Teddy Bears and Llamas - What a Combination! (Detective Honeybear)

The second issue of Detective Honeybear, "The Mystery of the Terrible Llamas," was just as amusing as the first. It was, perhaps, a bit stranger. For one thing, the bear detective was not in the spotlight nearly as much as he was in the first. His sidekick, Detective Chance, seemed to be the focal point in this issue. For another, there were some very strange (though admittedly humorous) moments.

As the previous issue wrapped up its mystery at the end, there was no cliffhanger, so waiting for the next issue was not exceedingly difficult. However, as it is a very fun read, it was still exciting to finally get to sit down with it. As already mentioned, though, it threw me for a bit of a loop at first, seeing a severe lack of teddy bear for the first six pages or so. Readers learned a fair bit about the miniature bear detective in the first issue, so perhaps the creators decided it was time for Chance to shine.

The book opens with Chance and his family (a wife and son) going for a visit to a zoo. His wife gives Chance a ribbing about how he has not taken a day off since before his son was born. The detective appears to be rather hard-working and responsible; it is also implied that Honeybear is an important factor in his being unable to take time off. Something interesting I noted here was that apparently Honeybear is not the only one who tends to get physically rough with Chance; I guess everyone does. His son is somehow strong enough to yank his dad around, and his wife elbows him rather hard. The poor man seems to be a bit of a whipped character, with everyone being hard on him for the sake of humour.

As discussed in the previous blog, this comic is mostly black and white, so with less Honeybear, we also get less colour. It honestly is not as boring as one might imagine. There is rather more humour, naturally directed mainly at poor Chance. The art, too, is very well done. It is still an enjoyable read, and when Honeybear shows up, he is being his usual annoying self. He has somehow managed to get tranquilized by zookeepers and locked in a carrier, so of course Chance must leave his family on his day off in order to help his partner. From there, the mystery finally begins unraveling, beginning with an amusing point-out-the-obvious moment, wherein the llama pen is completely empty and thus signifying their being kidnapped.

 

One interesting plot point for me was the fact that the creators point out the unbelievability of their own comic. There are two separate occasions where Chance tries to explain his story to people, and both times is ridiculed for it. Ironically, the answer is also the same: "And I'm an alligator!" This is actually a decent ploy, as it becomes easier to accept an impossibility in a story if other characters will not or cannot accept it.

There is a lot more exaggerated drama in this issue. While the previous one used the stereotypical detective drama, such as grand entrances and pointed statements or accusations, this issue has fun with such tactics as disguises, theft, and hostages. There is even a love triangle...sort of. Oh, and Detective Chance finally does what I had wanted someone to do last issue, and calls Honeybear out on his tendency to make everyone run around and get into embarrassing situations when he already knows the results. Of course, this would have been better if they both did not immediately move back to the case and never speak of that issue again. So Honeybear will continue to make fools of everyone, I guess; but then, the cute-but-evil trope is a fun one to play with.

So it turns out that the llamas have been taken and entered into underground spitting rings; again, the unrealistic nature is pointed out by Chance, who is surprised that "that's a thing?" In order to get in deep enough to fully break up the ring, Honeybear disguises himself as a llama trader. But the outfit he has chosen makes quite a statement; just try to imagine what a teddy bear pimp might look like. And guess who the llama is. Poor Detective Chance.

The undefeated spitting-champion llama like a girl llama. She apparently likes disguised llama-Chance, which angers Mr. Champion, and results in Chance trying to tell a bunch of llamas that he is happily married. Honestly, it is a good thing the comic has already reminded us that this is just one big, silly story. The best part is that, when Chance's family is being held hostage, and the big bad is threatening to have them spat on by llamas (which is apparently a terrible fate), Chance moves in to take the hit. Then the female llama that like him throws herself in front of him, and ends up covered in spit. It is all so hilariously dramatic; and then Honeybear ruins it by stating the obvious and going after the escaping bad guy.

Speaking of the bad guy, he is actually captured via plot-contrivance. The badge that a monkey stole from the detective becomes suddenly important; that's right, the monkey saves the day! With a banana gun. Earlier, Paddington, I mean Honeybear, used a sandwich to arrest the ring boss. He then proceeds to eat his sandwich-gun while talking to his partner. I think that this comic series must take place in some kind of Twilight Zone; if so, that makes Chance the sane person trapped within it.

-- Rachel Reed