Ruben Bolling (born c. 1963 in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

) is a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

for Ken Fisher, an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

, the author of ''

Tom the Dancing Bug ''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. Tom the Dancing Bug won the 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008,Gardner, Ala ...

'' and ''Super-Fun-Pak Comix''. His work started out apolitical, instead featuring absurdist humor, parodying comic strip conventions, or critiquing

celebrity culture Celebrity culture is a high-volume exposure to celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands. Whereas a culture can usually be physically ...

. He came to increasingly satirize conservative politics after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

and

Iraq war {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

in the early 2000s. This trend strengthened with the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

presidency and right-wing populism from 2017-2020, his critiques of which earned him several cartooning awards.

Career

Fisher, who has no formal art training, read many comics when he was a child (his biggest influence being

Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist, best known for creating the ''Doonesbury'' comic strip. Trudeau is also the creator and executive producer of the Amazon Studios political comedy series ''Alpha House''. ...

's ''

Doonesbury ''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States The president ...

''), and sometimes features their styles in his work. However, he didn't aspire to be a full-time cartoonist; instead he studied economics as an undergraduate at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and later attended

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

(graduating in 1987). It was at Harvard in the mid-1980s that Fisher came up with the idea for "Tom the Dancing Bug" and his pseudonym, Ruben Bolling (which is a melding of the names of two favorite old-time baseball players, Ruben Amaro and

Frank Bolling Francis Elmore Bolling (November 16, 1931July 11, 2020) was an American baseball second baseman who played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves from 1954 until 1966. He ...

). Tom the Dancing Bug originally ran in the ''Harvard Law School Record''. After graduation, Fisher practiced law for several years before resigning to pursue comics full-time. When that didn't work out, comic writing became a side interest and Fisher became a full-time employee at a

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

company. ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' was picked up for weekly syndication in 1997 by

Universal Press Syndicate Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Eb ...

. Fisher was working on building a full-time comics career, driven in part by a project, thus far never realized, with

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...

to produce a movie about his character Harvey Richards, Esq., a "Lawyer for Children." At its peak, ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' was syndicated in print in over 100 newspapers. In 2012, Fisher launched a subscription service, the Inner Hive, which he credits with keeping the comic going amid declines in print newspapers. A ''Super Fun-Pak Comix'' installment from 2014, entitled
The Comic Strip That Has A Finale Every Day
', parodied farewell installments from long-running comic strips. This then became a
ongoing feature
on the gocomics.com site under the pseudonym John "Scully" Scully, releasing the same comic every day. In 2015, Fisher published the first in a series of children's books, ''The EMU Club Adventures''.

Awards

Fisher is a five-time winner of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for Best Cartoon, for 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008,Gardner, Alan
Ruben Bolling Wins Best Cartoon Award from AAN
The Daily Cartoonist (June 10, 2008) and 2009.Xerexes, Xavier
Onward Into the Webcomics Breach
Comix Talk (July 1, 2009) In 2010, he received the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

award for Editorial Cartooning for a non-daily publication.Announcing winners of the 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for journalism
(May 10, 2011) Fisher won numerous awards for his satirical criticism of the

presidency. He was the winner of the 2017 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning2017 Prize Winner
Herb Block Foundation (March 19, 2021) based on a selection of 15 Trump-themed ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' cartoons. In 2017, he won a 2017 Silver Reuben Award from the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

71st Annual Reuben Award Winners Announced!
National Cartoonists Society (May 27, 2017) for "Donald and John," a series in the style of

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

that cast

as a childish Calvin-like figure and Trump alter-ego John Barron as Trump's "imaginary publicist" in place of Hobbes. He was awarded a prize for best cartoon in the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism AwardsFULL LIST: 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Award Winners
(May 3, 2018) and in 2019 and 2021 he was a finalist in the Editorial Cartooning category for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

. His "mordant wit, superior artwork and inventive delivery" won him the 2021 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons from the

National Press Foundation The National Press Foundation is a nonprofit journalism training organization. It educates journalists on complex issues and trains them in reporting tools and techniques. It recognizes and encourages excellence in journalism through its awards. ...

.Ruben Bolling wins 2021 Berryman Cartoonist Award
(November 1, 2021)

Personal life

Fisher is married to a lawyer; they have three children.

Bibliography

* 1992: ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' * 1997: ''All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From My Golf-Playing Cats'' * 2004: ''Thrilling Tom the Dancing Bug Stories'' (oversized treasury) (Andrews McMeel) * 2015: ''Alien Invasion in My Backyard: An EMU Club Adventure'' (Andrews McMeel) * 2015: ''Ghostly Thief of Time: An EMU Club Adventure'' (Andrews McMeel) * 2020: ''Tom the Dancing Bug Presents: Into the Trumpverse'' (Clover Press) * 2020: ''The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader'' (Clover Press) * 2021: ''Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens'' (Clover Press) * 2022: ''Tom the Dancing Bug: Without The Bad Ones'' (Clover Press) * 2022: ''Tom the Dancing Bug: Eat the Poor'' (Clover Press)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolling, Ruben Living people Harvard Law School alumni Tufts University alumni Artists from New Jersey 1963 births American cartoonists