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.

Pandas Go Viral

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Editor’s Note: What makes something go viral on the internet? I don’t really know, but Bob is hoping his campaign will go viral, because otherwise, he doesn’t have a chance against Pinky.

We're waiting...*tappity tap pity tap*

We’re waiting…*tappity tappity tap*

Things have been very busy over at the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire, these days. We are starting the production process for Book 6 of The Panda Chronicles (yay! Huzzah!!!!), still trying to get my campaign video done, getting ready for a gathering of Pandanistas at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo on September 26th (9:30 AM at the main gate of the Zoo on Phinney Ave, if you are in the vicinity) Rumor has it there will be Panda Chronicle books available for purchase, or if you already have them, I’ll be thrilled to sign them! Look for people who look like they would be wearing panda hats.

I’m also over-the-moon thrilled to announce that I will be part of an SCBWI mentorship program (on the receiving end, not the mentoring end) to work on the Inspector Panda story that appeared here last year. My plan is to turn it into a middle grade graphic novel (with pandas) and start shopping it around to publishers and agents after I am done revising it. Stay tuned for news about this project.

The Cuppycake Cookbook project is still alive and well, and making the rounds of agents. We hope we will have news about this project soon, but we don’t know when. Keep your spoons and frosting ready.

Be the Bear (and keep an eye out for Pinky….I heard a rumor she has escaped her grounding and is now at large.)
Bob T. Panda

FFF Asks: Who’s Your Daddy?

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In all the excitement of the birth of twin panda cubs at the National Zoo, and then the sad news of the smaller of the cubs death, a little news item got…um…overlooked and everyone wants to know: Who’s your daddy?

For today’s Fabulously Furry Friday line up of encores, we revisit some ‘toons that ask that very question.

"It was dark....there were men in masks...."

“It was dark….there were men in masks….”

Who's the bear???!!!

Who’s the bear???!!!

And who can forget the “transformation” of Po and the Meihem twins of Cublanta?

Bao bao changes panda cub gender

Pinky is VERY powerful. Be afraid, be very afraid, Mr Wu.

And finally, we apologize (Ha! No we don’t) for anthropomorphizing pandas, and…um…making fun of them.

Our lack of taste is only exceeded by our sense of the absurd.

Our lack of taste is only exceeded by our sense of the absurd.

Hope this Friday is treating you well! and remember, you can have ALL these cartoons to read again (and again) with the Panda Chronicle series, books 1 thru 5 and coming soon! Book 6!!!!

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

Don’t Look in the Back Seat!

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um…you know when you watch those scary movies, and there is a malevolent force in the back seat, as the hero/heroine drive blithely and unconcernedly around the dark country side. And the camera cuts to a shot of the evil one starting to rise up in the back seat, and you jump up and yell at the screen:

Don’t turn around!!!!!!! Don’t look in the backseat!

Well, think of that as you start to read this cartoon.

Warning: do not read with food or drink in your mouth.  #YouHaveBeenWarned

Cue the menacing music...

Cue the menacing music…

Meanwhile back on the National Zoo panda front, Xiao Mei Tian (not his official name, just a crib name, as he won’t get either his real name or his panda satire name till he is a hundred days old) has survived his fist week. He is starting to develop his panda markings and is getting nice and round. Huzzah!

I think we can deduce from this cartoon that Pinky is not quite ready to give up her presidential aspirations.

I will have to think of something to distract her….
Be the Bear
Bob T Panda

Mr. Bun Has a Question

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The Cubbycake Chronicles Continues

It has been a highly emotional week for panda fans around the US and around the world. Panda Research centers in China continue to have success raising not only single cubs, but also twins, and last year, the first instance of surviving triplets occurred. In the US, however, we have only had one pair of surviving twins at Zoo Atlanta, known here affectionately as Bert and Ernie, or the Meihem twins.

Last Saturday’s birth of twins to Mei Xiang at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC caused great celebrations, not only among the panda faithful. In a world that seems to be going nuts with new random shootings every week, and natural disasters like the out of control wildfires in my home state of Washington, two new baby pandas seemed like just the thing to cheer ourselves up.

It was not to be. One of the cubs was too small and too weak to survive, and he died on Wednesday. My heart and sympathies go out to all the panda house staff at the SNZ. They have been working around the clock since the start of Mei Xiang’s labor. They are exhausted as well as heartbroken and they deserve our support. If this cub could have been saved, they would have done so.

The surviving cub is doing well. Mama Mei continues to prove herself an excellent mother. This is the first time we will have two cubs in residence at the same time at the SNZ. I can’t wait to visit and see the new cub, which will remain with Mei Xiang for about 18 months.

But that is the real world, and THIS is panda satire. So we take a moment to wipe our tears and blow our collective noses and get on with the show. I wanted to do a cartoon that commemorates the loss of this cub, without getting excessively maudlin. I hope you agree that this fills the bill.

And of course, it stars Pinky.

Mr Bun has a question, daddee.

Mr. Bun has a question daddee.

Be the Bear,

Bob T. Panda

We Paws to Reflect…

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…on the fragility of life, especially of baby pandas and all endangered species. Here at The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire, we make a lot of fun of contemporary culture, society, politics, and, of course, pandas.

We paws to reflect on the passing of one of our joys and treasures, a newborn panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington DC. I have every confidence that the outstandingly talented panda team and panda mom extraordinaire Mei Xiang did everything they could to keep that little cub alive. I have no doubt that they will do the same to nurture and protect the surviving cub.

For today’s encore presentation, I share with you the drawing I did to commemorate the cub that did not survive, the year before Pinky Bao Bao’s birth in 2013. I am reminded that nature is sometimes cruel, or at least it seems that way.

goodbye my friend.

goodbye my friend.

We will panda on, no matter what. We R All Endangered. You can follow the news about the NZ pandas on twitter, using the National Zoo’s special panda hashtag, #PandaStory.

Bob T Panda

 

Huzzah! Huzzah!

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Things are hopping in Pandyland, AKA the National Zoo in Washington DC. On Saturday, August 22nd, Mama Mei Xiang gave birth to not one, but TWO cubs. We are still on pins and needles, because panda cubs are really, really, really little, not to mention fragile. So, they are a little too small to appear in cartoons often, but I couldn’t resist letting one of them make a brief appearance with her big sister, Princess Pinky Bao Bao.

Huzzah!

PP: um, dis is not going to interrupt my presidential campaign, is it?

PP: um, dis is not going to interrupt my presidential campaign, is it?

How will having twin siblings affect the ever more attitudinal Princess Pinky, as she vies for the Cake Party nomination in next years presidential race?

Well, we just don’t know, Dude.

Huzzah!

Be the bear…
Bob T Panda

Intervention for Pinky

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NEWS FLASH!!!!! If you haven’t heard already, out in the real world Pinky has not one, but two new siblings. So far everyone is doing okay. They have started swapping out the twins so each can have some time with Mama Mei. What will Pinky have to say about this? Um…. I don’t know yet, but you can be sure that it will be all about Pinky Pinky Pinky! We will continue to monitor the situation closely, both for sibling rivalry as well as sibling exploitation. (Do you think that Pinky won’t turn this to her own advantage?)

Congratulations  Mei Xiang, the Panda staff, the Smithsonian National Zoo, and of course, the panda faithful who visit the pandas …um…a lot. HUZZAH!!!!!

Enough is enough! Pinky is out of control and Mommee and Daddee must do something about it. So, instead of Pinky’s expected birthday party, they stage an intervention for Pinky.

Do they really think this is going to work?

And this hacking into my title imagery has got to stop!

And this hacking into my title copy has got to stop!

Does Mei Xiang have any kind of chance to control Pinky, when Pinky so clearly has Daddee wrapped around her little paw? How do you ground a panda when said panda has a magical wand? And how did she change my title copy again? This must stop!

Stay tuned, faithful Panda fans!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

FFF presents: Pandas of Days Past

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I thought I would continue my theme of sharing a specific month’s cartoons from several years ago. It is always fun and instructive (for me, anyway) to see how my drawings have changed from my early days of pandism.  Today, let’s revisit March of 2011…

Let’s start with The panda kindergarten’s first trip to the olympics, starring Bob as a young panda!

This cartoon is one of Bob's earliest appearances!

This cartoon is one of Bob’s earliest appearances!

The Pandas first attempt at Olympic Glory!

The Pandas first attempt at Olympic Glory!

Maybe they have a point...

Maybe they have a point…

See, What did I tell you?

See, What did I tell you?

And since I have had to do a little air travel recently, I was reminded of this cartoon, which incidentally is a favorite of one of my younger fans, (yes, that’s you, Celeste), much to her mother’s dismay.

You can't be too careful!

You can’t be too careful!

Ha ha! Here's a toothbrush!

Ha ha! Here’s a toothbrush!

Commercial alert! If you are enjoying these cartoons from the early days of panda satire, you can find them all in Book 1 of The Panda Chronicles: Your Brain on Pandas! Find it on Amazon, or out of the back of my car!

See you next time!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda