Image Comics 2017
Created & Written by Jody Leheup & Sebastian Girner
Created & Illustrated by Nil Vendrell
Coloured by Mike Spicer
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
Savage, wild-eyed bears are attacking cities across America, and only the Shirtless Bear-Fighter can stop them! But as Shirtless punches his way through wave after wave of not-so-friendly fozzies, one question looms large in his furious mind...just what is driving these bears so damn crazy? Enter...THE HILLBILLY WARLOCK!
To be honest i’m not usually one for mindless silly stuff, i’m not a fan of the Airplane movies or any like them. I like there to be some intelligent humour in my silliness, along the lines of British humour. So it comes a nice surprise to me that i’m totally into this book. It’s completely and totally over the top in it’s absurdity and I love every moment of it. There is one moment of absolute crass humour that should be totally offensive but I laughed uncontrollably, and if you guess what that is i’ll send ya a lollipop.
At this point i’m not even sure there is a real story here to follow. I mean okay so something has the bears riled up and they are attacking cities and Shirtless is there to stop them. Including in San Francisco a totally different kind of Bear fighting! Which is another thing that I think was brilliantly done here as that was kind of snuck in without much attention or fanfare. Though I was sad he beat up a Panda, which technically isn’t a bear. Those are my most favourite animals in the known universe. This could keep going the whole unstoppable force meets immovable object and neither side really knowing why are they are constantly fighting.
The interiors here are great. I’m a little sad there isn’t any nekkid Shirtless this issue and the introduction of the Hillbilly well that visually may have scarred me for life. Still the attention to detail is interesting and there’s no denying it has it’s own unique charm to it. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and use of backgrounds are extremely well done, though you all know I want more use of backgrounds they really are a lost art nowadays. Still the vision, creativity and imagination that we see is great.
This is not for the squeamish or the easily offended it’s full of good old fashioned adult themes and humour. There are plenty of offensive moments meant to push buttons but it’s not meant to be hateful and that’s clearly evident. This is some old fashioned over the top stupid humour fun that pushes the boundaries of what we think and accept as normal.
Let your inner self sleep while you take a ride on the looney bin bus because this is the ride you’ve been wanting to take for ages.