When I first started designing the Safety Bears, I originally thought they’d look more like Care Bears and actually have different pictures on their chest. But I couldn’t decide what icons to choose! I did some drawings (below) where they have spades, diamonds and hearts like playing cards, but worried that would get confusing since hearts play a huge role later in the story. So I ended up going with sashes, like a safety patrol or crossing guard might wear. The final shape of the bears was inspired by a memory of an early production design for the Ewoks.

When I was in elementary school I had a reputation as the boy who could draw the Care Bears and Ewoks. Super cool at the time, it was my first taste of being good at something. I was even asked to paint a mural of Care-A-Lot for my 5th grade classroom. Cut to a few years later, in middle school, where I ended up getting teased about my enthusiasm for Care Bears by a group of girls (who I thought were my friends) who snarkily proclaimed that a 5th grade boy liking stuffed animals was just “so weird.” I honestly hadn’t thought about the Care Bears in years, but I was still mortified by the experience and never sat at the same table as those girls again. I kept drawing though, and through most of high school, along with other comic-loving friends, tried to draw edgy Image Comics style superheroes like Spawn, Youngblood and Deathblow. But I was never especially good at drawing superheroes and by the time I graduated art school, I consciously began to embrace my love of picture books, Hello Kitty and other cute things. And now I’m professionally drawing homages to Care Bears and Ewoks, along with bunnies and kids in outer space.