Loads of influences converge on one small bear.
Illustrator Brian Froud's characters are often seen carrying oversized wooden spoons. He probably pinched that idea from Mr. Breughel.
The green candle is a favourite saying of Alfred Jarry's character Pere Ubu - "by my green candle!" The spiral motif on his ample paunch is also from Pere Ubu.
To save him from his own exhaust fumes he has a Magic Tree air freshener around his neck ("it'll make you smell like a forrest" - as Jeff Bridges says to Robin Williams in Terry Gilliam's film The Fisher King) and he has a Doktor Schnabel gas mask stuffed with fragrant herbs, resins and a knuckle bone (genuine) of St. Roche - the plague saint. (popular in Europe during the time of The Black Death).
"We are relieved!" By Royal Appointment to Her Royal Queenyness. Any resemblance to any Royal Personages living or dead is a figment of your imagination.
It tickles me to think that The a Queen might wear a thong under all her regalia and smile to herself about her secret. It should have a sequinned Union Jack on it.
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