Welcome to the Tom the Dancing Bug Review.
YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER. You’ll get an email like this once a week, with links to that week’s new comic, plus other comics. Free to subscribe, free to unsubscribe. No muss, no fuss.
To subscribe to the free Tom the Dancing Bug Review, hit the below button, and under “Choose a subscription plan,” choose “None/Free.”
By the way, to subscribe to the free Review AND join the Inner Hive, the paid subscription plan, you can choose one of the payment options at the button above. Inner Hive members get each week’s comic at least a day before publication, plus exclusive commentary and lots of other content.
You can subscribe to the Inner Hive right here on Substack, but you can also join on other platforms, which you can review HERE or at the button below. The basic Patreon Inner Hive plan is $3/month.
Won’t you join me for 2025? I know I’ll need all the friends I can get.
Hello, everyone! I hope you all had/are having the most wonderfullest holiday!
This week’s comic is God-Man, in “Paradoxer Solved!”
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.
—
The 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual!
The 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual pdf, containing every comic from the 2024, is available here.
The Top Ten Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2024
The Top Ten Tom the Dancing Bugs of 2024 Countdown continues, and today Number Five will be announced. And it will be:
Q-Nuts: “It’s Election Day, Charlie Brown,” from the week of October 14
You can follow along on the Tom the Dancing Bug blog, or on social media on Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, or right here on Substack’s Notes.
Note that the Inner Hive has already been shown the Top Three, and their vote has determined which of those will be crowned The #1 Tom the Dancing Bug of 2024, to be revealed to a breathless public on New Year’s Eve Day.
This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is Billy Dare, in “Weaponized Flashbacks” (from 2014).
—
And the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has recently featured comics from this these two installments from 2015.
-
—
I’m now occasionally writing posts for Boing Boing. Here are a few of the items I wrote recently:
The heroic mollusks that guard the water supply of an entire city
Conan O'Brien's parents pass away within three days of each other
When you listen to Spotify, are you listening to ghost musicians?
And because I couldn’t get it posted on Boing Boing in time for December 25, I posted on my own blog: An SNL classic: “Christmastime for the Jews”
—
Have a Happy New Year!
Info on how to Tom the Dancing Bug in 2025 is below.
Yours Indeed,
Rb
Feel free to share The Tom the Dancing Bug Review with your friends at this button.
Even better, refer your friends to the Tom the Dancing Bug Review to get “benefits”! (Info below.)
Give the gift of Tom the Dancing Bug
You can give a 2025 Gift Memberships to Tom the Dancing Bug's Inner Hive to a friend, loved one, or acquaintance!
From the moment you sign your gift recipient up (e.g., today?) and all the way through to the end of 2025, they'll be Inner Hive members, receiving the weekly lnner Hive Dispatches full of comics and other stuff and enjoying all benefits and privleges of membership.
Information on purchasing 2025 Gift Memberships to the Inner Hive is here.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR ORDER:
VOLUME 8 OF THE COMPLETE TOM THE DANCING BUG,
COLLECTING THE YEARS 2020-2023,
COVERING THE CRAZY 2020 ELECTION
AND THE INSANE AFTERMATH...
IT'S THE GREAT STORM, TOM THE DANCING BUG!
Clover Press's promotional copy for the book:
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
Subscribe to Tom the Dancing Bug’s INNER HIVE to get next week’s comic!
You’ve been reading the free Tom the Dancing Bug Review newsletter. And you can join the Inner Hive (a paid subscription) and get much more! Inner Hive members receive weekly emails containing:
👉each week’s brand new comic, at least a day before it’s published anywhere online! Inner Hive members got this week’s comic right in an email that was delivered to them, days ago!
👉exclusive commentary, sketches, bonus comics, contests, giveaways, sneak peeks, process pics, juicy gossip, member benefits, other stuff, etc., etc.
🙏 Please do join the Inner Hive, the community that makes Tom the Dancing Bug possible:
Join at Patreon, and get info about the Inner Hive HERE. The most popular way to subscribe. Base rate is $3/month.
Join at Mailchimp/CampaignZee HERE.
Join at Substack HERE. (sign up for one of the paid subscription options
If you want to avoid third party subscription services and recurring payments, you can even sign up HERE for a one-time pre-paid two-year membership, purchased directly from me.
Information from Substack about its Referral Program:
Thank you for reading The Tom the Dancing Bug Review.
If you enjoy The Tom the Dancing Bug Review, you can invite friends to subscribe and read it. If you refer friends, you will receive benefits that give you special access to The Tom the Dancing Bug Review.
How to participate
1. Share The Tom the Dancing Bug Review. When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new subscribers. Simply send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friends.
2. Earn benefits. When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive special benefits.
Get a 1 month comp for 6 referrals
Get a 3 month comp for 14 referrals
Get a 6 month comp for 35 referrals
To learn more, check out Substack’s FAQ.
Thank you for helping get the word out about The Tom the Dancing Bug Review!
The Tom the Dancing Bug shop at Threadless is growing.
Confuse your friends. Perplex your neighbors. Confound yourself. Various colors, styles, sizes available.
——————
—
—
In case you are interested:
Here is the official Tom the Dancing Bug webpage: tomthedancingbug.com
You can join me on:
Bluesky (@rubenbolling.bsky.social)
Threads (@rubenbolling)
Instagram (@rubenbolling)
Facebook (facebook.com/rubenbolling)
Mastodon (@rubenbolling@mastodon.social)
Substack’s Notes (@tomthedancingbug)
——————
——————
My email address is tomdbug at gmail dot com
The Tom the Dancing Bug Review. Copyright 2024 Ruben Bolling.