Some of us can recall being scared of monsters in the closet as a child, but what if those monsters were real? What if all you had by your side was a teddy bear, toy sword and shield? And what if those monsters caught you, and your trusty teddy bear had to arm itself and go after you? This is the basic premise of My Brother, Teddy, a short but touching fantasy comic starring an unnamed Black boy and his teddy bear, which I will call Teddy.
The comic begins during a thunderstorm when a white teddy bear suddenly awakens to find his human companion missing with the closet door ajar. Tying a red cape around its neck, the teddy bear arms himself with a wooden toy sword and shield and ventures into the dark closet to save his friend.
At this point, I want to state that it is a mark of writer Jaromir François’ storytelling ability and the visually striking images and colors of artist Todor Hristov and colorist Sonya Anatasova
that this story contains absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. They say “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and it definitely applies here. The images manage to convey emotion and struggle without the need of dialogue or sound effects and it allows the reader to consider the story on their own terms.
In fact, the only words present occur during a series of time skips, ominously marked with white letters against a plain black background. The first time skip starts with the words, “Arriving Somewhere After A Tragedy”. At this point, Teddy is considerably more buff and ferocious, and now wields a real sword and shield as he fights off hordes of monsters. Out of all the visuals in this time skip, a very cool image is when Teddy prepares to face an ice monster with a flaming sword. The red-orange of the flame sword is a nice contrast to the blue of the ice monster.
The next time skip occurs with the words, “Arriving Somewhere After Enduring Hardships”, and finds Teddy taking a mysterious golden crown before facing another horde of monsters. The monster’smonste’s’ designs are unique in that some look like ghosts while others look like minotaurs. Things are more harrowing in the last couple pages in this section as Teddy is wounded fighting samurai skeletons and the memory of being held by his friend causes him to grimly bandage his wound and fight on.
A third time skip is signified with the words, “Arriving Somewhere After Enduring Nigh Death” and features Teddy in the midst of a battle with a phantom version of himself. In order to gain the upper hand, Teddy puts on a blindfold before striking and becoming victorious. Then, he pulls out the sword belonging to the phantom version of himself and a mysterious orange portal appears.
We see where that portal leads to in the fourth time skip titled, “Arriving Here and Paradise Found”. Teddy has finally reunited with his human companion, who has now aged to a young man and is in the clutches of a horned monster. Although the young man has no name, it is interesting that both he and Teddy have both aged while fighting monsters in the closet. This implies that this entire ordeal is a metaphor for growing up, especially since there are images of an older boy playing with Teddy.
Together, Teddy and his young Black male companion face off against the demon but tragedy strikes when Teddy sacrifices himself to protect his friend. Despite being badly wounded, Teddy hands his companion the golden crown and tells him to go through the portal he came through to return home.
Without looking back, the young man returns to his room as a young boy again and sheds a tear as he looks at an old photo of him and Teddy. These pages support the idea that the monster in the closet battles were the young Black boy’s fears of growing up, which he now must face without Teddy.
The comic’s final time skip is titled “Reclaim” in which the young boy has now aged to an adult and has returned to his old home holding a briefcase and wooden crate. Entering his old childhood room, he pulls out the old photo of him and Teddy before opening the crate and pulling out a sword.
The comic ends as lightning flashes and the Black man transforms into his armored self and ventures into the closet once more. Whether he finds his old friend Teddy is yet to be seen, but I think the ending can be open to interpretation. It is possible that the Black adult man is going to try and reclaim what he has lost, and frankly I am rooting for him.
At first glance, this seemed like a comic solely for kids but I think adults could get something out of it too. We all have metaphorical monsters to face in the closet or in dark places sometimes and sometimes facing them can allow you to regain something precious to you.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
