Great thanks to blogger and technology journalist John Gruber for this unexpected and thoughtful endorsement of Tom the Dancing Bug and the Inner Hive on Daring Fireball. He gave a similar endorsement way back in 2012 when I first launched the Inner Hive, and it gave a boost to the project’s initial success.
Ruben Bolling’s long-running Tom the Dancing Bug is one of my favorite comic strips. I’ve been a huge fan since the early 1990s, when I started reading it in alternative newspapers. (Newspapers were sort of like websites, excepted they were printed daily or weekly. I swear.) Back in 2012 Bolling — noting that the comic was more widely read than ever yet generating less money than ever — started a subscription membership called The Inner Hive. I love it. Not just because I’m supporting work that I adore and value, but because the extras that members get are so fun. If you’re even half as big a fan of Tom the Dancing Bug as I am, you should join too. There are several options — Patreon, MailChimp, Substack — but in my opinion Patreon is the simplest and the best, and it gets you everything.
It’s true that Tom the Dancing Bug started as a newspaper comic strip, but just as it started making real traction in the newspaper world (with hundreds of clients, like The Washington Post and The Village Voice), the rug got pulled out as the print world started rapidly contracting.
I launched the Inner Hive as a Hail Mary pass to try to save the comic strip, and to my amazement, it succeeded. And it became a great source of joy, as it gives me the opportunity to share lots of fun stuff with members, and to participate in what’s become a Tom the Dancing Bug community.
I’m always, constantly, incessantly grateful to the Inner Hive members who make the comic strip possible, and to anyone enthusiastic and gracious enough, like John, to pass the word along.