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Hey everyone, we’re back in 2026 after a longer break than planned!

For this week’s comic, I wanted to share the story behind one of my favourite things to bake: Japanese melon bread (or melon pan). It’s become a Christmas tradition in our house and one of Laura’s birthday requests.

Back in 2019, we were watching an anime (I cannot recall the title), and there was a girl that was obsessed with eating melon bread. She’d grab one from a convenience store in each episode and I was hooked (yeah I’m very impressionable). Problem was, living in the UK, I couldn’t find them anywhere. So, I decided to bake them myself.

It was the first proper dessert/bread I ever learned to bake from scratch, and it’s a project. Two different parts to make, a sweet bread and a cookie topping, more steps than my daily average, and perfect separation into 8 equal portions. It results in a soft, sweet, round bread with a crunchy cookie topping, that gives it that signature crunchy “melon rind” look (no actual melon flavour, by the way!). It is just divine! The original recipe that got me started is from The Little Epicurean (https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/2015/05/japanese-melon-pan.html#wprm-recipe-container-13121) and I still use it today.

Over the years, I’ve added my own little twist: tucking a block of chocolate inside each dough ball before topping with the cookie crust and baking. The melted gooey chocolate just makes them even more indulgent. Next time, I’ll be adding two blocks of chocolate!

To keep them extra special, I only bake them for Christmas, or if Laura specifically asks them for her birthday.

If you are feeling adventurous, and give it a go, please let me know how it turns out. I’d genuinely love to hear your experience.

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This comic marks our 300th comic. Over the last seven years and four months since we first started Being Bears we have published 300 stories. Both Being Bears and our other series, Bears of Lore are a collaborative effort between my wife Laura and I (we call ourselves Bears Ink) and we absolutely love what we do.

While at times it can be challenging, these comics have become a part of us. Every story is motivated by our real lives, with some embellishment of course, while some (like the Bread Wars) are told exactly as it happened. We get nothing but pure joy from sharing our comics and our lives with all you lovey readers.

Despite a tough year, we kept the momentum going with Being Bears and managed to complete the second chapter of Bears of Lore with the third chapter already in the works for next year. Both comics, will continue for as long as I can draw and we hope that you will continue to enjoy our adorable bears.

Whether you’ve been following us from since the beginning, or just discovered us today, we humbly say Thank You.

Merry Christmas and have a wonderful and joyous holidays, however you and your loved ones celebrate.

With lots of love,
Hayden & Laura

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The Conclusion of the Bread-Wars

Well here’s the thrilling and utterly ridiculous ending to our bread-supermarket showdown.

If you think Part 1 was insane, Part 2 takes it to a whole new level of relationship-grocery drama. Both of us had good lines, some real zingers, and I’m shocked that we didn’t draw crowd.

The Best Part? After all that defending of Samuel L. Jackson’s honour and Laura’s fierce brand loyalty… we didn’t even buy either brand. We walked out with a completely different loaf of bread.

Enjoy the insanity!

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For non-Brits, to understand this comic you need some background:

– Hovis (Fovis in the comic), is a well known, slightly premium bread brand that makes ok bread.
– Warburtons (Farburtons) is a bread brand that has some questionable reputation, such that in real life, the high-end supermarket chain, Waitrose (Faitrose), stopped selling them
– Laura used to work for Waitrose, and she has loyalty issues.
– Now a few years ago, Warburtons, paid the legend Samuel L. Jackson to star in their ad campaign.

This comic is 100% a real argument we had in Lidl between the both of us about bread. I’m a fan of SLJ if the man says the bread is good, I’m buying the bread! Laura, on the other hand, insists I am “easily impressionable”. I think she is brainwashed by Waitrose. This argument is so ridiculous that its going to need a part 2.

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This comic is inspired by a genuinely weird, recurring moment in our lives. We never go for a walk or visit the allotment without a thermos of tea. The problem is, sometimes we only bring one mug (i.e. the thermos’ cover). The wait for a certain someone to finish their sip and pass the cup can feel like an eternity. One day, I was caught in a deep, desperate stare (at the mug) and this is the hilarious, resulting conversation.

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Another holiday, this time down in Cornwall during September. It was the typical Cornish weather: rain, with intermittent sun! Typical!

Still, we made the most of it, had a lot of fun, and one of the highlight was definitely seeing wild grey seals!

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The time sure flew by. Once again life has gotten in the way. For the last month and a half, I haven’t had time to actually work on a comic. Hope you enjoy this one.

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We’re back this week with a brand new Being Bears. It’s a fun and silly idea, as are all being bears. Poor bears are just trying to pick up their clothes (yeah clothes. Didn’t guess bears wear clothes?)

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It’s been a hot minute since we posted a Being Bears comic. If you have been following our other comic, Bears of Lore, you would have known that lots has been happening personally. While we haven’t had much time for our comics, we are still dedicated to making our lovely little comic. Especially since we are nearing the 300th episode!!!

Today’s comic is based on a true story. In July we went to Arthog/Fairbourne in Snowdonia National Park, Wales for 6 days. I went for a Charcoal Art School and one evening we took this lovely bridge towards Barmouth for dinner. on our way back the tide was very high and we had fun seeing all the large jellyfishes.