Category Archives: Bears on the Road

May the Fourth Be With You…

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…for all who celebrate!

Surrender your pandas!

Sadly, we are destined to be a country without pandas in the next year or two. San Diego’s pandas were sent to China in 2019, and the pandemic, not to mention TFG’s crappy stances on China meant we weren’t going to get a new panda loan agreement any time soon. Noted panda writer Henry Nicholls wrote an opinion piece for CNN about our addiction to domesticated pandas. That might not be quite how he put it, but he does have a point.

Pandas in the wild are different animals, and now it appears there may be some genetic difference between pandas that live in the wild and pandas that grew up on the all you can eat cruise ship model. “Pandas are solitary? Who knew?!!!!” said a group of pandas sitting around the table chowing down on boo shoots while playing Mah Jong.

Any way, now Ya Ya is on her way back to Beijing, alas without Le Le who succumbed to a previously undiagnosed heart ailment.

Could story lines collide soon? I guess we’ll find out.

Stay tuned for further developments!

Be the Bear!
Bob T pass the endless boo buffet Panda

If you haven’t read Henry Nicholls’ The Way of the Panda, you should fix that immediately. It’s a great book about all things pandas, the politics of pandas, and there is a cameo appearance of a ‘toon that was perhaps done by your favorite practitioner of panda satire! My literary claim to fame!

Back to the Bears!

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I’m sorry to leave the bears upon in the air, but there has been so much going on! I hope this will fill in a narrative gap or two. (While I figure out what is going to happen next, and take care of a few other things!)

Bears will be bears!

Be the Bear
Bob T bears behaving badly Panda

BTW I have a new rant on Substack this week! Check it out!

Look out DC! There’s a New Bear in Town…

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Oh my.
Oh My
OH MY EARS AND WHISKERS!!!!

Oh
My

Be the Bear
Bob T maybe if I hide under the sofa…Panda

This would be a good time to order Book 10 of the Panda Chronicles! Quick, before Josie catches up with me!

Bears on the Run, Bears on the Run…

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Fortunately they weren’t the Pookies you were looking for.

Was “Selfie Bear” on her way to Washington DC? I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?

Hi hi hi hi!

Be the Bear!
Bob TI JUST FOUND OUT THERE IS A BEAR CAM Panda

The Woodland Park Zoo Bear Cam shall henceforth be known as the Pookie Cam (at least, that is how it is labeled in my bookmarks.)

I’m back! I’m back!!!

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I really hate technical difficulties. Was it Mercury in retrograde? Sun spots? Six and Sebben messing with my internet provider? Mittens stealing the entire internet? But for some reason I couldn’t get this website to even open, let alone log in. Fortunately my web guru was able to wave a magical wand or maybe it fixed itself. Who knows?

Anyway, here we are, a day late and a dollar short!

In other NooZ…

Several of you might have noticed that on Twidder I had posted some enigmatic comments about waiting for something. What I was waiting for was to hear whether I had been selected for a short residency retreat for women who write/draw humorous comics.

I know RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!

Well, I finally heard, and to cut to the chase, I was not accepted, but I had a lovely bit of communication with the person in charge, a cartoonist I have long admired and have a lot of respect for. (Am I sucking up if she is reading this? Um…mebbee?) A long time ago, I took an artist’s business practices class, and while I may forget what I went upstairs for five minutes ago, I still remember what the instructor said about applying for things: Apply for everything you are remotely qualified for. While you might not get the thing, you never know who is going to see your work, what connections you will make for the future.

While it would have been really great to go someplace that isn’t home, have the opportunity to work and talk with others who are on the same path, it was great to be validated as being “the real deal.”

and in OTHER Nooz…

The Panda Cub Swap has been released into the world! Written by Beth Bacon and illustrated by moi, it’s the story of Lun Lun and the first surviving set of twins born at Zoo Atlanta.

You can order it from your local book store, your library, or Amazon using this link:

https://amzn.to/3L8t0Rb

If you enjoy it and are so inclined, writing a short review on Amazon helps other people discover the book. I am so proud of the illustrations I did for the book. BTW, at some point this fall I will be offering the original illustrations for sale, so if you have a favorite one in the book, let me know if you are interested in having it.

Celebrating with some friends!

Don’t tell Six and Sebben this book is not about them!!!

Be the Bear
Bob T hoping the Democrats can hold on to Congress Panda

The Exciting Conclusion of Our Story

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Or is it?

Stories have a way of regenerating as new s**t comes to light! But for now, we are going to call this story done, with this episode.

So Let’s get to it!

It looks like Bikkie made a new friend! Call the building contractor, Tian! We might need to make an addition on to Bikkie’s room. And who does this cub belong to? I guess we’ll find out eventually.

A Little Bit About My Process:

Some stories start with an idea that is floating around on the internet. These nooz stories enter my brain, slosh around a bit, colliding with existing characters, melding with preconceived ideas, and finally plooping out onto the page.

For instance: Where did Frank and Mikey come from?

In the fall of 2018, when it became apparent the the current SCOTUS nominee was even more awful than we thought he was, the thought crossed my mind, wouldn’t it be funny if he was eaten by bears on the steps of the Supreme Court?

Naturally, Mehitabel (being the savvy journalist that she is,) invited the bears for an interview on ZooNooZ. To be completely candid, their personalities emerged with little intervention from me. Honestly, sometimes I think I am merely a conduit through which the various cats, pandas, and other animals that appear in these pages, and speak their own thoughts.

Once here, I could not get the bears to leave, despite very pointed glares coming from Mei Xiang as she dealt with her ever expanding household.

And so it is with all the other characters. Sometimes, they don’t have much to say to me, so I let them just wander around in the background, until they have pressing business with me.

Process:

For those who might be interested, here is how my ‘toons come into being:

Idea > scribbled post it note > write script, seeing if I can fit the action/dialog/cast into a 4 panel strip > rough pencil sketch in my sketchbook to figure out layout > light editing of placement, text > redraw the toon on smooth Bristol paper > ink in panel lines > ink in text> ink in all characters > erase pencil lines when dry > Scan > clean up scan in photo editing program > post on The Panda Chronicles

Whew!

Be the Bear
Bob T I have no classified documents Panda