Author: Ruben Bolling

Check out Tim Kreider's thoughtful and entertaining article about hate and hating George Bush

In just a few hours, the amazing truth about Sarah Palin will be revealed.

Hey, people!  The bidding has stalled, with multiple offers coming in, but all at or around the $100 level.

We need to break through — remember, this is an opportunity to have YOUR product featured within the narrative flow of a beloved comic strip seen by potentially MILLIONS of people!  Why just thinking about that makes me thirsty for a frosty Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry!

See what I did there?

Call your boss!

The bidding is becoming fast and furious.  The new high bid is $110!

Bid now and bid often!

YOUR PRODUCT could be seen being used, discussed or near one or more of Tom the Dancing Bug's beloved characters, seen by potentially millions of readers in newspapers and the web!

The bidding is now up to $100.

Thanks to those who have bid so far!  Bidding info coming…

Articles about the TOM THE DANCING BUG Product Placement Auction:

'Dancing Bug' Comic Strip Auctions Off Product Placement, Editor and Publisher
Comic Strip auctioned for product placement, Product Placement News
RUBEN BOLLING ANNOUNCES PRODUCT PLACEMENT AUCTION, The Daily Cartoonist

Attention Advertisers, Marketers and Promoters of All Types:

Imagine your product featured in an authentic “alternative” comic strip that is read by the most desirable demographics:  educated young professionals; sophisticated internet users; upwardly mobile newspaper readers; and discerning australopithecine enthusiasts.

Your product will be featured not in an ad, to which these groups are notoriously resistant, but within the artistic framework of the comic strip itself!

The fantastically popular “Tom the Dancing Bug” comic strip is auctioning off a product placement.  The highest bidder will have the product of its choice unobtrusively yet noticeably placed in an upcoming “Super-Fun-Pak Comix” installment of the comic strip.

Participants may place their bids by emailing the following information to tomdbug@gmail.com  :  Name, E-mail address, Corporation or Business Concern, Product, and Bid (in US dollars).  Upon conclusion of the Auction, the winner will be notified by e-mail, and must make payment, by Paypal, within 24 hours.

Quaternary Features reserves the right to reject any bid that it, in its sole and absolute discretion, determines to be unsuitable for any reason, including but not limited to concerns of propriety and good taste.  The winner shall be determined by Quaternary Features in its sole and absolute discretion.  The manner in which the winning product is pictured, named or otherwise referred to in the comic strip shall be determined in the sole and absolute discretion of Quaternary Features.  Proceeds will be donated by Quaternary Features to The Committee To Protect Journalists.

Bidding starts now.

According to David Brooks, Sonia Sotomayor achieved great success in her life because when she was a child, her aunts and grandmother staged an intervention to get her to stop reading Archie, Richie Rich and Casper comic books.

And here I've been, encouraging my kids to read those comics.  So much for having a kid on the Supreme Court.

UPDATE:  Here's the quote from the original Washington Post article about Sotomayor's debilitating comic book habit:

"The females were expected to achieve more," said her younger brother, Juan Sotomayor. She loved comic books — Archie, Casper, Richie Rich — so much that, after her father died, her paternal grandmother and aunts once convened a family meeting with her mother. "They were concerned about the role of the comic books in my sister's life," recalled her brother, an allergist outside Syracuse, N.Y. "It was maybe corrupting her."

Wow, this might be a great movie.  Can't wait.