This week, prebear (thanks, Taimur Dar, for the superb bear pun) yourselves earlier than you head to your native comedian store as a result of it’s the return of the largest, and typically smallest, bearror within the universe! Unsure but if the absurdist humor of Shirtless Bear-Fighter is for you, effectively then, bear down for this assessment as a result of San Diego’s very personal native bear fighter (sure, folx, that’s me) has penned a assessment of Main Metropolis’s Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 #1 as a result of nobody else is extra certified than me to jot down this assessment apart from Animal Management Dave. (In spite of everything, my credentials embrace laughing on the phrase “obligation” in no less than half of my torts courses. I believe I admire absurdism once I see it.)
The next assessment accommodates gentle spoilers for Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 #1.
Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 #1
Author: Jody Leheup
Artist: Nil Vendrell
Colours: Michael Spicer
Letters: Dave Lanphear with Troy Peteri
Editor: Sebastian Girner
Manufacturing Designer: Erika Schantz
Printed by: Picture Comics
I’ve a go-to record of gift-able floppies, trades, and graphic novels (some folks on my record actually care concerning the distinction), and Shirtless Bear-Fighter, Vol. 1, has been on it since 2017. What can I say there are various followers of absurdist humor in my life. Hell, I reside in a city with a inhabitants of 1,500 folks, and a couple of of my neighbors has requested me if I wrestle bears (due to my propensity to put on fluffy brown coats), in order a “bear fighter” myself, it solely appears applicable to present this comedian as a present to my family members. At any time when I present SBF, every new reader presents a brand new perspective, and I get to bond over flapjacks and giggle about evil bathroom mechs; it’s a bearrel stuffed with enjoyable.
The absurd premise of the primary quantity of SBF is there’s a shirtless (and typically commando) man who bears raised as a result of his human mother and father left him within the forest as a child. Nonetheless, after SBF’s adopted brother, Brother Bear, betrayed him and murdered his lover, he grew to become a bear puncher as an alternative of a bear lover—no less than for a short while. He ultimately has to staff up along with his bearthen to battle an EVIL wipes firm as a result of wipes corporations are at all times EVIL (assume Hawthorne Wipes from Group).
So, for sure, when Picture Comics introduced one other sequence was coming, I may bearly comprise my pleasure: quickly, there can be one other quantity to present to everybody whose already obtained the primary. And since the primary situation of Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 slapped, it appears to be like like extra flapjacks and bonding are in my future!
In case I wasn’t clear sufficient in my first couple of paragraphs, I’ve been following SBF since Dave was with Main Metropolis Animal Management and Shirtless bear-punched bear-naked, so admittedly, I in all probability know the primary quantity higher than most readers. From the very first panel, I knew I used to be again within the SBF universe. In situation #1, Animal Management Dave is again to supply exposition, promote Grateful Gummies out of his van, and remind readers that edibles might improve their studying expertise.
Nonetheless, if you’re new to the sequence, the primary situation does a great job of catching readers up on Shirtless Bear-Fighter‘s first quantity in order that they don’t should learn it earlier than SBF 2.
It’s Gummy-Geddon!
The fundamental premise of Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 #1 is Shirtless has joined the Fuzz in order that he could make up for his previous errors of punching bears who didn’t deserve it by punching evil bears who do deserve it. Nonetheless, when killer gummy bears assault Main Metropolis, Shirtless is unexpectedly confronted along with his previous… and Lawyer Bear, and Ursa Main, and Bearmuda (however you’ll simply should learn the comedian to get these references).
The story begins with Gummy-Geddon. Frankly, I believe that’s truthful. This yr, 2022, marks the centenary Haribo Gobldbears, the world’s first gummy bears, which signifies that folks have been murdering the poor issues for a looooooong time.
I bear in mind the primary time I realized about capital punishment very distinctly. Though I can’t bear in mind the ebook we had been studying at school on the time, it included a grisly scene with the traditional penalty for treason in England: drawing and quartering. The total punishment includes a number of steps, however what caught with me for a very long time was the reside disemboweling, beheading, and quartering (achieved by tying every limb to a special horse after which spurring them in reverse instructions). From then on, I used to be answerable for drawing and quartering many Gummy Bears (and Teddy Grahams). Uh, sorry, not sorry? Gummy-Geddon is my form of absurdist enjoyable.
Bearanormal Enjoyable
Whereas I’m on the subject of pursuing the enjoyment of comics, what I most admire about Shirtless Bear-Fighter is its sense of enjoyable. The stories from C2E2’s “Highlight on Chris Claremont” panel, which gave the impression to be Chris Claremont‘s hour-plus lengthy diatribe on how comics ought to be enjoyable once more—thus, implying he’s the Brit who’s as much as the problem—nonetheless has me fascinated by what makes a narrative enjoyable, anyway? And with Shirtless Bear-Fighter‘s return, it’s value asking, “What’s enjoyable, and the way is it outlined? What does enjoyable imply to me?”
I don’t search to reply all of that right here as a result of it will be unattainable. “Enjoyable” doesn’t have a transparent scientific definition and encompasses many ideas: shopper psychology, likes vs. dislikes, private enjoyment, achievement, colour, and extra. To try to get a working definition of it for the needs of this assessment, I took to the Web. Once I was an RA, I realized concerning the significance of literature searches, so I started my quest into the science of what makes one thing enjoyable by pounding the bearboard. I began by looking out the phrase “psychology of enjoyable,” however mainly solely found analysis on shopper psychology of enjoyable (probably not what I wished, however it’ll do).
There may be surprisingly little analysis on the patron psychology of enjoyable, each the expertise and its foremost psychological drivers in market settings (which incorporates the acquisition and delight of comedian books). In 2020, Columbia College Physician of Philosophy in Enterprise candidate Tae Seok Oh penned a dissertation, “The Client Psychology of Enjoyable,” that outlined two psychological pillars of shopper enjoyable: (1) hedonic engagement and (2) a way of liberation. The dissertation analysis exhibits that “enjoyable is an expertise of liberating engagement, a brief launch from psychological restriction through a hedonically partaking exercise.”
In comedian trade phrases, the dissertation contains a whole lot of attention-grabbing info, however for the needs of this assessment… Properly, “enjoyable” might be outlined as one thing that liberates our minds from our psychological restrictions (e.g., nagging ideas of the day, melancholy, and many others.) and engages us within the story, even for a short while. Generally all I would like is a comic book imbued with JOY, and Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 was considerably extra absurd than the primary (which had some anti-establishment components), heightening the weather of enjoyable current within the earlier run.
Hey, I don’t learn about others, however no less than it’s straightforward to jot down a enjoyable story for SD’s SBF, simply embrace a tardigrade. (Sure, SBF 2 has a tardigrade battle. And in case you’re questioning why a ebook known as Shirtless Bear-Fighter features a tardigrade battle, it’s as a result of they’re often known as nature’s lovely water bears—they usually reside EVERYWHERE on Earth and in science fiction. “They appear to be gummy bears with 4 pairs of legs, they usually bumble round among the many algae clumps,” says the College of North Carolina’s Tom Sowders.)
Closing Ideas
In case you’re questioning if Shirtless nonetheless has a large cock, 1000% YES.
Fin.
Printed by Picture Comics, Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2 #1 is offered now.
