Everytime I mention GianOrso in the news, a thousand different praise words come to mind, such as; prodigy, excellence, beauty, style, master, professional, Bear goodness (that's 2 words), artistic, incredible... the list of words I can use can go on and on. GianOrso is just one great photographer and the photos he's taken of Bears over the years is just outstanding.

I have been graced simply by knowing this man. He and I have been in communication since '01 when he informed me that he was hoping to get his North American debut... and since then he has been an inspiration to all those who've seen his Bearish photos, making fans from all over the world.

I used to have a bunch of photos he sent me on Bear-Pics, and lately I've been bringing those photos over to PlanetBears. Today I put in almost 400 pics that he has sent me over the years, some you will not see anywhere else (and I'm also hoping he'll send more in the future).

You can view those he sent me in the GianOrso Gallery which is in the PlanetBears Galleries, and make sure to visit his website as well as his Flickr page. And if you care to send him a message like 'I'm not worthy, let me lick your boots', then check out his profile.

ps - that thumbnail - those 2 pics are both GianOrso... before and after the gray hair (wink).

Thousands of years ago, the very first civilization in written history was a nation ruled by Bears... ok maybe not, but wouldn't that have been cool? Fast forward to today and get ready for the Bears Empire, an event brought to you by the Good Bears. This is an event which will be taking place in Rome from January 1st thru the 6th of '09. What a better way to start the year than with some seriously hot Italian Bears?

From their most excellent site (which comes in many languages): "Bears Empire '09 promises to be a fun filled event with numerous activities such as: a disco party, Bear sauna, tours to visit ancient Rome, happy hour and group dinners for a week of total relaxation among the company of so many other Bears and hunters.

Rome is undoubtedly one of the most visited European cities and the first time you visit you’ll most certainly want to see the hundreds of monuments that make Rome such wonderful artistic city. Rome is also famous for its 'Notti Romane' or Roman nights. When the sun sets, the traffic that complicated the day disappears and the doors of nightlife and entertainment flood open. The possibilities for having fun and meeting new people are endless. The demand of tourists and foreign students who favour the night life at pubs, disco bars and nightclubs is really intense".

Have you been following the Bear Degeneration chronicles...? I hope so because we are now up to #10 in the English series. See it here - page #1 - page #2 - page #3 - page #4. In this episode, Doctor Puzak meets up with DarkDom, the evil police captain of Fatterland. If he doesn't like you, you're forked.

Bear Degeneration is the creation of the ever so cute and huggable Italian artist Perdido (website - profile). He has been creating these cartoons in Italian and he's up to episode #17 (and his drawing technique have been changing and improving all the while). So if you're good in Italian, then check out this page from his Blog. When I saw the cartoons, I was seriously curious what the story was about, so I have been helping Perdido with translating the toon over into English, and so far we've done 10.

If you haven't read a single one of these, it's best you start at the beginning - episode #1 - episode #2 - episode #3 - episode #4 - episode #5 - episode #6 - episode #7 - episode #8 - episode #9... and for today's update - episode #10.

Here are the recent photos of Alain, aka BearMontreal (profile). As I mentioned in the preview, BearMontreal is this 6'2'' dark and handsome Bear, born in Europe and has been in Canada for over a decade. He's trilingual (English, French and Italian) and he is of Italian descent.

He is a friend of Roger's (gallery - profile), and while chatting on TubeBear, BearMontreal wanted to have some photos of him taken. He mentioned me (Forrest - profile) and that I took pictures, so off we went into downtown Montreal for an impromptu photo shoot. It was already late so we were only able to get one set of photos in, however Alain stated he would really like a set of pics taken of him in the shower. Altho it's not been scheduled yet, we will be getting together in the near future to fulfill this shower scene.

For some previews, click here - preview #1 (small - large) - preview #2 (small - large) - preview #3 (small - large) - preview #4 (small - large).

This is just a quick note to mention that I will soon be updating the Gallery as well as the Video section. First off, in the gallery section, I will be adding BearMontreal's pictures in a couple of days. He is one seriously tall, dark and handsome Bearish man with a European French accent, however he also speaks English and yet... he's of Italian descent... there's just all kinds of possibilities there. Make sure to message him.

Also, in the video section, I am working on the 'Ben's Hotel' video, starring Ben Goodman (gallery - profilearticles). It's taken me a bit longer than I expected simply because I have been pulled right, left and center. However I am working on this week and I should have it ready by Friday.

Once again, put on your space boots and take a flight with the hot cartooned gang that make up Bear Degeneration. This time artist Perdido (website - profile) and I (Forrest - profile) have translated episode #9. In the last episode, we left corporal Slutton to deal with Reverend Beef and his fanatics, and now we follow Doctor Puzuk as he transports onto a strange planet that forks its inhabitants...

Check Episode #9 here: page #1 - page #2 - page #3 - page #4. This cartoon is more than great, and Perdido has already done 17 issues which you can see on his Blog however they are all in Italian, and we are working hard on translating them to English. The only setback is that we have not put all of the English episodes onto one page, so you're gonna have to do a bit of digging to get caught up, but I did my best to make it easy as possible to follow this most excellent adventure. If you've never heard about it before, then start from the beginning - episode #1 - episode #2 - episode #3 - episode #4 - episode #5 - episode #6 - episode #7 - episode #8 - and for today's update - episode #9.

The truly cute Perdido (website - blog - profile) has added another episode to his Bear Degeneration. This is episode #17. Now this is just to let you know this cartoon is in Italian, however we (Perdido and I) have been working on Englishifyizing (I made that up) his cartoons... in other words, we've been translating them, and I am working on #9 (coming soon). To see the others in English, click here (they are in the archives pages, so start from the bottom of the page)

Once again it's time to visit the husky brothers of the Deep Dark Hole as their misadventures continue in Bear Degeneration, a cartoon drawn by the Italian hunk Perdido (website - Blog (Italian) - TubeBear profile which he recently updated his photo gallery).

We are now at episode #8 in the 'English' version of Bear Degeneration. Check it out here: page #1 - page #2 - page #3 - page #4 ~ however if you're fluent in Italian, you can click here and you'll be able to read up to #16. Perdido and I (Forrest - TubeBear profile) have been translating his work over to English... we'll catch up soon.

Instead of spoiling the story, why not read the series yourself. Follow these links and you'll be caught up too: episode #1 - episode #2 - episode #3 - episode #4 - episode #5 - episode #6 - episode #7 - and here's today's episode once again - episode #8.

Usually there's a month delay, sometimes 2, before the translated versions of Bear Degeneration are up and available on PlanetBears. However this time took us only 2 weeks to put up the latest episode. It's once again time we followed the adventures of the burly crew that makes up the Deep Dark Hole.

We are now at episode #7 when it comes to the English version. This time, Corporal Slutton landed on an unknown planet and his mission is to find his lost compatriots. He meets up with Reverend Beef who has completely changed his vows; since the only way to survive the Bearg attacks is by having hot and saucy male to male sex, Reverend Beef and his brothers have been indulging in a new form of prayer. Corporal Slutton becomes his captive and the Reverend takes it upon himself to save this Bear Cub's soul... and this is where we are at. To view the cartoon, click here, or if you would prefer to see it page by page: Page #1 - Page #2 - Page #3 - Page #4.

If this is your 1st time hearing about Bear Degeneration, the master mind behind these cartooned adventures is named Perdido (website - TubeBear profile - articles). He originally makes Bear Degeneration in Italian so if you can read that sexy language, click here to see all 16 episodes (Perdido just recently added a new episode on April 7th).

What Perdido and I (Forrest - TubeBear profile) have been doing is we've been translating them over to English. What Perdido does is that he sends them over in a rough English and I just do my best in smoothing out the dialogue (no I'm not able to read Italian but ever since I've been working on these cartoons I'm starting to understand the language a little bit, and since I know French the languages are kinda similar).

So... again... if you're new to Bear Degeneration, it's best if you start from the beginning - Episode #1 - Episode #2 - Episode #3 - Episode #4 - Episode #5 - Episode #6 - and in this update - Episode #7.

It's time to catch up on the latest adventures from the crew of Deep Dark Hole. It's the English episode #6 of Bear Degeneration by Perdido (website - Blog (Italian) - TubeBear profile - and if you can read Italian, then click here to see all 15 episodes).

So what's gone on... in the last episode, the crew had to make a quick getaway... real quick or else they would have melted like ice cream on a hot day. The doctor sent out a message into the dark letting the universe know that the only way to survive the Beargs was to have good old fashion sex with the closest Bear you can get grab your hands on. Once the message was sent, the ship they were on was set to self-destruct, so they made their quick getaway in a small spaceship... however the blast from the explosion did something that was before only proven in theory, and that was: they were shot into the future. Now their job was to see if anyone had survived the Bearg attack in the 8 years they lost.

And that brings us to Episode 6 - page #1 - page #2 - page #3 - page #4. Perdido is truly a professional cartoonist and Bear Degeneration is absolutely the best science-fiction Bear toon material anywhere in this universe.

If this is your 1st time hearing about Bear Degeneration, then it's best you start from the beginning - episode #1 - episode #2 - episode #3 - episode #4 - episode #5 - and of course today's edition - episode #6).

If you can read Italian, then simply skip this article and go straight to Perdido's Blogger page 'Per una Cultura degli Orsi' - a blog in which you will find his incredible cartoon strip entitled Bear Degeneration. Perdido's cartoon is about a few husky hairy men who are out to save the universe by having sexual intercourse with those of the same sex. This is the only way to ward off the Bearg.

Now if you cannot read Italian, then this article is for you. Perdido has been translating his cartoon into English with a little help from yours truly, and today we have episode #5 for you (we're catching up... slowly but surely). In this episode things go haywire as the crew of Deep Dark Hole get shot deeper into space and time, finding they have unwillingly traveled into the future. To read the latest episode, go here - (or by each individual page - page #1 - page #2 - page #3 - page #4).

If this is your 1st time hearing about Bear Degeneration, then it's best you start from the beginning - episode #1 - episode #2 - episode #3 - episode #4 - and today's addition episode #5).

From more of Perdido - check out his webpage - the front page of his blog (in Italian) and his TubeBear profile.

VisteBear is an Italian artist who has a true flare for drawing Bears in the military... and these drawings more often than involve some kind of duress his Bears have to undergo - a punishment - a torture.

He had a site that showcased his drawings he's informing us that it is no longer available. Nevertheless, you can see all of his works on his Yahoo! Group entitled VisteBear.