Tom the Dancing Bug
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Tom the Dancing Bug is a weekly comic strip by Ruben Bolling which presents critical commentary on modern life, current events, and conventional wisdom and cliches. (There are no bugs or dancing involved and there are no characters named Tom.) The strip is carried in both mainstream and "alternative" papers, as well as on Salon.com. The strip frequently includes sociopolitical satire, often critical of the political establishment.
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Recurring characters
Bob is the extremely average male. He sits at home drinking beer and watching scrambled porn on TV on the weekends, and tries to avoid doing chores and other household duties. During the week, he works in the cubicle by the elevator (http://archive.salon.com/comics/boll/2001/01/11/boll/). He pokes fun at our image-conscious society, especially "glamour" magazines and TV shows.
Louis Maltby is a smart, introverted, perhaps borderline-autistic kid with a major guilt complex. He's featured in segments like "Games Louis Plays" which describe how Louis looks at the world and "The Education of Louis" which show his confusion at the world around him. Louis is used to make social commentary by displaying how school and society treats him, and may be semi-autobiographical. He also sometimes appears in other segments when a kid is needed.
Charley is an australopithecine — a less-developed hominid from the pliocene epoch. He does not have some of the more advanced emotions of humans. He has a taste for grape soft drinks. It's unclear what he communicates.
Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer parodies the cliches used in boy adventurer stories. Billy is very similar in appearance to Tintin, a famous Belgian boy adventurer.
Sam Roland, the Detective Who Dies is a Sam Spade-esque noirish private detective, except that he always dies.
God-Man is the omnipotent, omniscient superhero. Placed in normal superhero situations, he fights villains like Dr. Moral Relativism and Blasphemy Boy to teach us something about theology, and to occasionally criticise organised religion. God-Man's "mundane identity" (when he does not want to attract suspicion) is Milton Baxter. God-man occasionally solves problems by re-creating the universe and organising the atoms so that the problem is prevented in the first place.
Judge Scalia is an extremist version of the US Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia used to criticize his Supreme Court opinions.
Lucky Ducky (purportedly from Wall Street Journal Comix) is a duck who despite being homeless, destitute, and working in a crummy job always manages to enrage his arch-nemesis, the very wealthy Hollingsworth Hound. He is used to demonstrate how taxes especially hurt the poor, and to demolish claims that they do not. (Strips (http://dir.salon.com/topics/ruben_bolling/?em=lucky+ducky)) Lucky Ducky first appeared after the Wall Street Journal editorialized against progressive tax policies, calling poor workers "lucky duckies" because they have a smaller federal income tax burden (see Lucky duckies).[1] (http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2002/12/21/duckies/index_np.html)
Harvey Richards Esq., Lawyer for Children is about a lawyer who works for children by using the standard children's tricks for getting out of things or getting people to do things ("My fingers were crossed!" "I called no crossies!"). The point is that lawyers act an awful lot like young children. The character has been optioned for a feature film by New Line Cinema, to be co-produced by Universal Press Syndicate's AMUSE division.
News of the Times and other unnamed segments poke fun at and re-conceptualize current events through analogy and comedy.
Did You Know? points out "Fun Facts" in all sorts of things, poking fun at statistic-and-tidbit-obsessed society. The cult of celebrity is also a frequent target, with subversive trivia such as Nicole Kidman had to work as a waitress before she became famous, and not a single person asked her for her autograph and claiming that the Universe has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Super-Fun-Pak Comics
These collections of smaller comic strips poke fun at comic strips. They also commonly make fun of New Yorker cartoons and settings, like two people sitting across a desk and husband and wife at home reading the paper. Typical mini-strips include:
Marital Mirth is an endless series of jokes about two married people who really hate each other and always have sex with other people, presumably making fun of married-people-hating-each-other jokes. It's supposedly drawn by bitter Rex Feinstein (http://archive.salon.com/comics/boll/1998/08/27boll.html). Apparently it's a parody of The Lockhorns.
Uncle Cap'n is an old lazy pirate who swears and makes you do his work for him.
Selfish Gene is about a boy named Gene who only acts in ways that help him evolve. This is apparently a reference to Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene.
Doug is a bunny who refuses to do much of anything.
Classix Comix/Comix Playhouse is an extremely shortened comic form of famous plays and novels. This is apparently a reference to Classics Illustrated, a series that provided classic books in shortened comic form.
Elevator Ride of the Damned is dreadful elevator conversation in comic form.
Stock Sitcom Gags Presented in Comic Form is just what you'd expect.
Comics for the Eldery (formerly "Hey, Old People! Comics!") shows old people giving ornery advice to young people and the young people quickly accepting it.
Funny, Funny Celebs shows celebrities saying inane things to parody of the respect we give to celebrities and actors.
Chaos Butterfly parodies the butterfly effect.
History
Bolling told Salon.com:
- I started "Tom the Dancing Bug" in 1990 in a small New York newspaper. It was called New York Perspectives, then it was called New York Weekly, then it was called "bankrupt." But before it went bankrupt, I was able to sell the strip to a few other papers. For seven years, I was sending packages out and following up with phone calls, trying to get editors to run the strip. I ended up selling it to about 60 newspapers [under the name Quaternary Features]. I was surprised at the success I had, especially in selling to daily newspapers. I didn't think it would be my market.
- In 1997, the Universal Press Syndicate approached me and asked if we could work together. That came at just the right time, as I was starting a more serious day job, and I was about to have my first baby. I just didn't have the time and energy to devote to the selling of the strip. I decided that whatever job they did would be better than whatever I could put forth at that time. [2] (http://www.salon.com/books/int/2005/01/14/bolling/index1.html)
Books
Three book-form collections have been published:
- 1992: Tom the Dancing Bug ISBN 0060969490
- 1997: All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From My Golf-Playing Cats ISBN 1561631833
- 2004: Thrilling Tom the Dancing Bug Stories (oversized treasury) ISBN 0740747371
Awards
Best Cartoon from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies: finalist in 2001, First Place in 2002 and 2003, nominated in 2004.
Quotes
- "One of the few comic strips I can read at this point in my life and still be reminded why I loved comics in the first place." - Tom Tomorrow [3] (http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_12_12.html#001944)
- "Consistently funny, pointed without being dogmatic, and takes on subjects that no one else does ... an oasis of keen intelligence in the comics page." - Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award judges, 2003
External links
- Tom the Dancing Bug (http://www.ucomics.com/tomthedancingbug/) comic strips at UComics.com
- Tom the Dancing Bug blog (http://www.ucomics.com/tomthedancingbugblog/)
- News and commentary on the strip from the author (http://www.ucomics.com/tomthedancingbug/bio.phtml)
- A free index of all comics (http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/tddbArchive)
- Latest strips (http://dir.salon.com/topics/ruben_bolling/index.html) (requires paid subscription for Salon.com or viewing an animated advertisement)