I HAD BEEN reading reprints of Ruben Bolling's brilliant comic Tom the Dancing Bug for years in the Funny Times when I saw an ad for the All-Mighty Comics collection and thought, hmm, that is probably good. And I was right.
If I am reading the copyright page correctly, the collection was first published in September 2022, but it gathers comics from 2003-06. On the cover is one of Bolling's wittier conceits: God-Man, i.e., God imagined as a white-bearded 1950s-1960s comic book superhero, his adventures a series of theological conundrums. Just as enjoyable are Louis Maltby, an adolescent male whose obtuseness about himself and other human beings was painfully recognizable to me, and Harvey Richards, lawyer for children, who in one comic herein explores the legal scope of "cross my heart and hope to die." Then there is Lucky Ducky, one of the working poor, who always winds up with some unexpected benefit, of sorts, from capital's relentless campaign to destroy his meager means of subsistence.
Bolling's wit is original, his satire politically astute, but his great gift is versatility. A God-Man page really does look like a 1950s vintage DC comic; Lucky Ducky looks like he was drawn by Carl Barks himself. Bolling frequently draws on old comics for inspiration, and whether the source is genius (Peanuts) or thoroughly mediocre (The Lockhorns), Bolling captures its likeness uncannily well.
The strips in Into the Trumpverse (which collects more recent strips, 2016-19) include several examples of Bolling's most successful attempt at putting to incisively satiric purpose his ability to capture the image and spirit of a classic comic: "Donald and John," which re-purposes the world of Calvin and Hobbes. John, a "publicist" Trump pretended to be back when he was making calls trying to get himself on the front pages of the supermarket tabloids, is Hobbes, the imaginary-friend-as-enabler, and Trump, of course, is Calvin, a shameless fantasist with an instinct for making trouble and a desire to see himself as all-powerful as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. That Calvin is seven or eight makes it possible for us to adore him a bit, so Bolling's "Donald and John" may provide insight into why some adore Trump at the same time that it makes devastatingly clear that for four long years our nation's chief executive was a hulking, 70-year-old brat.
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