Tag Archives: be the bear

Farewell Mr. Wu!

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It’s a sad day for US panda fans, as this weekend was the last time that the beloved Mr. Wu (the cute Wu Self!!!!) and his mom Bai Yun, would be on view at the San Diego Zoo, home to pandas for 25 years. Bai Yun has lived most of her life here, and brought 6 more healthy cubbies into the world, some of whom have gone on to be parents and grandparents.

I know that they will be loved and well cared for in China, but I still hate to see them go. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Wu. You will always be the first cubby of my heart.

And now, for the final installments of Bears Under the Big Top!

episode 13

episode 14

episode 15

…and it all ends with Mr Wu’s Birthday party! Huzzah!

See? I TOLD you I wouldn’t let anything happen to Mr. Wu!

How about another Wu-toon for the road?

birthday week

It’s so hard to be cool when you still live with your mom.

Be the Bear!
#4EbberWu
Bob T Panda

PS: Don’t forget! Our Kickstarter is still gong on! I’ve recently added a new reward, and rewritten the project home page to make it (hopefully) less confusing. Seriously, every time I do this, in some ways it’s like the first time! :-}

You knew we were going to do a ‘toon about this, didn’t you?

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I have to thank all my faithful readers, who are always on the lookout for actual news stories that might make for good ‘toon inspiration! You all did yourselves proud this time, by making sure that the news story about a rhino poacher who was killed by an elephant, was then eaten by lions. Several of you brought this story to my attention, and although it seemed outlandish, (I mean, who could make this stuff up?) a little investigating on multiple sources showed that this indeed had happened!

It was even mentioned by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show!

Way to co-operate, guys! Well done!

One might hope that people would know better…

Be the Bear
Bob T Panda

PS: Don’t forget! Our Kickstarter is still gong on! I’ve recently added a new reward, and rewritten the project home page to make it (hopefully) less confusing. Seriously, every time I do this, in some ways it’s like the first time! :-} Go Check it out! Do it now!

3″ embroidered patch with Bubba and his friends! only an additional $12! Don’t you want this?

Free Speech or something like it…

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When I listen to the things that come out of 45’s mouth (which I do as rarely as possible) I start to think that maybe this whole free speech thing is overrated. Then I smack my self on the head, and remind myself that free speech lets me express my honest displeasure with the powers that be, without the risk of getting thrown in prison for it.

But the operating principle of this “administration” seems to be, the speech of some gets to be freer than the speech of others.

I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.

Be the Bear!
Bob T Elections have consequences Panda

PS: Don’t forget! Our Kickstarter is still gong on! I’ve recently added a new reward, and rewritten the project home page to make it (hopefully) less confusing. Seriously, every time I do this, in some ways it’s like the first time! :-}

More from the Wu Self’s Adventure!

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A quick update from our Kickstarter Campaign: We are doing great. I will send out a more organized update in the next couple days, but you should know you still have almost 2 weeks to join in and get your own Bubba and Ping Pins! Check it out!

Meanwhile, back to Wu’s adventure, when he ran off with the Panda kindergarten to join the circus!

A circus of Pandas! (and a cat!)

Will Inspector Panda find a clue?

Wu follows Bee the Bear…into the air!

What does the fortune teller tell Mr. Wu?

Tune in Next Sunday for the exciting conclusion of our story!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

Join the Moooooovement!

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You knew that Mehitabel would have to interview Devin Nune’s Cow, didn’t you? Of course you did! We at the Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire never miss a chance to join what ever punny moooovement is happening out on the inter webs, and this one is just so much fun! If you hang out on Twidder, do head over to @DevinCow and give a follow! They are trying to reach a million followers, just to annoy Devin Nunes, and who can fault them for that?

I mean, if we didn’t have Devin to heckle, I’d have to spend all my time heckling Howard Schultz!

Who doesn’t love a good bovine bon mot?

Moove over! You’re crowding me!

For those (panda) history buffs among you, you should know that this weeks marks the 47th anniversary of the Nixon Pandas arrival in Washington DC. I count myself among those who saw these labeled bears in person (bearson?) in the late ’80’s, a few years before the passing of Ling Ling.

As such, it is the custom here at the Panda Chronicles to replay the cartoon I wrote, commemorating the 40th anniversary of their arrival. Enjoy!

The first “official” pandas that came to live permanently in the USofA

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

PS: you still have time to visit the Bubba Pin Kickstarter project, Don’t Call Mee Boo Boo! Don’t be the only panda fan without Bubba, Pinky, and Ping Ping’s commemorative pins!

Paris Burns, but Babette Persists…

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Such a sad day for Paris, for all of France, for the entire world. The Cathedral of Notre Dame has burned, the gargoyles and the world weeps.  Many love it as a religious symbol, many love it as a work of art, a piece of history, a part of culture, a thing of beauty. Who knew how much wood is used in making a stone cathedral. A lot, apparently, because the centuries old wood went up like a torch.

I know if Babette knew of this, she would be devastated.  Maybe she’d even quit running for president.

it was a total coincidence that Babette’s ‘toon should run today.

Meanwhile, over on Kickstarter, things are going fast and furry…I mean furiously! Do take a peek if you haven’t yet pledged!

Be the bear!
Bob T Panda

More Mr. Wu for You! WooHoo!

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If this was Wednesday, it could be Mr. Wu Wednesday again. (Remember those?) But for now, we continue with our trip down memory lane, revisiting Mr. Wu’s greatest hits. The San Diego Zoo posted a compilation video of his first 12 or so well-baby-panda exams, which had inspired this ‘toon:

Everybody say SQUEEEEEEEE!

Dose gurls just wanted to has dere way wif wu!

But no sooner does Mr. Wu get out of mom jail after the airplane affair….(see last Sunday’s Wu toons!)

Fanmail from some Flounder?

This was the first story I did that got people upset. As if I would let anything REALLY bad happen to the Wu Self!

Voices in the night, a ladder, a letter…adios…

“Are we there, yet?”

This is a case for…Inspector Panda!

Never, never get in a car with the Panda Kindergarten!

Mysteriouser and mysteriouser!

This must be the place!

Tune (‘toon?) in next Sunday for the next installment of wu’s exciting story!

 

By the way, we are doing great over at our Bubba Pin Kickstarter project! If you haven’t been checking in, both the Ping Ping Pin (say that fast three times) and the Bubba and his Friends patch are now both available.

3″ embroidered patch with Bubba and his friends! only an additional $12!

Panda On!
Bob T Panda

Huzzah Huzzah! Bubba is on the move!

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Allow me to pontificate a little schmoopilly here…

While there is a lot of work and planning in putting together a crowd funding campaign, there is also a LOT of fun involved too. I love designing little things from my drawings, but what I love most is interacting with you all!

When I see names that I know from Fezbook and Twidder, and even from real life, I get a little thrill. It’s almost like we are having a conversation: Hey! I like what you’re doing here! I wanna make sure you can keep doing it!…Chatting back and forth in the messages makes me feel a little less isolated in my studio. And to all the new people, whose names I don’t recognize, thank you for climbing aboard the panda bus!

Bubba’s pin! Funded in just over 3 hours!

So very Bubba, right?

And since we funded so quickly, I thought we should up the ante with a little stretch goal…visit us at Kickstarter today and climb aboard!

It’s not a party if you didn’t bring cuppycakes!

Because without Ping Ping, Bubba would only have his big zizzy Pinky to play with!

By the way, there were still a few Pinky pins available as of Tuesday afternoon!

Meanwhile, things are heating up in the other Washington…

Devin’s Cow goes to Washington

Panda on!
Bob T panda

Fight the Humor Deficit! Make fun of people on Twidder!

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I have to admit that I have come to like Twidder more than I do Fezbook. Maybe it’s because Fezbook has come to seem kind of unwieldy. I can’t easily find all the comments from people that are actually relevant to a discussion I am having with them, because Fezbook seems to want to give me hundreds of obscure notifications for every one that is part of an ongoing discussion with friends.

Meanwhile over on Twidder, I get a healthy (um…maybe not) dose of news, connection with other panda fans, and connections with other people in the kid lit and writing communities at large. And then there are the snarky parody accounts…

We must fight the humor deficit with every pun at our disposal!!!!

What’s that you say, Bob? He has responsibilities?

And meanwhile, we are about to launch the next phase of the Panda Pin Project over at Kickstarter! If you’ve been following along, you’ll see that it’s going to launch at noon (PDT) today!!! So get ready…get set…not yet…this link is just a preview until the project launches at noon!

Be the (Bubba) Bear
Bob T Panda

The Wu-Stravaganza Continues!!!!!

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We continue to rend our garments and bang our heads onto our desks as we contemplate the departure of Mr. Wu and his Mom, Bai Yun, from sunny Pandiego to China. I am somewhat comforted by my knowledge of the panda estates (aka panda bases, panda ranches, etc) good care of pandas, especially those who return from the US. Also, Bai Yun is a total rock star in the world of captive born Chinese pandas because she was the first successful captive born panda at Wolong, and had the first successful captive pregnancy in the US. She now has grandchildren and (someone correct me if I’m wrong) great grandchildren around the globe.

So let’s continue with our celebration of all things Wu-self, from the days when he ruled supreme in US panda cubby-hood (till you know who-and I don’t mean Mittens came along the following year!)

Read on to the end for a sneak peek at the upcoming Bubba Pin design, for our NEW Kickstarter campaign which I’m hoping to launch sometime this week!

But now, let’s WUUP it up with Mr. Wu!

Don’t you love “rear shots” of baby pandas?

It is so hard for a small panda to prevail….

Whatever could be in the box the panda kindergarten is delivering to Mr. Wu?

Will the panda kindergarten get it put together before Bai Yun gets home?

“Up in the Air, Junior Pandas…”

Nothing like a snappy graphic to um…solve a problem!

May Day! May Day!

Mr wu’s cousin, da Sooperpanna, appears courtesy of Bruce Sebring, creator of the Sooperpanna Chronicles

Bet ya didn’t see this coming…or maybe you did.

You’ve been waiting and asking, and finally, here it is! I’m getting ready to launch another Kickstarter project in my Panda Chronicles Pin Series, this time starring Bubba. I spent a bunch of time designing a pin, which I decided wouldn’t work at pin scale, and then someone suggested that I already had the perfect Bubba drawing, and lo and behold, I was able to do a little resign work to turn it into the perfect pin design.

Whaddya think?

So very Bubba, right? Finished size about 1 3/8″ wide by 1 1/8″ high

To get up to the minute notification of the project’s launch, go HERE and click the “Follow Along” button and enter your email. If you missed getting a Pinky pin, there will be a limited number of Pinky pins available and you can get them both at the same time!

UPDATE: I completed work on the Kickstarter project, submitted it for review, and was approved to launch!!!!! Get ready…get set…Launch will be Tuesday April 9th at NOON PDT Wanna see a PREVIEW? 🙂 You can’t pledge yet, but you can see what we at The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire has in store for you!

Panda on!
Bob T Panda