🌞 A.I. detention
Put it on ICE
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The Tom the Dancing Bug Review
Hello, carbon and silicon entities.
Well, the Supreme Court handed Trump a major and very rare defeat today, confirming what we already knew: The wide-ranging tariffs that Trump imposed are illegal. Congress has the power to impose tariffs by law, and the narrow exception Congress made for a president to impose certain tariffs in an emergency doesn’t apply.
Could this be part of a new trend of Trump’s allies becoming less afraid of crossing him, and starting to break ranks? Don’t hold your breath. (But maybe secretly cross your fingers.)
Companies are already positioning themselves to claim they should be returned the illegal tariffs they’ve already paid. And they should be, but only if they then agree distribute the money to the consumers they raised their prices on. (They will and can not.)
In this week’s comic, News of the Times presents the story: Researchers Declare A.I. Model Conscious; ICE Immediately Seizes and Detains It. 👇
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on GoComics HERE.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on Boing Boing HERE.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on Daily Kos HERE.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on The Contrarian HERE.
It’s a thinker.
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This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is “One Day at the Political Science Institute” (from 2018).
Totally irrelevant to today’s political landscape.
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And the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has recently featured comics from this installment (from 1999).
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I’m now occasionally writing posts for Boing Boing. Here are a couple of the items I wrote recently:
From punk rocker to poster king: Mike King’s 5-decade journey
“Justice For All”: The unsold 1968 pilot that became “All in the Family”
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That’s it for this week, friends. More ways to Tom the Dancing Bug can be found below.
Until next,
I remain,
Yours indeed,
Rb
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The Complete TOM THE DANCING BUG Library!
Eight essential trade paperback volumes compiling the COMPLETE Tom the Dancing Bug ouvre!
Volume 1, Tom the Dancing Bug: Secret Origins (1990-1994), Kickstarted for 2026 (closed)
Volume 2, Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘n’ Roll (1995-1998), Kickstarted for 2026 (closed)
Volume 3, On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug (1999-2002), published June 2023
Volume 4, Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics (2003-2006), published October 2022.
Volume 5, Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor (2007-2011), published June 2022.
Volume 6, Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens (2012-2015), published December 2021.
Volume 7, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse (2016-2019), published August 2020.
Volume 8, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!” (2020-2023), published July 2024
Clover Press’s promotional copy for the last volume, Volume 8: “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!”:
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!”
Buy your SIGNED/SKETCHED/SWAGGED copy of It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug, 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
The 2025 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual PDF, containing every comic from 2025, is available here.
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Confuse your friends. Perplex your neighbors. Confound yourself. Various colors, styles, sizes available.
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The Tom the Dancing Bug Review. Copyright 2026 Ruben Bolling.