Ruben Bolling started �Tom the Dancing Bug� while a student at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1987. He launched the strip professionally in a small New York City newspaper in 1990 and was self-syndicated until Universal Press Syndicate signed it up in June 1997.
�Tom the Dancing Bug�s� client list includes a diverse array of newspapers, representing the breadth of contemporary journalism. Not only does �Tom the Dancing Bug� appear in some of best alternative newspapers, such as The Dallas Observer and The Village Voice, but also some of the nation's most prestigious daily newspapers, such as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. And �Tom the Dancing Bug� appears every week in Salon, an acclaimed electronic Web magazine.
A unique hybrid of editorial and comic strip cartooning, �Tom the Dancing Bug� tackles a wide range of subject matter, including political and social commentary. The cartoon has won critical raves -- Rolling Stone magazine named it �Hot Comic Strip of the Year,� and Details magazine called it �a rarity among alternative weekly comic strips: well-drawn, laugh-out-loud funny.� �Tom the Dancing Bug� won the Association of Alternative Newspapers Award for Best Cartoon in alternative newspapers in both 2002 and 2003. Ruben Bolling is also the author of three �Tom the Dancing Bug� compilation books: �Thrilling Tom the Dancing Bug Stories� (Andrews McMeel, 2004), �All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From My Golf-Playing Cats� (NBM Publishing, 1997), and �Tom the Dancing Bug� (HarperCollins Publishers, 1992). Bolling lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
