Ruben Bolling is a

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

for Ken Fisher (born c. 1963 in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

), 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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and the author of '' Tom the Dancing Bug''. His work started out apolitical, 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, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and

Iraq war The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

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 is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

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 comic strips 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 won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, making him the first comic strip artist to win a ...

'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 to the title character, ...

''), 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 in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

and is a 1987 graduate of

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. It was at Harvard in the mid-1980s that Fisher came up with the idea for "Tom the Dancing Bug" and when he adopted his pseudonym, Ruben Bolling that is a melding of the names of two favorite old-time baseball players, Ruben Amaro and Frank Bolling. Tom the Dancing Bug originally ran in the ''Harvard Law School Record''. After graduation from Harvard Law School, Fisher practiced law for several years before resigning to pursue cartooning full-time. When that didn't work out, cartooning became a side interest and Fisher became a full-time employee at a

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

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 ...

. While Fisher worked on building a full-time cartooning career, he became involved in a project with

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

to produce a movie about his character Harvey Richards, Esq., a "Lawyer for Children", that has not been realized. Newspapers that have published ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' include ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. At its peak, ''Tom the Dancing Bug'' was syndicated in print in more than 100 newspapers. It now is published almost entirely online. In 2012, Fisher launched a subscription service, the Inner Hive, which he credits with keeping the comic strip 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 strip every day. In 2015, Fisher published the first in a series of children's books, ''The EMU Club Adventures''.

Awards

Ruben Bolling 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, lette ...

award for Editorial Cartooning for a non-daily publication.Announcing winners of the 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for journalism
(May 10, 2011) He 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 Print syndication, syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly described as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin a ...

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 Journalism Award.FULL LIST: 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Award Winners
(May 3, 2018) In 2019 and 2021 Ken Fisher was a finalist in the Editorial Cartooning category for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

. For "mordant wit, superior artwork, and inventive delivery" Ruben Rolling won the 2021 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons from the National Press Foundation.Ruben Bolling wins 2021 Berryman Cartoonist Award
(November 1, 2021) Ruben Bolling won the

's Reuben Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2022 and was nominated again in 2023.The Reuben Awards Are Back! Here Are This Year's Winners
GoComics (September 19, 2022)Colleen Doran, Alex Ross, Sarah Andersen among this year’s NCS divisional nominees
Smash Pages (June 7, 2023)

Personal life

Fisher is married to an attorney. 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) * 2022: ''Tom the Dancing Bug: All-Mighty Comics'' (Clover Press) * 2023: ''On the Trail of Tom The Dancing Bug'' (Clover Press)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolling, Ruben Living people 1963 births American comic strip cartoonists American comics artists American comics writers American parodists American satirists Artists from New Jersey Harvard Law School alumni Tufts University alumni