Category: Uncategorized

Now available for sale: The 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual, a pdf containing every Tom the Dancing Bug comic of the year. Imagine the thrill of owning this virtual keepsake and comprehensive chronicle of the year in Tom the Dancing Bug!

You can buy this at my Patreon store. $14.99 cheap.

(NOTE: If the price you are seeing is more than $14.99, you are viewing the store on Patreon’s Apple phone iOS app. Simply leave the app, and access the store any other way, such as on a web browser.)

Yes, it’s time once again for the countdown of the TOP TEN TOM THE DANCING BUGS of the year.

As devoted TTTtDB countdown fans know, the Top Ten are determined objectively and scientifically by a sentient and fully conscious A.I. entity residing on hundreds of servers housed in my secret lair under a volcano.

But I then take the Top Three, and submit them to a vote by the brilliant and unfailing INNER HIVE MIND. So the Top Ten have been determined and will be revealed to a clamoring public day by day through New Year’s Eve Day, but early next week I’ll exclusively present the Top Three to the Inner Hive, and they will vote on and determine the final order of those finalists.

(If you would like to vote, and partake in one of the countless rights, privileges, and accesses that are bestowed upon Inner Hive members, you can join right here.)

And so I present here, THE NUMBER TEN TOM THE DANCING BUG OF 2024.

SUPER-FUN-PAK COMIX: MICKEY MOUSE, from the week of January 1.

The countdown now takes the weekend off, and resumes with Number Nine on Monday. It will then tirelessly continue every single day, without break, until Number One is revealed on December 31.

Check back here each day for the countdown, or you can follow along on social media: Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, or Notes.

• Join the Inner Hive and get each week’s comic emailed to you at least a day before it’s published, plus other priceless and exclusive content, privileges and access, HERE.
• Give a Gift Membership to the Inner Hive to a liked or loved one, HERE.
• Buy the 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual pdf, containing every 2024 comic, HERE.
• Buy the latest book, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!,” or other books from The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program, HERE.

Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder was kind enough to include me in his post suggesting book gifts: “An anti-boring book guide: six great gift picks.”

” ‘It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!’ by Ruben Bolling will have you chuckling over the downfall of western democracy through sharp satirical comics featuring beloved characters like Lucky Ducky and the Smythe family of Chagrin Falls. The collection showcases Bolling’s award-winning work, which has been delighting readers weekly on Boing Boing for over a decade.”

I understand that to be sure there was no bias in this recommendation of a book by Boing Boing’s own cartoonist who also occasionally writes for the site, Mark read the entire book blindfolded.

You can find out how to buy “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!,” as well as other Tom the Dancing Bug books, HERE.

(For another article about the book and Tom the Dancing Bug, from a less biased source, here is what The New Yorker had to say.)

Yes, Black Friday lasts almost two weeks in Tom the Dancing Bugland.

For a limited time, from now until December 9 (or when I pull the plug), you can purchase all six of the published books in The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug collection, personalized (if requested) and signed by me, Ruben Bolling, for the low, low price of $179.99. (Cheap.)

You’ll get:

• On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug, Volume 3, collecting all comics from 1999-2002
• Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics, Volume 4, collecting all comics from 2003-2006
• Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor, Volume 5, collecting all comics from 2007-2011
• Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens, Volume 6, collecting all comics from 2012-2015
• Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, Volume 7, collecting all comics from 2016-2019
• “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!” Volume 8, collecting all comics from 2020-2023

(Volumes 1 and 2 have not been published yet.)

And you never know, once I’ve got a pen in my hand signing your books, I just might doodle a thumbnail character drawing next to each signature.

You’ll also get two (2) handsome stickers: one for On the Trail, and one for It’s the Great Storm. You will also receive by email three (3) special, exclusive, “Artist” Edition pdfs.

The perfect stocking-stuffer, assuming you have a stocking large enough into which to stuff six beautiful, pristinely printed trade paperbacks (8 x 9 inches), two stickers, and three virtual pdfs.

Because of the holiday crunch, all orders are guaranteed to be sent out by USPS media mail within seven days of the date of purchase. $15 s/h charge added. (Apologies to valued non-U.S. readers, but this offer is only good for deliveries within the U.S.)

Yes, you and your loved ones can bask in the warm glow of Tom the Dancing Bug this holiday season!

To buy the Tom the Dancing Bug Holiday Six-Pak, enter the name you’d like the books signed to (if any), and click Buy Now:

$179.99, plus $15 s/h

UPDATE 12/10/24: This deal has expired, but of course you can still buy the books individually, or in pairs, or even in a six-pack — signed, personalized (if requested), swagged, and WITH a hand-drawn illustration in one of them — here.

BUT, WAIT! HERE’S ANOTHER OFFER!

THE “HOLIDAY GRATEFUL EIGHT-PAK”: You get the full Holiday Six-Pak offer, but also get (of course also personalized, if requested, and signed) the two out-of-print books adjunct to the Complete collection:

• The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, compiling every single ding-dong Super-Fun-Pak Comix from 1997-2019
• Tom the Dancing Bug, Without the Bad Ones, compiling the scientifically determined very best Tom the Dancing Bug comics from 1990-2021

for the low, low price of $249.99 (plus $18 s/h). (Cheap.)

To buy the Tom the Dancing Bug Holiday Grateful Eight-Pak, enter the name you’d like the books signed to (if any), and click Buy Now::

$249.99, plus $18 s/h

UPDATE 12/20/24: This deal has expired too, but you can still buy all eight books — signed, personalized (if requested), swagged, and WITH a hand-drawn illustration in one of them — here. (scroll down)

Gratuitous spine glamor shot from my own personal collection:

This holiday season, you can give that special someone(s) a 2025 Gift Membership(s) to Tom the Dancing Bug’s INNER HIVE.

That’s right, you can give a loved one / friend / frenemy a membership to the INNER HIVE, and from the moment you sign them up (e.g., today?) and throughout 2025 they will receive the weekly INNER HIVE emails containing:

👉 that week’s Tom the Dancing Bug comic, at least a day before it’s published anywhere online; and

👉 exclusive commentary, extra comics, contests, giveaways, word-find puzzles, and advice for the lovelorn, juicy gossip, jokes and palindromes, etc.

👉 and all other benefits and privileges of membership conferred.

$59.99.  Simply sign up here, by entering the recipient’s name and the email address the INNER HIVE mailings should be sent to. Then click the “Buy Now” button.

Name of RECIPIENT

Email address of RECIPIENT

It is for you to inform the recipient of the gift.  The recipient will simply receive the next INNER HIVE email after you sign them up.  I do provide you with a spiffy and festive graphic announcing the gift that you can use.

*You can also use the above form to RENEW an existing gift membership.*

Alternatively, $77.00 annual and $7 monthly gift subscriptions through Substack can be purchased here. These annual subscriptions last for exactly one year from the time of sign-up, and recipients will receive the weekly Inner Hive emails, but also weekly Tom the Dancing Bug Review emails. (Note: the page calls it a “The Tom the Dancing Bug Review Subscription,” but because it is paid, it is also an Inner Hive subscription.)

Update 11/17: You can now give a gift membership of any number of months, up to a year, with multiple choices of tiers, on Patreon, here.

UPDATE 11/17: You can now give a gift membership of any amount of months up to a year on Patreon.

-Terms and Conditions apply. They always do.

-The $59.99 Gift Membership offer here is for an Inner Hive membership through MailChimp from time of sign-up through 12/31/25.  Payment is for starting the membership.  Recipient may cancel at any time (there’s no accounting for taste). These $59.99 Gift Memberships DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY RENEW; they will terminate on 12/31/25 without any action on your or the recipient’s part.

More info on the INNER HIVE is here.

IT’S THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING, EVERY DING-DONG WEEK, UNTIL IT STOPS.

Thank you, and have a Merry/Happy Everything.

Rb

For any questions, you can contact me at tomdbug at gmail dot com

I’ll be making an appearance at the New York Comic Con, on Thursday, October 17, from 11am to 1pm, signing and selling Tom the Dancing Bug books, giving out fist bumps, and answering the tough questions. The crowd will be the biggest ever, believe me.

The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug volumes (signed and [briefly] sketched in front of your astonished eyes) will be only $28 (venmo) or $25 (cash).  While supplies last (I can only bring so many). I also might bring some rarities. 

OFFICE HOURS: I’m also planning on spending an hour or so afterwards, 1:45-2:45pm, at the Landmark Tavern (six minute walk from the convention at 626 11th Ave.), in case anybody who is in NYC but doesn’t have a ticket to the convention (or anybody who does) wants to join me for a drink and more book-selling (if supplies have lasted), conversation, high-fives, signing body parts, extra credit assignments, and whatever works. I’ll be they guy wearing a yellow baseball hat.

Please do check back at this space for any updates, and any day-of updates will be made on my BlueSky account.

Thanks to my friends at Boing Boing for this great post about my new book, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!”

The New Yorker just published a really nice profile about me and Tom the Dancing Bug. Check it out here.

I would add that while the comic strip does maintain a “robust Patreon community called the Inner Hive,” Patreon.com is only one of four ways to join Inner Hive!

Thanks to Sarah Larson, whom it was such a pleasure to talk with, and The New Yorker!