Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #7 - Heart of Stone

[kybearfuzz]

It's taken nearly four months, but I finally got this issue done this afternoon. This one has a guest character based on bigsabu. Is he a hero or villain? You will have to read it to find out.

Normally, I wait until morning to post the issue, but I thought I would give the West Coast guys and East Coast night owls first dibs on this issue.

The cover was actually the last thing drawn and caused me the most trouble. I was just not getting any great cover ideas and this was the best I could come up with. I do like how it turned out. I guess now that this is done I can get to folding that mountain of clean laundry I've been neglecting. :D

There are 21 large graphic pages behind the cut, so it might take a while to load. They are all work-safe. There are some odds & ends comic notes at the very end.

• According to my notes, I started writing this story back on October 12, 2011. A big part of the delay has been the holidays. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun drawing this one.
  
  
• The character of Mandusa was one I drew a while back. He was a male Gorgon who turned his cubbish admirers into stone. I'd have posted it with the issue as a bonus poster, but it is definitely not-work-safe.
  
  
• Saber was originally called "Sabu" for bigsabu, but I thought he needed a superhero name. It is based on the idea of a saber-toothed tiger. I like the costume, but for some reason, it makes me think of a wrestling outfit. Not that it's a bad thing. :)
  
  
• This is the first issue without the entire team being involved. Sometimes it is rough to get six characters involved in the storyline, so I thought I would leave a couple of them out for different reasons. I picked to leave out Polar Bear and Center because they are not based on real friends of mine and I think the others enjoy seeing themselves in the book.
  
  
• Since I know you guys like the shirtless bears, I put Red Beard in a position where he'd need to teleport out of his costume. I thought it might be a good way to get him nearly nekkid AND have it be a fun plot point. And the ginger bears are always a crowd pleaser it seems. My only regret is that I had to draw in the red chest fur with Photoshop and it was too much work to add the leg hair too.
  
  
• I tried different angle views this time. I need to work on different page set-ups as there are some really cool page designs out there right now. I'm still the king of minimal backgrounds though.
  
  
• The next issue (whenever I get around to it) will probably be an installment set like the first three issues. This one was actually set up for installments, but once I got started inking, I felt the urge to keep going.

Any questions, comments or critiques, I welcome them all.

Comments

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Robert's a character! You drew him well. I can tell it's him. Very cool. ;-)

Fun story. I love having Red Beard in his skivvies. Vufe!

Center had to close the bar? Really?

I didn't notice anything amiss, although the scene when Saber jumps out of the way in panel 5 wasn't clear to me--took a second or two to realize I was looking at two images of him leaping.

I liked the half naked professor bear, too hehehehe ;-)

ANd the line about bouncing a quarter off of Griz's butt...love that.

Great, fun strip, as usual. ;-)

[texwriterbear.livejournal.com]

I loved it as usual. You have a great grasp of these bears. Robert's character does look just like him. I'm ready for the next issue!!!!

[eric-mathgeek.livejournal.com]

Fun!

But, the glowing, flying man calling the powerless (or so he thought) one "freak?"

[sunbeam-bears.livejournal.com]

Loved it!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Well done!

[spatts5.livejournal.com]

GREAT job Mark! I really enjoy the adventures of the Bear Patrol. I'm envious of your artistic abilities.

[qbear.livejournal.com]

Great story!! And I love Robert in it!!! We're both still so honored to be members of the Patrol...

[bruinwi.livejournal.com]

You may be the self-professed "King of Minimal Backgrounds", but at least you DO backgrounds, which is more than one can say for my scriblings.

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I know I'm a "Johnny-come-lately" here, but I have read this, as you'd given me the URL earlier, and I must say: You are fantastic!!

You draw and color superbly!

Your writing is splendid!

The story and plot are ongoing and of interest!

Thank you.