Daniel replies:

Two Bad Bears, the first of the Irving and Muktuk series was inspired by the Larry series, (Young Larry, At the Hotel Larry, Bongo Larry, etc.).  Larry is such a good polar bear, and is always helpful, saves people from drowning, is polite, has never eaten a person.  But, we thought, possibly not all bears are as good as Larry.  So we came up with Irving and Muktuk, who are fairly bad. They lie, cheat and steal, (but also have never eaten a person...so they say).