Category Archives: Fabulous Furry Fridays

Celebrating Lun Lun

It’s true that most of the ‘toons on the Panda Chronicles focus on the younger panda generation. There is more scope for the imagination, as some other “Anne” (with an ‘e’) might have said. But Lun Lun has recently submitted to an ultrasound, which shows not one, but 2 cubs in the oven. I’m trying not to get excited, because there is still a lot that can go wrong with pregnant pandas. But so far, Lun Lun has proved to be a great mom and has had healthy cubs even while…um…their gender identity was sometimes not what it seemed.

Join us as Fabulous Furry Friday salutes Lun Lun!

Sweet dreams, little bears!

Oh, those southern Belle pandas!

“Hello, Bai Yun? this is Lun Lun…about that detective you suggested…”

Will the twins get a merit badge for their road trip? will Lun Lun fess up to where the girls are? will Inspector Panda get a clue, or at least more twitter followers. Stay tuned!

Is this any way to treat our Nation’s most adorable icon?

The forces of Meihem are only barely in check.

Well, that’s all we have time for today! Be sure to tune in on Sunday as we bring you the aftermath of the Cake Party Convention (not to mention Pinky’s Birthday!) We’ll try to keep an eye on the panda cam at Zoo Cublanta to try to catch the big event. Feel free to reach out here, or on Facebook (Bob T. Panda) or @PandaChronicle on Twitter if you hear news before I do. Because, contrary to the belief of SOME persons who will not be named here, I do not spend ALL my time on the internet!

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

Someone is having a Birthday Soon

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Here at the Panda Chronicles headquarters, we take panda birthday season very seriously! And since Pinky’s (“and bubba’s!!!!!”) Birthday is just around the corner, we thought we would have a little Pinky-fest! Oh, what a surprise! A whole bunch of ‘toons all about Pinky!

Let the Pinky Fest begin!!!!!

Such a little darling! How could her big brother resist spoiling her?

One of Pinky’s earliest feature ‘toons!

Pinky is VERY powerful. Be afraid, be very afraid, Mr Wu.

Those girls are a force to be reckoned with.

Oh dear….are you going to leave her there?

And who can forget Pinky’s FIRST BIRTHDAY!!????

If you think that maybe elephants never forget, they have nothing on pandas.

Is this any way to treat our Nation’s most adorable icon?

But all’s well that ends well, what ho, right?

The forces of Meihem are only barely in check.

Keep being the bear and get ready for next week’s Salute to Bubba! Huzzah. Yes, Pinky, your brother does get a turn. His birthday is the day before yours so just let him celebrate too.

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

The Olympics are Coming!

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The Olympics are coming! Cue the torch bears! Yes, athletes are heading to Brazil to compete in this year’s summer games, and while I have not done any new Olympic cartoons for our favorite pandatheletes, I do have a nice stash of ‘toons from previous games.

Grab your pop corn and overly sugary beverage and sit yer butt down to enjoy these encore presentations of The Panda Olympics!!!!

Huzzah!

Maybe they have a point…

See, What did I tell you?

another boring rerun, but so much fun!

I love the torch bears, don’t you?

Pandas aren’t dopes!

The early days of panda rights groups….and early days of panda satire!

What do you think of my blob?

‘and for the record, it’s just “giant slalom.” It’s not just for pandas.’

And one of my all time favorite pand-olympic games ‘toon…

Pandas using performance enhancing substances? Say it isn’t so!

Well that it for this week! Maybe (if I remember) we’ll have more Olympic pandas next week.

Till then,
Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

Pandas are Love

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Editors note: By the time you read this, the Republican Convention will be over, and the Democrats will be gathering in my old stomping grounds. I have tried really hard to ignore this whole election thingie, but I find I can’t ignore it completely, because so much is at stake. (Well, that and the fact that Bob and Pinky are running here in the world of the Panda Chronicles) I have always tried to keep this a happy place, because, well, to me, pandas are all about love, joy, and humor.

So let me get this out of the way, and then we can all go back to having fun with pandas, and I will endeavor to inject as much humor into the world as I possibly can. I say this with all the respect I can muster, but if you are supporting Donald Trump, you will find more sympathetic places other than here. If I only knew what I see in actual interviews with, and news footage of him, I would be horrified. If I add to that, the articles and essays written by journalists I have long followed and admired, and in magazines I respect, I am terrified. It seems like every day, Trump and his minions say something that is even more outlandish than the previous day, and yet people still support him.

Let’s leave aside all the tweets and links to questionable sources – even without those, he is not to be trusted with an office so important as the presidency. So many people I respect are speaking out, so silence is no longer an option. I will endeavor to stick to facts I can check, and to keep things civil. I will entertain any comments that contribute to a peaceful understanding of differing view points, but nastiness will not be permitted here. (Unless it’s Pinky…she can -and will – pretty much say what she wants.)

A big shout out to my friends in Kid Lit who continue to bring joy, inclusiveness, and beauty into the world, as well as all the pandanistas who know that happiness is a black and white bear.

Now let’s have some fun with pandas!!!!

This cartoon is one of Bob’s earliest appearances!

The Pandas first attempt at Olympic Glory!

Introducing the torch bears!

Naughty bear or cuddly menace? You be the judge!

And now, one of my favorite TV game shows…

Wheel…of…PANDAS!!!!!

Huzzah! More Wheel…of…PANDAS!!!

Panda satire explained for you!

Well, if you haven’t abandoned me for my opinions and political leanings, huzzah! I hope you enjoyed this week’s Fabulous Furry Friday celebration of pandas! Till next time, be kind, be fair, build bridges, not walls….
Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

Uh oh. Did we have a day with NO PINKY in the ‘toons? Well, we won’t let THAT happen again. Pinky is getting ready for her birthday season, as well as the Cake Party Convention! Stay tuned, panda fans!

It’s Time to Party Like a Panda!!!!

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Oh my, it is the birthday celebration for Atlanta’s favorite sweethearts, the Meihem sisters, as they turn three years old! I still remember the morning the twins were born. I was…um… checking in on Facebook, because the panda keepers at Zoo Atlanta were pretty sure that mama Lun Lun was pregnant, but they had NO idea it was twins!*

Along with thousands of other panda fanatics, I was glued to the internet, awaiting the entrance of another baby panda to the world, when a cub came shooting out into the universe. (They do seem to come out at great speed). Lun Lun lept into mom mode, but turns out she wasn’t done yet. Less than a half hour later, another cub came rushing out and then we had what you might call a situation.

I did what any other right thinking panda fan would do, under those circumstances. I called another panda fan (Cyndi A) and we danced around our respective kitchens screaming like a girl.

So without further ado, I now present some of my favorite cartoon moments with the Meihems, starting with the Wu Self’s reaction to the news!

Dis. Will. Not. Stand!

Of course all the other panda moms were on the phone to Lun Lun to congratulate her…

“Well Bless your Heart” is not always a compliment

When the twins were born, everyone thought that they were boys, along with their sibling Po. Boy did we all have a surprise coming!

Atlanta twin panda cubs Mei Lun and Mei Huan and older prother Po

Huzzah! a guest appearance by little Po! And is that a cameo appearance by Mr. Bun?

Oh…yeah…how could we forget Pinky?

Huzzah! It’s Bert and his brother Ernie!

…and their jammies! Huzzah!

But after we found out that the Meihems were girls, they promptly joined the Panda Scouts and went to work selling cookies! Binky Bars, anyone? But of course, Pinky threw a ~~monkey~~ panda wrench into the works…

George Washington Bridge lane closure satire.

Princess Pinky Bao Bao…what have you done now?

Time to call in …Inspector panda!

But in the end, all was well that ended well, after a whole bunch more stuff happened, (which, if you had Book 5 of the Panda Chronicles, Pandapocalypse Now! you would know what happened!) and now, it’s time for some cake!!!!

There must be cake!

I hope you enjoyed my Salute to Meihem! Join us next month when we celebrate Pinky’s third birthday and Bubba’s first!!!!

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda

*Not only did they not know it was going to be twins, with pandas, you don’t even know for sure if they are pregnant or not.

Cruise Control is Not Auto Pilot

A Public Service Announcement.

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Mr. Badger just returned from a trip to the mountains of our neighbors to the north, and one of the things he saw while there lead me to think that the time was NOW for this very important public service announcement. What he saw was a grizzly bear crossing the highway just a little way in front of his car, and then what he saw was a bunch of people following it with cameras at the ready. I am not making this up.

I am only going to say this once (a year):

Do. Not. Try. To. Take. A. Selfie. With. A. Grizzly!!!!!

Hey! That reminds me of a song!

…if I were a panda, yadda dah dah da- da- da- AAARGH! I can’t stop!!!!!

And now, our Salute to Stupid Selfies!!!!

Coming to a mountain road in France, really soon:

Who says real life can’t be funny?

What was that they said about being prohibited from taking a selfie with a tiger?

Much better to take a selfie with pandas!

You know we’re just kidding about this, right?

And then Pinky thought this would be a really great fundraiser for her campaign…

I really had no idea what she was up to.

And then maybe since you can’t take a selfie with a tiger, you could take one at…for instance…the running of the bulls!

AAAAAAhhhHHHHHH!

Probably safer to just take a selfie in the Oval Office during your White House Tour…

Mei should not be getting all excited like this in her condition!

“Get those pandas off my desk!”

Have a Fabulous Furry Friday, and while you are having a Fabulous Fourth of July, you leave off with the fireworks and just load up on hot dogs and beans.

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

Baby Panda Season

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What better distraction is there to world events, the 2016 presidential election, and the lack of cake at my house, than BABY PANDA SEASON ??????? Pandas are popping out all over, and while we wait to see if Lun Lun (mom of the Meihems) or Lady MacBear of Edinburgh are going to gift us with bouncing baby pandas, we must be satisfied with reports and pictures of panda kiddies in China and Belgium.

So to celebrate Baby Panda Season, we here at The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire and Fabulous Furry Friday bring you some of our favorite cartoons about….baby pandas! (What? you thought it was going to be about the gross national product forecasts or the effect on global economies if Britain leaves the EU?)

“Howdy do! I’m Mr. Wu! Who are you?”

Yo ho ho and a bottle of BooBeer!

And then just one year later, Meihem ensued!

Oh, those southern Belle pandas!

And then along came PINKY!

Such a little darling! How could her big brother resist spoiling her?

Princess Pinky is drawing a line in the sandbox. Even as a baby, she was a force to be reckoned with.

But then we had no new baby pandas till 10 months ago when Pinky’s little brother Bubba arrived…although that event was a mixed blessing…

PP: um, dis is not going to interrupt my presidential campaign, is it?

One of Mei Xiang’s twin cubs did not survive, and Pinky dealt with the loss as only Pinky can…

Mr Bun has a question, daddee.

I love Pinky’s resilience! But we would not be doing our job here if we did not include one of my favorite baby Bubba ‘toons.

Bubba’s first feature role!

He’s small for now, but Bubba Bei Bei is shaping up to be a whole lot of panda!

I hope we have distracted you sufficiently from the trials and turmoil of the real world.
Be the Bear, everyone!
Bob T Panda

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

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I love Roz Chast’s memoir Can’t We talk About Something More Pleasant?, and while she was recounting the story of her aging parents, I think the phrase is particularly appropriate today. Today, we are not going to talk about any of the appalling news that has happened in several parts of the world, or about political candidates and the stupid, insensitive things that they may or may not have said.

We are going panda panda panda with some of the cutest panda cartoons of all times.

Like this one from the way back files…

This cartoon appeared in Henry Nicholls’ book The Way of the Panda

You can’t just DO stuff. You need instruction from an expert!

How IS this different from Pinky’s normal bossiness?

What the well dressed panda cub is wearing this season!

When I first started drawing panda satire, I went through this intensive period of what I called, “Learning From the Masters” and immersed myself in books of collected cartoons by Bill Watterson, (Calvin and Hobbes) Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) Steven Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and Darby Conley (Get Fuzzy) among others. recently, I received the exhibition catalog from a 2014 show of Bill Watterson’s original cartoons at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. I’m in the middle of reading an interview with Watterson and it is full of Calvin-ish wisdom. Have I mentioned Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite cartoon series ever?

Oh dear, the Mei-hem twinkies have made Pinky mad. Uh oh.

Anyway, although I was making notes on some of the most significant points in the interview, I seem to have misplaced the paper I wrote them on. (this happens a lot around here) but if I may paraphrase some of the statements I loved best:

On the difference between editorial cartooning and comic strips: You get to make stuff up.

What characters say: When you are really in tune with your characters, it’s not so much writing dialog, but listening to the characters own voices.

Yeah, see? it IS Pinky saying all that stuff! I think I need to go on a road trip to all the cartoon museums in this country.

And because this will always be one of my favorite Wu-toons,

Dis. Will. Not. Stand!

Mittens will return on Sunday. Stay tuned.

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

What a World We Live In

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It’s no wonder some people (such as myself) have a little bit of a hard time separating fact from fiction. As you will see in next week’s ‘toons, when Mittens takes to the stage, there was so much of his dialog that I could pull from actual news items, that I really didn’t have to make much up. In some ways, it makes my life easier, but in other ways… I’d like the world we live in to be kind and fair and…um…have so many pandas that they become a pest: invasive rather than endangered. They could go into neighborhoods where people have foolishly planted bamboo, which has now gotten out of control, and take care of it, providing fertilizer in addition to pesky plant removal. The Putting Pandas to Work program could go global!

Putting Pandas to Work goes global!

Along with all the political news of the week, I’ve also seen a few references to “sock puppet” accounts on various social media outlets. I don’t know what the big deal is. I’ve always loved puppets.

But they’re so cute!

And as various politicians toot their horns about their popularity, as opposed to that of their opponents…

See? I told you it was broken!

(Ha ha! That one has become one of my all time favorites!)

But as we head into the home stretch of this very long campaign season, let me leave you with a ‘toon that reminds us, that the most important positions in the world should not be awarded through stoking the fears of some, but because of what we can bring to a table where there is room for all.

Consider this my Werld Peez Pandifesto

Be the Bear
Bob T Panda

And now for a word from our sponsor! If you enjoy these cartoons and want to support *me* the creator of the aforementioned cartoons, consider visiting my Book Page and buying my books for yourself or for friends! A portion of my sales also goes to support our friends at Pandas International, who support actual pandas!

The Panda Chronicles

This is Your Brain, This is Your Brain on Pandas!

Category Archives: Fabulous Furry Fridays

Celebrating Lun Lun

Join us as Fabulous Furry Friday salutes Lun Lun!

Someone is having a Birthday Soon

Let the Pinky Fest begin!!!!!

The Olympics are Coming!

Pandas are Love

It’s Time to Party Like a Panda!!!!

Cruise Control is Not Auto Pilot

A Public Service Announcement.

I am only going to say this once (a year):

Do. Not. Try. To. Take. A. Selfie. With. A. Grizzly!!!!!

And now, our Salute to Stupid Selfies!!!!

Baby Panda Season

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

What a World We Live In