For the past five years, Clover Press and I have been working on the multi-volume COMPLETE TOM THE DANCING BUG book program. There were eight books planned, each book containing every single Tom the Dancing Bug comic published over a four or five year span. And we worked sort of backwards, starting with Volume 7, covering the years 2016-2019, working our way back to Volume 3 (1999-2002), and then catching up last year with Volume 8 (2020-2023).
- Volume 7, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse (2016-2019), published August 2020.
- Volume 6, Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens (2012-2015), published December 2021.
- Volume 5, Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor (2007-2011), published June 2022.
- Volume 4, Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics (2003-2006), published October 2022.
- Volume 3, On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug (1999-2002), published June 2023
- Volume 8, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug” (2020-2023), published July 2024
Well, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the birth of Tom the Dancing Bug, Clover Press and I are finishing the program in one fell swoop, publishing Volumes 1 and 2 simultaneously, in time for the holidays.
- Volume 1, Tom the Dancing Bug: Secret Origins (1990-1994)
- Volume 2, Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘n’ Roll (1995-1998)
Yes, it’s the thrilling completion of The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program.
With all previous volumes, Clover Press sold the books through bookstores, Amazon, etc., and its own website, while I also offered signed/sketched books here and at public appearances.
These volumes will be sold differently, only through a Kickstarter campaign, and then in bookstores, Amazon, etc. For the time being, I am not selling signed/sketched copies on my own.(1)
Last week, Clover Press announced the Kickstarter, and so I’m passing it on here.From the article in graphicpolicy.com.
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Ruben Bolling’s groundbreaking and wildly popular comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist that has won multiple awards including the Herblock Prize, the Berryman Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Now Clover Press is completing its eight-volume collection of definitive editions of the award-winning political humor comic strip with the release of two new volumes of Tom the Dancing Bug, which collect seminal strips originally published from 1990 to 1998. Fans can now follow the pre-launch page for the Kickstarter page to get an email when the project launches later this summer.
Just a year ago, in an article about Bolling, The New Yorker extolled the 1990s Tom the Dancing Bug comics that will comprise these two volumes: ”In the nineties, ‘Tom the Dancing Bug’ felt like a quietly thrilling revelation, beloved by many but never a household name. Bolling seemed to tease all of pop culture, much of human nature, and comics history at once, always with sensitivity and an eye for the subtly absurd.”
Blending a surreal sense of humor with razor-sharp political satire, Tom the Dancing Bug has delighted fans for decades, and Bolling’s work remains as vital and important as ever. Clover Press’s new collections will give readers a chance to see the strip and Bolling’s art evolve throughout the 1990s. Tom the Dancing Bug: Secret Origins collects Bolling’s early comic strips from 1990 to 1994, and Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘N’ Roll will collect Bolling’s strips from 1994 to 1998. In addition to the two 200+ page 8″ x 9″ books, the Kickstarter campaign will feature a collectible 11″ x 13″ lithograph print, a slipcase that will hold all 8 volumes of Clover Press’s Tom The Dancing Bug, t-shirts, and more to celebrate Bolling’s beloved dancing bug.
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From Clover’s press release:
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“With the announcement of these two volumes, The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program will soon stand as a full eight-volume chronicle of 35 years of comics – my life’s work,” said Ruben Bolling. “I’m grateful to Clover Press for its commitment to the project. The quality of the books has been extraordinary, and I’m honored to have this complete set in print. These two volumes will document this strip’s earliest years, and in some ways, my most audacious and ambitious work.”
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So, yes, please do sign up on this Kickstarter page just to be informed when the campaign starts, at which time you’ll have the opportunity (!) to participate and purchase the books.
By the way, I just started work on an extra item that purchasers will get that I’m particularly excited about. More info to come!
And of course, for now, I’m still selling signed/sketched copies of Volumes 3-8, info here.
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(footnote 1) This phrase has caused some confusion among readers, particularly my very favorite kind: collectors and completists (among which, for certain series such as “The Complete Carl Barks Library,” I count myself, so I get it). Many of these people have collected signed/sketched editions of Volumes 3-8 and want Volumes 1-2 in a consistent manner. I say that I am not selling them signed/sketched “for the time being” because I don’t know what the future will bring, and I don’t want to be called a liar for saying I’ll never sell these books signed/sketched online. I hope to live a long time, and the Universe is ever-changing. But because of economic realities, Clover Press and I agreed to sell these books this way through a Kickstarter (unsigned and unsketched), and I have no current plans to offer them any other way. But signed or unsigned, rest assured these books are designed to fit perfectly next to Volumes 3-8, creating a perfectly satisfying completion of the line. (Until it’s time for Volume 9, collecting 2024-2027? If I live/stay out of a Trump gulag that long?)
