Category Archives: the essential pandaness of being

Tea Time for Pandas

In our never ending quest to bring culture to the panda kindergarten, Bob decides to introduce them to the quintessential English High Tea, complete with little cucumber sandwiches and…um…cuppycakes. It is tea time for pandas!

The long, dark tea time of the soul….

I think it is time for a little something! I feel rather 11 o’clock-ish.

Just a reminder to stay tuned to this station on your internet dial, as next week we bring you more from the Giant Panda Zoo Awards! Interviews with award winning pandas, as they walk on the red carpet and pass through the velvet ropes, keeping the riff-raff away (and of course, by riff-raff, we mean anyone who isn’t Pinky)

Get ready for a star studded evening as all the nominated pandas strut their stuff for their fans.

Till then, Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda

Pinky’s Snow Day; Part ‘C’

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The liddle pandas have come in and hung up their coats, taken off their boots, and settled in for a little refreshment! What is a snow day without a steaming cup of cocoa?

Meanwhile, all seems to be quiet on the Northwestern front. Progress is being made on another pending project, The Panda Chronicles Cuppycake Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of the Panda Kindergarten. This is a project that has been in the works (between other projects) for a little over a year, with panda and panda satire aficionado Vicky Vladic, who hails from Australia. You can read more about her over at her blog, VSomethingSpeaks.

You might say that this collaboration is a child of the internet, since I have never been to Australia and I’m pretty sure she’s never been to the Pacific Northwest Washington State. We never would have met, let alone have an easy way to work on a project together, were it not for the world wide cyber living room, where you can find just about anything…even pandas! Stay tuned to this here site, if you like pandas and cuppycakes (and let’s face it, who doesn’t like frosting?)

But now, there are some pandas waiting!

Well, they did hang their coats up.

The way of the princess never runs smoothly.

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

Pinky’s Snow Day, Part the Second

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After the events of last week in the rest of the world, is it any wonder that we sensitive types retreat to something a little kinder, a little gentler, and a little furrier? I am of course referring to Pinky’s first snow day. The joy of seeing this round, furry panda cub rolling down hills and romping with her mom is just what we needed to keep from crawling under the covers and never coming out. You can watch her on youtube here.

I hope that the violence and unrest that is happening in Paris settles down. The world seems to be going mad around us. We need more….

pandas.

Meihem, not Mayhem.

What could be cuter than pandas in snow suits? Yes, I know I need help.

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

We’ll always have Paris…

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Well, it is the first Fabulous Furry Friday of the year, but I feel like I need to take a moment for reflection on the essential nature of cartooning and satire, not to mention freedom of expression.

Yes, I am referring to the tragic events in Paris this week, when three radical extremists thought it was a good idea to invade a newspaper office and gun down 10 (or is it 15?- there were conflicting reports) of the writers, editors, and oh yes, cartoonists that wrote for the paper.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me all the time. But the nature of writing, making art, or making comics is essentially about telling one’s own truth. It’s about taking a hard and sometimes humorous look at things that make us uncomfortable. Personally, I mostly try to stay away from making fun of religion, not that it couldn’t use a poke in the side from time to time. I’ve seen some pretty funny comics that have skewered some aspect of the trappings of religion. But maybe I have a more well developed sense of self preservation than some people.

You should feel free to disagree with me or stop reading these cartoons if I’ve offended you. We might even have a civilized discussion on our differing points of view. It’s been known to happen, and the people with whom I’ve had these conversations feel closer and more real to me. I appreciate their willingness to discuss things rationally.

It sends a shiver of fear up my spine when I remember that there are those in the world who think that differing philosophies dishonor their beliefs, and that that is punishable by death.

I thought about what cartoon would honor those who died this week for exercising their right to free speech and I couldn’t think of one that I had done that would fit that bill.

So I thought a better idea would be to do what I do best, and make you laugh.

pass the cookies, okay?

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

Who says real life can’t be funny?

Be kind, be true to yourself, but most importantly, be the bear. We’ll always have Paris.
Bob T. Panda

Take the Plunge: Polar Bear, that is.

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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