Tom The Dancing Bug Blog

Once again, Tom the Dancing Bug: One step ahead of the news

More evidence for the Tom the Dancing Bug theory on the death of Hitler?

American researchers claim to have demonstrated that the skull fragment, secretly preserved for decades by Soviet intelligence, belonged to a woman under 40, whose identity is unknown. DNA analyses performed on the bone, now held by the Russian State Archive in Moscow, have been processed at the genetics lab of the University of Connecticut. The results, broadcast in the US by a History Channel documentary, Hitler's Escape, astonished scientists.

Okay, I guess I'm doing this...

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This week's comic

Hollingsworth Hound in "To Catch a Banker".

MoCCA notes

A couple of other notes about things of note at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art :

Tomorrow!!  The Art of (my hero) Harvey Kurtzman:  The MAD Genius of Comics.

And now showing at the gallery (joining the David Mazzucchelli show), art from Peter Kuper's new book, Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico.

Re the Watterson book interview...

Jacob Haller comments on the Facebook page:  "It's nice of you to take the time to promote less popular comic book authors like Watterson."

Kinda guy I am.

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

On Thursday, October 22, I'll be at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, interviewing Nevin Martell, the author of the new book Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, about the life and art of "Calvin and Hobbes" creator Bill Watterson.

Bill Watterson is not only one of the greatest cartoonists who ever lived, he is one of the most popular and successful creators of popular art of the 20th century.  Yet because he is extremely private, and he has refused all merchandising/licensing exploitations of the strip, he is almost totally out of the public eye (except for his obsessively updated tweets -- Okay, Bill, you don't like the new, "improved" Frosted Shredded Wheat!  We get it!).  So this is a great and rare opportunity to hear from someone who has studied the man and his art.

And Bill, if you're reading this, and you'd like to come by and join the conversation, please know you'll be welcome.  I can promise you a free donut, and rest assured that MoCCA has and always will be a bootleg-Calvin-peeing-merchandise-free facility.

The deets:

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, 7 p.m.
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, Suite 401 
(btwn. Houston and Prince) 
New York, NY 10012
Tel. 212-254-3511
check back and confirm event at:  http://moccany.com/
Admission: $5 | Free for MoCCA Members

This week's comic...

Hitler's Final Option!

Absolutely Essential!

I just received a copy of "Star Wars:  The Essential Atlas," the winning product in the Tom the Dancing Bug Product Placement Auction, courtesy of one of its authors, Dan Wallace.  And, wow, what a product it is.  If you were lost in the The Hapes Cluster, you could actually find your way back to Tatooine, with a stop on Ithor for some botanicals.  And there is actually a planet called Seoul, in the outskirts of the Rakata Empire (c. 30,000 to 25,200 BBY).  Could that be  where Kim Jong-il is originally from?

My son, in particular, loves it.

In a related note, here's a quick reminder about the TtDB Wish List/Tip Jar -- if you participate and follow the instructions, you'll probably get a signed sketch, and everyone seems to have been very happy with the deal.

Tom the Dancing Bug-Killer

God, Man and God-Man.

There's a very interesting and surprisingly thoughtful discussion of the latest God-Man comic going on in the Salon.com comments section.  Click here to view.

By the way, the parallel between the Silver Wombat and the Golden Calf was intentional.  Sort of.  When I decided to have one of the God-Man's colleagues from the Super-Justice Team be his "competitor" for the friendship of Billy, I looked up the old comic in which these other superheroes were introduced, and found the Silver Wombat -- which I recognized as perfect for that reason.  I'm telling you, sometimes these God-Man comics seem to write themselves... Spooky.