Author: Ruben Bolling

Just saw this article on webcomics, in which Tom the Dancing Bug is reviewed, along with some other cartoonists whose work I admire, particularly Josh Neufeld and Tim Kreider.

The other night, I was flipping around the channels late, late at night and came upon one of those televangelist "paid programming" shows.  This televangelist, Paula White, said:  "Are you feeling weighted down in life?  You have too many other people’s burdens, weights, on your back.  Remember Galatians says, bear your own burdens."  While she spoke, a two sentence quotation was flashed on the screen, citing Galatians, but too quickly to be read carefully.

This may have caught my attention because this concept sounded more New Age, modern self-help, than biblical.  So on a whim, I backed up the DVR to read the supporting quotation.  It actually read:

"Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.  For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.  Galatians 6:2-3"

Now, I’m no biblical scholar, and I’m not sure what that second sentence is getting at, but I’m pretty sure the first sentence is saying the exact opposite of what she said.

This week’s comic:
Trust the man with the scissors.

We’ve seen this played out many times before…

What examples of hip black guys vs. cranky old white guys did I miss?  E-mail me, and I’ll post responses next week.

In this week’s coming comic…

Tom Tomorrow’s depiction of John McCain using the word "whippersnapper" may have been published two days before mine, but I have a photo of Tom holding up a copy of this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug, clearly showing McCain saying "whippersnapper," next to me, holding up Monday’s copy of The New York Times, in case anyone wants to see it.

Tom the Dancing Bug won the 2008 AAN Award for the Best Cartoon in Alternative Newsweeklies.

It’s the fourth time Tom the Dancing Bug has won the award (it also won in 2002, 2003 and 2007).  Tom the Dancing Bug is the only comic strip to have won more than once, and the only comic strip to be named a finalist every year in the award’s existence, since 2001.

Even if I thought the comic deserved it, this run of awards would be puzzling to me.  Each year there is a different panel of judges, and I think the other comics in alternative newsweeklies represent some of the best, most innovative cartooning ever.

It is not at all false modesty when I say that I don’t get this.

Hey, thanks to all that came by to say hi at the Art Fest on Saturday, and a special thanks to those who purchased sketches to benefit the cause of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.  Seemed like a steep price to pay for my scribbled renderings of Charley, Doug, Lucky Ducky, Harvey Richards, etc., but I and the museum appreciate your generosity.

And thanks to all the MoCCA volunteers who did everything to make the show successful.  I especially want to thank volunteer Justin Maudslien, a cartoonist who was the sketch table artist wrangler.

Some of the people I ran into at the festival (a very incomplete list)…

Of course, it’s always great to hang with the Cartoonists With "Attitude" crew.  Keith Knight has a new complete omnibus collection of his K Chronicles strip coming out with Dark Horse, and I’m embarrassingly jealous.

My kids arrived just too late for Patrick McDonnell’s sketch table appearance, but I was able to accost him as he walked around the festival, and he was kind enough to make my kids’ day by giving them a special sketch.  One of the kindest, friendliest people I’ve known in the comics business.

The kids were also thrilled to meet Raina Telgemeier, who draws the great Baby-Sitters Club comics, and she did not disappoint, answering their (and my) questions, and taking the time to draw a beautiful picture of one of her characters.

They also particularly enjoyed one of their purchases, Jellaby, by Kean Soo (which I haven’t read yet).

Great to see Superstar Editor ™ Charlie Kochman, the Amazin’ Brendan Buford, and I got to meet the awesome Josh Neufeld, Chris Giarusso (who can take any character and bring it into his Mini Marvels universe — I’m still kicking myself for not asking him to draw God-Man), and Cliff Chiang, who drew so beautifully I had to get the names of the pens he was using (as though I’d draw as well with them!).

I’ll be at the MoCCA ArtFest in NYC on Saturday, drawing sketches for attendees, 3-5pm.  Come and get one!  Full information is here.

Also scheduled to be at the Featured Artist Sketch Table on Saturday are (with full bio information for two of my very favorite people working in comics):

Neil Vokes 11-3
Adriano 11-1
Lou Manna 11-1
Mo Willems 11-11:30

MoCCA is proud to include the talented Mo Willems who is known for his
television work with Nickelodeon and his award winning books: Don’t Let
the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle
Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity.

Molly Crabapple 12-1
Fred Hembeck 1-3
Keith Williams 1-3
Rob Reilly 1-3
Patrick McDonnell 1-2

In 1994 McDonnell created the comic strip MUTTS which now appears in over 700 newspapers and 20 countries. MUTTS has been described by Peanuts
creator Charles Schulz as "one of the best comic strips of all time." McDonnell has received numerous awards for this strip, including the
National Cartoonists Society’s highest honor, The Reuben, for Cartoonist of the Year, five Harvey Awards for Best Comic Strip, Germany’s Max and
Moritz Award for Best International Comic Strip, and the Swedish Academy of Comic Art’s Adamson Statuette.  Patrick will not be available for
sketches, but he will be signing prints for fans.

Ruben Bolling 3-5
Chris Giarrusso 3-5
Cliff Chiang 3-5
Dean Haspiel 3-5
Josh Neufeld
Dan Hernandez

This week’s comic!

I don’t get this new willingness on the part of Hillary Clinton to make a deal with Barack Obama.  Wasn’t the time to make a deal back when the outcome was still in doubt?  Then, she could offer Obama certainty of the nomination, and the savings of having to campaign in the remaining states.

Now that the outcome is no longer in doubt, and Obama’s already spent the time and money campaigning in states that Clinton refused to concede, what does she have to offer in exchange for the vice presidency, cabinet posts, or cash prizes?  It can’t be her support in the general election, because if she refuses to aggressively support Obama against McCain she’ll finally and definitively be revealed to be the unprincipled, shameless careerist her worst detractors imagine her to be.

Her attempts to cut a deal now seem similar to an accused criminal suddenly trying to plea bargain after the jury foreman has already pronounced the syllable "Guil…."

UPDATE 6/5:  And now it’s over.  Who knows what deal was actually made.