It’s Mr. Wu’s Birthday Season, so let’s all enjoy this encore presentation of Bears Under the Big Top. If you missed the first half of this feature presentation, just go back to last Sunday’s post!
We hope you enjoyed this feature encore presentation! Maybe it took your mind off of, ya know, the republican attempt to disassemble democracy. Mebbee not.
Be the Bear.
Bob T Panda
One of the first long stories I wrote, was the one where Mr. Wu runs off to join the circus with the panda kindergarten. I think it was his first meeting with Bee, the Bear. Since it is Mr. Wu’s birthday season, I thought it would be fun to have an encore presentation of the whole story.
You can find this story, as well as other stories of the Wu Self in my 4th ‘toon collection, The Panda Chronicles Book 4: The Book of Wu. (available from that big online retailer who shall not be named)
‘toon in next Sunday for the conclusion of our story, as well as on Tuesday and Thursday, for the further excellent adventures of Frank and Mikey!
Till next time, keep defending democracy, get your vaccination, and Be the bear!
As always,
Bob T Panda
Recently I’ve begun to invite friends of the Panda Chronicles to request specific encore presentations for my regular Sunday offering. This week, by request, I’m highlighting Bee the Bear!
I had to think for a minute about how Bee (the Bear) came into bee-ing! It all came rushing back, when I remembered that when I did my 2nd Kickstarter campaign to publish my first collection of ‘toons in printed form, a friendly bee-keeper here on Whidbey offered some local honey as an extra incentive to contribute to my campaign.
Later I revised her a little bit:
and also…
When Mr. Wu came along, Bee (the Bear) appeared in many of Mr. Wu’s adventures, including the story when he ran off with the panda kindergarten and joined the circus, The Wizard of Wu, and It’s a Wunderful Life!
And while we’re on the subject, (what subject was that?) It’s almost birthday month for Mr. Wu, and the Meihem twins, so the Sundays of July will be filled with encore presentations with Mr. Wu and the Meihems! (Pinky Junior shares [NOT DAT WORDS!!!!] her birthday [July 29th] with The Wu Self!) The wizard of Wu always has an encore presentation in October and it’s a Wonderful Life, during the Christmas holiday season. I’ll reprise Mr. Wu’s entire circus adventure during his birthday month!
August, of course, will be full of the House of the Xiang-Tian clan! Definitely something to look forward to!
I hope you enjoyed this visit with Bee (the Bear)!
Be(e) the Bear!
Bob T Panda
Hold your horses, Pinky! It is still Mr. Wu’s birthday season. We’ll get to yours next week. Meanwhile, if you are still on Fezbook and can follow Patricia Rice’s panda birthday posts, I highly recommend them. Given that she is a real life historian, she writes excellent birthday posts for many of the known captive panda population, including most of our favorite bears.
Fanmail from some Flounder?
Voices in the night, a ladder, a letter…adios…
“Are we there, yet?”
This is a case for…Inspector Panda!
episode 5
episode 6
episode 7
episode 8
episode 9
episode 10
episode 11
episode 12
episode 13
episode 14
…and it all ends with Mr Wu’s Birthday party! Huzzah!
Hope you enjoyed our trip down memory lane! (and for those of you who wondered how Wu met Bee, the Bear…)
panda On
Bob T Panda
It is Day 23 of 31 Days of Pandas, and that means it’s Christmas Eve EVE!!! I bet you didn’t know that was a thing? Egg nog and cookies all around! Meanwhile, You Know Who is STILL impeached, even if he doesn’t accept it, and if anyone was going to get coal in their Christmas stocking, it would be him.
episode 13
episode 14
episode 15
…and it all ends with Mr Wu’s Birthday party! Huzzah!
Panda On!
Bob T I’ve been very, very good Panda
Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the final installment of Mei Xiang’s Nightmare Before Christmas!
We are past the solstice! Is it getting lighter yet? Well, not really! It has been raining like mad, trying to catch up on the rather dry November we had. I’m sure the trees are thirsty, and really, I’d rather have rain than snow. This time last year, I was was stuck at home, because it snowed I couldn’t get down the hill, my power was out, and my car was in the shop because I had hit a deer a week earlier. So a little rain? Meh!
Meanwhile, it’s time for the next episodes of…
Episode 9
episode 10
episode 11
episode 12
Happy Day 22 of 31 Days of Pandas!
Be the Bear
Bob T Panda
Happy Solstice, everyone! It’s day 21 of 31 Days of Pandas, and the end of the days getting darker and shorter, could not have come at a better time. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is raining buckets and dark by 4:15. Now that we have reached the Solstice, the days will slowly start to get longer and longer. Huzzah!
episode 5
episode 6
episode 7
episode 8
In early January, I am going to do one of Kickstarter’s January projects called “Make 100”, the idea being that you make a limited offering of something and agree to have no more than 100 backers. Within those guidelines, I have a bit of leeway, I started making these needle felted pandas a couple of months ago, because I felt (get it?) the need to take on a new activity to deal with all the nervous energy the current political climate engendered.
I’ve been thinking about how to structure this project, and what specifically to offer. I decided that in order to be responsive to which versions of pandas are the most requested, I would roll the rewards out in small groups. This will be a fairly fast and furious funding period, and I am going to keep the initial funding goal fairly low, because it really doesn’t matter how many people (up to 100) want one of these pandas, since there is no minimum order that I need to make as with the pins and patches.
The first group will get posted on the opening day (projected as Thursday, January 9th) and then on both Mondays, I will post new, more complex offerings, and all will be available till the project closes on January 24th. (If they haven’t sold out!)
Now, you CAN change your reward choice, and Kickstarter makes that fairly easy to do. Because of the limited nature of the rewards, it’s important that you change your choice within the Kickstarter website, so that someone else has a chance to get what you no longer have selected. I will help walk anyone through the process if they are having a hard time figuring it out. I will have step by step instructions on my project page as well. It will be way too confusing if I get half a dozen requests outside of Kickstarter for off the record changes.
Not to sound all hey you kids get off my lawn about this but because of the way people pledge on Kickstarter, I can’t take requests for changes on other platforms (like Facebook, email, or here) and change them for you on Kickstarter. I mean, if I could change things within someone’s pledge, I could make them all say you pledged $1000, and head off to the south of France before you saw your credit card had been charged.
To this end, it is important that you use an email address that you regularly check when you sign up to pledge, as that is the best way to communicate right from the Kickstarter website.
It seems like there are always 2 or 3 people who don’t respond to messages or requests for information and I really want you to get your panda! And when you want to make changes, it’s really important that I know you’ve gotten messages from me.
So! Get ready to welcome a little felt panda into your life! Huzzah!
Panda On!
Bob T Panda
Day 20! We are just about in the home stretch! I hope you have been enjoying our deep dive into panda satire this December. I mean, we really did need something not take our minds off…um…other things (IMPEEEEEAAAAACCCCCHHHHMENT!) not that anything particularly comes to mind.
Today, and through the weekend, I thought we would re-visit the story of Mr. Wu as a young cubbies, running away to join the circus with the panda kindergarten! It’s one of my favorite Mr. Wu tales, although when I wrote it, a number of you were very worried about Mr. Wu, and let me know that you were not happy! Well, if you are reading this for the first time, I will assure you that all ends well. If you prefer a little dramatic tension in your stories, then forget I said anything! So, with no further ado about nothing, The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire presents…
Fanmail from some Flounder?
Voices in the night, a ladder, a letter…adios…
“Are we there, yet?”
This is a case for…Inspector Panda!
Tune in tomorrow for our next exciting installment of Bears Under the Big Top!
Panda On!
Bob T Panda
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.
episode 13
episode 14
episode 15
…and it all ends with Mr Wu’s Birthday party! Huzzah!
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! :-}
The story of Wu running away to join the circus was one of the first longer stories I wrote about the pandas. And it was the first that took Wu away from home and put him in some potential peril. I remember that, as I parceled the story out in dribs and drabs, that some people got very anxious and wrote in to yell at me. Geez! Trust your storyteller, okay? I would never let anything really bad happen to Mr. Wu, now would I? (I mean Pinky’s birth was not really my fault, right?)
episode 5
episode 6
episode 7
episode 8
We think laughter is the best medicine. However, it should not be the only one!
Panda On!
Bob T Panda