I am fortunate to live in the rainy Northwest, rather than fire swept California. My heart and good wishes go out to the thousands of people who have lost their homes and businesses from the fires that spread across northern California last week. Those who have known me for a long time know I have my own fire story, which happened 22 years ago last month. It was a scary event. I don’t know that I ever truly processed what happened, but I was traumatized for a long time.
I recently stumbled on the account of one man’s recent brush with fire in the California disaster. But this account was done in comics form, as he is a graphic novelist/comics artist. Here it is, in case you’d like to take a look. I hope someday I can do as well with my own story.
But meanwhile, we have another kind of scary story to tell!
Ha ha! That Pinky is so clever!
Panda on!
Bob T Panda
I nearly had an axydent reading Bubba’s comment!
Boo boo-boo boo! Princess Pinky at her brilliant best 🙂
Those sudden laughs will get you every time.
My limited hoomin brain is wondering what fine panda mother is having a well deserved rest in the absence of her cub. Do I assume she will hardly notice since Master Ping Ping is under the care of his doting Unka Bob T. and the ??? Princess Pinky?
Pinky, who has the ability to poof at will?
Pinky ? ??? loves her annoying, yet darling baby brother, Bubba. Bubba lives to squeal on his sister for her potential misdeeds. And if something Pinky might conceive of, in her “ebel” dreams slips by him, so what?
Because then Pinky is so grounded for a long-long-time, hehe.
Will Mommy of Ping Ping ? ?? ? eventually seek his return herself, or continue with the Boo facials, new wardrobe acquisitions,??? and Boo Martinis ?? We all wait while trying to hold and avoid our cat’s stinky breath??? ?
No matter what, Thank you Uncle Bob T. for making our lives better. (Does his mom have American connections?) ??
I’m not entirely sure how Ping Ping came to be in the Panda Excjange program. Maybe we will discover that eventually. Meanwhile, I think Bubba is thinking about he could exchange Pinky for a dozen cuppycakes.
Thank you for sharing that artist’s personal account of the California wildfire disaster. It’s so incredibly sad. He lived right where we turn off the highway to drive down Mark West Springs Road to our home in Lake County. Two years ago the Valley Fire devastated the communities near us, and also came onto our land, but it miraculously stopped short of our house and meadow. We were so freaking lucky. Our neighbor’s land was practically ruined, except their house. Way back in 1990, I was asleep in my studio apartment in San Francisco when the fire alarm went off and someone ran up and down the main stairs yelling “It’s really a fire! Get out!” – which, thankfully, we all did. I put on a bathrobe, slippers, and tennis shoes, grabbed my purse and fled to the sidewalk opposite our building where all the tenants stood and watched as the building next door (where it started) and our top floor went up in flames. I lost most of my stuff to water and smoke damage. And I learned the hard way why people get renter’s insurance. I’ll never forget seeing the silhouette of our property manager in the window of his top floor apartment, with the roof in flames, as he frantically searched for his pet rabbits. He found them and got out, but it was terrifying.
Fires are terrifying events. I hope the recovery happens quickly, but understand that everyone down there is going to be traumatized for a while. You’ve experienced it, so you know. You’ll never smell a campfire again and not have a moment of panic.
Oh my GOSH!!! “…I almost had an axydent.” !! And poor little Ping Ping’s face! (He is so new to this group.) And Bubba’s propeller spinning off its hub!! Thank you for another incredible laugh!!!
You’re welcome!
I love this ‘toon!!!
“Boo boo-boo boo: the two headed ghost” – Priceless!
Bubba almost having an “axydent” was too cute, but not as cute as Ping’s concerned face as he checked out the scary mask or when the sheet was going over his head.
Ping Ping is having a little bit of an adjustment in living in a new culture. Not to mention Pinky!
Thanks for posting the link to the Fies Files. Even with a bad brush pen and crummy paper, he just conveyed it. Such bad times lately, I’m glad you draw Bubba and little Ping so huggable! Always want to sneak in a little squeeze on those cuties 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed (???) Brian Fies account of the fires. I agree. He really nailed it. Not an easy thing to live through and then to write/draw that account.
We all deal with the traumas of the world in our own way. Mine is mostly by drawing pandas. That and walking at things in my garden. I’ll give Bubba and Ping Ping a hug for you.