Bear:Immortal

Written and drawn by Jamie Smart

Published by Slave Labor Graphics

He's Bear! He's Bear! He's made of human hair! You push his nose and his head grows he's Bear he's Bear he's Bear! So goes the theme song to the best cartoon never made, the story of Bear, an immortal teddy bear who claims to have fought in every war England has been involved in, psychopathic cat Looshkin and their rubbish owner Karl. Many comics try for the wacky, many aspire for the manic and a lot attempt to scale the dizzy heights of 'Good GOD that looks like it hurt.' Bear achieves all of these things, and more, and still manages to be both clever and funny.

The fastest way to kill a joke is to try and explain it so I'm not going to. Instead, I'll point out that Bear is merely the latest in a long, proud tradition of British comedy based around the twin principles of violence and surrealism.

I grew up watching The Young Ones, a show in which several episodes saw the entire cast die, one involved them trying to work out where an immense ham sandwich (Actually dropped by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) had come from and another saw Neil the house hippy sprout multiple arms. And a clone. The Young Ones is widely regarded as one of the best, and most demented, sit-coms ever made.

This, I would posit, is better. And Looshkin could take Vivian from The Young Ones with one paw tied behind his back.

Because, whilst the book may be called Bear, and Bear himself may be a remarkably erudite and deadpan hero (Because he is), the character you'll walk away from the book with will be Looshkin. He's one of comedy's great monsters, a force of nature in cat form who is completely, totally, relentlessly insane, colossally evil and yet still, somehow, terrifying with it. Whether trying to get his 'cat shoes' back from the Postie or yelling the deathless line 'I HAVE NUCLEAR BELLY!' (Which he does at that point) Loosh is both utterly insane and utterly wonderful.

Which, come to think of it, is a pretty good summation of the book itself. Bear is utterly un safe for work, horrifically violent and flat out glorious. Jamie Smart has created a book which is both completely in keeping with SLG's other famous titles and at the same time uniquely it's own. Completely British, completely insane and completely marvellous.