Joey Drew

"Henry, come visit the old workshop. There's something I need to show you."

— Joey Drew during the game's ending,

Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 5
Joseph "Joey" Drew[1] is an old friend of Henry Stein and the founder of Joey Drew Studios, famous for introducing the popular Bendy cartoons from the times of past as both a director and writer. Joey also wrote a memoir/animation guide entitled "The Illusion of Living", which was critically acclaimed among the general public.

He tried to use the Ink Machine for creating living versions of his cartoons, but they turned out mutated in the attempts that went wrong. Initially founding the company with Henry, it is Joey's message to his old business partner 30 years later that draws Henry back to the old studio.

In Bendy and the Ink Machine, he is mentioned numerous times from Chapter 1: Moving Pictures to Chapter 4: Colossal Wonders in the audio logs scattered throughout the studio by the other employees and even leaves some of his own audio logs behind. In Chapter 5: The Last Reel, Joey finally makes a physical appearance at the end when Henry came to visit his apartment.

As hinted by few hidden secret messages and some of his audio logs in Bendy and the Ink Machine, and claims told by Norman Polk in Dreams Come to Life, Joey is highly presumably the overarching antagonist of the Bendy franchise.

In the Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook, it is revealed that he occasionally sent memos to staff members, which reveal much of his work. One of his memos reveals the existence of the Ink Machine and the Ink Makers positioned all over the studio,[2]. Another memo is a notice to the studio staff of Susie Campbell's then-recent employment.[3] Yet another memo was an announcement introducing Allison Pendle to the Joey Drew Studios staff. However, he adds a warning not to distribute the letter to Susie Campbell, for reasons as-of-yet unknown.[4]

Physical Appearance
Only seen at the end of Chapter 5 of the first game in the current time of 1963, Joey is a tall, slight elderly-aged man of medium build with blue eyes, slicked-back grey hair and a slim moustache.

Due to his current age, Joey has walking difficulties while still able to stand up and walk to some extent. The wheelchair he owns is used to help him move around when necessary.

Personality
Joey is optimistic in general, which reveals him to be something of a workaholic (in other words, "compulsive worker"). Speaking with a thick, distinctive western accent, Joey himself in his past age boasts the personality of a big thinker and dreamer, a man with large aspirations for both himself and his company. Claiming that belief can get everyone from anywhere in the world, Joey's larger than life attitude was most likely a major selling point to Henry when starting the studio.

In Bendy and the Ink Machine, the other cassettes left behind by many animation studio employees, however, paint a different picture beneath the façade. With numerous references to Joey's harsh work ethic, a mind constantly disregarding old ideas for new ones, and his eccentricities regarding offerings to the gods, Joey's working personality hints at a more obsessive side to his work that slowly began to alienate his staff. On the surface, he seems like a jovial, caring, passionate, yet over-the-top man who wants others to accomplish their dreams, but as heard in his audio log in Chapter 4, this is all merely a façade as in reality he appears to be a greedy, manipulative, selfish, callous, cynical backstabber who only cares about his own gain and is willing to do anything to have it all. He seems to care little about his employees, seeing them as expendable. This is evident as he is heard speaking about sacrificing them to fulfil his wishes. His tape in Boris and the Dark Survival indicates a secretly vulnerable side to him. When he shows up in Chapter 5, he seems to have become remorseful and repentant, realizing his actions were the wrong ones and what Henry did was right.

Childhood
Joseph "Joey" Drew was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1901. Joseph's father was a shoemaker who owned his own shoe store and his mother was a homemaker by trade, who would also take care of the finances. As a child Joseph spent most of his time with his mother while his father was busy making shoes. Despite being poor, they were able to live comfortably. Though Joseph would often worry about would happen if his father didn't get the orders in on time.

When Joseph was 5 years old, he asked his mother one night how his father finishes making all the shoes. His mother tells him about the shoemakers elves, who help his father make the shoes. Skeptical, Joseph sneaks out of bed to his father's workshop where he hears elves voices and singing from the doorway. Looking through the crack of the door he sees his father making the voices for the elves.

Joseph's father seeing him explains that whenever he feels lonely, he imagines the elves helping him make the shoes. Joey and his father spend the rest of the night making shoes while singing together with the "elves". This would later play a major role in later in Joey's life, seeing this as proof that fantasies and make belief makes people's lives better.

World War I (1)
When World War I began, Joey Drew lied on his enlistment form to join the United States Army, as he was too young to legally enlist at the time. He was assigned to the United States Signal Corps led by Sergeant O'Mally, which he found convenient, due to their base's close proximity to New Jersey. During the war, his squadmates, Donaldson and Eckhart attempted to arrange a date for Joey, despite him not being interested, although he relents for unexplained reasons.

In 1917, Joey went to a gala where he was introduced to a hello girl named Lottie, the date who Donaldson arranged for Joey to begin with. After noticing the Initials "ZW" on his boots, sparking the curiosity of both Joey and Lottie. Over the next few years, Joey, with Lottie's aid, surreptitiously attempted to find out who "ZW" was, eventually ruling out the possibilities of "ZW" being either a soldier or a hello girl, as there were no known soldiers or hello girls bearing these initials, eventually coming to the conclusion that "ZW" referred to a spouse.

Meeting Buddy Lewek
Around 1946,[5] Norman, after joking to Buddy Lewek about Joey being dead, seemingly escorts Buddy to Joey's office, only to back out, partway through, due to Buddy's lack of familiarity with the studio's layout. Upon reaching the outside of Joey's office, Buddy collapsed from heat exhaustion. Joey, having overheard this, exits his office to find out what was going on. After finding Buddy lying on the wooden floor, Buddy announced his business, to which Joey brought him inside his office, unsure of who he is. After finding out about his suit delivery, he excitedly takes the suit from Buddy, and commends him on the suit's design, even taking it with stride that Buddy's mother tailored the suit. After finding out about Buddy's experience with drawing, Joey presents Buddy with a drawing of Bendy, and upon hearing Buddy's description of Bendy's personality, Joey reveals that very few have responded the same way, with many stating that he is just a cartoon, before offering Buddy a job at his studio as a gofer, to which Buddy accepts.

After Joey formally introduces himself, he does the same for Bendy but is surprised to find that Buddy had never heard of him. Joey offered to tour Buddy around the studio only to run into Thomas Connor outside his office, which meant he was not able to tour Buddy around the studio after all, but he then offers Buddy a place in his animation studio, to which Buddy accepts. Joey then escorts Thomas into his office for an important meeting. He later appears when Abby Lambert brings Buddy before him, for stealing supplies for his own use.

Joey, however, takes this with stride, realizing that Buddy had reasons for doing this, though seeing it as ambition. He then encourages Buddy to keep working on Cowboy Bendy, which is what Buddy was working on. later on, Buddy runs into Joey Drew, who is elated to have run into the former. He presents Buddy with his first pay check, before taking Buddy to Sardi's to "celebrate." During their meal, Joey bonds with Buddy, even saying to talk to him if Buddy feels that Abby is overwhelming him. he goes on about dreaming and how he wants people to dream big. He then extends an invitation to Buddy to come to a company party that Joey is organizing, to which Buddy accepts. However, He has Buddy pay for the meal itself, to point out that Buddy should not be pointlessly spending money. When Buddy's Grandfather enters the Studio unannounced, he explores the entrance, despite Buddy's objections.

Having overheard this, Joey then steps in. Despite introducing himself to Mr. Unger, and commenting on Buddy's proficiency with drawing, he then makes it clear that he should not be entering the studio unless he had a reason to, which has clearly not the case with Mr. Unger, before having Buddy take Mr. Unger home. Later on, he drives Buddy to Joey's preferred tailor shop to have Buddy fitted for a tuxedo, due to the formal nature of the then-upcoming company party. After Buddy receives his finished suit, Joey drives Buddy home to the Lower East Side, and is even pleased to hear Buddy's friends and neighbours, as well as the local business owners commenting on Buddy wearing a suit and going around with Joey Drew, who encourages Buddy to "not keep his fans waiting". When Buddy arrives at Joey's company party, the latter greets the former and introduces Buddy to Bertrum Piedmont, who comments on the usefulness of gofers such as Buddy (this is meant to imply what the party is celebrating). Joey then proceeds to escort Bertrum to prepare for his speech. Eventually, Joey makes a ceremonious announcement unveiling Bendy Land, and announces what Bendy Land will have to offer.

But when Thomas Connor and Allison Pendle arrive uninvited, Joey finishes his speech and attempts to get them to leave, since they were not invited. But when Thomas makes his position known to Joey, he fires Thomas for not meeting Joey's expectations, even going as far as claiming complete legal ownership of Thomas' Ink Machine, before condemning Allison for siding with Thomas and then firing her, and threatening to alert the local security, if Thomas and Allison did not leave. Despite Thomas' objections, Allison escorted her fiancé out of the building. At the very end of the novel, after Buddy is revived as Buddy Boris, Joey reveals what happened to Buddy and even tells him to accept what happened to him and not to talk or make sense of it, as it would only frustrate him, even though he was already frustrated to begin with. As Buddy loses the ability to speak, Joey attempts to entice Buddy Boris into accompanying him to an undisclosed location, supposedly containing an abundant amount of food. Despite Boris the Wolf's personality beginning to take control, Buddy was able to resist this for one final act: Crushing Joey's hand and throwing him to the floor and running away into the studio. Joey is not mentioned again after this.

Investigation and Downfall
On August 15th, 1959 at the time of 9:30 AM, Snooks, Spitner and Snooks sends a bankruptcy report to Joey Drew Studios.

Chapter 1: Moving Pictures
At some point before the events of the beginning of the game, Joey sends Henry a note inviting him to come back to the workshop, claiming that something special is waiting for him to find. That something would be the Ink Machine. It isn't long before Henry discovers the duplicated, imperfect corpse of Boris, asking in thought what Joey was doing in order to make a cartoon real and dead.

A diary cassette recorded by Wally Franks explains more on how the Ink Machine works. Wally claims that Joey commanded the workers of the studio to donate things from their work stations and set them on each pedestal from the break room to help "appease the gods" in the holiday season.[6]

Thomas Connor's cassette complains that he had enough repairing the pipes for Joey because of his own struggles fixing the ink pipes, not to mention the loud noise coming from the Ink Machine.[7]

Joey is mentioned by several other known workers from the studio in more diary cassettes, such as Norman Polk and Sammy Lawrence.
According to Sammy's diary cassettes recorded when he was still human, it is revealed that Joey is the one who bought the Ink Machine for the company. Sammy complains that the constant leaking of the pipes is distracting him from his work, hinting that Joey has little care for his employee's feelings about the Machine affecting their working lives.[8] It is also revealed that Joey has some form of sanctuary, just like Sammy has, but it has yet to be discovered.[9]

After observing Sammy's strange behavior regarding the projection booth to access his sanctuary, Norman was debating whether or not to talk with Joey about what Sammy was doing. However, Norman then admits that Joey has his own peculiarities, hinting at strange quirks that are just as bad, if not worse, than Sammy's.[10]

Chapter 3: Rise and Fall
Joey is once again mentioned by yet more workers from the studio and even leaves a cassette from himself behind if the player chooses the Demon Path room.

Shawn Flynn, one of the people responsible for manufacturing the toys based on Bendy, Boris, and Alice, complains that Joey flew into a rage at seeing that some of the Bendy dolls had a slightly crooked smile as foul-ups. Shawn comments that Joey's perfectionism is unhelpful since it is not aiding in the situation of the Alice toys not selling well.[11]

Susie Campbell, the voice actress for Alice Angel, mentions Joey a few times. During a lunch date with him, she comments how Joey is quite the charmer to her, even calling her "Alice" after her character, something she enjoys.[12] However, her brief infatuation with him is cut short when another diary in the Angel Path room reveals she had been replaced as Alice's voice actress without even being informed.

If the player chooses the "demon path" room, the diary from Joey himself can be found amidst the ink. Joey says that he got his career started from nothing but a pencil and a dream, explaining his philosophy that belief can make people do anything, even have the ability to cheat death. As the tape ends, he comments that the thought of cheating death is beautiful, and "positively silly".

Grant Cohen, the accountant of Joey Drew Studios, talks of how Joey doesn't say anything about his ideas for the company to the studio's workers. Grant ends the speech, lamenting the new expensive top-secret project of Joey's.

The diary cassette from Henry is also not flattering about Joey. Claiming that Joey is a man full of ideas but nothing else, Henry laments about how his business partner is not giving their fair share of work like they agreed when they started the business. He also comments that Joey's high work standards have prevented him from seeing Linda for days. When Henry states he has an idea for a new character, this suggests that Joey is not responsible for the actual creation of the studio's characters.

Chapter 4: Colossal Wonders
Joey is first mentioned by Susie Campbell in her tape, where she says how Joey is saying things "behind closed doors" about her and that he wants to give her an opportunity. Susie ends the tape commenting that she has something planned for him.

The second mention about Joey is by Bertrum Piedmont in his audio log, in which he commented about how Joey calling him "Bertie" (since Joey actually liked it)[13] as a childish nickname in front of important people and describe how Joey wants to take credit for Bendy Land. Once again mentioned by Bertrum in his second last audio log before his boss battle, he angrily berates Joey for trying to take away the credit for the park from him, as Joey thought he would decide to kick Bertrum out and forget about him.

In his another personal audio log found in the flooded Maintenance department connected to Storage 9, Joey begins seemingly addressing about dreams as with the previous log before dropping the cheerful act to reveal his true personality; referring to his given lines as "trash" for potential consumers and demanding the writers add more reference to dreams in his speeches before realizing it was still recording, he is then yelling at someone to turn something off (either his own audio log or an activated machine), before being exposed. By using the Seeing Tool, it reveals the "That's The Joey I Knew" message on the wall behind.

Chapter 5: The Last Reel
Four of Joey Drew's logs can be found in this chapter, one of which triggers the final event in the game.

His first audio log is in the entry of the administration lobby, in which Joey comments about the "rumors" of the studio going in financial difficulties, stating that these affirmations are untrue and that some "backroom incompetents" are doubting his leadership. For the last accusation, he says that by being a leader, Joey is always steering the boat and looking at the great picture. In the end, Joey says that his works have to believe and trust their leader, who is Joey.

His second audio log is within the administration section, near a Little Miracle station, where he is seen to be talking to Thomas Connor, as he starts the audio addressing to him as "Tommy". In this audio, Joey comments about a strange figure in Thomas' office and says that if he is complaining that is impossible to create a real cartoon character due to the ink creations not having a soul, he is the owner of thousands of them, implying that he is planning to use his workers as molds for the ink characters.

His third audio is located inside his office in which he talks to Susie Campbell about how he believes that his characters are more than only this and that they are alive. Joey expresses his love to the Alice Angel character and asks her if she wants to bring life to Alice once again.

Joey is referenced for Thomas Connor in his audio log. In this log, Thomas comments to the Gent Corporation of the situation of the Ink Machine, complaining that what Joey is asking is starting to become more magic than engineering.

In Joey's last audio log, he comments to Henry about how they both created life itself, talking about the characters in the screens, hearts of the fans and probably by the use of the Ink Machine. He then talks about how Bendy started to lose space in the media, becoming a shadow of the past. Joey then talks about how Bendy was there for his beginning but had never seen "The End".

Joey Drew makes an actual physical appearance in the post-Chapter 5 epilogue after Beast Bendy is vanquished. Henry is taken to the apartment of Joey Drew. He monologues for a while, informing Henry how he chose the correct path and had a family. Joey, however, took a worse path and forged a "crooked empire". Joey closes his speech by saying the very words Henry sees at the start of the game; "Come visit the old workshop... there's something I want to show you."

In the post-credits scene, it was shown that Joey Drew owns a slight miniature-sized Ink Machine inside the other room and apparently has a grand-niece living with him.

Boris and the Dark Survival
An audio log recorded by Joey can be listened to through obscure, but challenging conditions. Unlike the other audio logs, the location of Joey's audio log is fixed. The log is hidden inside a compartment hidden within a brick wall, which can only be accessed by playing the Gent-made Pachinko machine and beating Wally Franks' high score (15 points). Upon playing the log, it reveals a message sent by Joey to his old friend, Nathan Arch, who at the time, was vacationing in South America with his spouse, Tessa. he mentions that he would not have messaged him unless absolutely necessary since he believes that people should only rely on assistance to conquer challenges when it is clear that there is no other option. He then bluntly states that the studio is running short on funding (this is meant to imply that he was lying to his employees when he said that the studio was in perfect condition). He then requests that Nathan wire Joey an unspecified, yet the possibly great amount of money that was mentioned in a previous letter.

General Facts
Joey Drew is reminiscent to Andrew Ryan, the main antagonist of Bioshock. Both had desires to let everything they have in mind come true, leading to their downfall and ruin everything they had first built.[14]

In a Twitter comment about Joey Drew, theMeatly said the best and worst part about Joey is his "unending desire to make the impossible possible".[15]

Joey Drew is most likely inspired by both Walt Disney and Max Fleischer, two animation founders from the same time period of the Bendy cartoons. While the Bendy cartoons themselves have the animation style influenced to Fleischer's work, Joey's larger than life persona and own name studio is in reference to Disney. Joey's birth year is 1901, the same year where Walt Disney was born.

Joey's surname is a pun, meaning that Joey drew cartoons.

He is the only human character to make a full physical appearance.

Joey's note in Nightmare Run's intro.
In Bendy in Nightmare Run, while Joey does not necessarily have an important role anywhere in the mobile game, he was mentioned in his intro message before moving on to the level selection menu, with the words revealing as quite familiar to his message note for Henry in Bendy and the Ink Machine.

When asked about what happened to Joey during the Hot Topic Q&A, Sammy (roleplayed by Hot Topic's Twitter account) replied that Joey's probably raising his salary somewhere.[16]

On Twitter, theMeatly posted some quotes from Joey which are not heard in the actual game:

"People don't know what they're aiming for. You've got to have a goal that stretches your imagination. You've got to dream big!"[17]

"Every dream is a purpose. It fuels you, keeps you going. It can be your power or it can be your downfall. So dream hard...but dream wise."[18]

In-Game Facts
Bendy and the Ink Machine Boris and the Dark Survival

Chapter 1: Moving Pictures

The question mark for Joey's letter that was used only few times during the game's updates, currently unused.

In the initial release version of Chapter 1, the lines "Doesn't it" from Joey's letter has a question mark at the end along with the dented Bendy stamp. From Chapter 1's first remastered update, the question mark was removed for unknown reasons, and the Bendy stamp seems to look whole again.

Upon Chapter 3's release, the question mark was re-added.

But upon Chapter 4's release, the question mark was removed again.

Chapter 5: The Last Reel

In the audio log found in his office, Joey can be heard saying "Gosh, all my characters do!" and "A little ceremony, if you will", but oddly enough, "Gosh", and "If you will" appear to be omitted from the transcript itself, although Joey says them nonetheless.

Trivia

 * Joey's audio log is added in The Wolf Trials update.