Chain Bear

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Chain Bear
Author(s)	Stuart Taylor and Lauren Farnsworth
Website	http://www.chainbear.com/
Current status / schedule	Updated Mon, Wed, Fri
Launch date	June 1, 2007
Genre(s)	Humour

Chain Bear is a webcomic by British duo Lauren Farnsworth and Stuart Taylor. It has been online since June 1, 2007, and updates three times a week (though originally it had an all-weekday schedule that had to be pruned due to time constraints).

Each comic is usually far removed from its adjacent comics in both style and content, though prevailing themes are often repeated throughout the webcomic, linked by the containing characters or the artistic style. These individual themes can be accessed in the archive and are grouped as "stories". The stories vary from traditional comic humour^[1], to a darker, black comedy^[2].

Contents 1 Stories 1.1 Chain Bear 1.2 Straight Talkin' Stacey 1.3 Boniface le Quest 1.4 The Adventures of Big City Moose 1.5 The Continuing Tale of Orange and Spider 1.6 Continuing Themes not in a Story 1.6.1 Tetris 1.6.2 Red Balloons 1.6.3 Models and Celebrities 2 References

[edit] Stories

[edit] Chain Bear

The title character is the most frequently recurring storyline, and the most traditional. It features Mr Chain Bear, a Polar Bear sporting a bowler hat (and occasionally a walking stick), dealing with the limitations of being chained to nearby scenery or objects. No explanation is ever given to how Chain Bear becomes chained in the first place, though earlier issues^[3][4][5] demonstrate his abhorrence of bear baiters, who may or may not be responsible for his dilemma. Oddly, Chain Bear was not the first comic on the site, despite him being both the mascot and the main title.

[edit] Straight Talkin' Stacey

Straight Talkin' Stacey is a character completely devoid of tact and engages in the emotional destruction of all those around her. Sometimes it appears she is oblivious to her cutting turn of phrase ^[6], though at other times she appears utterly selfish^[7] or malicious^[8].

[edit] Boniface le Quest

Boniface le Quest is a continuing saga telling the romantic adventure of the eponymous lead trying to track down his lost love. Boniface is a French adventurer searching for his kidnapped love, Lola. His story is told using real 3D puppets made from Blu Tack, with a tongue in cheek, over-the-top dialogue accompanying his quest. Boniface has a brother who, since they last met, has become a cyborg^[9]. The Boniface stories are usually much longer than any other comic and due to long production time, appear very rarely.

[edit] The Adventures of Big City Moose

Big City Moose tells the tale of a moose, Ed Moose and a pigeon, Clarence Duckworth as they try to 'make it' in the Big City^[10]. It was created by Stuart Taylor in 2002 after he became bored after reading the entire Garfield archive and it was suggested jokingly that he draw his own comic strip featuring "a moose trying to make it in the big city". Fifty original strips were made between 2002 and 2003 before it was abandoned only to be reborn as part of Chain Bear. However, in late 2007 it was decided that BCM did not fit in well with Chain Bear and was retired.

[edit] The Continuing Tale of Orange and Spider

Orange and Spider is a one panel strip featuring a spider who questions basic facts about his only friend, Orange.

[edit] Continuing Themes not in a Story

[edit] Tetris

The authors of Chain Bear are big fans of tetris and throw in frequent references to it in their strips^[11][12][13].

[edit] Red Balloons

Red Balloons often pop up throughout Chain Bear^{[14][15][16][17]}

[edit] Models and Celebrities

Chain Bear occasionally light-heartedly pokes fun at stick-thin supermodel types^[18], or at celebrities currently in the spotlight^[19] and seems to have a particular fondness for Amy Winehouse^[20][21]

[edit] References