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tyto_alba's review
5.0
This book is absolutely darling. If you're a Bendy and the Ink Machine fan and you love the cute little Bendy cartoons on YouTube, you need to read this book. It takes all the charm and fun of those cartoons and puts them into comic form. Plus, all of the characters from the cartoons get time to shine.
The book is framed as an archive collection of the Bendy comics that Joey Drew had created alongside the cartoons. It gives the existence of the comics a context in the history of Joey Drew Studios, as well as hinting at upcoming Bendy material unassociated with Joey Drew, as the foreword and afterward say that Nathan Arch (CEO of Archgate Films) purchased the rights to Bendy from Joey Drew after the studio closed. This serves as additional lore for game fans, though it doesn't have any bearing on the comics themselves, which can be read without needing to have played the games or to have watched the cartoons.
The book is separated into three parts, the newspaper comic strips, which are generally shorter (1-2 pages); the dime-store comics, which can be around 10 pages long; and the promotional comics, which are generally shorter than the dime-store comics but longer than the newspaper strips. The newspaper comics feel the closest to the Bendy cartoons with their lack of dialogue and short length, but the promotional comics seem to be comic "adaptations" of the Bendy cartoons you see clips of in the game but do not exist fully on YouTube. Both the promotional comics and the dime-store comics have longer storylines and flesh out the characters with dialogue, and it is great to see their personalities developed past the simpler cartoons.
If you don't already love Alice Angel, you'll definitely love her here. She is smart, mischievous, and also a sweetheart, and she gets a full dime-store comic focused solely on her. Even Edgar gets a moment for himself, which makes me very happy because he is precious. I don't even need to mention Bendy and Boris, who are the main stars in most of the stories and are, of course, delightful to follow around.
The art is absolutely adorable. It's very old-school (like the cartoons), with a ton of energy going into the backgrounds and character expressions. It's mostly black and white, though sometimes it has a yellow tint because the comics themselves are supposed to be an archive of old Bendy comics. I just love everything about this style and how cute the characters are.
In conclusion, if you are a Bendy fan (particularly of the cartoon aspects of the game), you need to read this. If you are a fan of that old 30's-40's style of comics/cartoons, you will probably enjoy this without needing to be a Bendy fan. It isn't required to already know Bendy to read these because they are necessarily separate from the game lore. One dime-store comic does directly reference the actual game villains, but it's more of a bonus for fans of the game and you don't need to know who they are to enjoy that comic. All in all, I would highly recommend this.
The book is framed as an archive collection of the Bendy comics that Joey Drew had created alongside the cartoons. It gives the existence of the comics a context in the history of Joey Drew Studios, as well as hinting at upcoming Bendy material unassociated with Joey Drew, as the foreword and afterward say that Nathan Arch (CEO of Archgate Films) purchased the rights to Bendy from Joey Drew after the studio closed. This serves as additional lore for game fans, though it doesn't have any bearing on the comics themselves, which can be read without needing to have played the games or to have watched the cartoons.
The book is separated into three parts, the newspaper comic strips, which are generally shorter (1-2 pages); the dime-store comics, which can be around 10 pages long; and the promotional comics, which are generally shorter than the dime-store comics but longer than the newspaper strips. The newspaper comics feel the closest to the Bendy cartoons with their lack of dialogue and short length, but the promotional comics seem to be comic "adaptations" of the Bendy cartoons you see clips of in the game but do not exist fully on YouTube. Both the promotional comics and the dime-store comics have longer storylines and flesh out the characters with dialogue, and it is great to see their personalities developed past the simpler cartoons.
If you don't already love Alice Angel, you'll definitely love her here. She is smart, mischievous, and also a sweetheart, and she gets a full dime-store comic focused solely on her. Even Edgar gets a moment for himself, which makes me very happy because he is precious. I don't even need to mention Bendy and Boris, who are the main stars in most of the stories and are, of course, delightful to follow around.
The art is absolutely adorable. It's very old-school (like the cartoons), with a ton of energy going into the backgrounds and character expressions. It's mostly black and white, though sometimes it has a yellow tint because the comics themselves are supposed to be an archive of old Bendy comics. I just love everything about this style and how cute the characters are.
In conclusion, if you are a Bendy fan (particularly of the cartoon aspects of the game), you need to read this. If you are a fan of that old 30's-40's style of comics/cartoons, you will probably enjoy this without needing to be a Bendy fan. It isn't required to already know Bendy to read these because they are necessarily separate from the game lore. One dime-store comic does directly reference the actual game villains, but it's more of a bonus for fans of the game and you don't need to know who they are to enjoy that comic. All in all, I would highly recommend this.
charlie018's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
skyllion's review
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
For fans of Bendy and the Ink Machine. It's a collection of comics that were produced in-universe by Joey Drew Studios before being shut down. I love the art styles for each era; it really gives it that vintage feel.
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