Author: Ruben Bolling

Volume 3 of The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program is now available! Order your signed/sketched copies of TOM THE DANCING BUG: ON THE TRAIL OF TOM THE DANCING BUG.

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From Clover Press’s promotional copy for the book:

Clover Press’s Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program strides confidently ahead with the third chronological volume, covering every installment of the comic strip, a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist, from 1999-2002.  

This volume not only includes the comic strip’s favorite formats and characters, such as Super-Fun-Pak Comix, God-Man, the Omnipotent Superhero, Charley the Australopithecine, and its cover character Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer, it also includes the strip’s famed and award-winning urgent turn into political satire following 9/11. Also in the volume is Ruben Bolling’s brief run of monthly full-page comics for The New Yorker, and a special comic for The Village Voice on the 2000 Subway World Series.

Tom the Dancing Bug is the wildly popular, groundbreaking comic strip that Mark Hamill called “wondrous, whimsical, and witty,” and that led Seth Meyers to recently write, “The fact that Tom the bug can keep dancing in this day and age is a testament to Ruben Bolling’s skills as a cartoonist!”

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You can purchase the book in bookstores, at online retailers like Amazon, and from the publisher, Clover Press.

But you can purchase SIGNED/SKETCHED books directly from me. If you order from me, you get:

1. Your book signed/sketched/dated by me, and personalized if requested;
2. A special authenticated (i.e., signed) On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug bookmark; and
3. A special On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug sticker (3.25″ x 4″); which are
4. Timeless treasures that will outstrip the stock market, cybercurrency, precious metals, and pork belly futures in value and will provide joy and financial security for yourself and your progeny for generations to come

-> If you would like the books signed “to” a particular name (your name, the name of a gift recipient, etc.), type that name in the field below.  If not, you can leave that field blank.  The book will still be signed and sketched in.

-> If you are a member of the Inner Hive, enter the email address you use for that membership in the indicated field.  If you are not, no problem, you can leave that field blank.

69.90, cheap, +$5 shipping

This offer is for U.S. deliveries only ($5 is added for Media Mail). But I welcome international orders.  For deliveries outside the U.S., please contact teamdancingbug at gmail dot com for shipping prices.

Name I’d like book signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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Here is the back cover for On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug:

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You can also purchase SIGNED BOOK COMBO DEALS: packages of (mostly) two books from the Complete Tom the Dancing Bug collection, signed but without the original, illustration. I save time by forgoing the illustration, and I pass the savings on to you!

Check out the Signed Book Combo Deals HERE.

Wow, I’ve gotten pretty much unprecedented feedback about my latest comic, so I thought I’d take a pretty much unprecedented step and share some commentary that was exclusive to the Inner Hive.

A link to the comic, “The New Epic Tale of Fantasy from the Mind of J.K. Rowling,” is here.

Before the comic was published, when I sent it out to members of the Inner Hive, who get each week’s comic a day early, I wrote the below among the other commentary and extra comics, etc.. This is before literally anyone had seen the comic, except for my editor at Andrews McMeel.

Well, I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this week’s comic.
 
I do like it, but when I thought of it, I kind of felt bad going after J.K. Rowling.  I’ve had enormous admiration for her accomplishment, and before she became outspoken about trans issues, I had great respect for her personally.
 
Also, I’m not really sure about her full views on trans rights. She’s said contradictory things, and from what I’ve seen, she’s mostly attacked straw-man positions.  And then she pays lip service to supporting trans people.
 
So I’ve sat on this comic since February.  And I never sit on comics.  What you see each week is what I wrote the previous week.  Or, rarely, the week before that.
 
But I decided to go with it because I do think that overall, it is fair.  Her position on outsiders and outcasts in the case of trans people is in contradiction of the position she (mostly) takes allegorically in the Harry Potter books. …
 
I guess I just feel a lot more comfortable satirically taking on politicians than artists.

First of all, I’ve gotten feedback both that has agreed with my take and disagreed with my take. But everyone (so far!) who has disagreed has done so politely and respectfully, and I really appreciate that.

I don’t particularly like writing about my comics, and I hate defending them, but when good people, and devoted readers, express misgivings, I feel that I should honor that by explaining my perspective.

Some people have said I got the facts wrong. But when you look at the comic, I don’t see how that’s even possible. I barely even cite any facts. I satirically imply that her position is that if some trans people act in certain, unspecified ways (part of “becoming their true and very best selves”), that harms biological women.

I won’t go into all the things she’s said and written and liked on Twitter, etc. etc. Full rundowns are here and here. But it’s clear she’s taken a position that at least some trans rights are contrary to biological women’s rights and can be harmful to biological women. She’s also a skeptic about some uses of hormone therapy and surgery for trans people.

She’s very deliberately become an outspoken public figure on this issue, and so I believe she fair game for satire.

So she said how she feels, and I took the opportunity to parody her famous books to make a philosophical juxtaposition to her stance. That’s how discourse is supposed to go.

I don’t present her side of the story in the comic, and explain all the nuances of the debate. I don’t even present my full views on all these issues (as if I even know them). Satire is a blunt instrument.

I didn’t say she hates trans people. I didn’t say I think she wants them all to disappear (just have less rights than some would say, thus metaphorically go “back in the closet”). I didn’t cancel her. I didn’t harm her. She’s a very rich and very powerful woman. In fact, I think one of the worst things I’ve read that she’s done in this whole affair was threaten to sue or sue someone on Twitter who criticized her (as having views that aligned with Nazis) to get them to capitulate to her.

Nevertheless, my admiration for what she did with Harry Potter knows no bounds. I regard the books and the sensation they created as one of the great achievements in art of all time. And there’s no way she could have written those stories if she didn’t have a good heart.

But trans rights is a difficult and emotional issue, one I find myself grappling with myself. I understand the great differences of opinion good people can have on the issue, and try to recognize and respect that. There’s certainly a generational divide.

On this issue, young people seem to sympathize with and stand up for the group that has been most outcast, misunderstood, and even reviled by mainstream, “normal” society. Maybe they were partially taught to do so by some books about wizards they read when they were growing up…

If you’ve ever thought about joining the INNER HIVE (or even if you haven’t), this would be the month to do it.

Inner Hive members get each weekly Tom the Dancing Bug comic strip at least a day before it’s published anywhere online, plus commentary, sneak peeks, process, pics, extra exclusive comics, jokes, palindromes, giveaways, additional comics, “content”, juicy gossip, weather forecasts, “other stuff,” cautionary tales, hot takes, etc., etc.

But for everyone who signs up for the INNER HIVE from today (4/4) through the end of April*, I will donate $25 to the Save the Children Emergency Fund, to help children living in areas of conflict, including Ukrainian children. $25 is more than double the amount of the base sign-up/initial membership dues on MailChimp.

That’s right. Join today and I’ll donate more than DOUBLE the amount of your sign-up/initial membership dues to Save the Children!

You can join through any of these platforms; click for more information or to join:

• PATREON (monthly billing) (currently the most popular way to join)
• MAILCHIMP / CAMPAIGNZEE (billing every six months)
• SUBSTACK (monthly or annual billing)

If you don’t want to join through one of these platforms, you can make a single PayPal payment directly to me for a prepaid two-year non-recurring membership, also triggering the $25 donation.

More info on Inner Hive membership can be found here.

So not only do you get early, exclusive access to stupid comics, exclusive access to stupid commentary on those stupid comics, and other stupid stuff, you help children living in crisis.

Tom the Dancing Bug was designed as a newspaper comic strip, and with the collapse of the newspaper market, the Inner Hive has been absolutely critical in keeping it viable.  Every Inner Hive member is helping to keep Tom the Dancing Bug in existence, every single week. I deeply appreciate all who join, and I do my ding-dong best to make sure members get value and are deliriously happy with their membership.

Please join the Tom the Dancing Bug team. Be the first on your block to get each week’s comic.  AND MAKE ME DONATE!

Thank you indeed,

Ruben Bolling

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*MailChimp and annual-billing Substack memberships instantly trigger the donation on first payment. Patreon features monthly billing, so at the base level a membership must be maintained for four months to be eligible for this pledge. A monthly-billing Substack membership must be maintained for two months to be eligible for this pledge.

Not applicable to Gift Memberships.

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Attention Those in New York City, Those Around New York City, Those Traveling to New York City, and Those Traveling Through New York City:

I’m planning to be at the Society of Illustrators’ MoCCA Arts Festival on Saturday, April 1, 3pm – 5pm:  Metropolitan Pavilion located at 125 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011.  An entrance ticket is required. Information about attendance is HERE.

I’ll have some books from the Complete Tom the Dancing Bug series for sale, I’ll be giving out a special free surprise* gift**, and I’ll be generally available for high-fives, sketches, selfies, fist bumps, and intimate conversations.

You’ll find me at the National Cartoonists Society table, Table 293.

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*It’s an All-Mighty Comics sticker.

** While supplies last. Void where prohibited.

Due to an unprecedented tie in the Inner Hive voting, there is not one, but two Number One Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2022.

And they are, in publication order:

Approved Maus (week of 1/31/22)…

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… and Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy 21st Century Classroom (week of May 30, 2022)

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Thanks to everyone who read Tom the Dancing Bug this year, and of course thanks to the members of the Inner Hive, who made the comic strip possible every single week. I wish you all a Happy New Year, and all the best in 2023.

-Ruben Bolling

There is no Number Two Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022.

In a shocking development, the historic vote among the prestigious and esteemed members of the Inner Hive to determine the top three positions resulted in an actual, dead heat, deadlocked, unprecedented TIE for the Number One Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022.

And so, instead of a Number Two Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022 being revealed today, there will be TWO Number One Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2022 revealed tomorrow!

Numbers 10-4 of The Top Ten Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2022 were calculated by a rigorous scientific algorithm, developed at great effort and expense. This algorithm also set the Top 3.

But then the Top 3 were submitted to the INNER HIVE to vote on their final order. And so, we now present the Number Three Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022, as determined by Tom the Dancing Bug’s Inner Hive:

Q-Nuts: “It’s the War on Christmas, Charlie Brown” (from the week of December 12)

The Number Four Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022:

Earthman (from the week of July 4)

The Number Five Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022:

Donald and John: Declassification (from the week of September 26)

The Number Six Tom the Dancing Bug of 2022:

Lucky Ducky, in “Let Tweeting Dogs Lie” (from the week of April 18)