Author Archives: Panda in Chief

About Panda in Chief

Anne Belov paints, writes, makes prints, and is the founder of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire. You can find her paintings at the Rob Schouten Gallery and Fountainhead Gallery, her cartoons on The Panda Chronicles, and her new book here. She also writes regularly for The Whidbey Life Magazine, a free journal of art and culture on Whidbey Island. Her main regret in life is that there is no MacArthur Grant for Panda Satire.

The Year of the Rooster Really

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I jumped the gun on Friday. Not really, because Saturday was the actual start of Chinese New Year, and this is the year of the Red Fire Rooster, or as one of the special friends to pandas, Lucilla T. has dubbed it, the Year of the WUster!!!!!! (Referring, of course, to everybody’s favorite panda, Mr. Wu of the San Diego panda clan.) (Okay, I know I am about to get a lot of heat here about who is the best panda ebber. Let’s just say I have a thing for the Wu Self and leave it at that.)

And if you are looking for a special recipe for your celebrations, hop on over to Vicky Vladic’s blog VSomethingSpeaks for a yummy chicken recipe. That’s if you’d rather eat your rooster, rather than party with it.

Meanwhile, here is my actual new ‘toon commemorating the Year of the Rooster!

It’s the year of the WUster!!!!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

BTW, you’ll notice I did not lead with political outrage, although, trust me, it’s still there and getting worse every day. I just read a recent article on Medium about how to remain outraged without losing your mind. I highly recommend it! I already knew I was going to intersperse snarky political ‘toons with lighter panda fare, and this article confirmed we need to do both, in order to keep our sanity, not burn out, but also not let important crimes against humanity go unremarked. It’s getting very interesting out there. As in train wreck interesting, not fluffy kittens interesting.

The Year of the Rooster

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Yes, Chinese New Year, otherwise known as the Lunar New Year, starts tomorrow (January 28th, 2017) and continues until February 15th! This is the year of the Rooster. That sounds harmless, right? How much trouble can the panda kindergarten get into dressed up like chickens?

It was interesting to read this article, because I was unaware of some of the traditions associated with this event. Like, you’re not supposed to do any cleaning the first three days of the New Year, because you could wash away good fortune. Well, I can live with that. Um…I hardly ever clean anything. Was that too much information?

Anyway, we’ll have a brand new ‘toon for you on Sunday, but for today’s encore presentation, I thought I would post some of my favorite Chinese new year ‘toons from years past.

Huzzah!

The year of the bunny…..

Oh that panda kindergarten!

Huzzah! It’s The year of Pandas on Horsies!

Look out!!!! Oh, those triplets!

Well, the FIRE part had Mehitabel a little worried, but…

And, of course, my personal favorite…

the year of the dragon, panda kindergarten

Huzzah! it’s the year of the Dragon!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

Have a fabulous furry Friday!

There’s Something Happening Here…

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...what it is ain’t exactly clear.…Things are happening very fast and I don’t think it is a good thing. When you are steering a ship of state, which is much bigger, than say, the Titanic, it seems like you would want to chart your course carefully, lest you, ya know, run into an iceberg. Not just barrel on ahead, because you like the sound of your own voice that much.

Heh.

Meanwhile, there is no such thing as an alternative fact, unless you are talking about speculative science fiction. Are we still allowed to use the word “science”? It’s good to remember that not everything is as it exactly appears in any particular snapshot (or screenshot!) But that doesn’t mean we should not pay attention. Or talk about what we’ve read or heard. Question everything, and let your representatives know how you feel, good and bad.

Our Future is at stake. Let’s treat it like it means something. Keep the conversation going.

Are all these paper clips mine?

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

The Million Panda March

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a million pandas available to march? I know they would all be ready to go! Because pandas are not strangers to protests! I attended our small, (comparatively speaking) local march, because I did not feel comfortable going into Seattle, where they were expecting 10’s of thousands of people. At 4 PM on Saturday, the day of the march, estimates of attendance was at about 200,000. That’s people, not pandas. We don’t have any pandas here.

At our own event in Langley, I was expecting maybe 50 old hippies wearing tie-dye t-shirts, but lo and behold, when I arrived at the starting point, I could see maybe a couple hundred people milling around. I was waiting with one friend, who was waiting for her daughter, and after chatting with her for about 15 minutes as people filed past, I decided to hop in when I saw some other friends who had joined the march. As we turned onto the route, you could see that the entire street was full, with 10-12 people across, going all the way down to the corner, and already turning the corner, with almost as many people behind us. Unofficial estimates of attendance are at around 2,000. There aren’t that many people that live in town!

But pandas are no strangers to protest!

Pandas aren’t dopes!

The early days of panda rights groups….

“I felt so violated!”

And here is a photo of our gathering in Langley. Huzzah! It didn’t rain, and I marched, picked up my mail, and was home in under 2 hours. You can’t beat that!

Women’s March, Langley edition!

Panda On!
Never give up working for peace and human …um…I mean panda rights!
Bob T Panda

What if You Gave an Inauguration & Nobody Came?

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Hoo boy! We are right here, at ~~Apocalypse~~ Inauguration Eve, and I gotta tell you, my tummy is doing flip flops. I don’t even know if I can get all these cuppycakes down that I have lined up on the counter in front of me. Despite a certain party’s claims to the contrary, you can find a ball gown in DC, and apparently hotel rooms are available too. On the one hand, you hate to rile up a person with so thin a skin and such a penchant for vindictiveness.

On the other hand, there is this:

Hey, save some cuppycakes for me!

Panda On, and let’s be safe out there!
Bob T Panda

And did anyone get my nod to the old Bob and Ray “Wally Ballou” routines, where they joined the roving reporter midway through his introduction? We need anything we can find to cheer ourselves up! Enjoy!

Join the Panda March this Saturday!

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If you want to be where the action is the day after THE DAY AFTER, be sure to join one of the Women’s Marches that will taking place around the country. And yes, I put the phrase The Day After in scary SHOUTYCAPS/ all bold typing in reference to one of those post apocalyptic movies about the end of the world. The pandas are planning to march and I hope you will too. We are having a local march in Langley and I plan to attend. Maybe we’ll all go out for coffee and cuppycakes after. It’s shaping up to be that kind of week.

Join the #WePreferPinky Movement today!

Whats a protest without pandas?

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

I’d like to thank writer Deborah Underwood for coming up with the term “SHOUTYCAPS” to describe the feeling you get when someone writes in all capital letters. That’s why they pay her the big bucks. (Actually, hardly any writers for children make big bucks, so if you are looking for some really fun books for kids in your life, do check out her books at your local bookstore or on her website! She and her cat will thank you!)

If you thought the second week of November was bad…

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So…. we’re not going to wake up from this, are we? As I listen to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, it becomes increasingly clear that I am NOT hallucinating, experiences with mind altering drugs in the ’70’s notwithstanding. (Um…Chas, don’t mention this to mom, okay?) So, if you thought November was depressing (despite it being my birthday season) just wait till you experience January 20th!

It’s gonna be YUGE!

Can I open my eyes yet?

Interestingly (well, to me, anyway) I wrote this BEFORE the intelligence report was released last week. Just saying. The prognosticatory potential of pandas is prodigious!!!!

I will panda on till they lock me up!
Bob T Panda

And may I say, the next books on my to buy list are the graphic novel series March, the real life story of Congressman John Lewis. I’ve been wanting to read these for a while, but his current example of speaking out according to his convictions gives me hope.

Fluffy Feline Friday: Mehitabel

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It’s been just over a week since the sweet Mehitabel went to eternal resting place in the back yard. I still miss her terribly, and even though I have decided to keep her memory alive here in the Panda Chronicles, the house is way too quiet and empty without her. How a house can be more quiet than it was when she was sleeping 23 hours a day, I don’t know, but it is.

Here are some of my favorite ‘toons starring the divine Miss Mehitabel!

Mehitabel thanks you!

first panda gender misidentification at zoo atlanta

Well, we do all look alike.

The panda kindergarten is “busy” …can you call back later?

Part 1 of Bob and Mehitabel’s explanation…

Look out Mehitabel! here comes the panda kindergarten!

Maybe someone else should release their tax returns, don’t you think?

And who could forget her starring role in The Wizard of Wu?

Mehitabel would like to register her protest about given the least sympathetic role in this adventure.

Stay tuned later this month for the outtakes and blooper reel!

We’ll have more of Mehitabel’s greatest moments in next week’s Fabulous ~~Furry~~ Feline Friday!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

And now, a political message from The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire: If you believe that affordable healthcare for all is important, please call your representative today and ask him or her to vote AGAINST the repeal of the ACA (Affordable Healthcare Act). Repeal will affect you no matter where your insurance comes from, as some of the provisions include things like preventing insurance companies from rejecting you or charging you more for pre-existing conditions, and keeping them from setting lifetime limits on coverage, which, if you or someone you know has been very ill, can affect you. There’s a bunch more good stuff that it does, including providing insurance for low income artists such as myself, at an affordable cost.

They had six years to come up with a better plan and they haven’t. Don’t let them repeal it without replacing it with something better!

What if we wished …

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What if we wished on the moon…do you think it might happen then? In Pandamorphosis, the cat wishes on the moon that she would be loved as much as the pandas were. It didn’t quite turn out the way she planned, now did it?

So, if Lun Lun wished that her girls would always be as sweet as they are now…

Would it be such a bad thing?

Well, it COULD happen like that.

Panda On
Bob T Panda

What could it hurt?

The Little Gift That Keeps on Giving

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Oh me, oh my! What trouble has Pinky caused now? I think I hear the phone lines sizzling even now, as Lun Lun discovers just what Pinky’s little gift to the twins actually was! But look how nicely she is playing Go Fish with her little brother. She is even…um…well, not exactly letting him win so much, as by not cheating so effectively that he doesn’t lose by much. Pinky is a font of generosity today!

Let’s see what is happening down in PandAlanta!

The little gift that keeps on giving!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

“Whut yoo meen ‘uh oh’?” Um, maybe you should watch the girls on the panda cam to calm your nerves!