Molly and the Bear / Bear With Me

If you’re looking for a really well-drawn, classically paced and staged comic strip, you need to check out Bear With Me by Bob Scott. You can follow it either at GoComics or the artist’s website.

Scott is a former Disney animator and previously co-penciled the strip U.S. Acres with Jim Davis (Garfield). He knows his stuff. The premise is basic — a 900-pound talking brown bear moves in with 11-year-old Molly and her parents — but it’s the simplicity of the idea that allows for so many gags. And the character motion, energy, and linework is excellent. This is a master at work.

The bear is quite the scaredy cat, and several of the strips revolve around his reactions to civilization. Molly’s young enthusiasm plays off well against his caution, while Dad and Bear don’t get along.

There’s a 250-page oversized collection that shows off Scott’s favorites of the comics he’s done over the past two decades called Molly and the Bear that’s a wonderful place to start. (The publisher provided a review copy.)