"The Teddy Bear I was given at birth had a red button on his chest that said ‘I Love You.� I imaginatively named him Red Button. I still have him and he is quite well preserved—save for the worn-off proclamation of affection—because I was never much of a Teddy cuddler and he never took part in my TMNT and G.I. Joe combat campaigns.

I don’t know why an omnivorous beast that could tear you in half became the icon of childhood security in pre-Squishmallow times, but Winnie the Pooh has endured for decades. (Perhaps it has something to do with the word ‘bear� being polysemous. If you just can’t bear it, grab your Teddy).

Tough Teddies champions the plight of the stuffed animals through what I can only think to call irreverent Boomer comics; rummaging through bins for spare ears and arms, panhandling in the street after being discarded in favor of a computer, praying not to be chewed on.

Some pages went darker than I expected; a blindfolded man standing before a firing squad holding his similarly blindfolded Teddy Bear, The Spanish Inquisition stretching a Teddy on the rack, a smoldering Teddy belonging to Joan of Arc. For good measure, a Teddy with a sizable erection held by an angry mother in line at the complaint department.

Some cerebral stumpers went over my head. Adam of Genesis fame (the book, not the band) donning a Teddy to tuck his genitalia instead of the oft-depicted leaf. Some kind of commentary on the loss of innocence? Hell if I know.

Bookending the portfolio are two Teddy Roosevelt visual puns. A trifle TEDious on that front (and back). I will give Simon Bond credit that he would have included a Teddy giving a TED talk had the opportunity been available.

Am I still talking about long forgotten Teddy Bear doodles? If you’re still with me, you deserve a snuggle. Find your Teddy."

dafinahcekaj is currently reading Narcissus and Goldmund

dafinahcekaj is on page 30 of 315 of Narcissus and Goldmund