We demand some books get burned!

Nov 19, 2021

This week’s comic is takes place in Chagrin Falls, USA: “Fahrenheit 45!”

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.

Here’s a dispiriting, but unsurprising tidbit I just noticed:

Most of the readers of this Newsletter are subscribers, but I also post a link on social media, and I believe that the amount of people who click on that link accounts for almost all variability in each Newsletter’s total readers.

The link grabs the Newsletter’s top image and places it in the social media post. And here’s the thing: links with photos of angry people have generally enticed more readers than other type of image, such as outtakes from my own comics. A disproportionate number of the Newsletter’s “Top Posts” feature pictures of angry people, regardless of the Newsletters’ content.

Breaking news: Anger sells.

I chose this week’s photo (pretty relevant to this week’s comic) as an experiment. Let’s see how it does…

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If you don’t want to your readership of this Newsletter to be dependent on your seeing a photo of an angry person in your social media feed, why not simply subscribe, below:

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This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is “The Truth About Elian” (from 2000).

On the request of, and with thanks to, Inner Hive member Shane, who helps make Tom the Dancing Bug possible.

And there was no room in last week’s Newsletter for that week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug, so here is “Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Day in Trump’s America” (from 2020).

On the request of, and with thanks to, Inner Hive member Maria in Seattle, who helps make Tom the Dancing Bug possible.

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I’m also playing catchup on the comics featured on the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page, so here are the next two, both from 2010.

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And/or give an Inner Hive membership as a GIFT to a loved or liked one!

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The angle of this picture makes Otis look like he has a giant head, or even that he’s a giant (look at him and the lamppost), but at least he’s not angry.

He’s very serene amongst the fall foliage, but who would click on a link with this photo??

*“How about a movie: Otis the Big Black Dog”*

Yours Indeed,

Share this with an angry friend, with the button below.

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Two new Tom the Dancing Bug books are coming out! Order your copies today.

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” at this link), and you’ll also get this exclusive pdf booklet with “Artist’s” materials, and these authenticated bookmarks.

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My most active social media presence, by far, is on Twitter.

I am also on (mostly just posting comics): Facebook and Instagram.

My email address is tomdbug@gmail.com

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*VERY!!!!