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Hello, friends.
In this week’s comic, “persons” and best buddies Unnamed Blastocyst & Nerrex, Inc. exercise their many Constitutional Rights!
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.
What were the odds that my comic for this week, drawn on Monday and mostly about Roe v. Wade, would happen to end on a reference to our country’s obsession with guns and a mythical Second Amendment right for anyone to own and use them?
Pretty good; it’s been a theme of the comic for 32 years.
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What is there to say about Tuesday’s unmitigated horror in Texas? It’s beyond depressing, not only for the devastating event, but also for the near certainty that the only solution to the problem will never happen.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, there was some optimism that perhaps this time there would be enough public outcry and political will to get something done. I was approached by the predecessor organization to Everytown for Gun Safety to help put together a video of cartoonists demanding gun reform.
This video came out in 2013, and while it was of course the tiniest drop in the bucket of the swell of public support for action, I’m proud of it, and grateful to everyone who participated. Makes me cry every time.
Spoiler Alert: The country collectively and definitively decided that mass school shootings are a price we are willing to pay for unfettered private access to high-powered firearms.
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And of course I’ve done millions of comics on the issue, which I’ve been compulsively, angrily, and annoyingly posting on Twitter over the past few days. This one is a particular favorite of mine, from 2015. Believe it or not, I also get choked up when I read this. Penelope is my character.
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Okay, this week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is an installment of Super-Fun-Pak comix from 2007 that features the first Epic/Brutal Report.
On the request of, and with thanks to, epic Inner Hive member Mike S, whose support helps make Tom the Dancing Bug possible.
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And this week the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has featured comics from this installment (from 2015).
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Sigh. More next week.
I’ll promise to try to stay positive if you will.
(And Happy Birthday, Katie!)
Stay well and stay safe,
Your Friend Indeed,
Rb
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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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Two Tom the Dancing Bug books! LAST CHANCE: The offer below (New Book Package and the other packages at the link) will expire when Volume 5 of The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug is released in June.
TOM THE DANCING BUG AWAKENS, VOLUME 6 IN THE COMPLETE TOM THE DANCING BUG -- 2012-2015. This volume covers the Obama years and the rise of Trump, and it includes the introduction of the feature Chagrin Falls and installments of many other Tom the Dancing Bug favorites, such as God-Man, Lucky Ducky, and Super-Fun-Pak Comix. It also includes other comics Ruben Bolling created during those years: a two-page New Yorker spread, and six daily installments of the comic strip Cul de Sac.
TOM THE DANCING BUG, WITHOUT THE BAD ONES: THE VERY, VERY, VERY* BEST OF TOM THE DANCING BUG, 1990-2021. 31 years in the making, this book collects the top, most popular, most talked-about, most important, most Tom-the-Dancing-Bug comics in Tom the Dancing Bug's history. Imagine the thrill of reading and owning the award-winning and award-losing comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug, distilled into one handsome tome containing only its scientifically determined very, very, VERY* best.
Ordering info here.
The back cover of Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens:
Order directly from me (with the “2021 New Book Package,” here’s the link again), and you’ll also get this exclusive pdf booklet with “Artist’s” materials, and these authenticated bookmarks. And I’ll sketch in the books and sign them, to you personally if you like.
Last chance: the offer of the 2021 New Book Package and the other packages at the link expires when Volume 5 of The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug is released in June.
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In case you are interested:
Here are various Tom the Dancing Bug links.
My most active social media presence, by far, is on Twitter.
I am also on (mostly just posting comics): Facebook and Instagram. And Mastadon. And Counter.Social.
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My email address is tomdbug at gmail dot com
The Tom the Dancing Bug Newsletter. Copyright 2022 Ruben Bolling.
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*VERY!!!!