrea!
Aw, you beat me to it.
Oh man, that joke is going to get so old by the end of this comic 😀
it never will! shun the none believer!!
Shun! : )
I’m suprised he’s not weighed down by his massive stones.
That’s how he got so strong, carrying them around everywhere.
Nolte + Norris = Peter Stormare!
So without Lunaractive, we would never have Bearmageddon? I love that band even more now. (And am hoping Andrea starts going badass so I can cosplay her…even if not a single soul will know who the crap I am.)
Your picture is SO familiar.. And that’s a great cosplay idea 🙂
If I were Anthony Munoz, I would hold out for something awesomer. Like a tiger WEARING a tuxedo.
Yes, that would be something.
Dude. I read that book when I was six and growing up in Anchorage. And I read its sequel, MORE ALASKA BEAR TALES, when I was eight or nine. I never wanted to go into the woods, ever. Which is a problem when you are growing up in a place like Alaska. 😀
nice. I have the sequel as well.
I had a similar thing. I read Babar the Elephant and for years was afraid of eating mushrooms. Now I just keep away from ones that look like they could kill an elephant king.
Not sure if bears stand when they’re about to attack, but I’m pretty much certain that they stand to appear more threatening. Also, I watched The Edge only a few days ago so that’s a funny coincidence. 😀
RARRHH!
That’s really all I can say to this.
To which I can only reply:
RAAAAAH!
Ummm, I really don’t want to be the fly in the ointment, but are these some sort of giant-super-bears (other than being mutant… yeah, who am I kiddin’…)? Just for the heck of it, I tried looking up bears. Turns out, they’re positively scary but not all that large. Polar ones? Length 1.8–2.4m, shoulder height 1.3–1.60 m. Grizzlies? 1.98m long, average shoulder height 1.02m. As opposed to these here, which are absolutely, positively, definitely frickin’ humongous. Did they follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole or something…? I mean, the least would be to change their tag from “normal bear” to “common BLOODY GIANT bear”… 😛
Grizzly bears can get up to 10 ft (3 m) tall. I’ve seen (taxidermied) ones at 9.5 feet (2.9 m).
The Wikipedia article on grizzly bear has the same number you quoted, with an average weight between 180-360 kg, but goes on to say (citing the Guiness Book of Animal Facts and Feats) “On the other hand, an occasional huge male grizzly has been recorded which greatly exceeds ordinary size, with weights reported up to 680 kilograms”.
Looking up some info about those large grizzlies I found
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-grizzlybear5.htm
which is a page analysing whether an urban legend about some giant grizzlies shot in Alaska had any truth. The answer was yes, but the parts and photos about the bear being man-eating were made up and faked.
“In real life, the big grizzly in the first two photographs measured 10′ 6″ from nose to tail and weighed an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 pounds – unusually large for the vicinity in which it was found, says the USDA Forest Service, but not quite a world record, nor even a record for Alaska.”
Another quote from the article is relevant here, “The first bullet pierced the bear’s brain but left it standing; five more in the chest brought it down.”
Keep in mind these are also MAD SCIENCE bears
anything smaller would be simply too easy for DK
Grizzlies? You mean those cute little things that they turned into stuffed animals?
Of course, they outweigh the average human by a thousand pounds, have teeth and claws as big as your fingers, can smell in three dimensions for a ten mile radius, and have bones nearly as strong as steel covered in muscle strong enough to tear open locked steel containers.
But then, they are totally harmless compared to their Alaskan cousins, the Kodiaks. Which can grow to be the size of minivans, and are like grizzlies wrapped in a tank.
I think Gogs is in love…
So can Dickinson Killdeer actually speak–or does he just roar like a badass?
too often people forget to use intimidation against bears.. for as mighty as they are, bears never seem to KNOW how awesome they are.. and will often back down when they would’ve EASILY won.. if you yell at ’em properly.
Not really willing to try that one out personally.
i don’t think anyone would go looking to try it out. however, should the opportunity arise, its good to know.
and by opportunity, i mean “holy crap!! i just ran into a bear”-portunity.
yea let us know how that turns out for you (if the opportunity arises)
Bears are scared of humans, like most animals. And for good reason. That’s why we can intimidate them.
I was camping with a few friends in new mexico, and we had to chase a black bear out of camp
I live in Alaska. and my dad is a giant axe lumberjack who look suspiciously like a Certain Killdeer I know. Coincidence?
That bear’s day is not going well….
first vomit, now major lacerations and a probable skull fracture
And who knows what else, when Dickinson’s done yelling at it.
I grew up in North Dakota. Loving the homage paid to some of my hometowns! And loving the comic!!
Wednesday cannot come soon enough . . .
I really hope, as unlikely as it is, that at some point DK gets overwhelmed and has to enlist the help of his buddy General Woodchuck.
I seriously… SERIOUSLY think this needs to be a movie. I’d go see it. More than once. Axe Cop movie: awesome, probably wouldn’t work. Bearmageddon movie: Awesome, really good movie.
I’m sure someone has already said this … but I just realized this must be both Dwight Schrute’s and Stephen Colbert’s favorite comic.
dickinson steals joels love interest? (at least she falls for him?)
but dickinson dont need no woman
Did I miss it before, or did you add in the “Ew!” from Andrea a bit after first posting this page?
was always there. Your brain must load slowly 🙂
Blood soaked fur is a nice touch.
I’ve been gone since the last 4 pages. Oh man, things are getting really interesting.
So … whats the yellow stuff on the snout? Pollen?
barf…read the last 2-3 comics it will explain
Next, he should just go all Beowulf and pull their arms off with his *sigh* bare hands.
Does this remind anyone else of Skyrim?
Dickinson Killdeer is what you get when Axe Cop multi-classes as a ranger.
[/nerd]
Is it Wednesday yet?
No?
Rats.
Really just checking my new gravatar
Didn’t work. Double rats.
what does suck is that where is live (New Zealand-no known bear species present) IT IS WEDNESDAY but still no comic, bloody international dateline
Yeah, but you get to live in New Zealand. Go All Blacks!
A CHALLENGER APPEARS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_fukbvU