Greetings one and all.
This week’s comic is “THE N-WORD IS BACK!”
You can see it at the links below.
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.
Read this week’s Tom the Dancing Bug on The Contrarian HERE.
Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including longtime member Don Zwart from Melbourne and new member Frank.
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Next week, Inner Hive members will get Part 2 of the Thrilling and True Story of the Harvey Richards: Lawyer for Children movie, starring Stephen Colbert, that was almost but never made.
I hope to see you on the other side of the wall!
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This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is The Education of Louis: They Call Me Flash (from 2015).
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And the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has recently featured comics from this installment, from 2019.
I think that “No Gays in This Comic for Kids” comic may seem even more inscrutable than normal for SFPC. It was in reference to a controversy at the time: In an episode of the children’s TV show “Arthur,” Arthur’s male teacher marries another man. Apparently, people were outraged that children were being introduced to the fact that some people love people of the same gender. I think many such people think that concept necessarily introduces young children to the mechanics of gay sex. Yet of course heterosexual marriage doesn’t make children confront heterosexual sex.
The Aspen Times canceled Tom the Dancing Bug after this comic ran. I got this in an email from my editor.
“PS. The editor in Aspen canceled today … because she doesn’t want an anti-gay cartoon in her paper, given the liberal readership. I’ve pointed out that she misread the cartoon, and sales is trying to save the sale.”
I guess the editor thought the comic was not satirical, but was genuinely expressing a belief that children should know that the trusted adults in their lives only put penises into vaginas.
The sale was not saved.
The SFPC page also recently featured comics from this installment, also from 2019.
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I’m now occasionally writing posts for Boing Boing. Here is an item I wrote recently:
If publicly disagreeing with the policies of Israel can be deemed "an activity in support of Hamas" and grounds for abduction, then the United States has truly become a police state with no freedom of speech.
This would have been terrifying and un-American enough if she had simply been told that her visa was being revoked for her criticism of Israel and she had to return to Turkey.
But she was abducted off the street by masked goons and taken to prison, denying her all freedom, including even the freedom to comply and return to Turkey.
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On that horrible note, I’ll leave you to your thoughts.
Be careful, everyone. And be brave.
Rb
If you live in Wisconsin, VOTE next week.. or right now! If you’ve already voted, come to my apartment in NYC Sunday evening, and I’ll give you two random vistors a check for $6.10 and an “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug” bookmark. It’s illegal to offer that, so I’ll probably go to Gitmo, while Elon Musk, who is illegally going to give million dollar checks to two people who voted, will get promoted to Supreme Kommandant of Vote Rigging.
And the Global Day of Protest against Musk and Tesla is tomorrow, Saturday, March 29. Info here.
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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;
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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 2024 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual pdf, containing every comic from the 2024, is available here.
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Confuse your friends. Perplex your neighbors. Confound yourself. Various colors, styles, sizes available.
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In case you are interested:
Here is the official Tom the Dancing Bug webpage: tomthedancingbug.com
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The Tom the Dancing Bug Review. Copyright 2025 Ruben Bolling.