This comic is based on the Sankebetsu brown bear incident, something I’ve wanted to make a comic about for a while now. I first heard this story on Caustic Soda – a great little humor podcast about all things morbid. This 1915 bear attack on a small Japanese village was discussed (appropriately) in their Bears episode, and I thought it would make perfect fodder for a comic. Unfortunately, I knew close to nothing about Japan, so I put this idea on the back burner until I had time to do some serious research. While I was in Tokyo, I spent a lot of time collecting photo references and looking into Japanese history, all of which I put to use in this comic.
Rather than taking my usual, strictly-facts approach, I invented some character developments and dialogue, so this turned into a pretty heavily fictionalized version of the events. I also added some aspects of the images digitally, another departure from my regular process. These pages are an experiment that I hope you will enjoy!
Fair warning – this comic is about a series of bear maulings and it does get a bit gory in places!
He puts his gun down after shooting the bear, walks away, then in the cemetery he has it strapped to his back again. That’s kind of unsettling. I’m not sure if that’s more unsettling than a bear ripping a fetus from a womb, but it’s still up there on the unsettling gauge.
Good job, this one was a good read!
Haha, oh I know. It’s a mistake I have to fix at some point. I made this comic incredibly hastily, so it’s full of little mistakes like that… oh well!
Anyway, I’m glad you liked it!