Month: April 2019

It's true!  It IS the May INNER HIVE DRIVE!

 

 

Through the end of May, if you join Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE*, your sign-up fee will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds. 

 

That's right: YOU get all the benefits of INNER HIVE membership: weekly emails that contain exclusive, before-publication Herblock Prize-winning, RFK Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-losing comics, with other exclusive stuff like commentary, extra comics, behind-the-scenes info and sketches, sandwich photos**, and whatever else I can think of.

 

AND $15 (the first six months or so of your INNER HIVE dues) goes to help in the current crisis of reproductive rights.  The National Network of Abortion Funds works with local member funds across the country, including those in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and Missouri, in their critical fight to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access.

 

 

Yes, this is a small step in the face of an enormous challenge.  But I feel that if I make this promotion a part of my response to the current assault on women's rights and autonomy, I can not only increase my contribution, but publicly encourage others to do more.

For more information on ways to donate directly, here is a helpful article.

 

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Joining the INNER HIVE is easy and fun!  And there are two ways to do it:

 

• You can join through CampaignZee, for $11.95 per six months; or

• You can join through Patreon, for $3 per month, with the option of higher levels for higher rewards.

 

Either way, you get a weekly email containing that week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic (before it's published online), plus extra comics, exclusive commentary, and other stuff™!

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So join the Tom the Dancing Bug team!

BE the first on your block to get each weekly Tom the Dancing Bug comic,

GET your other membership benefits and privileges, and

JOIN me in taking this small step in helping women in crisis.

 

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*And, for those who join on Patreon, remain a member for at least six months

**No Inner Hive mailing has ever included a sandwich photo.

Note:  Those who joined in the first half of May (May 1-15) will have their sign-up fees donated to The Committee to Protect Journalists, as promised at the time of sign-up.

Another note:  A prepaid two-year membership without recurring fees is also available.

 

For those who do not want to sign up for Tom the Dancing Bug’s INNER HIVE with the recurring payment system of MailChimp/CampaignZee, Patreon, or Substack, you can now join for two years with one single payment. When your membership expires, it will not renew. It will be up to you to start a new membership (or not) – no muss, no fuss.

(Note: Purchaser assumes the risk that the life of the comic strip, the United States, or the world, does not last two years.)

Enter your name, the email address you’d like Inner Hive mailings to be sent to, and click “Buy Now” below. $95.00

Name

Email address

 

It was announced yesterday that I was named a 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

 

Hearty congratulations to this year's winner, the great cartoonist Darrin Bell.  (UPDATE 4/17: I just learned that Darrin is the first African American cartoonist to win the Pulitzer, which makes his deserving win even more fantastic!)

 

And congratulations to the other finalist, Rob Rogers, another great cartoonist, who was fired from his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff cartoonist position of 25 years for drawing cartoons critical of Trump, a situation he handled with dignity, integrity and humor.  I'd just seen Rob speak about this last week, as I wrote here.

 

Being told out of the blue that you didn't win an award isn't always an awesome experience, but as losing goes, this is a pretty good way to lose.  I'm genuinely honored to have been named in consideration of such a prestigious award. (UPDATE 4/17: Here is a link to the nominated Tom the Dancing Bug comics, on the Pulitzer website.)

 

I've a had kind of an amazing run of awards (and near-awards) recently, and it always delights me to have the chance to thank the fantastic partners and supporters of Tom the Dancing Bug:

 

– Andrews McMeel Syndication / GoComics, my partner and friend (yes, corporations can be friends – or, full of friends) for over 22 years;

– All of Tom the Dancing Bug's invaluable print clients;

– Boing Boing, an awesome website made by awesome people, which premieres the comic online every week and is an ardent supporter in every way; and

– Daily Kos, which has done so much for progressive politics and for political cartooning and for Tom the Dancing Bug!

 

And of course I thank Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE, which literally saved the comic strip when I started the Hive in 2012 and still saves it every single week.  As I said to them in this week's mailing, I share the honor which each and every one of them, because they are on the Tom the Dancing Bug team and are an essential part of the Tom the Dancing Bug process.

 

With the decline of print newspapers, INNER HIVE subscribers sustain the new business model that makes Tom the Dancing Bug a viable enterprise.  In return for their subscription fee, they get Pulitzer Prize-losing comics a day before they appear anywhere online, as well as commentary from a Pulitzer Prize-losing cartoonist.  All this plus jokes, behind-the-scenes looks, extra exclusive comics and whatever other benefits and privileges I can dream up or make up.

 

(Yes, this just became a fund raising drive.)  This is the best time to join the Tom the Dancing Bug team.  Who knows, maybe your support will put Tom the Dancing Bug over the edge next year to become a Pulitzer Prize winner!*

 

Information on how to join the INNER HIVE can be found here, or you can simply and directly join through Patreon here.

 

Anyway, I truly appreciate all my partners, friends, fans and readers, in whatever capacity they support or enjoy Tom the Dancing Bug.  I already feel so fortunate to have the privilege of making comics that are read by so many people.  Being honored for my efforts is an extra thrill because I can hope that honor can help justify the support I've received and reflect well on the friends who have believed in me and the strip.  

 

Rb

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*Not the way it works.

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Hey, I'll be conducting Office Hours this Saturday, 4/6/19, in NYC at the MoCCA Arts Festival, from 3pm – 5pm.  Come on by the National Cartoonists Society booth (A122); I'll be giving out fist-bumps, answering questions, asking questions, toting books, and kissing babies.

2019 MoCCA Arts Festival
at Metropolitan West, West 46th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues, NYC

Any last-minute changes will be posted on this space and my twitter account.

Hope to see you there!