Death and the Bear: A Modern Fable.
Created by Paul Tonner.
24 pages - Full Colour.
The Story - A bear is living his day to day in the snow. But he comes across a human with a shotgun. The man fires as the bear attacks. What will happen to the bear and what decisions will he make? Give into death or take revenge or maybe both?
The Preview - It’s hard to give the game away on this one. I really enjoyed Paul’s last comic ‘Nom: The Demon Eater’ but this, as he admits in his email to me, is an altogether different fish.
It is as always a beautifully illustrated comic but Paul takes a different tack in his approach to the art here. It is done with a simpler style, often one or two images per page that go a long way to give the creatures and landscapes a sense of power and a real sense of setting. This is a beautifully designed comic full of textures in the starkness and brutality of the barren nature it takes place within. It is a quick read but a very satisfying one.
Paul uses the voices of the bear of the title and a crow to weave the story and the decisions his characters make. They are like a pair of folk story narrators who are granted iconically emphatic lines full of pragmatic and sad directness. It looks at first glance like a strangely ferocious children’s’ book but has more depth than that implies.
The story is done with some lovely space and air between images, words and pages that make it feel like you are watching a (morality) play unfold. A real change of pace for Paul.
This is getting a release at Glasgow Comic Con tomorrow Saturday the 30th of June 2018 at the Royal Concert Hall. Paul can be found at table L37. Find out more about this Convention at www.glasgowcomiccon.com or follow the action on Twitter @glasgowcomiccon
You can find out more about Paul at his website www.paultonner.co.uk or buy his art and comics at www.paultonner.bigcartel.com and follow him on Twitter @HeavyVoodo
As a lifelong vegetarian this was a welcome read - but I’ll let you discover why...
Many thanks for reading.
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