From Renegade Arts Entertainment comes an epic new original graphic novel/children’s book — When Big Bears Invade. Brought to you by writer Alexander Finbow and artist Nyco Rudolph, the book features gigantic bears laying waste to Canadian landmarks and cities.
‘Children, children. Gather round your grandmother, and I will tell you of the time before the benevolent bears showed humanity how to live in harmony with the world.’ When Big Bears Invade! is an illustrated children’s book for adults featuring beautiful Godzilla and King Kong inspired paintings of Giant Bears attacking major Canadian cities and landmarks. At least that’s what Granny says really happened.
Manitoba artist Nyco Rudolph and Alberta writer Alexander Finbow join creative forces to reveal the myth behind how the Benevolent Bears came to rule over us all.
At a brisk 30 pages or so ‘When Big Bears Invade’ is a wild chaotic ride through Canada’s major cities and landmarks while a grandmother recounts the time when giant bears took the land back from humans, to a group of young trick r’ treaters. It’s a delightful funny tale for the whole family and one that my kids absolutely adored. My children, ages 6,7 and 2 all loved it and as an adult I had a wonderful time reading it to them, for several consecutive nights in a row at bedtime.
Writer Alexander Finbow weaves both a humorous and important story about how people have grown to disregard nature and because of this, the consequences can be dire. Instead of global warming causing massive earthquakes, forest fires or hurricanes however – the bears decide to take matters into their own paws and strike back. The results are extremely satisfying and make for some striking imagery courtesy of Nyco Rudolph who is quickly becoming one of my favourite artists and I look forward to a sequel!! Let’s wreck Lethbridge too guys – let’s take some internet polls and see whose city is up next for the Big Bears to stomp on.
Toronto, Montreal, Banff – hell even the Oil Sands and pipelines aren’t safe from the Godzilla-sized bears who have come to tear it all down. If you’re worried that the concept would be a little too violent or scary for the kids – fear not, this is absolutely a book for the family. There is zero gore and the violence is so over the top and silly that you’d have to be one helluva prude to take this gem from your children’s hands. My only complaint is I wanted MORE! My personal favourite pages are the ones featuring the glorious Buffalo Guardian, summon by the bear shaman of course and the delicious ocean of poutine that the bear overlords dump all over Montreal. The imagery is beautiful and everyone should be ordering prints of these pages for their walls, especially if you live in one of the cities on the bears’ hitlist.
Finbow’s rhyme game is strong. It’s extremely important when crafting a kids’ book to have the words flow well, so the parents can read these things to the children and not stumble over words — I did not have that issue here at all. Add that to Rudolph’s astounding two page spreads of Canadian carnage and you have what is hands down the children’s book of the year. Buy When Big Bears Invade today. You won’t regret it.
Rating: [star rating=”5″]
Click HERE to read more about Finbow, Rudolph and to also check out the official Renegade Arts site for other fantastic titles.