 One of the best compliments you could receive as a cartoonist, besides being showered with millions of dollars, is being called original. Take it from me; I'm an unoriginal cartoon hack myself. But Ruben Bolling is an original, in spades. Take some of these premises from Tom the Dancing Bug, a weekly cartoon that appear in some of best alternative newspapers, such as The Dallas Observer and The Village Voice, as well as daily newspapers, such as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times: God-man, the superhero with omnipotent powers; Charley, the australopithecine, an ancient ancestor to humans who lives in modern times; or Harvey Richards Esq., Lawyer for Children, who has the balls to respond to a judge with "liar, liar, pants on fire!" These characters reside in the hilarious alternative universe of Tom the Dancing Bug.
According to Universal Press Syndicate, "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 ... 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."
Recently, I've seen some mentions on the web about a Harvey Richards movie. Universal Press Syndicate has even released a press release. But according to Ruben (see below), that is still in the works. It surprises me that it has taken Hollywood this long to recognize the talent and originality of the premises in Tom the Dancing Bug. With the popularity of farcical movies like Ace Ventura, Undercover Brother, and Austin Powers, I figured one of Bolling's creations would have graced the silver screen by now. Or maybe Bolling has denied the seduction of Hollywood until recently, waiting for the money train to roll in so he can receive the trickle-down like Lucky Ducky. It's all a mystery, for sure.
Ruben took some time out of his insanely busy schedule to answer our 20 Questions. Read what he had to say:
Q: Who would win in a fistfight: God-man or Superman?
- Superman. He's the hotter media property.
Q: Is there any professional advice you received that was actually worth anything?
- To be absolutely tenacious. I followed that when I first started, and it served me well, but haven't recently.
Q: Cartoonists like Derf and Berke Breathed have chastised newspapers for marginalizing comics, decreasing their size and losing out to ad space. Do you feel this is true?
- Yeah, the days of the full-page comic, and comics on the front page of the New York Times are gone.
Q: What's the biggest misconception people have about you?
- That it's in my interest to correct misconceptions.
Q: If your life were turned into a movie, which actor would play you?
- Only Brad Pitt has the abs to pull it off. But I doubt he has the chops for the wrenching emotional scenes of me watching Mets games.
Q: Did you get into cartooning for: a) the money b) the chicks or c) the fame?
- If cartooning actually had any chance of leading to those things, someone more talented than me would have taken my spot.
Q: Philosophy to live by?
- "Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?"
Q: Do you think the internet will help or harm comics as we know them?
- It will help them for a while, until people finally refuse to read them and will watch only animated cartoons.
Q: If Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children, and Lionel Hutz, AKA Miguel Sánchez, from The Simpsons faced-off in court, who would prevail?
- Harvey would make Lionel run home to his mommy.
Q: What did you have for lunch?
- My favorite, a rice and bean burrito.
Q: Do you like to listen to music or the television while you create your cartoons?
- I do better work if I pencil to music instead of TV (inking isn't affected), but I've been watching too much TV lately.
Q: You’ve been in discussion panels about keeping your day job? How do your coworkers feel about your cartooning side work?
Q: How involved were you with the Harvey Richards movie?
- There is no Harvey Richards movie yet. It's still being written, and we're hoping to move forward. So far, my involvement has been as a consultant and pretend-producer.
Q: What inspires you?
- Really good humor. Reading or seeing something I think is great and hilarious can put me in a mood to write and draw a comic that has nothing to do with what inspired it except that it made me aspire to do something as good.
Q: What will civilization think of Tom the Dancing Bug 500 years from now?
- The complete works will comprise a holy book that will bring world peace and prosperity.
Q: If aliens read Tom the Dancing Bug, what conclusions about the human race would they make?
- That we're mediocre artists who are strangely obsessed with Justice Antonin Scalia.
Q: Is there a topic that is off-limits?
- There are no topics that are off limits, but there are definitely treatments of topics that are.
Q: You’ve stated that God-man gets a lot of negative reactions. Why do you think that is?
- He gets much more positive reactions... but I think the negative reactions are from people who don't tolerate any discussion of religion that doesn't reflect the orthodoxy of their own beliefs.
Q: What was the last good movie you saw?
Q: Do you believe in reincarnation?
Check out the Tom the Dancing Bug web site or buy the book.
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