Celebrity reproduction

and other hazards of modern times

Apr 05, 2024

Welcome to the Tom the Dancing Bug Review.

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Hey there, everyone.

This week’s comic is “LAW & ORDER: VICTIMLESS CRIME UNIT.”

Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on GoComics HERE.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on BoingBoing HERE.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on DailyKos HERE.

Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including longtime member Chris Vanette and new member KCM.

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Signed, numbered prints of the comic “Generation Gaps”

I'm offering signed prints of last year's comic (The #1 Tom the Dancing Bug comic of the year), "Generation Gaps."

I'm selling up to 20 prints of the comic, which will be signed (personalized, if requested), dated and numbered A1/20 to A20/20. The posters will be 9 inches by 12 inches. I'm selling them for $99 plus $10 s/h.

(Note: I can't limit quantities on PayPal, so I'll shut the link down when/if 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 right away.)

I did a similar print sale for the comic “Liberals Are Always Right” in February, but when I announced the sale to the Inner Hive on a Tuesday afternoon, they were sold out by Wednesday morning, so I wasn’t able to offer it here on Friday’s Tom the Dancing Bug Review.

I started this sale late Wednesday afternoon with an announcement to the Inner Hive, to give members an exclusive chance at it before offering it publicly. But Thursday morning, after the Inner Hive had a fair chance, I suspended sales while there were still just a few left so that I can give Tom the Dancing Bug Review newsletter subscribers a chance to be notified and purchase.

Bottom line: Just a few left, so if interested, “act fast.”

Here is the link to purchase a print.

Apologies to my valued and esteemed non-U.S. readers, this is only offered to U.S. addresses because of prohibitive international shipping costs.

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This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is “DID YOU KNOW: FUN FACTS ABOUT EVOLUTION” (from 2001).

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And the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has recently featured comics from this installment (from 2009).

That first SFPC may look even more puzzling than most SFPCx. I had done a little stunt auctioning off a product placement in my comic. The July 14, 2009 blog posting:

PRODUCT PLACEMENT AUCTION
Attention Advertisers, Marketers and Promoters of All Types:
Imagine your product featured in an authentic “alternative” comic strip that is read by the most desirable demographics: educated young professionals; sophisticated internet users; upwardly mobile newspaper readers; and discerning australopithecine enthusiasts.
Your product will be featured not in an ad, to which these groups are notoriously resistant, but within the artistic framework of the comic strip itself!
The fantastically popular “Tom the Dancing Bug” comic strip is auctioning off a product placement. The highest bidder will have the product of its choice unobtrusively yet noticeably placed in an upcoming “Super-Fun-Pak Comix” installment of the comic strip.
Participants may place their bids by emailing the following information to tomdbug@gmail.com : Name, E-mail address, Corporation or Business Concern, Product, and Bid (in US dollars). Upon conclusion of the Auction, the winner will be notified by e-mail, and must make payment, by Paypal, within 24 hours.
Quaternary Features reserves the right to reject any bid that it, in its sole and absolute discretion, determines to be unsuitable for any reason, including but not limited to concerns of propriety and good taste. The winner shall be determined by Quaternary Features in its sole and absolute discretion. The manner in which the winning product is pictured, named or otherwise referred to in the comic strip shall be determined in the sole and absolute discretion of Quaternary Features. Proceeds will be donated by Quaternary Features to The Committee To Protect Journalists.
Bidding starts now.

The winner was an author of a book, Keeping Faith with the Constitution. And then another bidder matched the winner bid just after the buzzer, but I allowed it, for the sake of the good cause of the charity: an author of Star Wars: The Essential Atlas.

So both winning products were books.

And 15 years later, the books are still in print, and still getting the Tom the Dancing Bug Bump. Don’t tell me people who do business with me don’t get their money’s worth.

The proceeds were donated to The Committee to Protect Journalists.

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That’s it for this week. See you next.

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The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program continues with its brandest newest book:

Volume 3 - On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug!!

ORDERS NOW BEING ACCEPTED!

ORDERS FOR PERSONALIZED, SIGNED, AND SKETCHED-IN BOOKS ARE BEING SENT OUT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN RECEIVED EVEN AS WE SPEAK!

TOM THE DANCING BUG: ALL-MIGHTY COMICS, VOLUME 3 IN THE COMPLETE TOM THE DANCING BUG -- 1999-2002. Clover Press’s Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program strides confidently ahead with the third chronological volume, covering every installment of the comic strip, a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist, from 1999-2002.
This volume not only includes the comic strip’s favorite formats and characters, such as Super-Fun-Pak Comix, God-Man, the Omnipotent Superhero, Charley the Australopithecine, and its cover character Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer, it also includes the strip’s famed and award-winning urgent turn into political satire following 9/11. Also in the volume is Ruben Bolling’s brief run of monthly full-page comics for The New Yorker, and a special comic for The Village Voice on the 2000 Subway World Series.
Tom the Dancing Bug is the wildly popular, groundbreaking comic strip that Mark Hamill called “wondrous, whimsical, and witty,” and that led Seth Meyers to recently write, “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!”

Ordering your Signed/Sketched copy of ON THE TRAIL OF TOM THE DANCING BUG here.

Order a Signed/Sketched copy of On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug directly from me at the link above, and I’ll sign the book and draw an illustration in it.

AND you will get an authenticated bookmark with your copy of On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug. PLUS you will get a special sticker with your purchase of On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug!

And/or purchase a SIGNED BOOK COMBO DEAL, the perfect gift in this gift-giving season

Just in time for the holiday season, you can purchase a SIGNED BOOK COMBO DEAL from me, most of which are two-book packages from the Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program, for not-far-from cover price.

I won’t be drawing an illustration in the books at these rock-bottom prices, but I will sign your books, and you'll still get each book's corresponding bookmark and sticker, if available.

And you never know... I might just draw a tiny little something in it anyway, as long as I'm signing it and I've got a pen in my hand.

View all the SIGNED BOOK COMBO DEALS here!

The Tom the Dancing Bug shop at Threadless is growing.

Confuse your friends. Perplex your neighbors. Confound yourself. Various colors, styles, sizes available.

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The 2023 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual

You can now purchase The 2023 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual, a pdf booklet containing every Tom the Dancing Bug comic of the year, plus commentary.

Info here.

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In case you are interested:

Here is the official Tom the Dancing Bug webpage: tomthedancingbug.com

You can join me on:

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I’m still on Twitter, but mostly just to burn down my account
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