Review: Bear vs. Zombies...

Bear vs. Zombies, by Isaiah M. Mcallister, is exactly what the title says it is: a webcomic about a bear named Bear and his zombie destroying path of destruction after his girlbearfriend is killed by said zombies. Phew. Should have taken a breath there. The comic updates every Wednesday according to the About page. Now to the ratings.
ART: 6
Which is pretty good considering the near lack of backgrounds other than a gradient filled sky and a tree here and there. The character designs make up for it though with the zombies being pretty distinct from other zombie comics, and the animals being nice and cartoony without looking overly goofy. I especially like the look of the title character, Bear, with his cool cloak.
WRITING: 6
While BVZ is written as a mix of humor and action adventure, I didn't enjoy much of the humor, as the jokes felt stilted and a bit forced most times. And I know it's animals fighting zombie hordes, so reality isn't a factor, but why do these forest creatures know that Whitney and Bobby smoked crack, or how to make the Kessel run in under 12 Parsecs? I guess I should remember that there is a rabbit who can drive a Jeep though, and let all that slide. I dunno. I guess I was hoping for less human jokes and more animal gags. Aside from that the story moves along briskly and we find out things are more than just a simple zombie outbreak. I did find myself wanting to keep reading to find out more, and to see who lives and dies, so Isaiah is writing a decently compelling story.
ORIGINALITY: 7
If it was just a zombie story it would have been a hard 5 because let's face it, zombie comics are everywhere. The extra 2 points come from it being a zombie comic told from an animal point of view, even if the animals act like humans.
WEBSITE: 5
Pretty basic site with a store featuring one tshirt(a nice one though it is), a monthly archive, a decent blog, Facebook and Twitter buttons( I need to get those), and lots of red. Maybe a few more colors would please the eye a bit more.
OUTCOME: Bears Vs. Zombies is, at this point and time, middle of the road for me. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I didn't care for the constant pop culture references coming from woodland creatures, but I did like that the story seems to be coming to a head, with a definite ending in the works. I think BVZ is going places, but it might take a while.