The Three Bears was a long-running comic strip in the UK comic The Beano. It made its first appearance in issue 881, dated 6 June 1959, drawn by Leo Baxendale at first and Bob McGrath later on.

Ma and Pa Bear and their young son Ted were lazy and gluttonous, and lived in a cave upon a hill. Most storylines revolved around their attempts to steal “grub” from the local storekeeper Hank. Originally disappearing from the comic after issue 2253, dated 21 September 1985, the strip has returned to The Beano several times since then, re-appearing in issues 2391 and 2674 (dated 14 May 1988 and 16 October 1993).

One re-appearance was in 2000, when, after being a ‘Guest Star’ since the previous year, it was voted into the comic by Beano readers, beating Tricky Dicky, Inspector Horse and Jocky and Gordon Bennett. This time it was drawn by Mike Pearse.

After a vote in 2006, the 3 bears re-appeared as reprints from 1993-94 drawn by David Parkins, who had drawn them from 1993 to 1997. He had also drawn Fred’s Bed, Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, and Billy Whizz, all of which have been reprinted in some form.

The strip was the subject of a surreal one-off parody by the adult comic Viz entitled The Three Chairs, about a family of three chairs who lived in a cave and frequently robbed Frank’s Store for food.