Anatomy of Buffalo Bear

As some of you may recall, my good friend, Jess, and I created a children’s television character named Buffalo Bear a couple of months ago. Our pitch, in a nutshell, is "Like Dexter, but for kids, and he's a bear."

Well, today is Jess’s birthday, and instead of bullshitting around and getting her a gift card to the Gap or something, I asked my buddy Kiel Mutschelknaus if he would draw a picture of Buffalo Bear for her (…For me, too, actually. I have BB’s portrait framed in my living room already). As with everything he does, Kiel really outdid himself with this one.

Here is the finished product:

Pretty great, right? But let’s take a closer look at some of these details…

Bolo-style vertebrae tie

The name “Buffalo Bear” is a reference to the Silence of the Lambs villain, Jame Gumb a.k.a. “Buffalo Bill,” a serial killer who made a suit of human flesh out of his victims. But in his interpretation, Kiel has nodded to the original—William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the famous U.S. solider, bison hunter and Wild West showman—by giving Buffalo Bear’s grisly ensemble a distinctly Western flare.

Check out the bolo-style neck tie made of human vertebrae and teeth…

…and the jacket sleeves “fringed” with human fingers!

Shoddy Needlework

Buffalo Bear is not a master tailor. How could we expect him to be? He doesn’t even have opposable thumbs!

That said, it’s pretty impressive that a bear is able to manage even substandard stitchwork like this:

The Discount Rack

The human body is covered with all sorts of bumps and crevices and imperfections, and so—just like an otherwise fine dress shirt marked for clearance due to a missed stitch in the collar—Buffalo Bear’s coat has a few irregularities, as well.

A nipple here…

…an ear there…

…and the occasional belly button.

What does he see in that mirror?

My favorite part of this piece, though, is that the portrait is framed in a gilded mirror, so that we are looking at Buffalo Bear’s reflection—as he sees himself.

Look at those eyes:

With just a few brush strokes, Kiel has managed to capture the sadness, confusion and regret that clothe Buffalo Bear’s soul just as the flesh of his victims clothes his body.

Well done, sir!

And did Jess like it?

You bet she did.

Check out more of Kiel's amazing (and generally much less disturbing) work at KielM.com.

Thank you, Kiel. You remain the greatest!

Comments

[Kiel M]

Wow, thanks for the hilarious and in-depth analysis, sir. The original Buffalo nod was slightly unintentional, but the sadness in the eyes was definitely in mind. Thanks, man.