The Three Bears was a long-running comic strip in The Beano which first appeared in issue #881 (6th June 1959). It concerned the adventures of three lazy, larcenous anthropomorphic bears: Pa Bear, Ma Bear and Teddy (or Ted), and their ongoing rivalry with Hank the storekeeper. The bears lived in a cave and in most stories would attempt to steal food from Hank's store. The story was a spin-off from the earlier Western-themed comic strip Little Plum, which had featured the bears as background characters.
Appearances[]
The strip was created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale. It first appeared in The Beano for a four week trial run in June 1959, after which readers were encouraged to write in if they wanted the bears to return. The positive responses from readers led to the strip returning for a full series which started in October the following year, beginning from issue 952 (dated 15th October 1960). Bob McGrath replaced Baxendale when the latter left The Beano in 1962 and became the strip's longest serving artist, continuing to draw it for most of the original run, although he was later replaced by Tom Lavery, who then drew the story until it was dropped after issue 2253 (dated 21st September 1985). However, the strip would return a few years later, appearing in several series between 1988 and 1995, initially drawn by Bob Dewar and later by David Parkins and Robert Nixon.
In 1999 The Three Bears again returned to the comic, this time drawn by Mike Pearse. They appeared as one of four 'Guest star' strips, along with Tricky Dicky, Gordon Bennett and Inspector Horse and Jocky, which were included in a readers' poll to determine which story should continue to appear regularly in the Beano. The Three Bears won the vote and continued to appear in the comic until 2003, although in 2002 Pearse would hand over art duties to Chris McGhie (who drew the strip in a very similar style) to ease his workload. They next reappeared in 2006 as reprints of the David Parkins stories from the 1990s, with a single new episode drawn by Tom Paterson appearing in issue 3365 (27th January 2007), after which the story disappeared from the comic once more. However, they resurfaced again in issue 3541 (3rd July 2010) as reprints of the Mike Pearse strips, which continued for six months until issue 3566 (1st January 2011).
The Three Bears have also appeared on a regular basis in the Beano Annual, BeanoMAX and the Beano Comic Library, as well as in Summer Specials, even when they have been absent from the weekly comic. A number of artists have provided artwork for the story in annuals, including Ken H. Harrison (2005, 2006, 2008), David Parkins (2007) and David Sutherland (2012). Additionally, The Three Bears also appeared in the Little Plum story in The Beano Annual 2009, drawn by Hunt Emerson.