MISC. MANGA, *Ursa Minors!

So, fuse Clerks with Scott Pilgrim, and add some robot bear suits, and you'll get some idea of what Ursa Minors! is like. Written by Neil Kleid and Paul Cole, and drawn by TMNT artist Fernando Pinto, this 4-issue mini-series from Slave Labor Graphics mixed in manga-styled art with American comic book geek sensibilities.

Tom, Richard, and Harry(get it?)are a trio of fanboys that work at a comic book/ice cream shop, but they also kick butt in robotic suits designed to look like bears, like if Tony Stark designed human-sized Teddy Ruxpin outfits. They have regular run-ins with Nazi-ninjas, jetpack ninjas, and other variety of ninjas. A trip to Japan has them celebrated as the "Mega Bears"(weirdly, they don't actually call them the "Ursa Minors" in any regular part of the series)where they take down a rampaging kaiju. Also, a hop over the pond to England makes way for an obligatory Harry Potter parody. Their final adventure has them dealing with corrupt future versions of themselves where they apparently get stuck in a time warp at the end, but the trade paperback has them in another adventure fighting mutant zombie kids at a fake movie premiere.

This was a fair look at the geek zeitgeist in the usual way of making a couple of hardcore fans into actual superheroes, but they manage to make it their own by having the Ursa Minors acting particularly dickish throughout the series. You probably want to get the collected graphic novel which has a of the bonus material, including webcomics, and a special 10-page wrap-up story as well.