InFurNation Rotating Header Image

Polar Bear

One Brave Young Polar Bear

Waluk is a newly-published full-color trade paperback graphic novel, coming to us from Graphic Universe. Check it out at Amazon. “Young Waluk is all alone. His mother has abandoned him, as is the way of polar bears, and now he must fend for himself. But he doesn’t know much about the world—and unfortunately, his Arctic world is changing quickly. The ice is melting, and food is hard to find. Luckily, Waluk meets Manitok, a wise old bear with missing teeth and a bad sense of smell. Manitok knows many survival tricks, and he teaches Waluk about seals, foxes, changing seasons, and—when Manitok is caught in a trap—human beings. Has Waluk learned enough from his friend to find a way to save him?” Waluk is written by Emilio Ruiz and illustrated by Ana Miralles. It includes an essay from the author discussing the current plight of real-life polar bears.

image c. 2013 Graphic Universe

Eat at the Bear’s

Shirokuma Cafe literally translates from Japanese as Polar Bear Cafe. It’s a manga series created by Aloha Higa, following the story of a little coffee house in Japan — run by a polar bear, and frequented by any number of zoo animals. The three main characters are Polar Bear, lazy young Panda, and lovesick Penguin. (Most of the animal characters in the series are simply naked after their species.) The manga has been running since 2008, but just this year a new anime series based on it came to TV thanks to Studio Pierrot. You can find out more at Anime News Network, or check out an actual episode at Crunchyroll.

image c. 2012 Studio Pierrot

Polar Bears Pushing Beer

Empresas Polar is a well-known brewer of cerveza (beer) in Venezuela. Recently they decided to create a campaign bringing their company logo, a polar bear, to life. Enter The Character Shop, an outfit famous for their creation of animatronic characters for use in advertising — a great many of which are anthropomorphic animals. They helped Empresas Polar create the character of Pedroso the Polar Bear for their new line of TV commercials. And the people of Venezuela seem to be taking to them — and Pedroso, the 7-foot tall bear himself — quite well. The Character Shop has a page dedicated to their creation of Pedroso, and of course you can see some of his actual commercials on YouTube.

Polar Bear Adventures

Erin Hunter is a collective writer (yes, “she” is a team) best known for the Warriors series of cat fantasy novels. More recently, Erin has been creating the Seekers series, a set of fantasy novels featuring bears of various sorts. Now, this coming February brings us Seekers: Kallik’s Adventures, an illustrated black & white graphic novel co-published by Harper Collins and Tokyo Pop. The illustrations are by Bettina Kurkoski. “Polar bear cub Kallik and her brother, Taqqiq, live in a cozy den nestled into the side of a snowy hill. Their mother, Nisa, tells them stories of the great world beyond their little den: stories of other bears, endless snow, and flecks of ice in the sky called stars. Kallik and Taqqiq can’t wait to explore everything, though Nisa says they’re still too little to venture out. But when the two cubs sneak out one day, they discover some startling new things about life in the wild and make a new friend—whose life may be in danger!” Amazon. com has more about this new softcover book.