Bendy

Someone has to keep the little devil happy..."

— Sammy Lawrence, June 16, 1935

Bendy the Devil is a cartoon character created by Henry Stein as Joey Drew Studios's mascot in the very late 1920s. He is as well the titular character of the Bendy franchise, being its namesake. The studio's flagship character, Bendy starred in a series of cartoons and comic strips thirty years prior to the events of the first game, often alongside the studio's other characters such as Boris the Wolf and Alice Angel. Bendy was also hired by Briar Label as a spokestoon for their Bacon Soup.

Character Information
Also known as: Bendy the Devil, Little Devil, The Dancing Demon, Little Devil Darling/Darlin', Yukon Bendy *, Bendybeard *

Gender: Male

Species: Demon

Occupation: Main character, Mascot

Created by: Henry Stein

Debut Information
First cartoon appearance: Little Devil Darlin' (1929)

First comic appearance: Barnyard Opry (1932)

Creation
Bendy was originally created in 1929 by Henry Stein, but the record book of Joey Drew Studios states that Joey Drew was the person who created him.

Physical Appearance
Bendy is a cartoon imp-like demon character with his appearance entirely colored in black apart from his face, which is white in color. He wears shiny black shoes, a white bowtie, and a pair of gloves that closely resemble those of other cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, each possessing two black buttons. The shape of his head resembles cartoonish horns that always remain facing the viewer no matter which way Bendy is facing. Because he lacks a neck, his head floats a few millimeters away from his body.

Bendy has a most notable wide, toothy grin, showing eight teeth when he's grinning fully. His alleged "invisible eyebrows" from above his large pie cut eyes can even move when expressing his emotions. In terms of his height, Bendy appears to be short, being easily towered over by Boris.

In Bendy and the Dark Revival, revealed through several merchandise prior to the game's release, there will be a "perfect" version of Bendy that wears a brown sleeveless jacket with pockets and two white buttons, and a pair of black pants with thin white lines along with a white patch on the left ankle. The right side of his face and bowtie seem to be slightly covered in ink.

Personality
"A playful little fellow, Bendy can get up to some naughty antics when left to his own devices."

— Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook[1]

"As seen in our animated cartoons, Bendy is mischievous and full of fun. He likes to get people's attention and he'll stop at nothing to make sure he has it."

— Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook[2]

Bendy is a borderline troublemaker, but rather impatient and easily startled or timid, yet justifiably cheerful, fun-loving, and mischievous as his devilish nature would imply. Bendy often refuses to pay for anything he buys, as he tries to take his burger without paying Charley in "Tasty Trio Troubles" and didn't pay Gaskette for his ride according to the latter's bio image. According to Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook, while Bendy can be playful, he is not evil and his jokes are never mean-spirited. Bendy is also attention-seeking and easily distracted; he is never hardworking or courageous.[2]

Cartoon Appearances
Bendy, as the studio's beloved mascot, appeared in all cartoons but Alice Angel's Siren Serenade cartoon.

1929

Little Devil Darlin' - Bendy's first cartoon ever produced. The plot is currently unknown.

Sheep Songs! - Bendy's cartoon where Boris first appeared.

Tombstone Picnic - Bendy walks out to the graveyard for a picnic. At the end of the cartoon's first half, he sees the shadow of an unknown character. With the second half seemingly lost, what happens next is currently unknown.

1930s

Haunted Hijinx (1931) - Bendy goes out for trick-or-treating and visits Boris' house for candies.

Cookie Cookin (1931) - Bendy bakes a gingerbread man, which later ends up eaten by Boris under mysterious circumstances.

Sent From Above (1933) - Bendy's role in Alice's first cartoon is not revealed.

Hellfire Fighter (1933) - Bendy works at a firehouse with Boris.

Snow Sillies (1934) - Bendy builds a snowman. However, the completed snowman melts at the end of the cartoon, much to Bendy's sorrow.

The Butcher Gang (1935) - Bendy meets the villainous Butcher Gang members at a restaurant.

Tasty Trio Troubles (1935) - Bendy visits the restaurant owned by the Butcher Gang, where he will later fight over a hamburger with Charley. The cartoon ends up with Bendy getting chased by the gang out of their anger.

Nightmare Faire (1937) - Bendy performs his talent in the circus.

Comic Appearances

Bendy appeared in 26 of the 36 known Syndicated comics, almost every known Dime-Store Comics (cameoing in "Souper Boris" as a painting and completely absent in "Alice the Aviator") and every known Promotional Comics.

Bendy and the Ink Machine
Bendy only appears as a number of destructible cardboard cutouts and even multiple environmental parts or decorations, like small clips of Bendy's cartoons, posters, plush toys, a Bendy cutout mask (worn by Sammy), statues, etc.

Ink Bendy is the severely deformed incarnation meant to bring cartoons to life by the Ink Machine. So far, a perfect-shaped Bendy without a person's soul does not exist.

A little animation of Bendy in the theater location, in Chapter 1: Moving Pictures.

In Chapter 1: Moving Pictures, from the Animation Department, there is one desk in the top left corner that has a drawing of Bendy that changes if Henry looks away every few seconds. In the theater, Bendy himself is also seen dancing with his whistle heard playing in the animation from the projection screen once the projector turns on automatically.

Bendy's cutout leaning against the wall that was drawn with a ritual symbol, in Chapter 2: The Old Song.

In Chapter 2: The Old Song, an image of Bendy holding an umbrella and splashing through the ink can be seen printed on the wall from the Music Department hall, near the entrance to the recording studio. Bendy's emotion chart sketch is found on the desk in the music writers' room, all depicting him with the same smiling expression, with a note on the right side says "Do not let Joey see this". His whistle heard in the Theater from the first chapter will later be heard in the corridor maze, when Henry stands in front of the exit door from the ink pool for enough seconds.

In Chapter 3: Rise and Fall, a huge number of kit-cat klock-styled clocks based on Bendy's design are found in rooms as they are seemingly still ticking as normal. These are later seen in later chapters.

In Chapter 4: Colossal Wonders, various amusement park-related replicas of Bendy (trash bins, costumes, and coaster carts) for the park are found in the Storage 9 location along with other connected areas.

In Chapter 5: The Last Reel, Bendy appears in the cartoons in the throne room and in the Ink Machine pumping station. He later appears in the after-credits scene in a picture holding hands with Boris and Alice Angel, signed by Henry Stein.

Bendy and the Dark Revival

Bendy cutout from Boris and the Dark Survival.

Bendy will return in Bendy and the Dark Revival with the same function as in the first game. A little hint of Bendy's role in Bendy and the Dark Revival was found MLSpence3D in the form of a T-shirt featuring Bendy standing with the Lost Ones in Heavenly Toys Room.[12]

Boris and the Dark Survival

Bendy's cutouts, along with the "Little Devil Darlin'" and "The Dancing Demon" posters, are only found throughout the level locations. On occasions, Bendy's cutout will appear in the room when using the look-hole.

Spin-Off Appearances

Bendy in Nightmare Run

Bendy's appearance in Bendy in Nightmare Run.

"The star and creation of Joey Drew Studios, is a fun-loving yet helplessly mischievous cartoon character with a big grin and a huge desire of trouble!"

— Character description

Cost: None (available at the beginning)

Default HP: 12

Advantages: The original ink demon! (N/A)

Disadvantages: N/A

Bendy appears as one of the main playable characters along with Boris and Alice Angel in the mobile spin-off Bendy in Nightmare Run, and the first available character. His goal is to complete all five acts in each four cartoon levels. Unlike two other playable characters, Bendy lacks special abilities.

Hello Bendy

This section contains non-canonical source, and is not considered as an official part of the series or the overall plotline.

From the mod for Hello Neighbor, a rock in the shape of Bendy's head can be found in the refrigerator from the kitchen. This is the exact model of Bendy's statue head seen inside the upper ceiling of Chapter 2 where one of the Wandering Sin cutouts is located.

Non-Canon Appearances

This section contains non-canonical source, and is not considered as an official part of the series or the overall plotline.

The Original Sample

Screenshot 20180619-215150.jpg

Bendy appears in the non-canonical animated short, where he investigates a room, he then hears the door knock which startles him. He soon discovers the corpse of the Boris clone and tries to free it but fails. Bendy turns around and looks up to see the ink-covered incarnation of himself. Bendy grins weakly and waves a bit at Ink Bendy before being dragged away and melted.

Bendy VS Cuphead

Bendy-in-BendyVSCuphead.png

Bendy appears in the crossover animation video created by Screwattack, one of the web channels hosted by Rooster Teeth, where he is having a duo fight against Cuphead, a protagonist from another game inspired by rubber hose cartoons.

Development
Bendy's beta design from the Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 1 prototype.

Bendy's name comes from a typo file named "bendy.blend" while theMeatly modeled the character using the engine Blender, during the time where Bendy and the Ink Machine was first under development. theMeatly says that a few mistype keys later, "horror.blend" became "horror.bendy"[3]

Bendy's gloves originally sported three darts similar to those of Mickey Mouse, while both index fingers have a different shape. This was revealed in the demo prototype, seen in cutouts, posters, and an earlier cartoon clip. In the more recent versions of the game, the darts are replaced with a pair of buttons while tweaking the index fingers' shape. This is to make Bendy more unique when set against those other characters.[4]

King Dice from Cuphead, uses the same two dot glove design in his boss fight, most likely a coincidence.

General Notes

Bendy's official month is October.[5]

Bendy's appearance is most likely based on an amalgamation of cartoon characters such as Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse from the 1920s. He also appears to have some influences from Max Fleischer's characters, such as Bimbo.

The bowtie the Bendy cutout wears is strikingly similar to Krazy Kat's, a character from the cartoons animated by Bray Productions.

His name and personality likely were inspired by the one-time character of the same name from the American animated television series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Like the Bendy from this game, the Bendy from the aforementioned television series was a troublemaker.

Seen from all known cartoon shorts, Bendy's horns are drawn to always appear in the same style no matter which way he is facing, the same way as the position of Mickey Mouse's ears.

His horns also resemble Mandy's hairstyle from the American animated television series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

The head of the Don't Starve character Webber in his "Elegant" Gladiator costume bears the exact shape to Bendy's own head.

The head of the final boss Grimm / Nightmare King from the game Hollow Knight's DLC bears a general resemblance to Bendy's.

The head, the bowtie and the body of the character Woz from Wozwald also bears the general resemblance to Bendy's.

Though Bendy is a demon, it was revealed by theMeatly in his Q&A video that Bendy does not actually feature a tail. Mike Mood on Twitter also confirms that Bendy does not possess a tail in the official design, but said that fanart of Bendy possessing a tail is totally fine.[6]

On July 3, 2017, from Twitter, theMeatly made a joke about Bendy using a direct quote from Joe Dante's comedy/horror film Gremlins.[7]

Unused bats minions seen in one of the earlier screenshots for Cuphead during said game's development, far before Bendy and the Ink Machine was made, seem to bear some uncanny resemblance to Bendy's actual face; with black colors and a white face, puffy cheeks for cheerful expressions, similar-looking horns, and grinning mouths with merged teeth (while not counting some with two pointy fangs).

Bendy and the Ink Machine Bendy in Nightmare Run
General

It took 20 minutes to finish drawing Bendy's design for his notable cutout.[8]

Before Chapter 4 was released, Bendy's animation in the theater location shows that his horns can move like ears. Later, the animation was remade and Bendy's horns no longer move. According to the animator TimetheHobo, the horns were not supposed to be animated.[9]

Bendy's whistle that was initially played in Chapter 1 and 2 appears to have similarities to Mickey Mouse's own whistling tune from the 1928 Disney cartoon, Steamboat Willie.

Sammy Lawrence, during the Hot Topic Q&A, references the whistle, saying that the whistling is his clearest memory of the studio. He also says that the whistling is a vague melody with a sinister purpose.[10]

Similar to himself from the cartoons, Bendy's cutout keeps his feature of having no neck, the head floating above his body without any connection.

Chapter 1: Moving Pictures
Found in Henry's deskroom, there is a sketch depicting a small version of Bendy's head on a square along with the word "NO", hinting the drawing of Bendy with his mouth lacking his iconic teeth was a rejected design.

Bendy's face from the sketch may look surprisingly similar to the Idea Fairy, a character in one of theMeatly's comics from the past.

Chapter 2: The Old Song
A different style of Bendy's "dent-stained" head cutout appears in Chapter 2's first promotional teaser. It is unknown if this was an early version of Bendy's "dented" head before its redesign or just for the teaser's purpose.

Bendy's whistle can be heard in game if the player approaches the large ink pool where Ink Bendy will normally spawn, but facing backwards and away from where he will appear. On approaching the door, machinery can be heard and the whistle plays shortly afterwards.

An image of Bendy with an umbrella is an edited version of a piece by Poppy May, one of the first three fanart contest winners. It is also used for one of the official T-shirts.

An emotion chart of Bendy is a piece created by one of the first three fanart contest winners, MaxInkly. It is used for one of the official T-shirts and even separated button pins.

Chapter 3: Rise and Fall
There are six pieces of fanart from the Chapter 3 contest that are used in the game and four of them depict Bendy. These include promotional posters for Bendy cartoons, such as Hell's Kitchen and Hellfire Fighter, as well as an advert for bacon soup. The artists for these pieces were Firion Bifrost, Shannon Marie, Noisypaperdragon, and Nao Sasaki.