A
comic book bear (also featured in some animated movies for TV) created by
Rune Andreasson; the perfect
upbringing edutainment and
alternative to
Donald Duck for
middle class bohemians to feed their kids with.
Bamse has like much other entertainment for children been very anxious to follow the time-changing norms and vogues of what is completely politically correct.
In the beginning the rumble-honey-empowered Bamse could beat up the villains the Wolf and Tjocke and Smocke quite heavily when they had done something bad. After complaints from sensitive mothers he now seldom uses his power in violent ways.
In the late seventies and early eighties, when Swedish social democracy had its glorious days under prime minister Olof Palme, and strong left-political winds blew especially in cultural circles, the socialistic tendencies in Bamse mentioned in a node above were quite marked, with stories recurrently having the sensmoral of "cooperating is good." The capitalist Krösus sork, the Bamse antipode to Scrooge McDuck, is made the real evil guy, whereas the lumpen-proletarians the Wolf and Tjocke and Smocke are pictured in a more compassioning and understanding way. The Wolf even evolves to become sort of "nice" when he is given social acceptance by the the rest of the community. In one "Bamse's school" strip, Mao's cultural revolution was described in favorable terms. Also the comic book didn't have any advertisements in it, and the Bamse figures were only allowed to be depicted or used in connection to truly "good" products like toothbrushes. (Nowadays the comic has advertisements and Bamse is featured most everywhere.)
In the nineties Bamse and Lille skutt got themselves one girl child each, so that the comic became more gender balanced.
A Bamse strip that got controversial was The magician's red flower: it was (unfairly) seen as being "drug-glorifying" by some people.
A unique thing for comics is that the characters in Bamse don't stay the the same age for eternity, they grow older in approximately real time. In the beginning Bamse was a bachelor who had wild adventures with his friends Lille Skutt ("Little Jump," a rabbit) and Skalman ("Shell-man," a turtle). After a while he got together with the female bear Brummelisa. At present they have four kids.
The quality of the Bamse comics sank rather low when Andreasson retired himself. (He has now died.)