We recently sat down with two of the country’s leading editorial cartoonists: Ruben Bolling and Tom Tomorrow.
Rubin’s award-winning weekly strip Tom the Dancing Bug frequently appears in our pages. Known for its shape-shifting style, the strip often parodies by borrowing from other visual traditions. Like his recent comic titled, “a busy, busy day in Washington, D.C.,” drawn in the style of children’s illustrator Richard Scarry. It depicts cheerful cartoon animals overlayed with grim political realities: a cute cartoon cat holding a sign that reads “I don’t like Trump” is labeled “Antifa,” while a mouse tagged “looks Mexican” flees an army of ICE agents. In the background, more whimsical characters—with labels like “tariff avoider” and “university president”—line up with bags of money outside the gates of the White House, now rebranded as the “Presidential Library Donation Center.” Oof.
Meanwhile, Funny Times readers will recognize Tom Tomorrow, creator of the long-running strip This Modern World, which has been delivering subversive political commentary in a retro, minimalist style for nearly 40 years—almost as long as Funny Times has been in print. Kurt Vonnegut once called him “the wry voice of American common sense, humor, and decency,” a combination that has only grown rarer, and more necessary, over time.
In our wide-ranging conversation with the two “Toms” who have been chronicling American absurdity for decades, we dig into how they keep making satire in a world that already feels like a parody of itself. They talk about cartooning as a form of sketch comedy, about borrowing and breaking visual styles, and about where they still find new ideas and inspiration—even when reality seems determined to beat them to the punch.
LISTEN NOW:
HUNGRY FOR MORE?
Cartoonist Corner: Ruben Bolling and Tom Tomorrow – Ruben Bolling and Tom Tomorrow talk about how they hustled their way into cartooning alongside Matt Groening and Linda Barry, the struggles of delivering political satire in today’s world and their personal experiences with the transition from print to the web.
Ruben Bolling Cartoon Treasury – Every cartoon by Ruben Bolling that has ever been posted to our website.
Subscribe to Funny Times – America’s Funniest Newspaper. Over 100 cartoons per issue. Always independent and ad-free.
If you loved this episode of The Funny Times Podcast, please leave us a five-star review
