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Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! We’re still working on the whole manners thing with the twins. I think they remembered half the time to say thank you, if they weren’t half way down the steps already and yelling it over their shoulder. Owen did manage an indignant “Where’s MY candy??” when he thought he was going to get forgotten. Last year it was hard to get them to focus on anything but people’s various decorations so I guess that’s a bit of an improvement? I definitely want them to speak up for themselves and stand out… is it too much to ask that they also do so politely? Baby steps.
Ongoing: Moving and early Christmas SALE! Lots of original art/tee designs/sketches up on my Etsy page, and all BN original pages are also on sale. Help me clear out my messy office before we move next month :) I hate moving in December :(
Vote Incentive: otters and puns go together like… otters and puns.
FREE shipping sale at Neatorama on now till Nov 8th! Lots of designs available including my latest: ‘Super BFFs’ :) Which would make a really fun all girl super hero team up book…perhaps if we all pester Marvel/DC enough they’ll do it…in an alternate dimension.
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November 2nd, 2015 at 12:22 am
do I sense a cracked origin story?
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:27 am
Crack origin story coming this way! Sorry, Prozac but I wanna know!
Hope you also had a great Halloween Alison! I missed Halloween’s Trick o’ Treat this year due to an inconvenience ;-;
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:29 am
EEEE Origin of Crack next!
Prozac and Crack were there the longest apparently and he was paranoid beforehand, if just skittish since he was hiding under a blanket. Given Prozac had a lot of drug experimentation and Crack has that needle, what could it really be?
Also, I hate being a grammar Nazi but there needs to be a comma after “know”, otherwise the sentence is saying Prozac doesn’t know who Sara is.
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:58 am
The next comic is definitely his origin story
November 2nd, 2015 at 1:05 am
Wait… isn’t PMS bear named Cara?
November 2nd, 2015 at 2:31 am
Doesn’t really want to know. So that stories gonna have some screwed up stuff in it.
November 2nd, 2015 at 5:06 am
Origin stories are definitely one of the finer points in this comic.
November 2nd, 2015 at 7:25 am
I was going to say something about The Origin of Crack but everybody else seems to already have that covered for me.
Looks like Tanked gave Crack his can and OH MY GOD OTTERS IN THE VOTE INCENTIVE YES
November 2nd, 2015 at 8:05 am
If hitting rock bottom had a face, you could definitely find it in the last panel.
Also, that vote incentive is freaking ADORABLE
November 2nd, 2015 at 8:23 am
Uh oh, are we about to segue into Crack’s backstory? Whoa, that’d be awesome. I simply can’t imagine. :)
November 2nd, 2015 at 8:53 am
wait i thought the pink one was Sara. i think u mixed up youre own characters’ names, Allison
November 2nd, 2015 at 8:54 am
* your
November 2nd, 2015 at 9:54 am
@Vausch: nice catch! Fixed!
@Bry: totally… I need more sleep. Fixed!
November 2nd, 2015 at 10:06 am
XD as always LOVE it and wow so Crack is the only one of the bears, other than Sara and Cara, that the others don’t know the back story to…..man I get a feeling this origin story is gonna be the hardest to read so far……XD yay!
November 2nd, 2015 at 11:47 am
@YourWorstNightmare
Crack isn’t the only one. We don’t know the origin of Gimp, Gay, Lech, Vanity (sorta, he had a long intro that seemed pretty straightforward), or Death either.
November 2nd, 2015 at 4:43 pm
@admin; Something looked strange. I’m almost positive Gay had a cloud of anger above his head before. Whatever, it looked kind of weird that way anyway.
November 2nd, 2015 at 4:53 pm
That last panel reminds me of something that happened to me in College.
November 2nd, 2015 at 4:56 pm
arrrrrr Cara is adorable. lovin me them bears more and more. everything seems so lovely and crisp on this page somehow! and i have suspicions about crack. woo theories!
November 2nd, 2015 at 5:42 pm
considering Crack’s mark is of a needle, i have a suspicion that his is drug related much like Prozac’s was. i mean, think about it, w/ the exception of Nerd, the bears’ marks so far coincide w/ not only their nature but also somewhat tying into their past:
– Prozac, albeit it was via needle originally and not a pill, was given medication to calm his aggressive behavior that was nurtured due to always getting pushed around by his larger siblings.
– Evil relates more to his intangible, dark thoughts as opposed to something tangible like medication…like Prozac, he refused to be pushed around and his darker thoughts lead to him “raising hell”, hence the satanic circle mark.
– Finally, Tanked…well it’s pretty straightforward… He was tricked by a bunch of monkeys and near drowned in beer.
i could be jumping the gun here, but the pattern is far to coincidental to ignore.
btw happy to be of help, Alli~ try to get some rest…i’m sure thats difficult w/ a bunch of boys around but u sound like u need it from what i read of your “family updates” from time to time
November 2nd, 2015 at 5:54 pm
I wonder if Gay’s past will have to do with having to deal with homophobic bullying?
November 2nd, 2015 at 7:00 pm
Bry: Nerd’s does describe him. He’s a weiner.
November 2nd, 2015 at 10:45 pm
Hooray, Crack origin story.
Judging by the needle, Imma guess and say Crack had some kind of sewing incident.
…
Yeah, sewing incident.
Also, unrelated but, I couldn’t help but notices that Lech seems to be dragging Gay away for some “chocolate chip muffins” if you know what I mean.
November 3rd, 2015 at 5:50 am
My theory is thus:
Like the other bears, Crack is born an ordinary, well-adjusted anthropomorphic cub in a zoo. At some point during his childhood, he escapes his enclosure and wanders into a supply warehouse on the zoo campus. A zoo staffer, unaware Crack is inside, locks the door.
Trapped in the dim warehouse, Crack is understandably spooked by the odd junk stacked to the rafters all around him. His imagination begins to run wild. In a panic, he upsets a large box, and out spills a dozen bear-shaped balloons (the tougher kind that don’t deflate and can be carried around on sticks). Fearful and lonely, Crack immediately sees these new ‘bears’ as his silent comrades, and they offer him a quantum of solace.
Things improve for a time, until a point where Crack accidentally bumps into a ladder, a hammer resting on the top falls down, and with a horrific BANG! one of his comrades unceremoniously explodes. This sends Crack’s fear into overdrive. Now terrified of ladders and hammers, he tries herding his remaining comrades away from the danger, inadvertently pushing one too close to a heated pipe, causing it too to explode. He shortly witnesses another ‘death’ when a rake topples over and kills a third comrade.
The hours proceed like this, with ‘bears’ dying left and right, and Crack’s fears multiplying, until eventually there are only three balloons left. Two of the balloons are leaking air and slowly deflating before Crack’s eyes. His already-traumatized mind running wild again, he theorizes that the only remaining ‘fat’ bear–obviously well-fed–is conspiring to kill him and his remaining comrades.
Come morning, after witnessing his two comrades shrivel away to nothingness, hiding out of sight with them away from the fat bear, Crack is a nervous wreck. A zookeeper enters the warehouse and, mistaking the fat bear balloon for Crack, speaks lenitively to it as he slowly approaches, uttering reassurances like “Come here, buddy. I’m not going to hurt you.” In a sudden violent flourish, he leaps to tackle the balloon, which explodes in spectacular fashion, cementing in Crack’s mind that even the keepers are mortally dangerous. Overwhelmed, he passes out.
The keepers eventually find him and return him to his enclosure, but by that time the damage is done. He fears everything and everyone, and has become the twisted creature we all know today.
November 3rd, 2015 at 12:06 pm
great theory Virgil. I enjoyed reading it :)
November 3rd, 2015 at 7:46 pm
@ Vausch i might like Nerd is smart, seems to be a computer whiz, and likes action figures and such. the weiner depicted as his mark is more stereotypical rather than being tied to his personality or his past.
@ Virgil lol that was a surpisingly fitting theory…i could see that happening! xD
November 3rd, 2015 at 7:48 pm
* meant
not “might”, derp
November 4th, 2015 at 7:00 am
y the hell does it keep changing my name between my nickname and my real name? oh well
November 4th, 2015 at 10:06 pm
I know this is off the main topic but where did Tanked’s straw go?
November 5th, 2015 at 5:33 pm
Bry: That’s the thing though; most all of the bears’ marks ARE stereotypical symbols of who they are.
Evil may have a character arc that makes him nicer to some of the others, Nerd in particular, but he’s still got the symbol most associate with pure evil on him.
Death is actually quite nice and can be easy to talk to if you just stay calm, and he cares a lot for the others, but his symbol is a skull to represent the fact that he is still Death.
Gimp is a…well, a gimp, and his symbol shows that via the cuffs, but he’s also the nicest of all of them and (funnily enough) works to CURE pain of others. Which kinda makes me wonder if he’s similar to that doctor from Morel Orel who gets his jollies when others are hurt, being why he took the career, but doesn’t show it outright as much.
Tank is a drunk but he has to be. But he is still generous and was the first to make friends with Vanity. Just sat down and gave him a beer.
Heck the only ones that seem to really live up to their stereotypical nature are Lech and Vanity. Probably Gay too but I honestly I still have no idea what the pink rhino represents, unless he’s a log-cabin republican XD
November 5th, 2015 at 9:46 pm
@Rae; Last panel. His can is also there.
@Vausch; The Lavender Rhino is a gay pride symbol, which is what’s on Gay’s tummy.
November 6th, 2015 at 12:17 am
Eating Furniture: yeah, I JUST found that after I had clicked “submit”. Also didn’t dawn on me until afterwards that the closest thing to a log-cabin republican would be a pink elephant. Even that’s not the right symbol. Whoops.
November 6th, 2015 at 2:41 am
@EatingFurniture Hmm I had no idea lavender rhino was a thing. At the same time I’m not going to wear anything with a pink rhino on me… although I also just found out green carnations are a gay symbol (victorian era) maybe I’ll wear one next time I wear a suit.
November 6th, 2015 at 8:50 pm
@daka; It’d probably be pretty hard to find anything with a pink rhino on it.