Cartoons About Bear Attacks in Japan?

Challenging my gag-writing abilities and creating a few cartoons inspired by recent news in Japan might not be a good idea.

Bears entering residential neighborhoods and urban areas looking for food have caused a national emergency there, with many people being attacked and several killed. They don’t see humans as a threat.

It’s a serious issue, and as someone married to a Japanese woman and who visits Osaka every year, I not only want Japanese people to be safe but also to ensure the bear population is carefully managed and supported.

But should you make funny cartoons about it?

Of course, my first thought was, NO! People have died. It’s not funny.
If you care about this issue, you shouldn’t make light of it.

But I couldn’t stop thinking of visuals like this one.

In America, we have Yogi Bear cartoons making light of camping and the fact that bears could be searching through your tents for delicious picnic baskets at night.

Plus, Japan is getting overrun with tourists in major cities, traveling there in droves to enjoy its unique culture and beautiful historical sites, so much so that Japanese people are exhausted from having to share space with them.

Could I joke about these issues without offending anyone?

Turning bears into tourists, as in the cartoon above, was a fun idea. I don’t have to show them attacking anyone. Just the idea of bears wanting to experience the human world could be funny.

What if I push it a little further?

After talking to a friend about different places to add in bears where they’d be unexpected and stick out, we came up with this idea.

Everyone knows how packed trains can get during rush hour in Japan.

Placing a bear, looking tired from a hard day of searching for food, directly in the middle of the crowded subway train, might say a lot with a little.

How about if we change it a bit and add a caption?

Too much?

The placement of a bear looking at train passengers with hungry eyes might be too scary and take away from the humor. Maybe not.

I submitted all of these to The New Yorker magazine and was quickly rejected. My main goal was to show them how I could try out different approaches to the same topic or idea.

They didn’t give me any feedback, so I’m not sure if I was onto something or completely in the wrong, but I definitely got their attention.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Do you have one that you think works?

Or, should I leave this topic alone completely?