The Year of Loving Dangerously
Graphic Memoir, 2009
NBM Hardback, 6″x9″, 128 pp., Price $18.95
“Ted Rall is fearless. In The Year of Loving Dangerously, he turns his formidable journalistic skills on a very rich subject—himself. The memoir is not just a revealing and entertaining account of Rall’s misspent youth, but a gritty, alternative take on Manhattan in the boom years of the 1980s.”
—Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home”
For the first time since his award-winning “My War With Brian,” Ted Rall returns to the autobiographical graphic novel. The time is 1984. The place is New York City. In the space of a few months, Rall found himself expelled from university, fired by his job, arrested for drugs that weren’t even his, dumped by the girl he considered his fiancée and evicted. He hit the streets with nothing more than eight bucks and the clothes on his back.
Desperate and prepared to become homeless, the future political cartoonist invested a third of his worldly savings on pizza. There he met a girl who took him home for the night…and so began Rall’s “Year of Loving Dangerously.”
To ORDER a copy inscribed by Ted to the person of your choice, click here (price includes shipping within the United States). The book ships immediately:
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2024: A Graphic Novel
Graphic Novel, 2001
NBM Hardback, 6″x9″, 96 pp., $16.95
NBM Paperback, 6″x9″, 96 pp., $9.95
“Combining the most depressing aspects of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World, Ted Rall’s 2024 shows us where turn-of-the-century corporate America is heading if we don’t collectively wake up. Yet, like most of Rall’s work, it’s not a downer. Even when the reader sees a not-so-twisted reflection of his or her own life in Winston and Julia’s horrifying misadventures in neopostmodern “Canamexicusa,” it’s usually more of a belly laugh than a gut punch. Tearing away at the shrouds of irony that keep us from experiencing our lives more directly for all their faults, Rall captures the essence of our reactions to soft oppression by having his characters repeat the mantra “Yes. No. Whatever.” If the best criticism is satire, then 2024 is as good as it gets.”
—Amazon.com, on picking “2024″ as its Book of the Year (2001)
“2024″ is a homage to/parody of/updating of George Orwell’s classic novel of totalitarian oppression “1984″ that faithfully follows the structure of Orwell’s work with a totally new take on contemporary social trends–as the new millennium begins, the art of progonistication begins here!
Amazon.com picked “2024″ as one of its best books of the year. Here’s what they said: “Combining the most depressing aspects of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World, Ted Rall’s 2024 shows us where turn-of-the-century corporate America is heading if we don’t collectively wake up. Yet, like most of Rall’s work, it’s not a downer. Even when the reader sees a not-so-twisted reflection of his or her own life in Winston and Julia’s horrifying misadventures in neopostmodern “Canamexicusa,” it’s usually more of a belly laugh than a gut punch. Tearing away at the shrouds of irony that keep us from experiencing our lives more directly for all their faults, Rall captures the essence of our reactions to soft oppression by having his characters repeat the mantra “Yes. No. Whatever.” If the best criticism is satire, then 2024 is as good as it gets.”
To order the hardback: Amazon or directly from NBM Publishing.
To order the paperback: Amazon or directly from NBM Publishing.
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My War with Brian
Graphic Novel, 1998
NBM Paperback, 6″x9″, 64 pp., $8.95
Ted’s second graphic novel, the semiautobiographical MY WAR WITH BRIAN, was nominated for an Eisner Award for its staggeringly honest portrait of junior-high school brutality. Set in suburban Ohio during the 1970s, MY WAR WITH BRIAN exposes the experience of being bullied – and what happens when you fight back.
Booklist says: “Known for his acerbic political cartoons, Rall turns his caustic gaze inward in an autobiographical graphic novel about his misery in junior high in suburban Ohio. He was an alienated nerd, tormented by a loutish, psychotic bully who, for no apparent reason, chose Rall as his personalvictim. Teachers and other adults refused to help Rall, leaving him to deal with Brian through violence that started out defensive but gradually turned sadistically vengeful. The escalating battle forced Rall into an ultimate assault that he then saw as the only way to prevent being marked as a victim for the rest of his life. Two decades later, a more introspective Rall ponders the lasting effect of Brian’s harassment on his personality. To this day, Rall’s behavior remains confrontational and defensive; he wonders whether his superior attitude prompted the bully’s abuse. Rall’s memoir is fueled by the bitterness and anger that inform his editorial cartoons and sports their vaguely cubist figures and distinctive scratchboard technique that makes them look like punk woodcuts.”
To order: Amazon or directly from NBM Publishing.
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Real Americans Admit: The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done!
Graphic Novel, 1996
NBM Paperback, 8.5″x11″, 64pp., $8.95
Ted’s first graphic novel also won the first annual Firecracker Alternative Book Award in 1997. Critically-acclaimed graphic novel-format depiction of Americans’ true confessions, their answer to Ted’s question: “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The answer to that simple question, as Ted writes, helps define what and who we are. Warning: includes imagery and description of acts that some people may find disturbing, such as cruelty to animals and murder.
To order: Amazon or directly from NBM Publishing.
