From Image Comics, artist/writer Ryan Ottley (Invincible) and colorist Ivan Plascencia comes the first volume of Grizzly Shark! The trade collects all previous SOLD OUT issues of Grizzly Shark (and more) but now the cult classic is in horrifying color for the first time and is available in local comic shops now.
What began as a SOLD OUT, cult hit, one-shot comic is now a full color slaughter-fest that contains, continues and concludes the bloody adventures of the world’s most feared animal: THE GRIZZLYSHARK! Collects GRIZZLYSHARK #1-3.
I didn’t catch Grizzly Shark when it first came out… So I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of slapstick gore, brutal shark chomping violence and uncompromising dumb-fun that would transport me to a world of utter ridiculous brilliance in a one-sitting read. The first volume of Grizzly Shark is bonkers and a helluva good time. Think Evil Dead meets Jaws and Ryan Ottley’s masterpiece in horror comedy will start to make sense… Sort of anyways.
I’ve been a fan of Ottley for quite some time now as I think his art in Robert Kirkman’s superhero saga Invincible is some of the best in the game… Maybe even the very best when all the dust settles and that series concludes in 2017. That story is in my opinion the greatest hero book I’ve ever read. So if you’ve ever picked it up, you know what kind of gore Ottley is capable of drawing and you know just how damn good he is at doing it. Grizzly Shark is Ryan Ottley unleashed – no-holds-barred. Limbs will be chomped, faces will be eaten, babies will be used as bait – this shit is insane. Don’t take it seriously and you’ll do just fine.
We literally have one page of set-up before the Grizzly Shark attacks and bites our main protagonist in half. He lives mind-you, after his father shoves him on the campfire to cauterise the wound. The two joke about him not having legs or a stomach, seconds after the devastating wound. You know straight-away what kind of silly shit you’re in for, so if you’re not into comedic mayhem where sharks that roam on land for some reason just makes sense in this world, then get the hell out. These aren’t your grandpa’s sharks you son-of-a-bitch.
I love the way Ottley draws the carnage too. You’ll have one panel of set-up where someone cuts themselves in the forest (sharks smell blood) and then a second panel below or beside it that shows the shark decimating them and tearing their body to bloody pieces. Kids aren’t off-limits either folks, so if you have an issue with that – you may run into problems. At one point our half-bodied protagonist and a giant shark-punching hillbilly rescue a baby who is now half-zombie after it was found feasting on it’s recently murdered parents in the woods. They hang it on a rope and use it to bait the sharks in an epic conclusion that will go down in history as one of the most wonderfully idiotic but brilliant endings I’ve read in years. That final punchline literally made me laugh out loud. I loved it.
Plus, you’ll get one of the best comic book battles of the year when the Grizzly Shark fights a Sea Bear. Yes – the bears live under water and so forth. That’s how this world works… There’s a moment where the shark actually scoops a pile of sand with it’s fin and proceeds to throw it in the face of the bear, blinding it momentarily. You can’t make this shit up – it’s a riot. Ryan Ottley is one of the hardest working artists in the comic industry today and his work on Grizzly Shark deserves to be read and appreciated for the pure insanity it contains in it’s action-packed and preposterous three chapters. There’s some superb behind-the-scenes art and layout as well included in the trade, so even if you bought the three issues, it’s worth grabbing the paperback. “When in doubt, Throw a baby!”
Rating: [star rating=”5″]