Bendy

***"On the plus side, I got a new character I think people are going to love."***
- Henry Stein
This article may contain unmarked details of **spoilers**. If you wish not to read without spoiling yourself, play the game, watch the cartoon, or read the book first, depending on the article's topic.
*See Bendy (disambiguation) for other related uses.*

## Bendy

Bendy's advertised appearance as seen throughout the Bendy and the Ink Machine chapters.

## Character Information

### Also known as

Bendy
Little Devil
The Dancing Demon
Little Devil Darling/Darlin'
Yukon Bendy\*
Bendybeard\*

### Occupation

Main character
Studio mascot

### Created by

Henry Stein (with input by Joey Drew and Abby Lambert)

## Sub-Page Navigation

**"***Someone has to keep the little devil happy...***"**
— **Sammy Lawrence, June 16, 1935**

**Bendy the Demon** is a cartoon character created by Henry Stein as Joey Drew Studios' mascot in the very late 1920s. He acts as the titular main character of the Bendy franchise (both in-universe and real-world), being its namesake, as well as the first character created by the studio. Bendy starred in a series of cartoons and comic strips, 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.

## Overview

### Creation

Bendy was originally created in 1928 by Henry Stein by Joey's request prior to the opening of Joey Drew Studios in the following year, but the record book of Joey Drew Studios states that Joey Drew was the person who created him. This was apparently done so Joey could glorify himself and take all the credit for Bendy’s creation (or, as another act of revenge against Henry for leaving the studio), which Henry acknowledges in his only in-game audio log.

Henry first drew a cartoon character based off of Abby Lambert's drawing that Joey disproves. It appeared to be a smiling young boy wearing overalls with the addition of devil horns and a tail just like the original drawing, only in a cartoon form and lacking a nose. Joey wanted a full new approach for the character, so Henry redrew the character to have devil-based traits while using the demon goat creature drawing as a reference, drawn with a bean-shaped body and wears a pair of shorts, boots, and a shirt. After the second attempt by Joey's demand, Henry removed the clothes—mainly because animals are essentially naked anyway—except for the boots while adding the gloves, but the head was still too goat-like and has a small beard. Therefore, the head was drawn to have more cartoon shapes and less life-looking, while making the character look younger, completed with a white face for the black circular horned head, classic pie-cut eyes, and a big toothy grin. For the finishing touch, the character was added with a bowtie. Joey decided to name the character "Bendy", as an allusion to him always bending the rules.

### Physical Appearance

Bendy is a Fleischer-inspired cartoon imp with a body entirely colored in black apart from his face, which is white and bears a large toothy grin, along with large, black, pie cut eyes. He wears shiny black shoes, a white bowtie, and a pair of large white gloves, each with two black dots. Bendy's head is shaped like an oval, with the top of it being curved inwards to create the appearance of horns, which are always present in his silhouette regardless of which direction he is looking. Bendy lacks a neck, meaning that he is usually depicted with a floating head. However, this detail is inconsistent, and his head will occasionally be attached to his body.

Bendy is the shortest of the three main characters of the Bendy Cartoons, being only about half the height of Boris and Alice.

### Personality

**"***A playful little fellow, Bendy can get up to some naughty antics when left to his own devices.***"**
— ***Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook***

**"***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***

Bendy is a mischievous troublemaker, as one would expect from a little devil. Bendy can be greedy at times, often being seen attempting to steal. While this is mainly depicted in the comics, it can also be seen in the cartoons. In "*Tasty Trio Troubles*", Bendy outright refuses to pay for the burger he orders from Charley. Bendy also didn't pay Gaskette for his ride according to Gaskette's bio image. Despite this, according to *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook*, while Bendy can be playful, he is not evil. His jokes are never mean-spirited, and he shows care for his friends.

Despite his troublemaking, Bendy does have a good heart. When he receives a magical trident in the comics, his first order of business is granting Boris and Alice their respective wishes. Bendy is also shown to be working as a firefighter in Hellfire Fighter, showing that he has a desire to help others. Bendy is also shown to have an adventurous side, which often gets him and his friends into trouble.

## 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 now 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.

### Date Unknown

* The Dancing Demon- Full plot yet to be revealed, but it involves Bendy coming out as a dancer and includes a scene of him dancing in a hula skirt (many fans who seen the poster alone confused the outfit for a ballerina tutu).

## 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 Comic.

## In-Game Appearances

Bendy, as a titular character of the *Bendy* series, makes recurring cameo appearances in *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, *Boris and the Dark Survival*, and *Bendy and the Dark Revival*. Bendy's cutout is littered everywhere in the locations. Other products and objects dedicated to Bendy can be found, including plush dolls, toys, animation clips, posters, promotional arts, drawings, and park attraction assets.

A physical but near-perfect version was created from the Ink Machine but possessed a dangerous demonic alter-ego known as the Ink Demon.

Bendy also appears in *Bendy in Nightmare Run* as one of the main playable characters along with Boris and Alice Angel, and he is 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.

## Trivia

* During early production of *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, Bendy was originally created by the game developer theMeatly. Bendy's name comes from a typo file named "bendy.blend" while theMeatly modeled the character using the engine Blender. theMeatly says that a few mistype keys later, "horror.blend" became "horror.bendy"
* 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.
* King Dice from *Cuphead* uses the same two dot glove design in his boss fight, most likely a coincidence.
* Bendy's official month is October.
* 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.
	+ 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 striking resemblance to Bendy's.
* The head, the bowtie and the body of the character Woz from *Wozwald* also bears a surprising 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.
* On July 3, 2017, from Twitter, theMeatly made a joke about Bendy using a direct quote from Joe Dante's comedy/horror film *Gremlins*.
* Despite a drawing claiming that Bendy's expression never changes, this is shown many times to be false in the cartoon shorts and the Crack Up Comics book, though this could just be a joke as implied by the note next to the drawing demanding that Joey not see it.
* In the comic "Papa Pluto's Pitchfork! Or, Beware of Imps Bearing Gifts" (found in the Crack-Up Comics Collection book), Bendy is shown to have a pet fish named Bubbles
* Bendy's initial design for the cutout took theMeatly over 20 minutes to finish it.

* Although Bendy was so far never confirmed to have a voice actor, there was an audio recording of Bendy whistling his own iconic song. It was initially played in *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 1* and *2*.
	+ Bendy's whistle appears to have similarities with Mickey Mouse's whistling tune from the 1928 Disney cartoon, *Steamboat Willie*.
	+ Sammy Lawrence, during the Hot Topic Q&A takeover, 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.
* As seen in older versions of *Bendy and the Ink Machine* prior to the DLC release of *Chapter 4*, Bendy's early dancing animation 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.
* 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.
* Found in Henry's deskroom, from *Bendy and the Ink Machine* and *Bendy and the Dark Revival*, 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 similar to the Idea Fairy, a character in one of theMeatly's comics from the past.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 2*, 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.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 2*, 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.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 2*, 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.
	+ This particular piece of fanart (with only one expression for every emotion and a note attached to it reading "**DO NOT LET JOEY SEE THIS**") adds to the lore revolving around the rejected character design on Henry's desk, for while Bendy expressed many emotions in his actual cartoons, Joey Drew's pickiness on how his signature smile is supposed to look was so intense that it became a cruel, secret in-joke among the studio employees.
* However the cartoons depict Bendy's horns as designed to always appear in the same position in spite of which way he faces, it was not the case for *Bendy in Nightmare Run*.
* In *Bendy in Nightmare Run*, there is an unused texture of Bendy's cutout in the game files that matches the one for *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, only with a frown and white colors instead of yellowish-tan.
* In some of the pre-release *Bendy in Nightmare Run* videos, such as in Mike Mood's preview video on testing the ability skills, Bendy's idle animations between the early and final release are very different.
* 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.
* Bendy appears in the *Bendy VS Cuphead* 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.
* When describing Bendy in the Illusion of Living book Joey hints that Bendy could have originally been a young boy. However, in the Crack Up Comics Collection, it is later seen that Bendy is depicted as a young adult; living by himself in his own house, and with the ability to drive a car to his own whereabouts. He is additionally seen holding a martini glass in the comics, which directly suggests that he is old enough to drink alcoholic beverages.
	+ Along with this claim of Bendy originally being a young boy, fans and animators alike (both in the game and in reality) tend to see Bendy as a little kid from a tough neighborhood due to his short size and timid yet mischievous temperament. While his actual age range is up for debate, a few examples of the animators seeing him that way include the short "Tasty Trio Troubles", in which Bendy was seen riding a rocking horse on the sidewalk when the Butcher Gang walked past him, "Snow Sillies" in which he was building a snowman, and "Haunted Hijinx", in which he was attempting to trick-or-treat for candy.
	+ Regardless of what age range Bendy is perceived to be in the comics and cartoons, it is implied that Joey only let the in-game animators and cartoonists get away with Bendy's younger portrayals as cartoons are funnier when an adult acts like a kid, and most likely to appeal to the younger audiences Joey was aiming for.

## References

1. ↑ *The Illusion of Living* | Part IV: Actualizing the Dream | Chapter 3: An Art Show
2. ↑ *The Illusion of Living* | Part IV: Actualizing the Dream | Chapter 4: The Birth of Bendy
3. ↑ *The Illusion of Living* | Part IV: Actualizing the Dream | Chapter 3: An Art Show | Page 167
4. ↑ *The Illusion of Living* | Part IV: Actualizing the Dream | Chapter 4: The Birth of Bendy | Page 171-174
5. ↑ *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook*, page 18
6. ↑ *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook*, page 205
7. ↑ Con Safos Magazine - Ink Demons & the Indie Canadian Game Scene: An Interview with ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’ Programmer, Mike Mood
8. ↑ "*No, this was a design choice so that it could be uniquely identifiable :)*" - Mike Mood.
 August 16, 2017. Twitter.
9. ↑ "*In through the trees and leaves, it's getting darker all around. It's that time of year, the month of Bendy! Welcome to #Inktober, little sheep! #BATIM*" - Bendy. October 1, 2018. Twitter.
10. ↑ "*Fun fact: Bendy doesn't have a tail.*
*Other fun fact: it's totally fine if your fan art has a tail. ;)*"
 - Mike Mood. July 10, 2017. Twitter.
11. ↑ "*Cause you never can tell...*
*... there might just be a Bendy in your house... ;)*"
 - theMeatly. July 3, 2017. Twitter.
12. ↑ "*Fun fact: Bendy, the character, was designed in about 20 minutes. There were no sketches or other designs.*" - theMeatly. June 29, 2019. Twitter.
13. ↑ "*I remember a whistling sound.. a vague melody.. with a sinister purpose. Yessss I remember that.*"
 - Hot Topic. July 26, 2017. Twitter.
14. ↑ "*Well it wasn’t supposed to be animated to begin with. So.*" - TimetheHobo. May 1, 2018. Twitter.
15. ↑ "*Checking out the abilities #BINR #BendyinNightmareRun*" - Mike Mood. June 27, 2018. Twitter.
16. ↑ The Illusion of Living, pages 166 and 173.

Page 166 - "So...' she said, slowly finding the idea intriguing, I could tell, 'like a small boy playing pranks.' I smiled. 'Like that."

Page 173 - "He still needed to look young. That little devilish boy that hadn't worked still had to be there somewhere."