Bear Pirate Viking Queen by Sean Lewis and Jonathan Marks Barravecchia
pub date: August 21, 2024 by Image Comics
AMBER LOVE 22-AUG-2024 This review is made possible through the courtesy of Image Comics and supported by my Patreon backers.
When I first saw the name of this comic miniseries (3 issues), I was immediately intrigued. It felt mysterious and gave me the impression that something unique was about to come my way. I was not wrong.
Perhaps, by now, you’ve seen all the pull quote accolades for Bear Pirate Viking Queen by Sean Lewis and Jonathan Marks Barravecchia. As the name implies, there are characters of a bear, a pirate, a viking, and a queen—however, there are also two goddess-level sisters of great importance to the story. It may have needed another title rather than tacking indigenous goddesses onto the mouthful it is already.
I’ll cover the good and bad, such as it is, since what I’m labeling “bad” is not actually unpleasant or unskillful, but more about the style choices. As you can quickly see from the art, readers are presented with something outside the norm of comic books today (like Jonathan Hickman, J.K. Woodward, or David Mack). Whether Barravecchia did this with paper, watercolors, and ink or digitally, I have no idea. It feels like genuine wet-on-wet watercolors with the blackest of India ink. The splatters present as happy accidents, but they are truly throughout the style choices in foregrounds, backgrounds, and gutters. That made for some exciting reading because it’s unusual.
However, Barravecchia’s splattering wet-on-wet technique did make it difficult for me to read at times when I could not decipher what was happening. The panels are often bleeding into each other or they’re non-existent. I believe this would be a more fulfilling reading experience in print than digitally due to the use of overlapping panels and double-page spreads.
The India ink and font choices make the pages feel like someone is genuinely handwriting the lettering with a dipped fountain pen.
One example that made me confused is when Barravecchia would have an inked and colorized character next to a character with only inked sketch lines (those are sometimes given an eggshell white colorization). There’s a scene inside a house with a servant boy and the family’s young son; at times, I thought the boys were ghosts because of this uncolored version of them in panels with fully colored characters, especially since violence is a backdrop of the main story.
Another point of confusion for me was if the Bear was like an invisible spirit, walk-in entity, or something like another personality joining the pirate (first) then the viking (second). When I felt comfortable knowing they were separate beings, something pop up when least expected that made me question it all over again. And to be honest, I’m still not sure about whether the pirate and viking are truly separate or if one was needed to awaken the other.
The viking proclaims his name loudly and clearly. The queen, however, does not. Is the queen a representation of a goddess comparable to his god stature? What she does with all certainty is show that gender has nothing to do with the potential for bloodshed and colonization. In the story’s present timeline, she represents the British Empire.
Unanswered Questions:
As for the two magical sisters, they appear to be of an unnamed indigenous culture of the north, perhaps Siberia or somewhere else that crosses the Arctic Circle. There are presently over 100 indigenous ethnic groups of that region. None of this is explained in Bear Pirate Viking Queen. Regardless, genocide and other evils of conquest are explicit.
It’s also unclear how beings with great power could be enslaved. Why couldn’t they call up a giant wave to toss the viking overboard? In that same vein of confusion, why does the bear stay with the pirate when later he states that his mission was always to protect the sisters? He was free when he found the pirate in the sea. Then he stayed with the pirate before an unfortunate reunion with the viking. How and why was the bear taken like the sisters by the viking?
Summary:
While a truly unique style and compelling story, there were times when the watercolors, inks, and lettering were hard to understand the panels. I was pulled into the story easily. I kept worrying for the Bear’s safety before understanding more of its essence. I wish the magical goddess sisters had come into the story sooner since they have an enormous impact on the plot. I’m still left with a lot of questions after reading it twice. The essence at the heart of the story (which comes out crystal clear at the end) is that empires come with evil intentions and this lesson has always been relevant.
The theme about harm that human beings do—to each other and literally everything around us—saves this comic series from being all flash and no substance. Sean Lewis and Jonathan Marks Barravecchia are magnificently creative in their approach which is the second reason to pick up Bear Pirate Viking Queen.
Anyone familiar with my own work would know the Bear is my favorite character of the story.
Rating: 4 stars
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.