You can purchase a print of last week's comic, "Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Day in Trump's America," here.
October 01, 2020
August 06, 2020
THE TWO BRAND NEW TOM THE DANCING BUG BOOKS ARE HERE
Two new Tom the Dancing Bug books, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, and The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, are now available for order!
Please take a moment to watch the video, above. I worked very hard on it.
--
👉 AND you can order the Super Fun Tom the Dancing Bug Book Package (both books!) directly from me.👇
You get:
☑️ a copy of Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, signed / sketched / dated by Ruben Bolling, personalized if requested
☑️ a copy of The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, signed / sketched / dated by Ruben Bolling, personalized if requested
☑️ two signed collectible Tom the Dancing Bug / Super-Fun-Pak Comix bookmarks
☑️ an EXCLUSIVE pdf "ARTIST'S" EDITION booklet, presenting notes, scripts, sketches, pencils and inks for selected comics from both books.
$89.99, cheap.
Order below. 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.
Continental U.S. only please. Includes Media Mail postage.
For deliveries to other locations, please contact teamdancingbug at gmail dot com
U.S. only please. Includes Media Mail postage. For deliveries to other locations, please contact teamdancingbug at gmail dot com Release date is August 15, 2020, and Packages will be sent out rather shortly thereafter (I have to sign/sketch/date them all!).
Books are available for purchase and shipment NOW!
--
2017 NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY AWARD WINNER
2017 HERBLOCK PRIZE WINNER
2018 ROBERT F. KENNEDY JOURNALISM AWARD WINNER
2019 PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
2020 ORANGE JULIUS LOYALTY PROGRAM CARD APPLICANT
--
Some people have said some nice things about Tom the Dancing Bug:
"Ruben Bolling's craft and commentary are as powerful and as pointed, as capable of making you laugh while breaking your heart as they were when we were all so very young."
from Neil Gaiman's foreword to Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse
"God bless Tom the Dancing Bug! Funny, succinct, and highly original, Ruben Bolling is able to make sense from the chaos and tragedy of America's political nightmares and make you laugh while doing it. An increasingly rare and more difficult feat these extra bleak days. This is worth your time and money. Do it!"
-David Cross
"Behold the wondrous, whimsical, witty world that is Tom the Dancing Bug! If you're someone who's not a fan of potent political humor with an incisive absurdist twist that's not only consistently funny, but downright therapeutic for an ailing world, I suggest you avoid this book like the plague. For everyone else, it's a MUST-READ!"
-Mark Hamill
"Delve into the dementia, the dread, and the delightfulness of this collection of Tom the Dancing Bug's strips -- it's history through the lens of a self-loathing insomniac. In a way, it's all of us."
-Patton Oswalt
"Ruben Bolling has been sending me his secret messages for years, in the form of comics printed first on paper, and then, once paper became extinct, on the internet. I don't know exactly what he's trying to tell me, except he seems to know about everything I find funny, delightful, strange and inexplicable to get my attention, from obscure literary references to negging deep dish pizza. I don't understand exactly what exactly he's trying to say to me, but I still obsessively keep reading, not just because he's hilarious, but because someday I hope to find out who this Tom the bug is, and why he is dancing."
-Peter Sagal
"This fine collection of work by Mr. Bolling provides ample evidence as to why he is unanimously considered one of the greatest cartoonists in the known universe. How he would rank in that other part of the universe is, of course, a matter that’s still being hotly debated within the scientific community.”
-“Weird Al” Yankovic
"I am a HUGE fan of Tom the Dancing Bug! It makes me laugh and think of course but it makes me feel better. No kidding, I read it and I think, someone else thinks like me, only funnier and better informed and I feel good. Thank you Ruben Bolling for giving us Tom The Dancing Bug. (Can't decide whether to capitalize ‘the’)."
-Gary Gulman
"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!"
-Seth Meyers
“Each week Ruben Bolling takes an unassuming little blank white rectangle and fills it up with clever cartoonery, sneaky commentary, and more political laughs than you can shake a stick at. All hail Tom the Dancing Bug!”
-Matt Groening
Photos: These books exist and could be yours:
July 01, 2020
THE TOM THE DANCING BUG FOR JUSTICE FUNDRAISER
JULY 1, 2:30pm ET UPDATE
Wow, I'm so touched and grateful for the support you guys showed for this fundraiser. As of this update, we were able to raise $6,896 for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund! Thank you so much to all who were able to participate.
Here are the winners of Tom the Dancing Bug art:
Top Donor:
"Your Friend in Maine," $2,000!
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO YOU AND THE GREAT STATE OF MAINE!
Three Random Donors (randomly selected from all eligible donors):
1. Dave Sikula (in tribute to Michael Hutchinson)
2. Rex Robison
3. Joshua Hatch
As the rules state, the Top Donor gets first crack at the "Top Prize" of original artwork to the comic "BLM-I-am." So all winning donors should contact me at teamdancingbug at gmail dot com to find out what prize they won, and, if the "Standard Prize," what single-panel, pen/ink 6"x8" drawing they would like (see below).
Again, THANK YOU to ALL who participated!
--
ORIGINAL POST FROM JUNE 4, 2020
Hello, friends.
It's easy to feel helpless in these very dark times.
But we're not helpless, and fighting through that feeling is essential to our ability to get through this crisis.
Among the many ways you can help, making financial donations to organizations with infrastructure and expertise, if you are in a position to do so, can make an impact.
In the past, I've set up fundraising campaigns for various causes, encouraging people to give, and offering meager, silly prizes, and the support these campaigns received has not only contributed to those organizations, it's helped me to feel a little less helpless and less alone. And I hope it's helped the participants feel a little less helpless and alone.
So today I'm launching this Tom the Dancing Bug for Justice Fundraiser. Because ever since my comic strip first featured a giant nap-taking alien, people have been saying it's For Justice.
-
You can participate by making your donation directly to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund through a donation page I set up:
https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/tom-the-dancing-bug-for-justice-fundraiser
But watch out, you just might get a prize: a Tom the Dancing Bug original illustration.
Four donors will get a Tom the Dancing Bug illustration sent to them:
--> The top donor to the Fundraiser (multiple donations from the same donor will be aggregated); and
--> Three random donors to the Fundraiser regardless of size of donation, $25 minimum.
To be eligible for the prize, be sure to not to check "Hide Amount" or "Don't show my name" on the donation page.
The top donor will have first offer of receiving as their prize the TOP PRIZE: the original art (with text to be pasted on) for the comic for the week of 6/8/20, "1st Am's a Sham, BLM-I-am."
(6/30/20 9:00AM UPDATE: The current top donation is $2,000. Note that donations that do not publicly indicate the amount are not eligible to be the top donation, so you can track the current top donation.)
(original art on left, finished comic on right)
If the top donor would prefer the STANDARD PRIZE (see below), the Top Prize will be offered to the random donors, in random order.
The STANDARD PRIZE (for those who don't get the TOP PRIZE): You can have me draw:
A pen/ink recreation of the cover of the Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse book, coming out in August; OR
A pen/ink recreation of (almost) any Super-Fun-Pak Comix (apx. 6 inches x 2 inches); OR
You can tell me what you'd like me to draw (subject to the boundaries of law and propriety), or we can come up with something in collaboration. God-Man fighting Charley the Australopithecine, Hollingsworth Hound in a tutu, Percival Dunwoody riding a Giant Wombat... whatever you want. (pen/ink, single panel, apx. 6 inches x 8 inches).
The deadline for prize eligibility is 11:59 pm ET, June 30, but why not donate now.
Winners will be announced HERE on this blog post on July 1, so check back to see if you won.
Thank you, everybody. Hoping you are fortunate enough to be in a position to help in any way.
Yours Indeed,
Ruben Bolling
CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION AND PARTICIPATE IN THE TOM THE DANCING BUG FOR JUSTICE FUNDRAISER.
(Note: I made a $200 donation to start things off and to defray the transaction costs of using gofundme.com to manage this campaign.)
--
--
May 06, 2020
TWO TOM THE DANCING BUG BOOKS!
The Official and Very Professional Video of the Tom the Dancing Bug books.
Watch only if you are prepared to be thrilled, amazed, moved, and curiously motivated to buy books.
👉 You can order Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse from Clover Press here.
👉👉 AND you can order the Super Fun Tom the Dancing Bug Book Package (both books!) directly from me.👇
You get:
☑️ a copy of Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, signed / sketched / dated* by Ruben Bolling, personalized if requested
☑️ a copy of The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, signed / sketched / dated* by Ruben Bolling, personalized if requested
☑️ two signed Tom the Dancing Bug / Super-Fun-Pak Comix bookmarks
☑️ 👇an EXCLUSIVE pdf booklet of "artist's materials," presenting notes, scripts, sketches, pencils and inks for selected comics from both books.
Books are available for purchase and shipment NOW!
$89.99, cheap.
Order below. 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.
Continental U.S. only please. Includes Media Mail postage.
For deliveries to other locations, please contact teamdancingbug at gmail dot com
--
I've got to say one of ny biggest disappointments is that because of the pandemic, the books will not be sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores (only online), so the amazing back cover of Into the Trumpverse will never come under the gaze of perusing shoppers. I'm about as proud of what these folks said about my comic strip as anything I've done.
Here is an image of that back cover, and I'm so grateful to all who contributed blurbs.
"Ruben Bolling's craft and commentary are as powerful and as pointed, as capable of making you laugh while breaking your heart as they were when we were all so very young."
from Neil Gaiman's foreword to Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse
"God bless Tom the Dancing Bug! Funny, succinct, and highly original, Ruben Bolling is able to make sense from the chaos and tragedy of America's political nightmares and make you laugh while doing it. An increasingly rare and more difficult feat these extra bleak days. This is worth your time and money. Do it!"
-David Cross
"Behold the wondrous, whimsical, witty world that is Tom the Dancing Bug! If you're someone who's not a fan of potent political humor with an incisive absurdist twist that's not only consistently funny, but downright therapeutic for an ailing world, I suggest you avoid this book like the plague. For everyone else, it's a MUST-READ!"
-Mark Hamill
"Delve into the dementia, the dread, and the delightfulness of this collection of Tom the Dancing Bug's strips -- it's history through the lens of a self-loathing insomniac. In a way, it's all of us."
-Patton Oswalt
"Ruben Bolling has been sending me his secret messages for years, in the form of comics printed first on paper, and then, once paper became extinct, on the internet. I don't know exactly what he's trying to tell me, except he seems to know about everything I find funny, delightful, strange and inexplicable to get my attention, from obscure literary references to negging deep dish pizza. I don't understand exactly what exactly he's trying to say to me, but I still obsessively keep reading, not just because he's hilarious, but because someday I hope to find out who this Tom the bug is, and why he is dancing."
-Peter Sagal
"This fine collection of work by Mr. Bolling provides ample evidence as to why he is unanimously considered one of the greatest cartoonists in the known universe. How he would rank in that other part of the universe is, of course, a matter that’s still being hotly debated within the scientific community.”
-“Weird Al” Yankovic
"I am a HUGE fan of Tom the Dancing Bug! It makes me laugh and think of course but it makes me feel better. No kidding, I read it and I think, someone else thinks like me, only funnier and better informed and I feel good. Thank you Ruben Bolling for giving us Tom The Dancing Bug. (Can't decide whether to capitalize ‘the’)."
-Gary Gulman
"That fact that Tom the bug can keep dancing in this day and age is a testament to Ruben Bolling’s skills as a cartoonist!"
-Seth Meyers
“Each week Ruben Bolling takes an unassuming little blank white rectangle and fills it up with clever cartoonery, sneaky commentary, and more political laughs than you can shake a stick at. All hail Tom the Dancing Bug!”
-Matt Groening
---------
*Yes, I will date your book. But I will be a perfect gentleman.
April 10, 2020
HEY, KIDS! JOIN THE EMU CLUB!
Over the past couple of weeks, I've made both books in The EMU Club Adventures series available for free.
You can get information on how to download them here.
I thought it would be fun to set up a very little project for kids who have read the books. As those who have read them know, when Stuart, Brian and Violet are bored, they find fantastic adventuresby focusing all their curiosity and creativity on one particular regular, ordinary mystery of their everyday lives.
The question "Where did our lost video game controller go?" leads them to an alien invasion in their backyard.
The question "Why does time seem to move so slowly right before school ends?" leads them to a ghostly thief of time.
So since kids are sheltering at home right now, and are probably going through some moments of boredom, I though it could be fun if they could:
-Think of some ordinary mystery or question in their home-bound lives right now; and
-Think of some extraordinary, crazy, adventurous solution to that mystery, as often happens to the EMU Club.
LET ME KNOW! Email the responses to me at:
TheEMUClubAdventures@gmail.com
Email a simple typed message.
Or email a picture of a handwritten page. Maybe even with a picture too!
I'm not sure what I'll do with the responses, but I'd say there's a good chance Stuart, Brian or Violet will respond to each email.
The project ends on April 20, so get those responses in by then! 👊👽🏡👻🕰️
-Rb
April 06, 2020
ERASE COVID - BUY PRINTS TO RAISE MONEY
ERASE COVID - ARTISTS GIVE BACK
I've joined Erase COVID to have prints of two of my comics available for purchase to raise money for coronavirus-related causes.
You can see the comics and how to purchase them as prints here.
A better look at the comics here and here.
-
Profits will be split evenly between the artist, the printer, and the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
And I'm donating 100% of my share of these profits to the Food Bank for New York City.
(To be clear, 100% of all money I receive from this will be donated.)
Thanks,
Rb
April 01, 2020
FREE BOOK: THE EMU CLUB ADVENTURES - GHOSTLY THIEF OF TIME
In support of quarantined families with kids, I'm now making my second EMU Club Adventures book, Ghostly Thief of Time, available for free.
You can download the pdf of Ghostly Thief of Time at THIS LINK for free. Gratis. No charge. On the house.
You can also get the first book, Alien Invasion in My Backyard for free at THIS LINK.
I hope you guys are enjoying the series. Next week, for kids who finished both books, I'm going to announce a little project that they can do.
What better time to exercise your imagination?
Stay well and stay kind, everybody.
--
ABOUT THE EMU CLUB ADVENTURES:
Stuart Tennemeier, his best friend Brian Hrzincz, and his sister Violet want to start a mystery club like the ones they read about in books, but they have no idea how to even find a mystery in their suburban neighborhood.
They settle on trying to solve a mundane mystery from their lives – what happened to the game controller they lost – and they find that when you look really, really closely at your world, you can find absolutely amazing things. And maybe even save the world.
The EMU Club Adventures series, for kids aged 7-10 (and adventurous, curious spirits of all ages), is by cartoonist Ruben Bolling, the author of the award-winning comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug.
"Ruben Bolling is one of my cartooning heroes, and The EMU Club Adventures is seriously, mysteriously funny!" - Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
"There's no mystery—the EMU Club is a hit! This is a fun, funny adventure that kids will love to read." —Lincoln Peirce, Big Nate
"The EMU Club inhabits exactly the world I always hoped to live in when I was 12, when the answer to questions like 'Where did I put my toy' led inevitably to alien conspiracies and secret underground tunnels. A book for the curious and adventurous!" - Cory Doctorow
"The funniest book about unbelievable kid mystery exploring I've ever read. The only real mystery is why you aren't reading this book RIGHT NOW!" -Elliott Kalan
March 26, 2020
FREE BOOK: THE EMU CLUB ADVENTURES - ALIEN INVASION IN MY BACKYARD
I can only imagine how hard it must be to be quarantined / sheltered / home isolated / whatever-it's-called with high-energy, bored kids, so I thought I'd contribute something that might help in some tiny way.
I'm offering a FREE download of the first book in my EMU Club Adventures series, Alien Invasion in My Backyard, for anyone who wants it.
Free. No charge.
You can download the pdf of the book at THIS LINK.
At the linked Dropbox page, 👆simply click on this icon, and the pdf will download to your computer. You can then even put it on your kindle or other reader by following that reader's instructions for uploading pdfs.
I hope your kids enjoy it. Maybe you will too.
In a week, I'm going to provide a link to download the second book, Ghostly Thief of Time. Also for free.
These are scary times for everyone. I hope these bookshelp some people get through it just a bit better.
Rb
--
"Ruben Bolling is one of my cartooning heroes, and The EMU Club Adventures is seriously, mysteriously funny!"
- Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
February 18, 2020
ORDER THE TOM THE DANCING BUG SUPER FUN BOOK PACKAGE
You can order BOTH books directly from me: The Tom the Dancing Bug Super Fun Book Package.
You get:
-> a copy of Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse, signed/sketched/dated by me, personalized if requested
-> a copy of The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader, signed/sketched/dated by me, personalized if requested
-> two signed Tom the Dancing Bug / Super-Fun-Pak Comix bookmarks
-> an EXCLUSIVE pdf booklet of "artist's materials," presenting notes, scripts, sketches, pencils and inks for selected comics from both books.
ORDER DEADLINE IS JUNE 30, 2020
Publication date is August 15, 2020, and Packages will be sent out rather shortly thereafter.
$89.99
Order below. 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.
U.S. deliveries only please. Includes Media Mail postage.
For deliveries to other locations, please contact teamdancingbug at gmail dot com
November 23, 2019
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS YOU CAN JOIN THE INNER HIVE
⇒ You can give a 2020 GIFT MEMBERSHIP to a loved one/liked one! It starts the minute you sign up, and lasts through the end of 2020.
SIGN SOMEONE UP FOR AN INNER HIVE GIFT MEMBERSHIP HERE.
⇒ You can join through Patreon, where you pay per month, and there are different levels of membership.
SIGN UP FOR YOUR OWN INNER HIVE MEMBERSHIP THROUGH PATREON HERE.
⇒ You can join through CampaignZee / MailChimp, where you pay per six months.
SIGN UP FOR YOUR OWN INNER HIVE MEMBERSHIP THROUGH CAMPAIGNZEE HERE.
⇒ Or you can pre-pay a two-year membership, no recurring payments at all.
SIGN UP FOR YOUR OWN PRE-PAID TWO-YEAR INNER HIVE MEMBERSHIP HERE.
However you sign up, members get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at least a day before it appears anywhere on the web, along with exclusive commentary, inside peeks, info, jokes, riddles, palindromes and whatever else I can fit in each email.
THANK YOU for reading this.