Page 328
August 13th, 2012

Page 328



Sambit starts his last week of day care today. His caregiver had a BBQ on the weekend for her last group of kids and their parents. Sam spent a lot of it walking around hand in hand with the two littlest girls (when he wasn’t trying to stuff his face) and I’m starting to get really sad about this. Wait until I have to put my little twins on the school bus for the first time… :(

If you read “Dreamland Chronicles” the Book 6 Kickstarter is now up!

^ 78 Comments...

  1. stave

    a reference to icarus i’m presuming.
    don’t fly too high tanked!

  2. HaruhiFan

    Are those actuall fake wings or is Tank hallucinating again?

  3. Shade

    good for you stand up for your work. I’m currently an art student and the only thing worse than a negative comment about a piece of work is not taking a stand for that for that work when needed. Personally i like Evil the comic would not be the same without him. (That and i have a feeling I know a real life evil)

  4. Duez

    Bummer about that E-mail: haters gonna hate, I guess. Everyone else has explained well enough, so I won’t go there. XD
    Nice page though, already gives me the “Icarus” feeling. Gotta know what those other two are gandering at, but in due time! I just hope Tanked stays safe. XD Although, whom gave him said wings? XD

  5. Tekara

    I only have one question… can we get that “Evil is not amused” drawing on a t-shirt? I would LOVE that!

  6. igan

    I don’t like Evil either Darling, but you really come off as a whiny bitch hiding behind a wannabe intellectual veil.

    Trying to play it like you’re some revolutionary leading people to question and debate the little bastard’s inclusion in the comic is the icing on the shit cake. Most of us are content with silently letting people have their fun.

  7. Caracalla55

    Evil is just doing his thing being evil……..after all with out evel there wouldn’t be any good, so I guess its good to be evil sometimes. ^_-

    BTW I like Death the most

    Caracalla (Look me up)

  8. zuros

    Sorry for bad english, it’s not my native, and i don’t know how to speak english properly, but still, i want to say, that your creation, this comics, is really REALLY popular. I’m from Russia and we have fan community of bear nuts, and there are really huge ammount of fans, some artists who draw really cool fan-art (something like human form of characters), some fanfiction and etc. And, I think there are many fans in other countries, who love your work, and respect it.
    So, just forget, please, about that few idiots, who made your sad. We love you and respect your work. We reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally love bear nuts, and looking forward to new stories.
    Thank you VERY MUCH for your creation )

  9. Ball-Bearing Mousetrap

    If we _liked_ him, he wouldn’t be Evil, would he? He’s a good character, he’s very much himself, he’s well-balanced against the rest of the strip… I don’t see anything that needs changing.

    The proper response really is “I’m sorry you feel that way, but that just means you aren’t my target audience. Feel free to unsubscribe; there are lots of other webcomics and you can probably find one that’s a better match for your individual biases.”

    (Polite, thoughtful criticism is one thing, and even a “just so you know, this felt like it was over the line for me” is legit. Rude criticism, or demands that the artist conform to one reader’s preferences, deserves nothing more than to be ignored.)

    BTW, I’ve always been somewhat amused that Bear Nuts is being written and drawn by a woman… more because that exposes my own remaining biased assumptions than anything else.

  10. Polyxena

    Yeah, sorry Darling, but I think the same as igan above. Something about your comments just rub me up the wrong way completely. You come across as someone who’s utterly unlikeable face to face, but who really isn’t as talented, intellectual or valid in their opinions as they think they are, so ultimately vent their angst and aggression on the interwebs where they can hide safely behind a computer screen. Frankly, -you- try to produce something as popular and accomplished as Alison, and then make your comments. At least then you’ll know a bit more about what you’re talking about.

    To be honest, I couldn’t even force myself to finish your self-indulgent, petty little rant. It felt smarmy and euuughh… You do know that you’re a) stamping your little feet because someone’s telling a story you don’t like and b) essentially complaining about something that’s generously been provided for free on the internet. Alison doesn’t have to give up her free time to do this, nor does it even have to be your idea of ‘good’ for her to have a right to do it – she’s not hurting anyone and it makes both creator and readers (well, as you prove, most of them) happy. You come across as some over-opinionated, under-informed armchair-critic with a screen-handle (‘Loudmouthed Darling’) which nearly made me bite my pencil in half in rage.

    And anyway, I don’t mind Evil. I like my nasty, mean-spirited villains and antiheroes much more than I’ll ever like most ‘nice’ characters. You know what’s more annoying than ‘flat’ mean characters? Flat ‘goodies’ and ‘quirky weirdos’, who are ten-a-penny in fiction and comics nowadays, and d-u-l-l. At least Alison’s shown a bit of gumption in having creative characters and even if you hate Evil, an unpleasant character who isn’t set up to be a hate-figure from the onset.

    None of that matters. She can do what she wants and you don’t have a single right to tell her what to do. You know what you can do? If you don’t like it, walk away. That’s all. Don’t think you can bitch and whine and send snarky little messages and people are going to do what you want them to because you’re -you-. Jeeeze.

  11. systemcat

    I love your comic and have been following it for some time. No complaints from me at all. In fact I’m staff with two sci fi & fantasy conventions local to me. I’d suggest you for a guest but I don’t think the budgets of either convention could afford to pay your way to them.

  12. saw666

    i personaly LOVE evil
    some of us are more……. the black crayon in the crayon box and most characters simply dont hold much of our interest or we cant relate to them very well
    i personaly think someone who can make an array of characters that EVERYONE could love at least 1 is brilliant
    you also gave them personalities of their own
    not only that its a VERY rare well done art-comic / thats often updated

    i often would rather watch a horror flick then read a comic-but this one i never miss an update & have re-read 6 times!

    p.s EVIL IS CUTE- i love how his eyes get big-and he reminds me of me so much -and the fanny pack
    oddly i also have one (black) that i keep an array of objects in

    taste varys as well as people-and lets face it some just suck
    so just keep on cuz you are the do it all mom!

    and dont worry about the twins- if they are anything like me & my twin one will just want to be with you
    the other wants someone else
    then it will switch

  13. Sterling Rodd

    @zuros: Ну, Заяц, погоди! :) Don’t apologize for your English… it’s way way better than most of our Russian. :)

    I like Evil too. I think mainly because I’m waiting to see where his vulnerabilities are. Every so often he manages to be cooperative; he seems to have some kind of a relationship with Lech, and he was grudgingly willing to help Nerd. It’s not to say I want him to turn into a softy, just that discovering the places where his heart hasn’t completely calloused over is one of the most interesting things in the various Bear Nuts subplots, as far as I’m concerned. If you haven’t bought the books, there’s a moment between Lech and Evil in the cone saga I found kind of deep and kind of dark in the bonus chapter of one of them where I wanted to scoff at the idea being put across… but I wasn’t sure I could.

    I think I get where Darling Loudmouth’s coming from, and I have to give him/her props for stepping out of the shadows. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a fan reaching out to an artist with ideas or observations — and I think Alison’s said she doesn’t either — but a lot depends on the approach. If it’s carping, particularly when the work is being provided completely for free, it comes across as graceless and, yeah, I can really see how that could be offensive, regardless of the supposed value of the message. Even in DL’s restatement, I thought it was a little arrogant to suggest that following fan advice necessarily improves the work. That’s a completely subjective call… a change one set of fans likes has the potential be off-putting to some other bunch. So in the end, the only really right call is for the artist to please him/herself and take any fan accolades that result as a bonus. It’s like the late Ricky Nelson told us. “Can’t please everyone, so you gotta please yourself.” Alison’s managed to please quite a few more than just “herself” over the past few years.

  14. Xint22

    i like evil the most and I also have a fanny pack that I use alot but I dOnt let anyone see it.

  15. Naka

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n34eeXWjUQ it was fitting.

  16. Naka

    in response to the trolls ^

  17. Malus

    Do what I do: give them the finger and tell them to zark themselves.

    In case anyone’s wondering, “zark” is another word for a much unfriendlier word. No, that word is NOT Belgium.

  18. Kate-Hedgehog

    …Wow… There is some serious animosity on here.
    Personally, I feel that if some one puts out a comic online, be if free or otherwise, they kind of have the freedom to do whatever they want with it. Yes, that also means that they are at risk of receiving negative feedback. Yes, people are free to voice their opinions, be it kind or otherwise. In my opinion, why bother getting angry about something (character, plot, etc) and then verbalize it when it’s just easier to just move along.
    I like the comic. I like that it is ridiculous and that Evil isn’t really punished. What can they do with him, they live in a zoo. I think the humans in this fictional world would kind of notice a bear missing (though he did come back from the depths of the wilderness…) But I also have kids, and no matter how much you wish you could punish them for the stupid, and often evil, things that they do, the punishments will never be as harsh as they would be in a perfect world. Maybe it’s like that with Evil.
    You could also complain about the other bears in the same way as Evil, since we also have a proper alcoholic and a pill popping anger fiend. It’s life. And this comic kind of reflects it quite appropriately. :)

  19. BSSinSTL

    Alison, I am so sorry that you were subjected to the verbal and emotional abuse of that no talent psychopath. Darling: by your own words you are exposed as a self centered control freak. Someone who gleefully inflicts suffering on those who do not feed your narcissistic desires. You are a bully and in a word, evil. I name you Evil Darling. I do not wish you suffering, I just want you to go away.

  20. Ciao

    ah, sorry that you’ve gotten that message from that rather nasty person. These mean trolls really need to get one ‘ell o’ a headbutt from a billy goat.

    Tank is so darling with his wings, I do wonder if this is a dream or he was able to become the first flyin’ bear. XD

  21. Poniker

    You know, there was apparently a guy who tried to propose a reboot of Carebears similar to what happened to My Little Pony. I heard he got in trouble for it, but when I saw that I immediately thought to myself that it might have worked if Alison Acton was in charge.

  22. igan

    The care bears reboot actually happened. The uproar was over the fact that a marketing guy was trying to manufacture a second internet craze over bad children’s programming and encouraging adult male fans to call themselves belly bros, etc.

    No word on if he wanted the endless tides of horrific porn as well.

  23. foxpaw

    1. i want a “Evil is not amused” T-shirt

    2. dont feed the trolls in spain have a saying “a palabras necias oidos sordos” that means to foolish words deaf ears ^.^

  24. afox151

    F- them, you rock, plain and simple.

  25. I♡Monkeys

    1. Anger – my initial reaction to the person who sent the rude email followed by googling meaning of GTFO.

    2. Forgiveness – there was an apology. The word ‘apologise’ means to defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning. This word was used twice. The word ‘sorry’ was never used by Darling, but used 10 times by other commentators including Alison. Sorry is defined as feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity.
    An apology is meaningless if there is no regret or promise to try not to hurt that person, to understand from another point of view. An empty apology is often disguised as ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’, clothed in self righteousness but never sincere. Words hold power so use them carefully and not out of spite.

    3. Hopefully this discussion serves as a lesson to all (including myself) to not make empty apologies, to say sorry more often and to think carefully before we speak so that we don’t hurt others despite our good intentions. I don’t agree with Darling but I do believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Yes there is freedom of speech but it means respecting other peoples opinions as well. So I hope Darling chooses to continue reading BN and continues to provide feedback but in a non-offensive way. WWJD?

    And on a happier note… I love Bear Nut Comics!! My favourite character is Tanked, although he drinks too much, which leads him to make bad choices, he has a kind and caring heart!

    “Good words are worth much, and cost little.” – George Herbert

  26. NekoD

    *sniff* true words.

  27. Xint22

    I want to know everyone’s favourite bear so right when you finish your comment just write @(your fav bear) I like evil

  28. Gallows

    I like Death. I relate to his desire for peace and quiet. And his quiet reserve along with desire not to be swept up in everyone else’s nonsense.

    As for Evil, can’t stand him. He’s cartoonishly irritating and not that interesting to me. However, he has every right to be there. He’s a necessary element in the group dynamics and they would be improperly balanced without him. Just because I hate Evil doesn’t mean that the next person isn’t allowed to like him. Funny how that works right?

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