| “ | There's nothing wrong with dreaming. Wishing for the impossible is just human nature. That's how I got it started. Just a pencil and a dream! We all want everything, without even having to lift a finger. They say, "you just have to believe." Belief can make you succeed. Belief can make you rich! Belief can make you powerful! Why, with enough belief, you can even cheat death itself! Now, that... is a beautiful, and positively silly thought. | „ |
| ~ Joey Drew's famous monologue and first audio log. |
| “ | If you claim that your failures are because these things are soulless then, damn it, we'll get them a soul! After all, I own thousands of 'em! | „ |
| ~ An audio log that hints at Joey Drew using the souls of his workers for his cartoony abominations. |
| “ | Henry? So soon? I didn't expect you for another hour yet. Now, you're just trying to impress me. I know, I know... you have questions. You always do! The only important question is this: Who are we, Henry? I thought I knew who I was... but, the success starved me. Nothing left but lines on a page. In the end, we followed two different roads of our own making. You, a lovely family. Me, a crooked empire. And my road burned. I let our creations become my life. The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, old friend. Pushing me to do the right thing. You should have pushed a little harder. Henry... come visit the old workshop. There's something I need to show you. | „ |
| ~ Joey's final line in Bendy and the Ink Machine. |
Joseph "Joey" Drew is the overarching antagonist of the Bendy franchise.
Joey, with the help of his best friend, Henry Stein, founded the now-bankrupt Joey Drew Studios, an animation studio that hosted the popular Bendy cartoons from 1929 to 1948. Joey soon became obsessed with bringing his cartoon creations to life using the Ink Machine; however, in doing so, he accidentally created monstrous versions of his beloved characters that now roam the abandoned studio killing anyone they see.
His actions, most of which are motivated by his greed, spite and egotism, are directly and indirectly the main cause of the everything that happened in the franchise, making him its main catalyst.
He was voiced by David Eddings.
Biography
Backstory
As explained in the book The Illusion of Living, Joey was born in 1901 to a poor family living in Paterson, New Jersey. He spent most of his time with his mother, a shoemaker. When five years old, he asked his mother how his father finished making all of the shoes, and she responded that elves help Mr. Drew. Joey sneaks out to his father's workshop to see Mr. Drew making voices for the elves. Mr. Drew explains that when lonely, he imagines elves helping him. The two spend the rest of the night together making shoes and singing alongside the "elves". This moment played a major role in his life, as it made Joey believe that fantasy and belief made people happier. At the age of 10, he witnessed a man almost die after falling from a building, but wasn't bothered by it.
At the age of 15, he joined the Army during World War I where he was bullied for liking girly things such as romance novels and genre fiction. He had two friends named Donaldson and Eckhart who tried to arrange a date for him, but he wasn't interested.
In 1917, Joey went to a gala where he was introduced to a Hello Girl named Lottie in a date arranged by Donaldson. He noticed the initials ZW on Donaldson's boots, and both Joey and Lottie eventually started thinking that the mysterious ZW is a spouse, as they didn't know any soldiers or Hello Girls with the initials. At one point, Joey realizes Lottie has a crush on him, but he makes multiple excuses while writing The Illusion of Living on why he wouldn't date her. When Lottie goes to England, she becomes depressed, and Joey tries to cheer her up by lying that the characters they made up are real. Lottie eventually finds herself a boyfriend and stops writing to him. At one point, Donaldson and Eckhart both died, which Joey considered fitting as they joined the Army at the same time. He eventually befriends a man named Kyle, who is the first person to call him Joey, but he secretly hated him as he kept asking about Joey's past.
In 1918, Joey meets Nathan Arch. In 1920, he helps a detective called Adam Sinclair solve a murder case, and shortly afterwards he was hired at a bookstore, where he meets Henry Stein, his best friend.
However, Joey is confirmed to be an unreliable narrator, so how much of this is real is up to interpretation.
Founding Joey Drew Studios
After being shown several of Henry's drawings, Joey decided to enter the animation business. After discussing some details with Nathan and creating a character called Bendy with Henry, Joey uses the help of a friend of his to get some of the best animators and cartoonists. Just a year later, in 1929, Joey Drew Studios is founded in New York. Just two weeks later, Henry starts regretting his decision due to his friend being a man of ideas and only ideas, and how he didn't see his wife Linda in days. Shortly afterwards, Boris the Wolf makes his debut. Just a year later, Henry leaves to spend more time with Linda. At the same time, Joey hires Sammy Lawrence and Jack Fain, and two years later a third character is created to complete Joey Drew's main trio - Alice Angel.
In 1940, Joey gets in contact with one Bertrum Piedmont to create an amusement park called Bendyland. Somewhere around this time, Joey creates the Ink Machine to bring his characters to life. His first attempt was Bendy, although the result was an abomination. Joey had the demon be locked up and decided that, if he needs souls to create perfect cartoons, he'll use the ones of his employees. That is how he began turning his employees into ink creatures. One of the victims was Sammy Lawrence, who started sacrificing other employees by himself, something Joey was fine with.
Meeting Buddy
In the year 1946, teenager Daniel "Buddy" Lewek collapsed next to Joey's office due to exhaustion, and Joey opens the door for him. Buddy talks about his business and Joey takes him to the office. After learning that the business is suit delivery, Joey takes an interest in Buddy's drawings and gives him a drawing of Bendy. Joey offers Buddy a job as a gofer, which he accepts. After some bonding with Buddy, he takes Thomas Connor to his office for an important meeting. Joey and Buddy continue to bond throughout the book and Joey introduces other workers to the teenager. When Thomas and Allison Pendle arrive uninvited to the announcement of Bendy Land, he fires Thomas for not meeting his expectations and Allison for siding with her fiancé. Later on, Buddy is attacked and killed by the Ink Demon - the aforementioned soulless attempt at creating Bendy - before being revived into a Boris the Wolf clone by Joey. Joey tells him to accept it and to not talk or make sense of it. Despite Boris' personality taking over, Buddy manages to crush Joey's hand before escaping.
A few months later, Allison is rehired while Thomas takes the Ink Machine out of Joey's studio to fix it. Both it and the Ink Demon are put in a crate and shipped off to a factory, where several employees fall victim to both the machine and the demon.
When Constance escapes the studio to make a cure for Bill and Brant, Joey pulls up and offers her ride. Constance recognizes Scott sitting next to her, rambling madly. Joey then drives off with them and the epilogue implies Joey sacrificed Constance’s soul (and presumably Scott) to the machine because they knew too much.
He eventually met another employee known as Rose. He fired her friend, Evan, who's been working with Gent corporation. Joey tries to trap Rose, her brother Ollie and others in the ink world at the end of the book.
Downfall
Starting in the same year he met and lost Buddy and the Ink Machine was temporarily taken out of the studio, the studio was under investigation for, among others, employee abuse, unsafe working conditions and danger of bankruptcy. Employees complained about hazardous electrical wiring, a plumbing system prone to busting, not being allowed to see their families, being forced to work on tight schedules under threat of termination or being locked up in their rooms. Joey has started borrowing money from one Nathan Arch, who he considered a friend. In 1959, Joey Drew Studios was first sued then officially went bankrupt. Thus Bendy, who practically ruled the cartoon industry throughout the 1930's and early 40's, disappeared and fell into obscurity. Joey himself, who was a public figure, disappeared and, by 1962, has not been heard from "in years".
At an unknown point in time, presumably before the studio declared bankruptcy, Joey used the Ink Machine to create a parallel dimension known as the Cycle which is not effected by the passage of time in the real world. He created and used it because he was angry at everyone, refusing to accept that he was the cause of his own failures, trapping countless inside a time loop out of spite, including a replica of Henry he could torment forever as revenge for the real Henry leaving him.
Bendy and Ink Machine
In presumably 1963, Joey, to vent out his frustrations at Henry for leaving him to be with Linda, creates an ink recreation of him to satisfy his revenge fantasies and traps it in the Cycle.
Chapter 1: Moving Pictures
Joey sends Henry a note to come back to Joey Drew Studios to see something, which would turn out to be the Ink Machine. It doesn't take a while for Henry to see a dead version of Boris the Wolf and question what Joey was doing (although it turned out someone else was behind it). A cassette left behind by Wally Franks explains that Joey ordered his workers to donate things from their workstations and put them on each pedestal in the break room to help "appease the gods".
Chapter 2: The Old Song
It's shown that Joey doesn't care about his employee's feelings about the Ink Machine affecting their work lives.
Chapter 3: Rise and Fall
Another cassette left by Shawn Flynn talks about Joey getting mad after some of the Bendy toys had slightly crooked smiles as foul-ups. Multiple other cassettes also criticize Joey, with even Henry leaving one about how Joey doesn't give his fair share of work like they agreed when starting the business and how thanks to his work, he doesn't get to see Linda often.
Chapter 4: Colossal Wonders
Bertrum Piedmont mentions how Joey Drew is taking full credit for his work, in particular the planned establishment "Bendy Land". In a cassette left by Joey himself, he finally drops the "keep dreaming" act, referring to it as trash.
Chapter 5: The Last Reel
Joey comments about how the Ink Demon looks terrifying and needs to be locked up, mentioning that he has plenty of souls and can use them to give the creatures souls. He then manipulates Susie Campbell into helping her make Alice Angel real.
Drew makes an actual appearance after Henry defeats the Ink Demon. While in the former's apartment, Henry is told of how he has a perfect family while Joey himself left behind a crooked empire due to his actions and the path he took. Joey further stated that he later expressed regret, and has Henry visit the old workshop, revealing that the entire game is one big cycle made by Joey. In the post credits it is also shown he has a niece/grand niece and has another Ink Machine in his apartment.
Regret, Death and Legacy
At some point after Henry was trapped in the Cycle, Joey reunited with Allison Pendle, who saw good in him despite everyone else, including Joey himself, not seeing it. She turned him into a better and less hateful version of himself who decided to create Allison Angel, an ink recreation of Allison, to give Henry someone that will give him hope. He then used the Ink Machine to give himself a family, creating an ink creature known as Audrey as his daughter after numerous failed attempts which he treated as his nieces, including the one from the ending of Bendy and the Ink Machine.
In 1971, Joey died from natural causes. At one point either before or after that, an ink recreation - or self-described "memory" - of him came to life in the Cycle. A year later, Nathan - who now has his own steel and oil company, Arch Gate Pictures - buys Joey Drew Studios and all its properties to continue Joey's legacy and make him proud.
Gallery
Trivia
- In the second teaser trailer for Chapter 5 (prior to his physical appearance), his office can be seen beyond below the studio.
- Joey Drew is mostly likely inspired by both Walt Disney and Max Fleischer, two animation founders from the same time period of the Bendy cartoons. While the Bendy cartoons themselves have the same animation style as Fleischer's work, Joey's larger than life persona and own name studio is in reference to Disney.
- It is revealed in a post credit scene that Joey has an Ink Machine in his apartment. It's later revealed it's the real Ink Machine, and the one in the Cycle is a recreation of it.
- Bendy in Nightmare Run is so far the only game in the franchise that has nothing to do with Joey.
- Although it is theorized that each episode was one of the cartoons, which would make Joey an unseen antagonist, as he would in one way or another create the cartoons.
- The Illusion of Living heavily implies that Joey is homosexual and had a crush on Henry.
- It’s shown in the novel Bendy: The Lost Ones Joey would sacrifice anyone who knew about the Ink Machine to keep the secrets, such as Constance and Scott.
- It's debatable how much of Joey's remorse was true. At the end of Chapter 5, he seemingly shows remorse for trying to create a "crooked empire" but does not mention all the people he killed or hurt, in someway blames Henry for not stopping him, and later traps him in the Cycle. The sequel explains that it is a bit of both. Initially, the Cycle was a way to torture an ink copy of Henry, blaming the real one for Joey's mistakes. However, after reuniting with Allison, he began to feel remorse for his actions and tried helping Henry out by creating Allison Angel, someone to give him hope.
- Some of messages written on the walls, such as "THE CREATOR LIED TO US" or "I DON'T WANT TO WORK HERE ANYMORE", imply that Joey's abuse made some of the workers go insane to the point they would write their thoughts on the walls.
External Links
- Joey Drew on the Bendy Wiki.
- Ink Joey on the Heroes Wiki.
 Villains
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Ink Creatures Joey Drew Studios Fictional Fictional Characters Other | ||