Lucky for you, it is a busy week so I don’t have time to pontificate (although there is lots to pontificate about!!)
Happily, I did get several ‘toons done this week!
Be the Bear
Keep your head down
Vote Blue to keep away
You know who!
Bob T Panda
This has been a hard week. When 20 children were murdered in Sandy Hook, I thought surely, now would be the turning point when something was done to get guns off the street and out of the hands of violent people. Are those people suffering from mental illness? No doubt. Killing large numbers of innocent people is not a normal response to an unhappy life.
But the truth is that mentally ill people are more likely to die from violence than to perpetrate it. There are studies.
Write to any of your representatives you can to let them know your views on this. Take to the streets in protest. Donate what you can to groups that are trying to move the needle on instituting more controls on guns and getting guns (especially assault style rifles) out of the equation. Oh yeah…and VOTE. Vote for people who are not happy with the status quo. You know who I mean.
What we do need more of is baby pandas.
Panda on!
Bob T Panda
Thoughts and prayers will not solve the violence epidemic, cure Covid, or make the climate better.
Our time is up.
Bob T Panda
Rumor has it that there was a large flash of light over the continent of Australia yesterday, as people headed to the polls to vote in their elections. We can neither conform, nor deny that Pinky and PPJ had anything to do with the outcome. After all, magical wands are prohibited within 50 feet of a polling station.
What have we got to lose? Everything. That’s what. It’s not too early to check your voter registration (primaries are happening, y’all!) and make a plan to vote. Remind your friends to vote too.
Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda
A big thanks and a couple of cuppycakes to my faithful friends and readers, who send me nooz stories of bears behaving badly! Apparently a bear had to be rescued from a California amusement park. Thanks for the valuable* tip! (*No actual monetary value)
And who among us can resist that pink cotton candy that proliferated at amusement parks and county fairs?
Be the bear everyone!
Bob T Panda
The Month of Pandas is coming to an end…
And who better to celebrate this 50th pandaversary at the national Zoo than the ENTIRE panda family in residence!?
Well, who didn’t think that Pinky’s family would track her down?
Be the Bear
Bob T Panda
But really…who can blame the little piggy! Chips are really hard to resist!
I really don’t want to think about the clean up. I suspect the owner would be better off just torching the car.
Be the Bear (or piggy!)
Bob T Panda
Yes, pandas have become a part of every day life in Washington DC!
Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda
Pay no attention to those reports of Ling Ling biting one of her keepers! I’m sure it was just a little panda nip!
I’m afraid this is one of those weeks when time got away from me, so there is no new ‘toon today.
Be the Bear
Bob T Panda
It’s now official. A book written by Beth Bacon and illustrated by yours truly will be released on September 6, but you can pre-order it now via Amazon. It’s called The Panda Cub Swap and it’s all about the birth of the first twin pandas born in the US who lived to young adulthood, Mei Lun and Mei Huan of Zoo Atlanta.
This book took almost 8 years to come into being. I met Beth through working on Pandamorphosis, and while the publisher she was working on at the time kind of crashed and burned, and did not ultimately participate in publishing Pandamorphosis, she helped to shape the book and we connected through our interest in writing for kids.
Fast forward a few years from working on Pandamorphosis. Beth was completing an MFA in writing for children at Vermont College of Fine Art. She needed a project, and she suggested we collaborate on a picture book, which hopefully we would be able to interest an agent or publisher. I suggested the story of Mei Lun and Mei Huan (aka the Meihems) since they were the first surviving twins born in the US and we were off to the races.
Well, if you think things are going to happen quickly and easily in publishing, you are going to be disappointed. The project had various moments of interest, then rejections, and we each got busy with other projects and put it aside. Sad, because we thought it could be a beautiful book, but there is a lot of “oh well, what might have been,” in publishing.
About 2 years ago, Beth called me and said she wanted to self publish the book and could she hire me to do the illustrations. I had some sketches from the early drafts, but really had to start from scratch other than the source photos that I had already saved. In the end, she decided to try once more to find a publisher who would be interested in the project and she finally did.
This was such a fun book to work on. She had lots of communication with the panda keepers at Zoo Atlanta, so that the story she told was accurate. I got to draw pandas! I know September seems like a long time to wait, but it will go faster than you think. Meanwhile, pre-orders really help to get the book more notice in a crowded field of children’s book, and help the publisher make a larger first printing. Over the months while we wait, I will occasionally tease you with an image for the book!
Remember I said something about presents from the universe? There was this story on the mid week edition of Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me about a job posting for a Grizzly Bear Conflict Manager in Montana. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect job for Frank and Mikey? (MX: yes! It sounds perfect! Can I help you pack?)
Well, that’s all we have time for today! Alas, I think this job listing has already closed, but if Frank and Mikey are on the job, I’m sure there will be another opening *soon*!
Be the Bear!
Buy my book!*
Bob T Panda