Review -- DEVIL BEAR: The Grimoires of Bearalzebub

Devil Bear: The Grimoires of Bearalzebub
Created, Written, Penciled and Inked by Ben Bourbon
Indie
If you like tongue-in-cheek humour, humour that as the Brits would say is ‘cheeky’ in nature, then Devil Bear should be just the comic for you.
Creator Ben Bourbon has a clearly warped sense of ‘ha-ha’ that is on one hand rather whimsical, and yet has a definite twisted overtone too.
The book is one of those that really heads down a rather weird little road, and just takes every hairpin corner it can to keep things getting weirder.
The storyline is rather straight forward, once you get into the book at least.
The devil is a Teddy Bear named Bearalzebub. That’s a pretty strange launching pad for a book to start with.
Add in a shapely devil-horned assistant drawn in the sexy-toon tradition of Jessica Rabbit, and you start to see where Bourbon is heading with the comic.
When the soul of Pooh the Pimp comes to the burning home of Bearalzebub things just get plain crazy, and totally fun.
Bourbon said the story started off like a lot of creations, with a few sketches.
“Devilbear really started off as a series of doodles that I made during a rather boring lecture about five years ago,” he said. “The idea really stuck in my mind and just kept growing over the years. Other artists and writers that I talked to would always say that they too had ‘great character ideas’ of their own and talk about how they were going to create their own animations, novels, comics, etc around it but they never seemed to actually get around to making anything.
“I knew I didn’t want that to happen to Devilbear. I had to take it past the idea stage.
“By the time I was ready to start the first issue I had several stories in my head. I chose the story that I did because it was a typical scenario and I didn’t really want to start with an origin story. Origin stories are fun but they can often fill up an entire issue with prerequisite material. I wanted to do something that just jumped in and said “this is a typical Devilbear episode. This is what the characters are about.”
Bourbon said he draws on a variety of influences in creating Devil Bear, including some rather classic ones.
“Dante’s Inferno obviously was one of the biggest influences for the first issue,” he said. “Its concept of the afterlife is one that a lot of people associate Hell with so it’s always a good place to start.
“Once I decided that a familiar stuffed bear that gluttonizes honey was going to go to Teddy Bear Hell, it only made sense that he would receive the ironic punishment of being gluttonized by a vicious dog. Having a traditional three headed dog seemed a bit too serious for the story, however, and maybe even a bit cliche so that’s when I created Cerbutt.”
From there Bourbon turned to other supporting characters.
“The job descriptions of the Daivas thus far are also based on the seven deadly sins from Dante’s Inferno,” said Bourbon. “This doesn’t mean that they are supposed to partake in that sin so much as they are supposed to encourage it. Lucy is the perfect example. As the Daiva of Lust, She is very sexy but does not lust after anyone herself. Also, just because it is her responsibility to be that way, doesn’t mean that is the extent of her personality. She also has a logical side and a strong work ethic. This makes her clash with Helle Belle a bit, who actually has given in to her own representations: becoming a rather lazy Daiva of Sloth.
“As we see a little bit in the story, as well as in some future ones, giving in to the sin they represent leads to other problems.”
Bourbon uses a highly cartoon style, which when your dealing with a Teddy Bear as the Devil is really the only way to go.
The pencils here are strong and distinct, with clean lines which make the images pop off the page.
The colouring too is bold and clean, giving the book a very ‘big company-polished’ look.
“I pretty much always knew how I wanted the artistic style to look,” said Bourbon. “It needed to be cartoony and fun but have a little bit of an edge to it at the same time. Colour choices played a large part in that: going for just a bit of a rock and roll poster kind of feel.
“Another really important drive for me though, was to maintain a visual consistency and quality in the characters. I’ve read some comics where a character’s face looks quite different in each panel on a single page. Sometimes to where I could almost wonder if they are really the same person.”
For a first foray into the world of Devil Bear Bourbon said he likes what he accomplished in issue one, noting he put a lot of effort into getting it right.
“I’m quite happy overall with the story,” he said. “I try to add at least a little humor to every page. If a page ends up without humor I’ll deviate from my script slightly and adlib some little pun or gag in there. If I just can’t come up with a pun that makes sense to slip in then I try to find a way to make that page’s art look funnier.
“I spend a lot of time planning out the page layouts. I pin the pages all over my walls so that I can see how the left page compliments the right page and if the number of panels feels balanced and flows in a way that appeals to me.
“As an artist, I could just keep nitpicking on the same story until I died of old age or something and never call it ‘done’.
“It’s all just a matter of reaching a point where I look at the story and the art without seeing anything that is an eyesore and maintaining an appropriate level of humor and then saying ‘time to move on to the next story because there are a lot more stories to tell’.”
This may not be every reader’s cup-of-tea, but if you like soft, naughty humour, with some twists along the way, this is certainly worth taking a read over, and there is more to come.
“There are a lot more teddy bears on their way to Hell,” said Bourbon. “There are also some pop culture icons that are not teddy bears but will be characterized as teddy bears and then be on their way to Hell. So business is good for Bearalzebub. Also expect to see more Daivas and some insight as to where they come from and where the missing ones are.”
Devilbear can always be found at: http://www.facebook.com/l/37dc2;www.thedevilbear.com/
Printed copies of the first issue can also be found at: http://www.facebook.com/l/37dc2;www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2662
-- CALVIN DANIELS

-- Appeared on Yorkton This Week WebXtra