When Buddy accepts a job at Mister Drew's cartoon studio, he has unsettling encounters that point to something mysterious and sinister hiding behind the seemingly harmless Bendy cartoonsThis graphic novel based on the Bendy and the Ink Machine horror video game franchise takes place shortly after the Second World War. The persuasive and powerful Mister Drew appears positioned to make a difference in Buddy's life. The boy lives with his widowed mom and Polish grandfather on New York City's Lower East Side, and the money he'll earn from his job as the studio's gofer will help support them. As a bonus, he also gets to be an art apprentice. Buddy befriends Dot, who works in the story department, and the pair begin to investigate clues, their curiosity piqued by snippets from overheard conversations, a scary creature lurking in the shadows, and disturbing sights, such as an employee with ink dripping from his mouth. Buddy narrates the story, his inner thoughts appearing in rectangular boxes set against illustrations executed in gold with white highlights and black lines and shading. Even with this limited palette, Arizmendi's art includes an incredible amount of texture and depth. Readers unfamiliar with the video game may have trouble settling into the story, and many plot points are left unexplained, making this work most likely to appeal to Bendy fans or graphic novel enthusiasts who appreciate great art.Captivating illustrations carry a so-so story.(Graphic horror. 12-16)

Gr 6–9— Shortly after WWII, Buddy, a delivery boy with artistic aspirations, is hired as a gofer by Joey Drew, an animator invested in revitalizing Bendy, the character that put his cartoon studio on the map a generation earlier. Buddy joins Dot, the head of the story department, in investigating Drew's unrealistic plans for the studio's expansion, as well as the uncanny behavior by employees who have been exposed to a mysterious batch of ink in the studio's art supplies. The author seems to want the audience to be uncertain as to whether Buddy's imagination is working overtime when he encounters dripping, inky ghouls, but the book's framing sequence and trade dress prevent any true ambiguity, which cause the hallucination sequences to never really land. What is successful are the stakes, as the author's inclusion of solid emotion and believable circumstances for the characters provide an effective, stabilizing keel. However, this is still not balanced by the silliness of the more fantastic elements that undergird the horror-story plot mechanics. There's too great of a gap between Buddy's grounded family tragedy and Drew's megalomaniacal scheme for bringing his characters back, almost equal to the transformation between Bendy's mildly devilish, Disney-pastiche origins and his xenomorphic form on the front cover. VERDICT Fans of Five Nights at Freddy's or Goosebumps will enjoy the worldbuilding and satire. There's plenty of excellent craft, but perhaps not enough to ignore the goofy twists.— Benjamin Russell