One of the fun thing about making comics, is creating characters and their “back stories.” Babette de Panda is actually not my invention at all, but she has come to the enchanted bamboo forest where she hangs out with Bob T., Mehitabel and the panda kindergarten. By generous permission of her very good friend and confidant, Victory Schouten, (poet Laureate of Greenbank Farm, and co-owner of the Rob Schouten Gallery) Babette appears in my cartoons. I hope (and have reason to believe) that the in stories that she appears in, I have kept her character in tact, and had her act in ways that are consistent with what I know of her.
Sometimes I find myself just “going along for the ride” with the pandas and don’t always feel that I am in control of their actions, especially when the panda kindergarten is involved.
What could be more fun than a car full of pandas?
Recently a new panda showed up on my doorstep (or was that in my head?) and here is what I know about her. She is a member of the incoming class in panda kindergarten, She is a little shy, but very precocious. Oh, and she likes to dress up like a bee. And now, she has insinuated herself into an island business, Eddy’s on Whidbey, where she will start appearing on tee-shirts and other things. She is just buzzing with excitement. She also has a poster already and that is more than Babette can say. (and don’t think I haven’t gotten an earful on THAT matter!)
I hope you will give a warm welcome to:
Bee, the Bear
Be the bear!
Bob T. Panda
grammmmie 
What the heck is one more Bee in a bonnet. Does Bee know she forgot to put her yellow panties on before she left for school today??? I started down the road for school in my slippers one day….but caught myself in time. Considering the age difference between Bee and Babette there should be no problem for them where the boys are concerned, even if Babette acts like a mother with the cuppy cakes for the Kindergarten I am sure she is just a teen with a big crush on Bob.
I can hardly wait to see what kinds of things the girls get up to~~~~2 girls with all of those boy bears…………………………………..and it best not be all of the cooking……..
Yes, we noticed about her Bee panties, and that has been fixed in a later version of Bee. As to competing with Babette for Bob and the other boys’ attention, well, we’ll just have to see how it goes. I suspect it is very hard to get the better of Babette!