War Bears

War Bears #1-3

by Margaret Atwood, Ken Steacy

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale, comes this historical fiction graphic novel tracing the Golden Age of comic books.

Oursonette, a fictional Nazi-fighting superheroine, is created at the peak of World War II by comic book creator Al Zurakowski who dreams of making it big in the early world of comics publishing.

A story that follows the early days of comics in Toronto, a brutal war that greatly strains Al personally and professionally, and how the rise of post-war American comics puts an end to his dreams.

International and New York Times best-selling novelist Margaret Atwood and acclaimed artist Ken Steacy collaborate for one of the most highly anticipated comic book and literary events!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Comics, Canada, Historical, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

104 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2001

About the author

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay set in Canada. It's pretty much the same plot. Follows a young artist who creates a comic, Oursonette, about a female were-bear during World War II. It's not very interesting at all. My understanding is that Atwood created the Oursonette character as a teenager.

Received an advanced copy from Dark Horse and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[L. McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay I should probably start my review with this. I saw this and thought it was a comic about a pretty were-bear woman fighting nazis during WW2, which would be right up my alley. I didn’t realize it’s a drama about the creator and publisher of a non-existent comic about a pretty were-bear woman fighting nazis during WW2 so there was a lot of disappointment here.

What’s it about?
Umm... sorta just said. It’s a drama about the creator and publisher of a non-existent comic about a pretty were-bear woman fighting nazis during WW2.

Pros:
The art is mostly good. There are a few iffy pages but most of it looks pretty decent and there are some pages that are absolutely stunning so overall it’s good artwork.
There are a few parts of this fake comic about the were-bear lady in a couple of spots, those are fun and well written. It even feels like an old WW2 comic book.

Cons:
The main story... not so good. Basically it felt like something Ed Brubaker may have thought of at some point but then was like “nah, I got better shit I can write”.
Fuck these characters. Almost everyone in this comic annoys me, they just act shitty to each other but are meant to be friends at the same time. Even the main character who in the beginning we’re meant to feel sorry for becomes a bit of a dickhead by the end of the book.
This book is boring. Pretty much nothing exciting happens.
This comic is very predictable.
There are a few attempts at humor... they fail.
The dialogue is pretty bad which is a definite problem in any book but especially one as dialogue driven as this one.
Why are people in this often speaking French with no English translation for those lines? This is a comic being printed in English, you can easily have a translation for us.

Overall:
A sexy were-bear lady beating the fuck out of nazis in a WW2 comic would probably be something I’d enjoy and recommend to a bunch of people... too bad it’s not that.
Instead we get some good artwork that unfortunately gets overshadowed by shitty characters, a boring story and poor dialogue. Honestly this is kinda terrible because of how good it could have been. Earlier this month I read Brubaker’s Bad Weekend which is a much better alternative for those looking for a comic creator drama (but it does tie-in to his Criminal series though it’s probably easy enough to understand as a standalone?). This however, I’d skip (though if Atwood sees this, I would probably still read a comic that’s actually about the bear lady).

2/5

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atwood’s second graphic novel was inspired by a neat footnote to WWII history: in 1941 all non-essential imports from the USA into Canada were stopped, and that included comics. So a Canadian comics scene sprang up to plug a gap in the market over the next five years. Her protagonist is Al Zura, a Francophone artist of Polish origins who gets a chance to move beyond grunt work and create his own heroine, Oursonette, a were bear who, with her two polar bear sidekicks, smashes Nazis and saves the day. Even in black and white, his comic develops a cult following.

This reminded me a fair bit of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The period slang is fun, and the book does give a sense of what it was like on the homefront during the war. The story is a little bit slight, and probably of most interest to Canadians, though.

[Chinook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I vaguely recall learning about this golden age of Canadian comics from Margaret Atwood before - in Angel Catbird? In an interview? But I didn’t really know much about it and it’s an interesting historical detail that I’m sure most don’t know.

I really loved the artwork and it transitions nicely between colour and black and white. And the overall plot was well done as well.

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really have great expectations going into this. I thought it would be either weird or boring or both (it was on sale). But this was great! The concept was interesting and Steacy did an amazing job turning Atwood's original short story into a graphic novel. It's centred around a francophone polish guy (Al) writing Canadian black and white comics during WWII (known as Canadian whites, they were produced because of the embargo on non-essentials, including American comics). His comic, called Oursonette, is about a were-bear lady, which is supposed to be a nod to the Russian allies. There's a line from his editor at the end of the story, 'Oh, Al, and that Russian bear--I don't see that being so popular, coming up. How're they going to divide things? The Yanks, the Russies. It's not gonna be so lovey-dovey soon, trust me.' As someone who grew up in the 80s and remembers the tail end of the cold war, it's so easy to forget we were once allies. And it was particularly weird to be reading this at the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew there was such a thing as a WWII wartime history of Canadian comics. Certainly not me.
It's an original story-line, about a Canadian illustrator, during wartime, writing a black and white jingoistic comic. Even he is horrified by the atomic bomb unleashed on Japan and the last edition comes with a cautionary end-note before he embarks on peacetime advertising spreads. Only to be recognised with an award in our cosplay era.
Clearly has a modern take on things but seems well researched and well illustrated.
Certainly a better tale than Vol 1 of Angel Catbird.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can never get a handle on Margaret Atwood. When I finally thing I know what she's about, she releases something like this.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

During WWII, there was an embargo on American full color comics in Canada that created an opportunity for Canadian comic creators to get in on the act with black and white comics that normally couldn't compete. This is the story of one such company and the character they created.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read just like something out of the Era. Neat way to package a bit of Canadian history.

[Mouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta admit that when I first saw this book I didn’t think much of it and the subject matter certainly didn’t excite me that much! A strange thing happened as I started to read it, I started getting into it. I honestly didn’t know anything about Canadian wartime comics, I didn’t really know it was a thing?! I feel like I’ve learned something new in the world of comics and that’s a good thing.
The characters were well written and I ended up caring what happened to them and the comic company. I enjoyed the art going back and forth from color to the black and white wartime comics, that was pretty cool!

[Howell Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and informative historically: During World War II, American color comics were not allowed to be sold in Canada, so Canadian creators came forth with their own comics, printed in black and white because of supply limitations. The art is less than compelling, though probably done in the style of the times, making the book a difficult read.

[Calvin Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canadian so a plus, but issue #1 was only a 2.5

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good!

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Folks who love obscure comic history and intolerant, unlikeable main characters will enjoy this.

[Samantha Knox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it. The only thing better than a good graphic novel is a good Canadian historical fiction graphic novel. Nice quick read.

[Mike Twittey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went in expecting a simple narrative but the depth of characters and history really surprised me. Steacy takes real care in the historical accuracy of his illustrations.

[Marko · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a comic book based on a two page short story written by Margaret Atwood. It was nice to get to know about Canadian comics during the WW2-years, but that was about it.

[Olivia Hannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the comics written in Canada during WWII. Very interesting comic history.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The visuals were pretty, but the writing doesn't hold up the weight of the better prose writing of Atwood's story (printed in the back).

[Cecilie Jøhnk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely story and great art.

[Danielle Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite.
Reminiscent of Kavalier and Clay (like really) and a little wordy for me. I like my graphic novels picture strong!

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting story about a Canadian comic book illustrator in World War II. Cool concept. Wish it was more engaging.

[Tessa Margetts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak story, slow moving and wasn't invested in the characters

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative.

[Susan K · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have written this review before I returned the book to the library. The historic background was so interesting and now I'm not sure I remember it correctly. The graphic novel pays homage to a time when comics in Canada were called black and whites and were extremely popular. This offering is a compilation of issues 1-3. A young artist makes it big in Canada with his popular series about Oursonette, a fictional Nazi-fighting superheroine. When the war ends, his career hits a wall when the more popular "colorized" comics from the U. S. come into the country.

[Raven Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

An homage to "The Canadian Whites" and a history of World War II. Lovely and bittersweet as the illustrator says.

[Relena_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history here is fascinating, but the main character was so confusing. His motivations didn't make sense, even when those of everyone around him did.