INDIE SPOTLIGHT: BEAR #4 REVIEW

[Ryan Day]

<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/bear4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/bear4t.jpg" align=left alt="Bear #4"></a>Reviewer: Ryan Day Dreamhunter00@hotmail.com
Quick rating: Great
Suggested for Mature Readers

Giant Squid, Jane Austen, Ninjas and Dave Grohl in a closet; what more could you ask for?

Writer & Artist: Jamie Smart


Bear is the perfect book for people who don’t like cats. Many of stories in this strange little book feature a cat called Looshkin who is psychotic, violent, sadistic and dangerously hyperactive, all qualities that can be very easily associated with felines. But it’s also the perfect book for people who love cats, because while Looshkin is certainly all of those things (and a few more), he looks so gosh-darned cute.

Looshkin, being a cat, makes it his sole purpose in life to torment Bear, our humble protagonist. In past issues he’s created a voodoo zombie dummy of Bear, blown up the house, spiked Bear’s drink with expired drugs, beaten up the mailman and impersonated a sherif at a costume party. This time around, he impersonates Satan, becomes a ninja and lets a giant squid loose in the house. Bear, a talking teddy with enough wit to slice you in half, spends a lot of time running away.

Bear, in case you’re wondering, isn’t the sort of book that always makes a whole lot of sense. It’s published by Slave Labor Graphics, a company that’s had quite a bit of success with similar books like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore, and creator Jamie Smart obviously owes a debt to his creative forefathers. Bear isn’t quite so morbid and goth-friendly as those books; it’s much more along the lines of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, if only Bugs were British and occasionally got to tell Daffy Duck to **** off and leave him alone.

The comic itself is a collection of short stories about Bear and his wacky antics. In “Cherub Rock,” he’s abducted by a teenage girl who hopes to impress the too-cool boy of her dreams. She’s similarly kidnapped Dave Grohl, only to find that her sweet baboo didn’t like the Foo Fighters any more once Dave Grohl went missing. Smart picks on a lot of his favourite targets, such as stupid people and popular music (“I gave Satan my soul in exchange for Billy’s heart. All I need a soul for is listening to emo, and I can fake that.”) Smart’s bizarre, random sense of humour is on display, and you’ll have a hard time explaining to your friends exactly why it is that the line “Aiieeee!! It’s masticating my skull!” is so ridiculously funny.

Next up is “Who keeps kraken one off?”, and there’s really not a lot to say about it. Looshkin, Bear, giant squid, mayhem ensues.

Smart then takes a fairly unusual turn and throws in a Jane Austen parody entitled “Beast and Bestiality”. There’s no Looshkin to be found, though Bear still seems perfectly at home in the early 19th century. Mariella is a strong, independent woman who uses big words that tend to scare off men. Until, that is, Mr. Bear returns home from the Napoleonic wars (“Ahh, France. I buried myself under a donkey until the war was over.”) It’s a remarkably restrained story played fairly straight (at least in comparison to the rest of the book), though it still includes more boar fighting and grizzly bears than one usually finds in Austen’s work.

The book is rounded out with “You can die many deaths, but you can only truly live once!!”, in which a talking doll runs afoul of Looshkin, who has somehow got his paws on a samurai sword. Uma Thurman had Kill Bill; Looshkin gets Kill Everything That Moves. More mayhem ensues, culminating in Smart breaking out the manga notebook for the grand finale.

There are also several backup features, though they don’t stand up to the rest of the book. “Elliot the Dunk”, a being from the future who’s taken it upon himself to enlighten the masses, is fairly derivative of Jhonen Vazquez’s “Wobbly Headed Bob”, though the idea of giving him his own activity page (“Here is your Elliot the Dunk Mask! It may not fit if your face is wider than seven centimetres, but that is your own fault.”) is an amusing one. “Fum Boo” is similarly reminiscent of Vazquez’s Everything Can Be Beaten, showing us a magical world full of happy, friendly creatures that’s invaded by a less-than-friendly person. There’s also “Justin’s Brains”, which is about a boy with a monster living in his brain that occasionally jumps out and grabs people. Yes, there is just that one joke to it.

The artwork, particularly on the main features, is very strong. Within the style of big head & beady eyes, Smart creates a wide array of freaky characters. He occasionally clutters the page with a few too many details orlines of dialogue, but he’s got a very strong and distinctive style that looks great in black and white. Needless to say, it’s not a hyper-realistic style, but he does draw a mean giant squid.

Bear certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s bizarre, occasionally to the point of being insensible. It often has a very peculiar, British sense of humour to it. Smart occasionally tries too hard to be wacky and off-the-wall, which is a style that can be hit-and-miss. But if you’ve enjoyed some of Slave Labor’s past offerings, or are a fan of the Muppets, Monty Python or Bugs Bunny, it’s the sort of thing that might tickle your funnybone.

For a brief introduction to Bear, check out his website (http://www.bearfoo.com).


ART:
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STORY:
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OVERALL:
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[Dan Porter]

I've got Jhonen Vasquez's Squee TPB, and also the first two issues of Johnny (17th printing... :eek: ), but I've yet to even see, let alone grab and purchase, a single issue of Bear.

It's the sort of thing that, if I could actually FIND it, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Bah humbug, and phooey on Brian, our local mainstream-oriented store owner.

-DPorter

BTW: Great review, and I especially appreciate the quotes, which were interjected quite well. I'm a big fan of random-ness, especially where Vasquez's "Happy Noodle Boy" is concerned. it just oesn't get more random than that.

[Ryan Day]

Originally posted by Dan Porter
I've got Jhonen Vasquez's Squee TPB, and also the first two issues of Johnny (17th printing... :eek: ), but I've yet to even see, let alone grab and purchase, a single issue of Bear.

Yeah, it can be tough finding this stuff. I've noticed, though, that the big comic store here in Toronto has been stocking more copies of Bear with each issue.


I'm a big fan of random-ness, especially where Vasquez's &quot;Happy Noodle Boy&quot; is concerned. it just oesn't get more random than that.

Oh, but it does. Maybe not a lot more, but if you ever get the chance, pick up Vazquez's Bad Art Collection. It's like Happy Noodle Boy, but it goes on for 25 pages and has even lower artistic standards.

There are also the two Filler Bunny specials. They're brilliant -- well, actually they're incredibly stupid, not to mention sick and disgusting -- but you'll probably never find them, as I don't think they've ever been reprinted.

EDIT: I should probably point out that you can find a whole mess of stuff -- the first few Bear issues, almost all of Vazquez's SLG work -- at Slave Labor's website (http://www.slavelabor.com). People keep buying the stuff, so they keep reprinting it.

[Dan Porter]

Ooooh, I forgot about Filler Bunny. And we can't forget about Nail Bunny, either, while we're at it.

Bad Art Collection, eh? I'm gonna have to check that out. My local shop here in STL carries little to no Slave Labor stuff. They have sundry issues of Lenore, and a couple of Squee, but Brian (the owner and a very good friend of mine) doesn't seem to be ordering very much that isn't mainstream superheroes.

And he has a good reason, too: the majority of his customers have never heard of Slave Labor, and if they do want JTHM or Squee, they'll just walk across the street and get it at Borders Bookstore.

My two JTHM issues, incidentally, I nabbed for VERY CHEAP at the shop's "moving down the street" sale: everything was like 80% off. I went on a shopping spree then, grabbing Busiek's Kang story arc than ran from the 40s to the 60s of the current volume, JTHM, Brubaker's Batman, Sigil, Phil Jiminez on Wonder Woman, and various other stuffs.

On an odd side note, I used a Vasquez quote in a recent essay for my English class. It was from Wobbly Headed Bob, the one about SAT scores being inherently stupid as a way to measure intelligence ("I must be the smartest person in the whole world!").

Gotta love Vasquez's blatant socio-political commentary, especially where Bob is concerned.

EDIT: Filler Bunny SPECIALs? Y'mean, other than his brief appearances in JTHM (or was it Squee? I dont remember.)... I never knew there WAS a Filler Bunny Special!

Ooooh! *does a jig*

[Ryan Day]

Yep, Fillerbunny got two comics all to himself: Fillerbunny and Revenge of the Fillerbunny. You know how the one Fillerbunny is essentially a cute little bunny being tortured and humiliated for the benefit of the readers? Well, picture that going on for 16 pages. And then another 16 pages, if you're mad enough to buy the second book.

It's crude, disgusting, horribly drawn and one of the funniest things you'll ever read. There's even a cute little Fillerbunny toy. (and yes, I'm sad enough to own that)

To round off the Vazquez list, you should also keep an eye out for I Feel Sick, which is another Johnny spinoff: It's about Devi, the girl Johnny dated and somehow managed to survive. It's actually got a plot, and looks really nice in colour. And it's still got really weird stuff like zombies and psychic fat. ("It's like the Dead Zone, only fatter!")

[Dan Porter]

yeah, I saw the filler bunny toy in a TPB catalog, of all things. go figure. Looks kind of creepy in 3d, though...

-DPorter

[Mitch Brown]

I'm pretty sure that Filler Bunny has been reprinted. I always see copies of both specials turning up in my local store..along with those 3000000th printings of JTHM :)

[Unicorn_Pegasus]

My store easily got me copies of both Fillerbunnies, BAC (Ooo it is sooo bad, LOL) and "I Feel Sick" and they were all worth it. I had JTHM: Director's Cut and Squee's Big Wonderful Book of Unspeakable Horrors from Amazon. I'm such a sick, sick individual, I'd highly reccomend all of them to everyone. :D I must get Bear though, I'm going through perverse comedy withdrawls. I need dark humor or my insanity may seep out into the real world. Witch obviously is a bad thing. Though Everything Can Be Beaten was disturbing to me, that takes a lot. :)