LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
I picked it up b/c of the odd title & enjoyed both stories. Wacky & fun. What more could you want?
Humor comics seem to branch into two distinct groups, slapstick nonsense and books along the lines of The Great Unkown or Chew where part of the joke is the way absurdity is is accepted as the standard in the universes where the story takes place. The question few have thought to ask is, “What if the two humor sub-genres were mixed?” The book that seeks to deliver the answer is Sea-Bear and Grizzly Shark.
The book starts with the most ridiculous opening ever, as Robert Kirkman delivers an hitherto unknown history of the world. Apparently, way back in the way back, what we know as water was land and what we know as land was water. At some point everything changed and whales had to get used to swimming and elephants, wolves and birds were forced to walk the land. Everything was legit after that, except for bear and shark. They got mixed up.
And that is basically the plot for the two full length tales written and drawn by Kirkman conspirators Ryan “I draw Invincible” Ottley and Jason “You know me as the artist on Astonishing Wolf-Man” Howard.
Mr. Howard takes opening duties, introducing the world to Sea Bear, a monstrous grizzly that stalks the waters of an undisclosed area of the Caribbean. A family fishing trip goes horribly wrong when they hook the titular character, who makes short work of all present except for a young boy.
Flash forward 20 years and the boy has returned for revenge, but now for some reason he has giant blades that come out of his arms, and he is an ex-secret agent on the run from his handlers, and a killer robot is chasing him. None of this madness is explained, and we get very little about the history of the murderous bear, but all that is part of the charm. This isn’t about setting up a masterpiece, it’s about fun and Jason Howard delivers in spades, from the second page exclamation “No, it’s a SEA BEAR!!!” to the final, hilarious panel.
Cover art to SEA BEAR AND GRIZZLY SHARK by Jason Howard and Ryan Ottley
The second half of the double feature showcases the incredible tale of a rancher dealing with the horrors of having a Grizzly Shark tear through his herd. Ryan Ottley prefers to change gears and go for some seriously dark humor. For example, a kid gets bitten in half and then cauterized in a campfire to stop the bleeding. His father hands him a bottle of aspirin for the pain and junior decides to swallow the whole thing. His father is upset at first, but both collapse into gales of laughter when they realize he can’t get sick from an overdose because his stomach is lying on the ground a few feet away. I rarely have laugh out loud moments when reading a comic, but Ottley had my stomach hurting by the end. Throw in the Invincible artist’s great sensibility when drawing gore and readers are in for some brutal entertainment.
I don’t know what else to say. The plots suck but that isn’t the point. The book is hilarious. If you want to laugh, buy it.
I picked it up b/c of the odd title & enjoyed both stories. Wacky & fun. What more could you want?
Am getting it tomorrow!!!!!!!!