Bear Mountain Rancher: BIG Mountain Skier, & Pres of Bear Mountain Alpine Log Cabin Writers Club: Interview with Bear J. Sleeman: The Savage Mind Behind Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean Featured in "Hard Steel Frontier: The Last of the Hard Men & Beyond Comics"

Interview with Bear J. Sleeman: The Savage Mind Behind Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean
Featured in "Hard Steel Frontier: The Last of the Hard Men & Beyond Comics"

Interview by: Yuki Yamashita, Northern Alps, Japan.

Title: Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean
By: Bear J. Sleeman

Synopsis:

In an age of skull-splitting violence, blood-soaked mayhem, and bone-shattering savagery, Jack Rennell, the last Bearmountean, stands as a walking apocalypse. Clad in a shemi loincloth and Ugg boots, he wields an axe the size of a body, battling through Ben Zion's degenerate armies of werewolf Somali Jewish warriors, who hunger for flesh under a twisted regime in Ziongoria—a land drenched in depravity and perversion.

Jack isn’t just fighting for survival; he’s on a mission to annihilate. Alongside him are his companions in gore: Megumi, his bloodthirsty cavewoman wife, a banshee of steel and sinew who dances through enemies like a hurricane of blades; Wyatt, a juggernaut of untamable rage who crushes skulls with every step; and Steve “Motherfucking” Chi-Hi Jugs, a half-man, half-beast with a taste for flesh and an insatiable hunger for violence.

Yuki Yamashita walks into the smoky, rugged cabin nestled in the shadow of the Northern Alps. It's exactly the kind of place you'd expect the man behind Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean to reside—gritty, soaked in Americana, and reeking of hard-earned badassery. Bear J. Sleeman, the mastermind behind the comic, rises to greet her, a giant of a man with calloused hands from a life spent ranching and hunting grizzlies. His real-life ranch, Bear Mountain Ranch, and infamous honky-tonk, Bear Mountain Loggers Truck Stop, are legendary in their own right.

Yuki Yamashita: Bear, let’s get straight to it. The world wants to know—what the hell inspired Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean? There’s brutal, blood-soaked, skull-crushing violence, raw Herculean masculinity, and the art is just next-level. How do you even begin to create something like this?

Bear J. Sleeman: Yuki, it’s real simple. The world’s gone soft. Jack Rennell is a reminder of what men were—and what they should be. Men who fought, men who conquered. None of this soft-palmed, latte-sipping bullshit you see now. Jack Rennell is everything I love about life—hunting grizzly, smashing skulls, wielding battle axes, and obliterating entire armies of degenerates, like Ben Zion’s faggot army of Somali Black Jews. This comic? It’s my ultimate 'fuck you' to the modern world.

Yuki: You’ve been called toxic masculine, extreme even. How does that sit with you?

Bear: Toxic? Damn right. I wear it like a badge. Men like Jack, Wyatt, Steve Chu-Hi “Jugs,” and I? We don’t give a damn about what people think. We were born to take what’s ours, crush anyone who stands in our way, and enjoy the spoils of war—whether it's women, wealth, or watching our enemies beg before we split their skulls with a battle axe.

Yuki: Tell me about the characters—who are Jack, Megumi, Wyatt, and Steve Chu-Hi? And where do they come from in your real life?

Bear: Jack Rennell is me, no doubt. Big-ass battle axe, long black hair, and Ugg boots. It’s all inspired by how we live at Bear Mountain Ranch. Jack’s wife, Megumi? That's my real-life wife. She’s a warrior. A mix of beauty and savagery, like any good woman should be. Wyatt is my real brother—a man's man, always ready for a fight. Then there's Steve Chu-Hi “Jugs” Smith—my best friend. He once chugged 20 jugs of Chu-Hi at the truck stop, then went out and smashed the skulls of 100 communist rainbow flag-waving faggots who made the mistake of stopping at the wrong honky-tonk. That’s the kinda man I surround myself with.

Yuki: What about the insane art in this comic? I mean, these wolves, the brutality—it’s primal. You did all of it?

Bear: Hell yeah, I did. Every stroke, every severed limb, and splattered brain matter. It’s gotta be visceral. You wanna feel it—like when Jack plunges his axe into a fcking werewolf’s skull, or when Steve rips through Zion's army limb by limb, skulls cracking like watermelons. It’s gotta hit you in the gut. It’s not just about action; it’s about feeling the power, the bloodlust.*

Yuki: This Herculean world, set in 4000 BC—how does that reflect your real life?

Bear: We live like that today. At Bear Mountain Loggers Truck Stop, it’s all wildland firefighters, loggers, truckers, Special Forces vets—badasses, every last one. We drink, we fight, we race V8 muscle cars and big block diesel pickups, and we don’t answer to anyone. Sheriff Grizzly chases us down Main Street for burnouts every Friday night. We hunt bull elk, wrestle grizzlies, and fly fish in Bear River. We eat our salmon raw, just like Hercules would’ve.

Yuki: And what about your love for battle axes, guns, muscle cars?

Bear: Axes? Nothing beats the feeling of splitting a skull with one. Guns are just part of life. We got 'em everywhere—big ones, small ones, doesn’t matter. Muscle cars? I’ve been rolling coal in V8 diesels since I was knee-high, and we still tear it up every weekend, side by side with the boys. Life’s about power, control, and conquering your surroundings. That’s what this comic’s about. It’s raw, it’s primal, and it’s pure fucking masculinity.

Yuki: Tell me about this honky-tonk, the Bear Mountain Loggers Truck Stop. What makes it so legendary?

Bear: You walk into the Loggers and you know you’re in for a fight or a night you won’t forget. Bikers, truckers, loggers, warfighters—they all roll in and out, smashing drinks, shooting pool, or just waiting for the next skull to split. Every damn person who walks in knows—this ain’t for the weak. Hell, last year, we had Jugs take down an entire busload of tourists who thought they could stop by for a drink. Bad mistake, and now? Their skulls decorate our wall.

Yuki: Bear, one last thing. There’s a quote you live by—something about crushing your enemies. Can you share that with our readers?

Bear: Damn right. It’s from Conan, and it’s everything I stand for: ‘We will crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women.’ That’s life. That’s what Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean is all about. Blood, violence, and conquering every damn obstacle in your path.

As Yuki leaves Bear J. Sleeman’s rugged home, she can’t shake the raw power, the unapologetic masculinity & badassery that surrounds this man, his friends and his world. Jack Rennell: The Bearmountean isn’t just a comic—it’s a war cry for a time when men were men, they crushed skulls with their bare hands, an blood was shed without mercy.

The Bearmountean
Featured in "Hard Steel Frontier: The Last of the Hard Men & Beyond Comics"

Opening Scene:
It begins with the stench of sulfur and the howls of beasts. Under the glow of a blood-red moon, Jack and his comrades stand knee-deep in a field of butchered bodies—blood spraying, flesh tearing, bones crunching. Every swing of Jack's axe cleaves bodies apart as he howls, "They think they’ve seen war—but I’m just getting started."

Megumi carves through enemies, her sword dripping with arterial spray as intestines unravel at her feet. “More!” she shrieks, decapitating a wolf-beast with a single slash. Wyatt, a towering beast of human flesh, swings his war hammer, splitting heads open like overripe fruit. Skulls explode under his boots as he roars, “This is what a Bearmountean does!”

Steve “Motherfucking” Chi-Hi Jugs—half-wolf, half-death incarnate—slaughters everything in sight, transforming mid-battle, tearing limbs with his claws, roaring into the carnage, “I WANT MORE BLOOD!” His massive, hulking form rips enemies apart like rag dolls.

In the distance, Ben Zion watches from his palace, wrapped in the bones of his enemies, his face twisted in arrogance and fear. His abominations—vile, twisted things born of sorcery and dark science—scream and writhe in agony as Jack’s axe slams into them. Blood sprays across the earth, coating the land in a sickening torrent of gore.

Carnage and Brutality:
The battle isn’t a fight—it’s a blood-soaked massacre. Jack is a whirlwind of destruction, crushing skulls with the back of his axe, cleaving enemies in half with every savage strike. He disembowels his foes with brutal efficiency, laughing as blood splashes his face. He wipes the blood across his chest like war paint, eyes gleaming with unholy fury. "Ben Zion’s monsters don’t know what real hell looks like—until now."

Wyatt laughs as he snaps a werewolf's spine with his bare hands, lifting the body overhead and tossing it into the fire. His hammer swings like a wrecking ball, smashing through armor, bone, and flesh with sickening cracks. “You wanted a war, now choke on it!” he roars, slamming his hammer into a wolf-beast’s skull, reducing it to a fine red mist.

Megumi, covered head-to-toe in the blood of her enemies, doesn’t stop for a second. Her blade cuts through flesh and bone as easily as air. Limbs soar through the night sky, blood raining down as she howls with savage glee. “Kill every last one!” she screams, her eyes wild with battle fury.

Steve, his claws drenched in blood, rips the throat from a werewolf, savoring the carnage. His transformation is unstoppable—a whirlwind of fur, muscle, and violence that rends flesh from bone. He growls, “I’ll skin them alive before the night’s over.”

Final Confrontation:
They march toward Ben Zion’s palace of filth, a hellish fortress draped in the remnants of the innocent. With every step, the earth beneath them becomes soaked in blood, the air thick with the smell of death. The monstrous horde charges, but Jack stands firm, his axe dripping with gore.

Ben Zion’s vile sorcerers unleash grotesque creatures twisted by forbidden magic—things that shouldn’t exist, screaming and writhing in agony as they lunge toward Jack. But he doesn’t flinch. His axe moves faster than the eye can follow, tearing through the twisted flesh of his enemies, sending blood spraying in all directions. He steps over their mangled remains, eyes locked on Ben Zion’s throne.

Wyatt crushes a sorcerer's skull, his massive hand squeezing until bone cracks and brains ooze through his fingers. "You want war? I AM WAR!" he roars, smashing another beast to pulp.

Megumi laughs as she cuts down Ben Zion's elite guard, her sword a blur of crimson arcs as she hacks limbs and heads with unrelenting fury. "I want them to scream!" she howls, plunging her blade into the chest of a lycanthropic beast and watching it twitch in its final moments.

Steve "Motherfucking" Chi-Hi Jugs rips into the last of the werewolves, his claws tearing through fur, muscle, and sinew like paper. “This is your end!” he growls, his fangs sinking into flesh, his hunger for death insatiable.

Inside the palace, Ben Zion cowers, surrounded by his most perverse creations—grotesque abominations born of madness. Jack smashes through the doors, his axe swinging with lethal precision, sending heads and limbs flying. Blood fountains from severed arteries as the Bearmounteans rip through the final defenses.

“Your time is up, Zion,” Jack growls, approaching the throne with bloodlust in his eyes. “The Bearmountean is here, and I’m taking your goddamn head.”

Climax:
In the throne room, drenched in the blood of his legions, Ben Zion faces his end. Jack swings his axe one final time, cleaving through the tyrant’s skull, splitting it in two. Blood, brains, and bone fragments splatter across the walls. Jack grabs Zion’s mangled head, raising it high.

“The reign of Zion is over!” Jack roars, his voice echoing through the palace as the blood-drenched Bearmounteans stand victorious amidst the carnage.

The scene fades, the image of Jack standing atop a mountain of corpses, the broken skull of Ben Zion in his hand, eyes burning with fury—the Bearmountean god of war.