Frederick Theodore Rall III (born August 26, 1963) is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions. At their peak, Rall's cartoons appeared in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States. He was president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists from 2008 to 2009.
Rall draws three editorial cartoons a week for syndication, draws illustrations on a freelance basis, writes a weekly syndicated column, and edits the Attitude series of alternative cartooning anthologies and spin-off collections by up-and-coming cartoonists. He writes and draws cartoons for the tech and politics news site founded by journalist Gina Smith, aNewDomain,[1] and is the editor-in-chief of the satirical news website skewednews.net.
He is a graphic novelist and the author of non-fiction books about domestic and international current affairs. He also travels to and writes about Central Asia, a region he believes to be pivotal to U.S. foreign policy concerns. In November 2001 he went to Afghanistan as a war correspondent for The Village Voice and KFI Radio in Los Angeles. He returned to Afghanistan in August 2010, traveling independently and unembedded throughout the country, filing daily "cartoon blogs" by satellite.
Rall says his drawing style was originally influenced by Mike Peters, the editorial cartoonist at his hometown paper, the Dayton Daily News. Later influences included Jules Feiffer, Garry Trudeau, Charles M. Schulz, and Matt Groening.
Rall's 1990s work focused on the issues and concerns surrounding twentysomethings and Generation X, terms coined in the late 1980s to describe people born from the early to mid 1960s to the mid 1980s. While living in San Francisco Rall met Dave Eggers, who hired him as a contributing editor and writer for Might magazine, a publication Eggers edited and co-founded. Among other essays, Rall authored two seminal essays for Might, "Confessions of an Investment Banker" and "College is for Suckers." He wrote op-ed columns for The New York Times, including "Why I Will Not Vote" (1994), which justified apathy among Generation Xers who saw neither Democrats nor Republicans responding to their concerns. In 1998 Rall published "Revenge of the Latchkey Kids", a compendium of essays and cartoons that criticized the Baby Boomer-dominated media for ignoring and ridiculing young adults and their achievements.
Rall began frequent travels to Central Asia in 1997, when he attempted to drive the Silk Road from Beijing to Istanbul via China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan as a staff writer for P.O.V. magazine. P.O.V. published his adventures as Silk Road to Ruin, a title he used for his 2006 collection of essays and cartoons about Central Asia. Rall returned to the region for POV in 1999 to travel the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar, in western China, to Islamabad. Subsequent trips included two trips in 2000, "Stan Trek 2000"—in which Rall brought along 23 listeners to his radio show for a bus journey from Turkmenistan to Kyrgyzstan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan—and a U.S. State Department-sponsored visit to Turkmenistan, where he met with Turkmen college students and dissidents to explain the nature of free press in a democracy. A 2002 assignment for Gear magazine to cover the world championships of buzkashi in Tajikistan was not published due to the magazine's going out of business, but turned up in an edited form in Silk Road to Ruin. He returned to Tajikistan, Xinjiang Province in western China and Pakistan during the summer of 2007.
The Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists series of books is a series of anthologies of alternative comics edited by Rall. Frustrated that cartoons prevalent in alternative weekly newspapers were being ignored in favor of mainstream and art comics, Rall edited the first "Attitude" anthology, Attitude: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists, in 2002, with its mission to bring together cartoonists who were "too alternative for the mainstream and too mainstream for the alternative." Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists followed in 2004, and in 2006 Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists appeared. Each volume contains interviews with, cartoons by and personal ephemera related to 21 different cartoon creators. The first and second volumes emphasized political and humor cartoons; the third volume exclusively features web cartoonists.
Rall's work includes the book The Anti-American Manifesto (Seven Stories Press), published in September 2010.[6] His book, The Book of Obama: From Hope and Change to the Age of Revolt (Seven Stories Press) was released in July 2012.[7]
Other media
Rall was a regular guest on Hannity & Colmes, as well as NPR. He contributes a cartoon called "Left Coast" to the Pasadena Weekly. In February 2005, BBC television broadcast a 30-minute profile of Rall as part of their series Cartoonists on the Front Line.[citation needed]
Rall had a Saturday and Sunday radio talk show on KFI radio in Los Angeles from August 1998 to August 2000. After 9/11, KFI brought him back to travel to Afghanistan and file live on-air reports from the battle of Kunduz and elsewhere in northern Afghanistan. Rall's show was also broadcast live from Havana as well as Pakistani-held Kashmir. In 2005 he had a weekend show on San Francisco's KIFR-FM. Rall has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox Radio.
Politics
A panel from a Ted Rall cartoon satirizing Antonin Scalia's remark that he saw nothing wrong with "slapping" terrorism suspects.
In 2009 Rall called for Barack Obama to resign as President of the United States, because "the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through."[10] He endorsed Jill Stein in the 2016 presidential election.[11]
In December 2016, Rall presented what he called a "manifesto" to "topple Trumpism."[12] Less than a year and a half later, however, he predicted "that Mr. Trump would not only finish his term but win re-election, due to the divisions within the Democratic Party."[13]
Rall is an atheist and writes some cartoons dealing with these views.[14]
Controversies
In 1999, Rall wrote an article in The Village Voice[15] accusing Maus creator Art Spiegelman of lacking talent and controlling who gets high-profile assignments from magazines such as The New Yorker through personal connections, including his wife, New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly. In retaliation for Rall's piece, New York Press illustrator Danny Hellman sent two sets of e-mails under the name "Ted Rall's Balls" to at least 35 cartoonists and editors, including Rall's employers. After Rall tracked down Hellman's identity, Hellman ignored Rall's cease-and-desist letters. After several weeks, Rall filed a $1.5-million lawsuit for libel per se, libel per quod, injurious falsehood, violation of civil rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Rall's suit stated that Hellman was attempting to sabotage his career. Four of Rall's five claims were dismissed, leaving libel per se.[16] The lawsuit remains unresolved.
In a Rall cartoon from May 3, 2004,[17]Pat Tillman (a former Arizona Cardinals player who abandoned his NFL career to enlist in the United States Army Rangers and was killed in Afghanistan) is depicted asking an Army recruiter, "Never mind the fine print. Will I get to kill Arabs?" The narrator points out that he was killed and the reader is then given a choice: "idiot," "sap," or "hero." Later, after Tillman's anti–Iraq War sentiments and the friendly fire circumstances of his death became public, Rall wrote that he regretted making such sweeping assumptions about Tillman's motives, describing Tillman as "one hell of an interesting human being."[18]
A November 8, 2004, cartoon[19] depicted mentally disabled children as classroom teachers in an attempt to make an analogy to American voters who reelected President George W. Bush, drawing complaints from advocates for the disabled and led to his cartoons being dropped from The Washington Post's website. Rall responded in his blog saying: "I regret hurting people who I have nothing against. I do want to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and I think I failed in that with this cartoon. Not to mention that the cartoon failed—too many people got bogged down in the analogy and the main point got lost."
On October 22, 2007, Rall published a cartoon saying "Over time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared." That caused an uproar by military supporters both conservative and liberal alike.[20]
Rall is listed at #15 in Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America as a "vicious, conspiracy-minded, hate-filled jerk". Rall perceived the listing as an honor, replying, "Not only am I grouped with many people whom I admire for their achievements and patriotism, I'm being demonized by McCarthyite thugs I despise."[21]
Rall solicited funds from readers and left-wing bloggers while considering whether to sue Ann Coulter for libel and slander for her (later self-described as "joking") statement that, "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions." Coulter first made the remark at the 2006 Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington, D.C., on February 10 and then printed it in her syndicated column the following week. By 18 days later, pledges totaled over $21,000.[22][23] However, pledges are no longer being solicited, and in a December 27, 2006 blog entry, Rall posted an email that was sent to pledged contributors to the lawsuit, stating that his attorneys had determined, "The road ahead is too uncertain to justify spending thousands of dollars of pledges, not to mention my own money".[24]
Dismissal from the Los Angeles Times
In July 2015, the Los Angeles Times released a "note to readers" stating that Rall had been dropped from the paper because of allegations that he had recently lied about a 2001 encounter with the police .[25] The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) claimed that Rall misrepresented the encounter in a May 2015 opinion blog post he wrote about enforcement of jaywalking laws in Los Angeles.[26]
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, whom Rall had repeatedly mocked in his cartoons for the LA Times, provided a copy of an audio recording of the encounter (the location of the original microcassette, and whether it still exists, remains unknown) that the LA Times found to "raise serious questions about the accuracy of Rall's blog post".[25] Rall stood by his version of the incident.[27] Another version of the recording, which Rall posted online after having it restored by sound engineers, included sounds of bystanders talking. One person is heard saying "you need to take off the handcuffs."[28][29]
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement calling for an independent investigation of the tape.[30][31] On August 19, the LA Times issued a lengthy statement reaffirming its claim that Rall's original blog post "did not meet its standards". In it, they reported they had the audio recording investigated by two audio and video forensics experts and it still did not support Rall's version of the event.[32]
Lawsuit against the Los Angeles Times
In March 2016, Rall filed suit against the Los Angeles Times for defamation of character and wrongful termination;[33] in June 2017, the judge in the case dismissed claims against four individuals for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress; claims against the former and current LA Times corporate ownership remain.[34] Rall appealed the lower-court dismissal to the California Court of Appeals. On January 17, 2019, the Court of Appeals published an opinion affirming the dismissal.[35] However, in April 2019 the California Supreme Court accepted Rall's Petition for review, which continues the case's appeal process.[36] In September 2019, the California Supreme Court returned the case to the California Court of Appeals for review in light of its decision in Wilson v. Cable News Network, Inc. (2019) 7 Cal. 5th 871 (Wilson). On December 18, 2019, the California Court of Appeals again affirmed the trial court's orders dismissing Rall's claims.[37]
Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire (2003), cartoon foreword, ISBN0-415-94499-6
Talk to Her: Interviews with Kristine McKenna (2004), illustration of Joe Stummer, ISBN1-56097-570-9
Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot to Print (2004), edited by David Wallis, contains "Money Changes Everything" essay, ISBN1-56025-581-1
The Disposable Male: Sex, Love, and Money (2006), by Michael Gilbert, includes cartoon, ISBN0-9776552-3-7
Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression (2007), edited by David Wallis, contains "Ronald Reagan airport" and "Gulf War Beach" cartoons, ISBN0-393-32924-0
Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps (2012), by Greg Palast, contains 48-page comic insert "Tales From The Crypt of Democracy", ISBN1-609-80478-3
See also
Matt Bors - another cartoonist who has collaborated with Rall
Webcomics are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Bob the Angry Flower is a webcomic by Stephen Notley, published weekly starting in 1992. It tells the exploits of an easily angered anthropomorphic flower named Bob and his interactions with the world, often in search of either global domination or love. Though the comic strip features a range of recurring characters, most strips stand alone with little or no continuity.
Fetus-X was a weekly romantic horror comic written and drawn by Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow. Millikin is an American artist and former human anatomy lab embalmer and dissectionist. Sorrow is an internationally known American illustrator and printmaker.
Ozy and Millie is a webcomic that ran from 1998 to 2008, created by Dana Simpson. It follows the adventures of assorted anthropomorphic animals, centering on Ozy and Millie, two young foxes attending North Harbordale Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, contending with everyday elementary school issues such as tests and bullies, as well as more surreal situations.
Boy on a Stick and Slither is a webcomic by Steven L. Cloud. Strips usually feature a short, pithy and sometimes surreal exchange between the title characters. The strip is characterized by dry and cynical humor.
Mark Fiore is an American political cartoonist specializing in Flash-animated editorial cartoons. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010, the first ever for cartoon that did not appear in print.
PartiallyClips is a webcomic, created by Rob Balder, which ran from 2002 to 2015. At the start of 2010, Balder handed authorship of the comic to Tim Crist, the comedy musician behind Worm Quartet.
Dorothy Gambrell is a cartoonist who writes and draws the online comic strip Cat and Girl in addition to the blog very small array. Her work has appeared in the literary journal Backwards City Review and the Anton Chekhov anthology The Other Chekhov, and had appeared regularly in the literary journal Grasslimb. As of 2023, she is a contributing graphics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated American editorial cartoonist and editor of online comics publication The Nib. Formerly the comics journalism editor for Cartoon Movement, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 and 2020, and became the first alt-weekly cartoonist to win the Herblock Prize for Excellence in Cartooning.
The Pain – When Will It End? is a cartoon drawn by Tim Kreider from 1994 until June 8, 2009. It was self-published until it began running weekly in the Baltimore City Paper in 1997. It was later picked up by the Jackson Planet Weekly and The Indy in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Since September 2000, it is also a webcomic.
J.P. Trostle is a graphic designer and cartoonist, whose work often appears under the pen name of "Jape". He is the author of Attack of the Political Cartoonists: Insights And Assaults From Today's Editorial Pages, and is the current editor of the Notebook, the quarterly magazine of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), and editorialcartoonists.com.
Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. is an American graphic novel publisher. Founded by Terry Nantier in 1976 as Flying Buttress Publications, NBM is one of the oldest graphic novel publishers in North America. The company publishes English adaptations and translations of popular European comics, compilations of classic comic strips, and original fiction and nonfiction graphic novels. In addition to NBM Graphic Novels, the company has several imprints including ComicsLit for literary graphic fiction, and Eurotica and Amerotica for adult comics.
Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists is a series of anthologies of alternative comics, photos and artists' interviews edited by Universal Press Syndicate editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. The books were designed by J. P. Trostle, news editor of EditorialCartoonists.com. Two sequels and three spin-off titles have been published to date. A group of cartoonists featured in the Attitude series formed the organization Cartoonists With Attitude in June 2006; the group has hosted slideshow and panel events around the United States to promote the series and alternative political cartooning. The New Labor Forum described the series as "filled with politically attuned graphic artistry."
Troubletown was a syndicated weekly comic strip by American cartoonist Lloyd Dangle. Begun in 1988, it ran in many alternative weeklies, including The Stranger, The Portland Mercury, and The Austin Chronicle. It also appeared in The Progressive magazine. Most strips involved political satire from a liberal perspective.
Lloyd Dangle is an American writer and cartoonist, illustrator, and political satirist.
Neil Swaab is a New York based artist, designer, writer, and educator. His illustrations and comics have appeared in numerous publications in the US as well as abroad in Germany, Prague, and Italy and Russia. Swaab's most famous work is Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, which deals with a pill-popping, foul-mouthed teddy bear. The comics frequently deal with sex, addiction, intoxication, psychosis, molestation, cross-dressing, self-hate and misanthropy. This weekly comic strip currently runs online as well as in The New York Press, Real Detroit Weekly, Internazionale, and New Times Broward-Palm Beach.
Mikhaela Blake Reid is an editorial cartoonist whose work has appeared in various alternative newspapers and magazines, including The Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, Metro Times, and In These Times, and was also reprinted in Los Angeles Times. Reid frequently draws cartoons supporting LGBT rights.
Stephanie McMillan is an American political cartoonist, editorialist, and activist from South Florida. A granddaughter of the German commercial animator Hans Fischerkoesen and the sister of Alexander Fischerkoesen, McMillan aspired to become a cartoonist from the age of ten. During her high school years, she began organizing protests against capitalism and imperialism. The Comics Journal describes McMillan's comics and cartoons as being "on the far left" of the American political spectrum, and as being focused on "anti-corporate activism."
Andy Singer is an American political cartoonist born in 1965.
Greg Peters was an American editorial cartoonist best known for his détournement-based comic strips "Suspect Device" and "Snake Oil".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
