Category Archives: the essential pandaness of being

Take the Plunge: Polar Bear, that is.

I have several friends who actually do the polar bear plunge thing in the Puget Sound. This makes me cringe on so many levels. I’ve often thought it would be funny if you “plunged” with actual polar bears, although this is definitely NOT recommended. Back in 2009 this actually happened. The YouTube video was extremely popular as well. I thought the polar bears looked quite disappointed when the woman was fished out of the pool.

It was high time that The Institute of Contemporary Panda Satire examined this issue. Due to parentally imposed “limitations,” Princess Pinky, Mr. Wu, and the Meihems were forbidden to appear in this cartoon. Don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.

Bob still likes to get out in the field once in a while.

Coming soon: Pinky’s snow day, The panda Kindergarten’s Chinese new years presentation and much, much more panda fun! Huzzah!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

Welcome to 2015 at The Panda Chronicles!

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It’s hard to imagine how I can top last year, especially after the end of 31 days of Pandas (which ended up being more like 47 days of pandas with all the Inspector Panda re-caps back in November) but now we are back to another year of panda hijinks.

Will there be new American cubs to push Pinky out of first place in the youngest panda in America standings?

Will Mr. Wu get to work on another case with Inspector Panda?

Will Pinky and the Meihems work out their differences in order to combat the impending menace of new cubby siblings? (And will Mr. Wu be able to stop gloating if this happens?)

What will this year’s “Panda Season of Love” bring? Can we possibly make any more fun of pandas than we already have?

And speaking of Inspector Panda, why is it that we have not seen Inspector Panda and Bob T. panda in the same cartoon frame?

These, and many more questions that you had no intention of asking, may very well be answered in the coming months. so in the meantime, sit back and enjoy the first NEW!!! cartoon of the year.

Huzzah!

Inspired by a conversation at the grocery store…

The idea for this ‘toon came about when I ran into a writer pal at the grocery store the other day. He suggested that perhaps I had a crew of pandas over in my studio, doing at least some of my work for me. Instantly, the light bulb went off in my head (either that, or I was having a stroke) and this cartoon formed itself in my head.

See? Even when I am supposedly off the clock, the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire is working for you. Work, work, work, work.

Happy New Year! More to come! Huzzah!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

PS: Oh yeah...buy books, okay? Kitty need new shoes.

Recap # 9: Our story so far

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Oh we are getting close to the beginning of 31 days of Pandas and…um…I am hoping to have a spurt of energy in the next couple days…Hmmmm….we’ll see how I do.

Meanwhile, here is the next recap of our story so far.

Will Mr. Wu be safe with the panda kindergarten? And just what’s with that tape, anyway?

See you tomorrow!

Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

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We could save you all the trouble of going out to the Black Friday Sales, but then you might miss this experience:

pass the beans!

We could be completely self serving and suggest you head over to our page of books and buy copies of The Panda Chronicles or Pandamorphosis for all your family and friends. We could do that, if we were a different sort of panda. Oh wait…we are that sort of panda.

Be the bear,
Bob T. Panda

Pandas, yes, but not Bob, maybe…

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Here’s one more project that I did at the illustrator retreat. This time, Sergio gave us five lines of a story, and we had to do a short, five panel story using his text, and our ideas for characters. Here it is, in all it’s ink smudged glory, and hey! There’s a panda!

Bob and the magic slipper….

Sergio didn’t like my ending and questioned how i knew the slipper was magic. I thought the little “magic lines” in panel three were obvious, as well as the unpredictable nature of what can happen when you put on magic slippers. It’s not always a prince charming kind of deal. Oh well, you can’t please everyone. :o)

Be the Bear
Bob T. Panda

And Now for Something Completely Different

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A couple weeks ago I attended an illustrator retreat/workshop, jointly put on by the Western Washington chapter of SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and our compadres in the Portland Oregon group. Putting on an event like this is not a small feat, and the organizers did an excellent job.

We had two wonderful instructors form the world of children’s literature, Kelly Murphy and Sergio Ruzzier. I learned a bunch of great techniques, as well as some strategies for getting a story moving, which I am absolutely going to put into practice…um…really soon. The following drawing (no pandas!) was the result of one of our exercises that we completed in Sergio’s class.

I think I was trying to channel Bill Watterson’s snowman cartoons in Calvin and Hobbes when I did this one.

I don’t want to leave you without any pandas, so…

Always read the directions…

Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda

Trick or Treat!

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Or is that Trick and Trick? Here’s one of my favorites from the archives. Note: this cartoon was done before Princess Pinky arrived on the scene, but I think this little panda was the model for her exalted Pinkness.

Surprise! Where’s my treat?

Note to fans of Inspector Panda, He’ll be back with the exciting continuation of The Case of the Picturesque Panda, in time for 31 Days of Pandas, coming to you LIVE! in December! That’s right, 31 whole days of panda fun. Can you stand the wait?

Be the bear, and um…wanna trade this Baby Ruth for a Dark Chocolate Milky way?
Bob T. Panda

But who WOULDN’T want a picture with a panda?

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I love my readers.

They send me links to stories about pandas, or about bears, or about totally unrelated things that might need to be addressed by panda satire. For instance, the woman who was stopped going through airport security because the frosting on her cuppycake weighed more than 3 ounces. I mean…wasn’t I OBLIGATED to write a cartoon about that?

well, if I can’t carry it through security, can I eat it now?

The other day, my friend and partner in cuppycake obsession, Vicky Vladic, sent me this story about tourism in Australia. The funny thing is, the TV spot was generated in China. You know I had to do this cartoon:

Is this a film of the pandy kindy?

:o)

Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda

Panda Art History…Who Knew?

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I would hate to think that all those years of ~~sleeping through~~ paying rapt attention in Art History classes had gone to waste. Inspector Panda’s current case has therefore taken an extremely art historical turn, as if it hadn’t been traveling those roads already.

The panda kindergarten has more facets than a dodecahedron, and it turns out that they all have degrees in panda art history. Who knew? And if you are just tuning in, don’t forget to check out all the previous episodes here:

What you don’t know about your favorite art museum….

And look at those stacks of paintings! Did you realize there were so many fine art pandas in existence?

Next time you are at the National Gallery, go and ask at the information desk if you can be taken to see the secret stash of paintings of pandas by all the greats of the 16th through 20th centuries. The National Gallery has a lovely Mary Cassatt that Minette modeled for. And the “Little Panda Dancer” by Edgar Degas is exquisite! Just ask at the front desk, and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. They’re just being modest.

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

Oh Come On. That’s Not a Panda

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Yesterday was International Red Panda Day! And no, we don’t mean that pandas are communists. We’re talking about those cute little guys called red pandas and while they are from the same neighborhood and do have that sort of thumb thing going on, they are not closely related to giant pandas. (“Yeah”, say’s Wu. “We’re much bigger, maybe even GIANT”)

Ahem.

We were invited to come on board over at V Something Speaks for her celebration of Red Panda Day, but in case you didn’t go by there, here is the cartoon starring Rusty, the Red Panda who escaped from the National Zoo in Washington DC, until they finally caught up with him at Georgtown Cuppycakes have a little afternoon repast.

“They’ll never catch me!”

I think Rusty is a excellent candidate to join the panda kindergarten, don’t you?

Hope you had fun on Talk Like a Pirate Day and International Red Panda Day!
Pandi-darity forever!
Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda