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I’m proud to announce the newest volume in The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug book program!

Volume 8 is IT’S THE GREAT STORM, TOM THE DANCING BUG!, and I’m now taking orders for signed/sketched/swagged copies of this book.

These will be signed, etc. and sent out in the order of purchase, so buy yours today! And if you buy a signed/sketched/swagged copy of Great Storm, you can also buy another book from the Tom the Dancing Bug collection , also signed/sketched/swagged for as little as ten extra bucks! (See info for Great Storm Combos, below.)

From Clover Press’s promotional copy for the book:

Clover Press’s Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program bursts forward with the eighth chronological volume, covering all of the most recent installments of the comic strip, a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist, from 2020-2023.  

It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! includes Bolling’s award-winning work covering the last year of the Trump presidency and the post-term MAGA insanity.  All the favorite Tom the Dancing Bug characters try to make sense of the dark times of the early 2020s, including:  the Smythe family of Chagrin Falls; Lucky Ducky, the poor little duck who’s rich in luck; and Billy Dare, boy adventurer. Also in the volume is Bolling’s comic contribution to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s hit graphic novel, The Illustrated Al.

Tom the Dancing Bug is the wildly popular, groundbreaking comic strip that has won multiple awards, including the Herblock Prize, the Berryman Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.  Mark Hamill called it “wondrous, whimsical, and witty,” and Seth Meyers recently wrote, “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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UPDATE: But don’t take their word for it. Here is a New Yorker article about the book:

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

But you can also purchase the book directly from me, SIGNED, SKETCHED, and SWAGGED. Order from me, and you get:

• Your copy of IT’S THE GREAT STORM, TOM THE DANCING BUG! signed/dated by me, and personalized if requested;
• Your copy of IT’S THE GREAT STORM, TOM THE DANCING BUG! will have an illustration hand-drawn by me in it
• A special authenticated (i.e. signed) It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! bookmark;
• A special It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug sticker (3.25″ x 4″)
• An exclusive pdf booklet, The It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug, “Artist’s” Edition,
• The option of purchasing another book from The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug Collection for only and extra $10, $20 or $30 (depending on volume), if you choose one of the GREAT STORM COMBOS

Here is the back cover of It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!

You can purchase just the one copy of It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug (signed/sketched and swagged) in the form below, but if you want to take advantage of one of the GREAT STORM COMBOS, keep scrolling down and choose the combo you’d like. The second book you choose to order (in addition to It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!) will also be signed/personalized(if requested)/dated, but will not get a full hand-drawn illustration in it (but it might just get a quick little sketch).

For all orders on this post:

• -> If you would like the book(s) 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 get the hand-drawn illustration.
• -> 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.

Signed/Sketched/Swagged It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! only = 69.96, cheap, +$5 shipping

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

To buy ONLY It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug:

$69.96, plus $5 shipping

Name I'd like book signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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IT’S THE GREAT STORM COMBOS!

These offers are for U.S. deliveries only ($8 is added for Media Mail / handling). I apologize to my valued readers outside the U.S., but I cannot accept orders to be shipped outside the U.S. for combos due to prohibitive international shipping rates on larger packages.

Again, for all these combos, you get the extra book, and it will be signed/personalized(if requested)/dated, but it will not have a full hand-drawn illustration in it.

Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! (2020-2023) AND Volume 3, On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug (1999-2002)

$89.99, plus $8 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! (2020-2023) AND Volume 4, Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics (2003-2006)

$89.98, plus $8 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! (2020-2023) AND Volume 5, Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor (2007-2011)

$79.99, plus $8 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! (2020-2023) AND Volume 6, Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens (2012-2015)

$79.98, plus $8 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug! (2020-2023) AND Volume 7, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse (2016-2019)

$99.99, plus $8 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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The Tom the Dancing Bug Six-Pack: Volumes 3-8 of the Complete Tom the Dancing Bug! (Note: again, all volumes signed, bug only Volume 8, It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug, will have the full hand-drawn illustration.)

$219.99, plus $15 shipping

Name I'd like books signed to

Inner Hive address (if any)

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For more options, including the individual purchase of Volumes 2-7 with hand-drawn illustrations in each of these volumes, plus for information on how to buy two other books, The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader and Tom the Dancing Bug, Without the Bad Ones, go to the Tom the Dancing Bug store.

(Also at the store is a package of all eight books, the Eight is Enough of Tom the Dancing Bug package.)

Hey, I was delighted to be a guest on David Cross’s great podcast “Senses Working Overtime,” talking about everything except the five senses. So fun.

I hope the Apple podcast servers can handle the increase in traffic.

Available wherever podcasts are cast. (Apple podcasts here, YouTube here.)

Sorry for the Variety-style headline. I got carried away.

But yes, Tom the Dancing Bug was nominated for a National Cartoonists Society Award for Editorial Cartoons.

The winner will be announced at the Reuben Awards ceremony / dinner on August 23 in San Diego.

For a limited time, I’m offering The Tom the Dancing Bug Reader, a pdf sampler of 22 Tom the Dancing Bug comics from 2003-2024, for FREE. For anyone and everyone.

To get your pdf, simply enter your email address in the form below, press the Contact Us button, and you’ll get download instructions in a while. (The Name and Message fields are not necessary.)

FORM DELETED; OFFER EXPIRED.

You will also be enrolled to get the Tom the Dancing Bug Review newsletter, a (free) weekly email by, of, and about all things Tom the Dancing Bug.

E-Z, fun, and free!

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APRIL 19 UPDATE: I’ve retired the form for obtaining the free Tom the Dancing Bug Reader pdf.

You can still get the free pdf by going to this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug Review newsletter (4/19/24) and getting the pdf link, which should be good until April 25. (Subscribe to the newsletter to find out about other offers in the future!)

After that, The Tom the Dancing Bug Reader will only be available in the Tom the Dancing Bug shop ($5), along with other Tom the Dancing Bug pdf books available for purchase.

Of course, for Tom the Dancing Bug physical books, go the Tom the Dancing Bug Store, and peruse The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug collection.

What is the Inner Hive?  It’s a subscription service. It’s a secret society. It’s a ragtag group of ne’er-do-wells with ideas that are so crazy, they just might work.

It’s the team that literally makes it possible for Tom the Dancing Bug to exist in this world.

And we want YOU as a member!  Every week, you’ll get an email with that week’s Tom the Dancing Bug AT LEAST A DAY BEFORE IT’S PUBLISHED ANYWHERE ONLINE.  Plus exclusive commentary, insights, process pics, extra comics, jokes, puzzles, recipes, and all benefits accruing.

How can you join?  Let me count the ways:

1. You can join on Patreon, now the most popular platform for new Inner Hivers, offering not only emails but also a website on which you can read the posts.  Plus, the Patreon option offers different levels of membership, with varying benefits.  (Monthly automatic recurring payments.)
2.  You can join at MailChimp/CampaignZee, the platform on which the Inner Hive was first launched, way back in 2012, offering weekly emails only (no website option). (Semi-annual automatic recurring payments.)
3.  You can join on Substack, the latest platform to join the Inner Hive family.  (Monthly automatic recurring payments.)
4.  You can avoid automatic recurring payments by joining on a two-year non-recurring membership, directly from me.

No matter how you join, you’ll earn the adoration of a grateful nation and world.

(If you don’t want to join the Inner Hive, but want to make a grant to the Tom the Dancing Bug enterprise, you can become of Friend of Tom the Dancing Bug by making a payment of any size here. You will get a nifty electronic Thank You message.)

Thank you for reading this message, and I hope to see you on the team.
–Ruben Bolling

I’m offering for sale signed, numbered prints of another comic: “Generation Gaps.” Prints will be 9 inches by 12 inches.

“Generation Gaps” was published the week of August 28, and was voted the #1 Tom the Dancing Bug comic of 2023.

Again, to make this manageable for me, I’m selling only twenty of these right now, and they will be signed, dated and numbered individually A1/20 through A20/20.

I will also personalize the signature to any name you wish: If so, put the name in the field “NAME YOU WANT PRINT TO BE SIGNED TO (IF ANY).” If not, you can leave that field blank.

The last time I sold signed, numbered prints (which was also the first time), they sold out in less than a day, so if you’re interested, you should act fast.

I’m not sure if I can limit quantities on PayPal, so I’ll shut the link down when 20 have been sold. But I may not catch it in time, so if you order after the 20 limit has been reached, I’ll refund all money to you.

$99.99 (plus $10 s/h). U.S. addresses only.

Purchase your print here 👇

UPDATE 4/3/24: I’m suspending sales until Friday morning. There are only a few left, and I want to give subscribers to The Tom the Dancing Bug Review, which is sent out Friday mornings, a chance to be notified of the sale.

UPDATE 4/5/24: Offer has resumed.

UPDATE 4/5/24: Sold out! Thank you, everyone!

I’m trying something new: I’m selling signed, numbered prints of last week’s comic: “A Tribute to the American Story: Liberals Are Always Right.” Prints will be apx. 9 inches by 12 inches (exact dimensions to come).

To make this manageable for me, I’m selling only twenty of these right now, and they will be signed, dated and numbered individually A1/20 through A20/20.

I will also personalize the signature to any name you wish.

I can’t limit quantities on PayPal, so I’ll shut the link down when 20 have been sold. But I may not catch it in time, so if you order after the 20 limit has been reached, I’ll refund all money to you.

$99 (plus $10 s/h). U.S. addresses only.

Purchase your print here 👇

< UPDATE 2/21/24: Sold out! Thank you, everyone! >

In celebration of this week’s comic, Lucky Ducky, in “Dog Show,” I’m offering, for a limited time only, gear, swag, and merchandise from the prestigious and exclusive Dogos Forum.

Who wouldn’t want gear from the very Dogos Forum that Hollingsworth Hound attended, and at which he solved all the world’s problems? Show your friends that you are one of the canine elite who meet to treat all the poor lucky duckies to your genius ideas!

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* not limited

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1/1/24

New York, NY: The weekly comic strip “Tom the Dancing Bug,” by Ruben Bolling, announced that it has added Mickey Mouse to its roster of characters. Today, copyright to the Mickey Mouse character lapsed from the ownership of The Disney Company to the public domain.

The first “Tom the Dancing Bug” comic strip of 2024, which premiered today on the website BoingBoing.net, features Mickey Mouse in various roles in the comic strip’s Super-Fun-Pak Comix feature. Link at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/01/meet-tom-the-dancing-bugs-newest-character-mickey-mouse.html

Mickey Mouse is one of thousands of pieces of intellectual property first published in 1928 that are entering the public domain under United States copyright law. This means that Mickey Mouse and these other properties may now be published and used by anyone, without the permission of the original copyright holders.

“Tom the Dancing Bug” author Ruben Bolling believes that Mickey Mouse will be a valuable addition to the comic strip’s roster of characters. He said, “Mickey Mouse is a pretty good character, and I’m looking forward to putting the character in some funny situations, which may increase his popularity.”

Bolling added, “I also understand that Mickey has a girlfriend that entered the public domain this year, and think I may use her too, because their romance could lead to some comic situations.”

About “Tom the Dancing Bug”: ”Tom the Dancing Bug,” the weekly comic strip by Ruben Bolling, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Herblock Prize winner, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Winner. In addition to being syndicated to newspapers by Andrews McMeel Syndication, it appears on the websites BoingBoing.net, DailyKos.com, and GoComics.com. More information is at tomthedancingbug.com.

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