Venezuela mischief
A Calvinesque and Hobbesian invasion
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Hello, friends.
This week’s comic is a Calvinesque and Hobbesian look at an invasion of Venezuela.
It’s another adventure of Little Donald, the boy president, and John, his imaginary publicist.
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Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including longtime member G.L. Waters and new member Laura Testa-Reyes.
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This week’s comic made something of a splash, and I decided to break protocol and publish it right here (as opposed to only providing links to valued Tom the Dancing Bug publishing clients, which is the usual policy for the Review.)
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This week’s Classic Tom the Dancing Bug (published on GoComics yesterday) is “ILLEGALS POST PUBLIC SAFETY THREAT” (from 2017).
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And the GoComics Super-Fun-Pak Comix page has recently featured comics from this installment (from 1998).
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I’m now occasionally writing posts for Boing Boing. Here are a few of the items I wrote recently:
Where are the pardoned January 6ers now? How many have been charged with child sex crimes?
When the Beatles admitted to drugging their engineer and producer
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We’ve had a decade’s worth of horrifying news in 2026, and we’re just over a week in. My heart breaks for Renee Good and her family. It’s incredible that one horrible, sick man can unleash so much evil and destruction.
Stay strong, friends.
Yours Very Indeed,
Rb
One of many, many ways to help would be to support Democracy Defenders Action, Norm Eisen’s group that has made real progress “defending the rule of law, fighting corruption, and protecting elections.”
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The Complete TOM THE DANCING BUG Library!
Eight essential trade paperback volumes compiling the COMPLETE Tom the Dancing Bug ouvre!
Volume 1, Tom the Dancing Bug: Secret Origins (1990-1994), Kickstarted for 2026 (closed)
Volume 2, Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘n’ Roll (1995-1998), Kickstarted for 2026 (closed)
Volume 3, On the Trail of Tom the Dancing Bug (1999-2002), published June 2023
Volume 4, Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics (2003-2006), published October 2022.
Volume 5, Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor (2007-2011), published June 2022.
Volume 6, Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens (2012-2015), published December 2021.
Volume 7, Tom the Dancing Bug: Into the Trumpverse (2016-2019), published August 2020.
Volume 8, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!” (2020-2023), published July 2024
Clover Press’s promotional copy for the last volume, Volume 8: “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!”:
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;
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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
The 2025 Tom the Dancing Bug Annual PDF, containing every comic from 2025, is available 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 Tom the Dancing Bug Review. Copyright 2026 Ruben Bolling.