Ted Rall

American cartoonist

Frederick Theodore Rall IIIis 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.

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About the Ted Rall

Frederick Theodore Rall IIIis 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, and is the editor-in-chief of the satirical news website skewednews.net.

Rall also writes and draws cartoons for Sputnik International, a news website platform established by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya (Rossiia Segodnia–Russia Today).

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.

31 Quotes by Ted Rall

  1. 1.

    Even though I’m a leftist. I think the left eats its own.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  2. 2.

    Orrin Hatch was the keynote speaker at the last meeting of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He sought me out because he was a fan. I was thinking he had confused me with someone else.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  3. 3.

    Silk Road to Ruin has all the analysis and it’s structured very well. I rely on my notes more and I use direct quotes. But there’s nothing like writing about it right away.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  4. 4.

    When you do a cartoon based on news headlines, you do it based on incomplete information.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  5. 5.

    Trying to rebuild Afghanistan on the cheap has left the country in the hands of warlords and an impotent Northern Alliance puppet regime that runs Kabul and nothing else.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  6. 6.

    But now that I’m cartooning full-time, I’m more of an observer. I’m talking to people who are experiencing these things. But it’s not like being in the trenches.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  7. 7.

    Most people don’t know how to tell stories.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  8. 8.

    At this point, American workers are pretty respectful of the bosses they loathe.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  9. 9.

    I think Maus I is better than Maus II. The standard here is whether or not it’s as good as a great book of prose literature and by that standard, no, it’s not that great.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  10. 10.

    I’m a better polemicist in prose.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  11. 11.

    When I put together a graphic novel, I don’t think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  12. 12.

    If I had to rank my skills, I have a long way to go before I can write a good graphic novel.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  13. 13.

    I’m a better editorial cartoonist by default because so many editorial cartoonists out there are so awful.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  14. 14.

    Money stress is what used to remind me of my Dad most.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  15. 15.

    I don’t think anyone has written a great graphic novel.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  16. 16.

    I think Dilbert is actually a radical strip.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  17. 17.

    The experts who managed the original Marshall Plan say Afghanistan needs a commitment of at least $5 to $10 billion over 5 to 10 years, coupled with occupation forces of 250,000 Allied soldiers to keep the peace throughout the country.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  18. 18.

    I think jazz is good, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s not for me.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  19. 19.

    The first step to stringing the boss up from a lamppost is saying the boss is a moron.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  20. 20.

    Up until 1995, I still had a day job that I hated. I was still personally involved in things in the 90s.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  21. 21.

    There was an honorable tradition of using anonymous sources that was ruined by Jayson Blair.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  22. 22.

    Conservative humor is frankly harder than liberal humor. You get points for just being liberal. You can get more points if you make fun of your own side sometimes.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  23. 23.

    I think we’re the first generation to successfully integrate American society.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  24. 24.

    Comics are too big. You can’t say any kind or genre of comics is better than another. You can say so subjectively. But to say it like it’s objective is wrong. It’s wrong morally, because it cuts out stuff that’s good.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  25. 25.

    It’s a perfectly valid position to not like Shakespeare.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  26. 26.

    On the ground, Pakistan is the most virulently anti-American state on the planet.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  27. 27.

    Anyone should be able to read comics.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  28. 28.

    The best thing about being a cartoonist is to walk into a bar or someone’s apartment and they don’t know you, but they’ve taped one of your pieces up.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  29. 29.

    Anyway, I tried liking Jimmy Corrigan but I couldn’t.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  30. 30.

    When you have birds you stare at them a lot and their eyes are recessed on their head. When they look at something they tilt their head in a quizzical expression.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist

  31. 31.

    I never consciously do any work directly influenced from any movie, unless I’m doing a parody.

    Ted Rall

    American cartoonist