Tag: ruben bolling

TOM THE DANCING BUG: BEST OF 2013

Ruben Bolling

 

A panel of experts, each representing a different discipline of the humanities or sciences, has determined that these comics strips were the Objective Best of Tom the Dancing Bug in 2013.

 

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First They Came to Register.

Created in the baffling political landscape that followed Sandy Hook.

 

1133cMC first they came to register

 

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God-Man:  Rebooted.

Another example of why I like God-Man so much.  I can think of an ordinary superhero convention (e.g., reboots and character evolution over time), and when I apply it to God-Man something I didn't even expect comes up.

 

1137cMC god-man reboot

 

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Super-Fun-Pak Comix:  Percival Dunwoody vs. Hitler.

This comic ran afoul of Godwin's law right after the title.

 

 

1146cMC sfpc103 rooftop

 

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School Time Rock:  "I'm Just a Law."

Remember when Republicans were screaming that it was part of the legislative process to threaten to harm the economy in order to repeal a law?  Those were good times.

 

1157cMC school time rock - just a law

 

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A Very Chagrin Falls Thanksgiving.

2013 saw the launch of the Chagrin Falls characters, and this installment was probably the most viral of all the Tom the Dancing Bugs of the year.   Apologies if tweets and emails of it interrupted your Thanksgiving dinner, but it was great fun for me to see this hit the internet hard.

 

1164cMC chagrin falls - thanksgiving

 

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Disagree with these choices?  Check out the year's comics here, and please do feel free to facebook or tweet (#tomthedancingbug) links to your favorites.  I'd love to know.

 

Happy New Year, All!  May 2014 bring you health, joy, laughter and the good favor of a righteous, pseudo-scientific wish-fulfiller!

Love,

Rb

 

 

AFTER THE SENATE VOTE ON GUN CONTROL, IT’S BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Ruben Bolling

CARTOONISTS DEMAND ACTION TO END GUN VIOLENCE

 

I'm so proud to have organized this film, "Cartoonists Demand Action to End Gun Violence," for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (co-chaired by New York City Mayor Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino).

 

 

Click HERE to see the video on the Demand Action website, with a slideshow of the artwork.

 

For myself and many of the contributing cartoonists, this was a unique experience, shedding our badges as humorists, satirists and storytellers, and creating artwork as unabashed advocates.  But fighting gun violence has become a singular issue, and I was deeply gratified that this group of incredibly talented artists joined me at the drawing board to demand action.

 

When I asked cartoonists to create artwork the this project, I was shocked at how enthusiastically and passionately they agreed.  And when I thanked them for helping, I was amazed that so many thanked me for organizing the project and for including them.

 

This issue mobilizes people like nothing I've ever seen.  We were able to enlist the Academy Award-winning director/producer Peggy Stern to direct the film, with animation by Brandon Roots and Paul Penczner and their team at Buffalo Pictures.  And the music was composed by Ron Sadoff.

 

And to narrate the film:  Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore!

 

Despite all this amazing talent's refusal to accept my thanks, I remain eternally grateful for their brilliant contributions.

 

Particularly after the recent Senate vote to filibuster even modest, common sense reforms that 90% of Americans supported, we need to fight to keep the pressure on however we can — to let legisislators and lobbyists know that Americans will not give up, and this issue will not go away.

 

I hope you enjoy the film, and that it will inspire you to take an active role in this fight against gun violence.  

 

AND PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD RIGHT NOW BY PASSING THIS VIDEO ON, ANY WAY YOU CAN — EMAIL, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BLOG, MYSPACE, AOL CHAT, TELEGRAPH, ETC ETC!

 

The film includes illustrations by:

Lalo Alcaraz

Bill Amend

Ruben Bolling

Jim
Borgman

Steve Brodner

Roz Chast

Jeff Keane

Rick Kirkman

Peter Kuper

Mike
Luckovich

David Mazzucchelli

Stephan Pastis

Mike Peters

Lincoln Peirce

Dan
Piraro

Ted Rall

Dave Roman

Jerry Scott

Art Spiegelman*

Raina Telgemeier

Tom Tomorrow

Garry Trudeau

Mo Willems

 

(*All artwork is original for this film, except Art Spiegelman's piece, which was originally published on the September 23, 1993 issue of The New Yorker.)

 

HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, IRAQ.

Ruben Bolling

 

621temp
Tom the Dancing Bug of October 22, 2002

 

All these articles about the ten year anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq are making me feel very bitter.  And I have to confess, I'm not just bitter about the horrific policy and humanitarian fiasco.  I'm also bitter on a personal level.

 

It's hard to remember what it was like in 2002 and 2003.  It felt to me like America had gone bat$#!% crazy.  Bush and his cohorts had transparently lied and bullied their way into their war of choice, and there was no meaningful resistance.  Mainstream liberals, both politicians and media players, lined up right behind him, and anyone who objected was considered a loony outsider.  In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, the most prominent liberal columnist in the nation said the war was absolutely unquestionably worth it becasue SUCK ON THIS.

 

I didn't think much of this at the time, because the price being paid by the war's participants was (and still is) monstrous.  But ten years later, I'm surprised that I'm looking back in anger at how isolated and marginalized those of us who vehemently objected to the war found ourselves.  

 

It's unseemly to say "I told you so."  And it's crass to complain about losing newspaper clients and being called crazy, stupid and unpatriotic when a war has destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives.  But this week, as I watch the war's architects and cheerleaders attempt to justify and rehabilitate themselves, I feel bitterness that there is absolutely no reckoning for those who perpetrated this.  And that our country's institutions could be so blinded that they allowed themselves to be manipulated by despicable warmongers telling flimsy, ridiculous lies.

 

Of all the anti-war comics I did during the time, this one, from March 2003, best summarized why I was so certain that the war was going to be a horror:  The guy leading us into it was deeply and obviously untrustworthy, repeatedly showing horrible judgement at his best, and malicious deceit at his worst.

 

637temp

 

Happy Anniversary.

 

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BACK TO 2001

Ruben Bolling

Living in New York City, and with an office right next to the World Trade Center, I was very directly affected by the events of 9/11.  For days, the furthest thing from my mind was my weekly comic strip.  And when it came time to think about it, writing and drawing a comic strip was the last thing I wanted to do.

 

It was with absolutely no joy that I came up with this, my first comic after 9/11.  But, while it may not exactly show in the lines, I wrote and drew it with far more emotion than any comic before or since.

 

566temp

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