Here is a nice all-bear page. Nice and tense. Hopefully you feel the Jurassic Parky-ness of it all. I studied Jurassic Park and Spielberg’s War of the Worlds for my monster action scenes. I am not afraid to admit that. Hard to accomplish the same kind of pacing in a comic without making it last pages and pages, but I didn’t want to make you guys suffer that long.
My Axe Cop pieces are still up for grabs in the Auctions. They close this evening at 6pm pacific time.
My hand is about to fall off from drawing one of the most insane pages so far in this book. I only made it through the first third of it and I worked on it all day today. The Bearmo Color Team is going to hate me for this one.
Thanks for reading, and for sharing Bearmageddon with your friends! I have been seeing a lot of sharing online lately. Oh yes, I do notice.
Ethan
Haha, I love the bear in the third panel!
I bet they escaped the van before the bears got there.
Isn’t that Joel’s hair at the bottom-left corner of the second panel? I assumed they were crouching out of sight.
I think that might just be shading on the side of the seat.
Haha panel three bear truly is awesome. That intense stare down. Is it wrong to start rooting for them? At least until they kill Nigel.
I assumed we were supposed to be rooting for the bears. They’re the protagonists…right?
Yeah, he’s all “Peeka-a-boo”
No… he’s all “Peek-a-BEAR”.
I don’t know why, but I get the sense that the van-toppling was very deliberate on the part of the bear. The look on his face in the third panel just says to me “You think I don’t know how to deal with you? Let’s see you drive away after I do THIS!”.
The ominous look of the bear in the 2nd panel is a bit frightening. Fantastic job.
The bear standing up in the final panel looks really rather please with himself!
The bears face in the third panel looks strangely human-like….hmm.
Second panel I mean.
Oh man. Until you just mentioned Spielberg I hadn’t even considered the concept of a Bearmageddon feature film. How awesome would that be.
Could only be made better by a score by John Williams or Hans Zimmer.
amen to both!
If you make this happen, I will devote my life to worshipping you and bears.
He did manage to get Maurice LaMarche to voice Avocado Soldier, so I have high hopes this can happen.
That bear looking in the window looks deranged! I think its time for some bear-splosions to happen! Yeah!
Panel 2 bear seems like the serious one while Panel 3 bear is confused about the concept of windows.
Also, I’m lovin’ the term bearmo. I almost want to start referring to fans as bearmo fans or maybe just bearmos.
I believe that in the past, the almighty Ethan hath bestowed upon us the moniker “bearmofos.”
yes, Bearmo. Bearmofo. These are official terms.
They should have tipped it over the other way so the bears could reach through the driver’s side window and rid us of Nigel.
Yay! Oh wait, that didn’t happen. Oh well! 🙁
Look at the tags.
Thanks, I didn’t notice those at first. Glad you pointed them out, they made me chuckle.
The level of detail on the bear faces and their drawings over all is fantastic. I like this page, but it always makes me scream, “I want another page!!!!”
well thanks!
Please make some bears explode? That would make this web-comic even AWESOMER!!!
Gotta hand it to you, Mr. Nicolle– You put out some might fine web-based FREE entertainment! I’ve really been digging this series. The attention to details and panel angles are all so nicely done and the blood & guts are all handled so nice and HUMOROUSLY! A horror-comedy of the highest caliber. Not to mention, yes– you’ve achieved a Spielbergian comparison today. Good work, sir! Love it!
Now get me some exploding bears!
thanks so much!
I wonder, with “Highly Combustible” so in focus on that last panel, if that warning label will have any significance on the action to come next week ….
maybe…
What’s with the flock of birds in the first panel? Are they vultures sensing an oncoming feast?
I’m crossing my fingers that those are bear-o-dactyls (my name for the bat-winged bear mutant in the title pic).
good job that’s what I call them too 🙂
Panels 6, 7 and 8: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/ptero. But you surely knew that already.
Sweet. I was actually trying to remember if you’d ever given them a name, but just went with my name for them since I couldn’t. Now I feel much more justified calling them that, because it just sounds so awesome.
Awe man, I didn’t even think of that! Of course, for some reason, I have always suspected that the mutant bears would not appear until our bumbling troop of misguided souls staggered back into civilization. However, given the recent turn of events, it appears less and less likely that this will ever occur!
Hmm… That is true. It would be far more dramatic if we just see bears for a while and then we have a dramatic reveal of mutant bears (that one from the beginning doesn’t really count because it was dead, so not that scary). If Ethan continues his trend of watching action-movies and Jurassic Park, we’ll probably see the first (live) mutant bear when it surprise attacks the group and eats someone.
Its Friday and I’m about to enter the Beermageddon if ya know what I mean! Hyuck Hyuck!
fml
I felt the Jurassic Park in this one. In fact, it was my very first thought. Great job!
On this note, I hope they end up hanging off a cliff. Of course if you were going to do that, you would have had that in the last panel: you know, cliff-hanger and all.
*bah-dum-tish*
The range of expression you have managed to pull off with these bears has shifted my vote to making this an all bear comic.
hah yeah this is the first time I sort of made the bears “act”
That bear in the third panel will haunt my dreams tonight. I am going to have to keep my blinds closed.
The blinds won’t do anything. The bears can see you through them. Not even the mighty and infamous blanket-wrapped-around-body shield will save you.
Oh goodness it’s true!
I think someone’s about to get their wish!
The best way to get to the food when it is in a metal container is to bash open the container–which is clearly what that bear is doing. Also, that third panel with the bear staring through the window is priceless–I love the expression on his face.
All the great free entertainment has helped motivate me to add to my Axe Cop paraphernalia – going to pick up the two trade paperbacks on my way home (they had to order them! Keep Axe Cop in stock, or he’ll chop your head off!) to add to some t-shirts and a poster.
so, it works!
Panel 3 is dangerously close to being cute and adorable.
CAN’T… UNSEE… CUTENESS!
In previous bear scenes, the bears have largely come across with a largely “movie monster” feel to them. Yes, they are bears, but they *feel* like monsters, just as the dinosaurs often come across in the Jurassic Park films when they are attacking the human characters. This page is different, however.
On this page, the bears don’t feel like monsters; they feel like real bears. It brings their collective character back down to a real world feel, like the scene in JP when Hammond first introduces his guests to the dinosaurs or the one where we see the T. rex hunt Gallimimus, and it makes them that much scarier. Great job!
Bear thinks: “Damn hippies, stinkin’ up my forest!”
Push it TOO THE GROUND.
They are going to blow uup!!
This is awesome Ethan. I have been following Axe Cop for a long time and this is a comic that I’ll be sure to follow from now on. Nice to see a homeboy doing good. (Wally Webster, NBHS class of ’71).
third panel has got to be my favorite / the most memorable so far
it really makes you wonder whether bears have dreams too
I almost find myself wishing I came to this comic 2 years late. That way I’d just hit “first” and have 2 years worth of ‘nexts’ to work my way through. In conclusion, I’m an impatient bastard. Keep up the good work Ethan!
half an hour until Bear-time!