Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this book. The Man with the Bear is set in 2071, where Earth is a frozen wasteland. I liked the atmosphere and the characters. It was cool that the main character had a bear companion. There aren't many books I've read where that happens. I was worried for the characters, and wanted them all to survive. At times the book was a little slow, but overall I enjoyed the read.

50 years in the future, the world is covered in ice and those left are struggling to survive. A mercenary is hired to return a seedpod of soybeans that was recently found. This felt really dated, both in art and story. The art used colored pencils and I didn't really care for the art.

A gorgeously drawn graphic novel with an interesting narrative, plot, and concepts. Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

This was really poor, and only redeemed by the artwork. The dialogue (in translation at least) is awful, all non sequitur after non sequitur, all delivered in ways that nobody alive has ever spoken. The plot – man and his polar bear friend and colleague, in some post-apocalyptic ice age, are paid to collect a 'package' – is also badly delivered. The text tries as hard as it can to not tell us who is on which side and for what, so we know nobody's motive; the whole set-up of finding about the job, which involves him leaving his girlfriend and finding someone else in a sort of space bordello, and listening to some audio tapes, is lame as lame can get; and every ten minutes there he is bumping into someone from his past. Meanwhile we know nothing of anybody, so care about nothing. Not even when everyone tries to shoot everyone else does this lift off the page, meaning all that fine craft in the visuals is for nothing. Well, for half a star I suppose, but that's it.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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This wasn't quite my cup of tea. The illustrations were gritty and realistic, which was great. The plot was intriguing and had a few twists, but I found the execution to be confusing and often not well done. There were more than a few instances of where conversations provided information twice, then a few instances more where the events didn't seem to flow correctly.
For me, I didn't really engage with the storyline. I liked the expedition part much more than the mercenary aspect. I didn't find the “man with the bear” to be particularly interesting or engaging. There was so little characterisation for him that I couldn't feel anything but disinterest for how he fared and what he was getting himself in for.

A man rides a bear over a frozen landscape in a dystopian future. This post apocalyptical earths end times have come, people struggle to survive, into this wasteland the man embarks on a journey, a mission to fetch vital resources. The paradim is a common one to many great stories, the story so far reminded me of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe crossed with the film The Book of Eli, and set in the cold. Whilst the story is still being told, there's more novells to come, it's a great start to what could be an epic story. The copy i read was provided as a review copy.

I'm kind of torn because the art was so dang ugly, and any time I come across super ugly art in a graphic novel it sort of ruins it for me.
There were good things here though - mainly a lot of good action sequences and a protagonist that is super interesting because he's pretty much a complete mystery. Who is this man? How did he become best friends with a polar bear? How did the bear learn to do all those things? I might pick up volume two despite the gross art just to see what happens.

My thanks to Europe Comics for a temporary digital edition via NetGalley of ‘The Man with the Bear: Book 1’, script and art by Yalcin Didman, in exchange for an honest review. It was originally published in Turkish in 1999.

In the year 2071 the Earth has become a frozen wasteland with its fertile soil covered by frost. The most valuable and scarce resource now is natural food. When a long-lost space shuttle carrying seed pods is rediscovered it brings hope for a new beginning. Yet there is fierce competition to recover the ship’s cargo. A post-apocalyptic mercenary with a polar bear companion is at the centre of the quest.

This was an interesting adventure set in a dystopian near future. I felt that Yalcin Didman did a good job of balancing story with the art. It was quite conventional artwork though this suited the nature of the story.

I loved the involvement of the bear, named Cousteau, and his bemused expressions in some panels were just delightful. I would have welcomed more of the backstory to how The Man and Cousteau came to work together, though perhaps that will come in future volumes.

It ends on a cliffhanger, which was a bit frustrating, though Europe Comics website does list Volume 2.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Cousteau.

I read the English version of this comic which is called ' 'The Man With the Bear'. The comic is futuristic and dystopian. The story reminds me of the Mad Max films but insteady of dry terrains and desert, there is endless snow and ice, and in this story our hero rides a polar bear instead of a souped up vehicle.

It is 2071 and the Earth is frozen and dying. There is no fertile soil and no food. People survive these harsh conditions by eating synthetic food. A group of researchers discover a long-lost space shuttle carrying seed pods, but these seed pods are lost in a creepy accident which only one researcher survives. As the story of this ill fated mission becomes known other people with dark intentions decide to seek for the seeds and the Man with the Bear is hired by a group of criminals to find the seeds.

The story is interesting although this is another serialized graphic novel and these can be so irritating to follow because you have to wait until the entire series is published before you can enjoy the full story. I didn't really like the artwork because the coloring was too dark for me but this dark coloring was effective in the way it conveyed the dystopian nature of the story.

This is definitely a good series to follow if you have the patience (unlike me) and one to look out for if you like this genre of graphic novels.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Tough Gritty and Dark! A well written novel with great art and a well thought out story. A must read!!!!