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. (Apparently 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.
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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. He's used to poke 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. 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 soda. It's unclear what he communicates.
Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer parodies the cliches used in boy adventurer stories by going totally off the rails.
Sam Roland, the Detective Who Dies is the Billy Dare of murder mysteries, except that he always dies.
God-Man is the omnipotent, omniscient superhero. Placed in normal superhero situations, he fights villains like moral relativism and blasphemy to teach us something about theology. God-Man's "mundane identity" (when he does not want to attract suspicion) is Milton Baxter.
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 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) 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.[1]
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.
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.
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 marriad-people-hating-each-other jokes. It's supposedly drawn by bitter Rex Feinstein. 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.
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 Comics, 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.
Two book-form collections have been published:
Best Cartoon from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies: finalist in 2001, First Place in 2002 and 2003.
Recurring Characters
Super Fun Pack Comics
Books
Awards
External links
