Written By: Tom Hutchison
Pencils By: Ian Snyder
Inks By:Sony Merbitt
Colours By: Luis Guerrero
Letters By: HDE
Design By: Rob Duenas
Big Dog Ink
In January 2013, at the newly elected President’s inauguration, a group of werewolves reveal themselves to man-kind, on national news, for the very first time by maiming the elected and his body guards. Afterwards, several other government officials all around the world had been killed and thus began the were-war. Man vs Manimals. A state of paranoia struck the world and the suspected wolves were killed off in brutal fashions, high numbers, and much like witches once were.
Cunning, as vampires usually are, they chose this as the perfect time to out themselves, presented as good guys wanting nothing more than to live hand-in-hand with people. They’re willingness to help lead to a near extinction of werewolves, up until countless amounts of other supposedly mythical beings began popping up. Then, us kind hearted folk finally realized that our actions were a bit out of line and began tagging and releasing werewolves in hopes of saving the species.
Flash forward a few years and take a mind-blowing trip to The Carnival. A place where women of all origins, be it angel’s, elves, or mermaids, dance for entertainment and pay. An exotic place where you can seek the much heard of, rarely seen, Werebear and vamp’s Victor and Anna Bell are attending specifically for that part of the show.
It is widely believed that since werebear’s were born and not created like their counterparts, they were made via Mother Nature as a balance for the over-populated, over-indulgent, vampires. The fact that the blood suckers hunted and killed every werebear upon birth didn’t help the rumours any.
After killing what they thought was the Carnival’s werebear dancer mid-show, Victor and his gal were sent off the property and quickly began the ruthless hunt for the girl who actually possesses this power. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t dealing with just anyone, they’re challenging Naomi, Werebear Extraordinaire!
Naomi’s character is turning out to be everything I’d imagined and more. Her thirst for vengeance is buried in the pit of her existence. Every vamp must pay the price of their actions, the betrayal of mythical and man-kind. The issue stands, however, that the rate of turn to her kill ratio is terribly low and that just won’t do. She is sexy, strong and plays bad-ass quite well. Not bad for a girl statistically doomed for a slaughter. They may have called it Ursa Minor, meaning Smaller Bear in Latin, but I think Naomi is going to present us with quite a big the show!
Hutchison has already presented us with several distinct, obscure, and highly addictive characters. He doesn’t let Naomi steal every 
scene and plays off of her kill and think later attitude with personalities including: a rock man with a thing for giving massages (holding in his hands some of this comics funniest moments), a best friend named Angie who is more than willing to aid in the killing of the ‘casket jockeys’, and most importantly a father figure that brings about a lot of build up in regards to Naomi’s history. The dialogue is natural, each person speaks in a unique manner allowing us to get to know them and not just see the group as a whole, but rather pieces to one well thought out puzzle.
Complimenting this gruesome plot, is an art team whose talent and skills caught me really off guard. Big Dog Ink is known to have some of the best indie artists and digital colouring and somehow, these two issues blew me away even with that expectation. Werewolves and large furry animals in general, are a hard concept to accomplish. Many come out on the disgusting and deformed side, where as these bad boys appear nothing less than fierce and sturdy to boot. The fur looks smooth, shaded perfectly to create just enough texture without overloading the image with hard black lines. These two issues are something any art junkie will want to check out, a perfect combination of harsh imagery and beautiful, bright moments.
Naomi and the rest of the gang in Ursa Minor have me hooked already. Supernatural wars have been done before, but in my experience, never involving this many mythical species or in a fashion this exciting! It doesn’t scream of cheese or bad jokes, just great story telling and impeccable artistry.
The first two issues get a strong 8.5 torn up casket jockeys out of 10. If you have ever enjoyed any of Bid Dog Ink‘s previous titles or just looking for a fresh take on the supernatural – Look no further, you have found what you are looking for.
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