After drawing anime-styled cartoons for years, it suddenly dawned on me one day that none of the main characters on any anime programs were bears!  I immediately decided that someone needed to rectify the situation, and that someone was going to me be!  Using no more than a pencil and a post-it pad, the first Hairyer Parts character, named "Bear", was born.  In fact, this basic face has featured in several episodes of Hairyer Parts.

Once the "eureka" factor wore off, I immediately set down to creating more characters, to see how well the anime style would hold up to my imagination and to the burliest of bears.
 

Anime Bears - The Strip That Wasn't

The original ideas first put down in 1996 almost gave way to a three-panel comic strip called "Anime Bears", which would have featured the story of Bob, a bearish man living with a rather un-bearish roommate.  Short on ideas and spare time, the concept was quickly set asside.

Pilot Episodes

The original single-panel Hairyer Parts strips were done using ballpoint and pencil on basic printer paper.  They debuted in various of "Bears & Hunters" in 1997.  Feedback from the readers was quite positive.  A final pilot episode was launched at Christmas, 1998, this time using india ink on Bristol board and digital coloring techniques.  This style has been maintained in all subsequent episodes, and has been running continuously ever since.

Click on a thumbnail to view a cartoon.