Tom the Dancing Bug
| Tom the Dancing Bug | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Ruben Bolling |
| Current status / schedule | Running |
| Launch date | June 1990 (on New York Perspectives) |
| Syndicate(s) |
Quaternary Features (1990–1997) Universal Press Syndicate (1997–present) |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Politics, Satire |
Tom the Dancing Bug is a weekly satirical comic strip by cartoonist and political commentator Ruben Bolling that covers mostly US current events from a liberal point of view. The strip appears in mainstream and alternative weekly newspapers, as well as on the Boing Boing website. Tom the Dancing Bug won the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards for Best Cartoon. In 2011, the strip was awarded the Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning by the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2017, Bolling won the Herblock Prize for his work on the strip.
Tom The Dancing Bug has no real narrative continuity. The title itself is a dadaist non-sequitur, as there is no character called "Tom The Dancing Bug" ever seen or referred to in the strip.
Some individual strips are one-shot "stand-alone" presentations, but certain recurring features within the strip are seen regularly on a rotating basis. One of the most popular recurring segments, "Super-Fun-Pak Comix", appears roughly once every month or two, and is dealt with in a separate entry, below. Other features currently seen on a fairly frequent basis include:
Other segments have appeared regularly in the past. While none of these features have been seen since 2011, they may recur again at any time:
A recurring feature, Super Fun-Pak Comix consists of four to six smaller strips, grouped together. These collections of smaller comic strips poke fun at the typical conventions and clichés of modern comic strips. For example, they commonly make fun of stereotypical New Yorker cartoon settings, such as two people sitting across a desk or a husband and wife at home reading the paper. Individual comics can also be based around peculiar or bizarre concepts, like 'Funny Only to Six-year-olds' or 'Comic Designed to Fit Vertical Spaces'. Many Fun-Pak strips are one-offs, but there are also numerous recurring strips, and occasionally, some Fun-Pak space is taken up by a fake ad for unlikely products. As well, some recurring long-form Tom The Dancing Bug comics occasionally make Fun-Pak appearances in a shorter format, and a few recurring Fun-Pak characters (Percival Dunwoody, Dinkle) have made appearances in a long-form strip.
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