First of all, a big panda thank you to everyone who made a donation to the ACLU or Planned Parenthood so far. You have all of February to do so and get some very cool, not-available-in-any-store panda swag stuff. I’ll do my best to get stuff to you in a timely manner. See yesterday’s post for details! and per my campaign promise to provide a little lighter fare every Friday, so that everyone keeps laughing, (or fiddling while Rome burns?) here are some ‘toons from the past to keep the country’s humor deficit from reaching an apocalyptic level!
And a heads up, I am starting to compile the next collection of Panda Chronicles ‘toons in book form! It’s been a long time coming!
Now! On with the show! Start your engines!
Trick or Trick!!!!!!!
The original panda kindergarten ‘toon!
Entertainer extraordinaire!
Hey! You didn’t use your buzzer!
Panda On!
Bob T Panda
One of these years I need to do a groundhog day cartoon!
Lovely!!! MUST have a huge smile after seeing these, let alone reading them! Thank you for sharing your great talents. As a “newbie” I must ask, who is “Babette de Panda”……?????
Okay, you’ve just given me an opening to retell a bit of important panda satire history.
So, shortly after I started my journey into panda satire, I started showing my paintings at the Rob Schouten gallery in Greenbank, here on Whidbey island. Victory, one of the gallery co-owners and wife of Rob, is also a poet, and was going to a poetry festival in eastern WA. (There is a panda connection here, I promise.) While there, she found a little stuffed panda, and decided to buy it for me as a present. When she got home, she told me this story, ending with, “but on the trip home we bonded and I named her Babette de Panda, and I’m keeping her.”
Of course she had already invented a back story for Babette, (French, wealthy, somewhat shady, undisclosed past, philanthropist -but with whose money?) and I wove Babette into the stories about Bob. Eventually, Victory relented and the real (stuffed) Babette came to live with me. We used to make outfits for her, and Victory posted them on Babette’s own Facebook page.
Since then, Babette has also taken a role in my as yet unfinished and unpublished graphic novel, The Pandyland Mysteries: The Case of the Picturesque Panda. She plays an international art thief. Stay tuned for more news about this when it comes.
Bob and Babette have also traveled the world as a ‘couple’… to Alaska, the Great Lakes, Memphis, Disneyland and most recently to Death Valley National Park at Christmas time… not to mention several Panda Conventions in San Diego. Oh and yes, Babette even got a ride in a helicopter in Alaska!
True dat! I wasn’t sure how much the original questioner actually wanted to know. Babette has also traveled to Singapore, Thailand and maybe Cambodia. I lost track of her. And not to forget her Christmas time trip to Rockefeller Center in NYC!
All I can say is poor groundhogs.
Not even a ground hog expects the panda kindergarten.
You’re compiling for the next book? Huzzah!
Yes, indeed I am. Not quite sure when it will be ready, but not too far off.
So happy to hear that another Panda Chronicles is coming sooner rather than later!! My cubby shelf – AKA the bad day shelf – is looking forward to a new addition. It contains two dictionaries and a thesaurus (for the times that my brain struggles mightily to express itself), my tattered old Bible (for the struggles of the soul) and the 6 Panda Chronicles Books (for when all else fails or I am too tired/depressed/Trumped/etc. and need a lift.) There can never be too many pandas!!
I am happy that you have your own “bad day shelf”. It is an excellent idea, and I think I will have to emulate it (aka, steal this idea.) Mine would have my copies of Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows, all of David Wiesner’s picture books, and Jon Muth’s panda series. Maybe my collection of Calvin and Hobbes too. Calvin can cheer me up like nobody’s business!
It never fails to give me a lift when people tell how much what I do here brightens their day. It might be as good as having a cuppycake.
I LOVE WHEEL OF PANDAS! Just the laugh I needed today.
I’m so glad! It is one that never fails to make me laugh (even though I wrote it…that little “blapp” from the noisemaker gets me every time.) Glad I could send you a laugh too.
Always great to see the lovely Babette. I didn’t know her full story. I can understand bonding with a cuddly panda that you have bought for someone else. I had a hard time giving Jackson the Panda to my grand niece. I restrained myself from asking for it back once she outgrows it – thoroughly cleaned of course 🙂
Can’t wait for the next Panda Chronicles book – Huzzah!
babette is quite the character. She is looking forward to meeting you. And I feel your pain regarding giving away stuff pandas to…um…anyone. They’re mine. hands off.
I’ll leave room in my suitcase – just in case Babette is interested in visiting Australia 😉
She’s very small, although her wardrobe is extensive.