New York Appearance

I will appear at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's Art Festival in New York City. Please note that I will NOT be there both days. I will appear ONLY on Sunday, June 11, at the NBM Publishing table. I will be there the whole time, with brief breaks for lunch and whatnot, so drop by!

Along with copies of my current books to sign, including the brand-new ATTITUDE 3: THE NEW SUBVERSIVE ONLINE CARTOONISTS, I will also bring copies of my rare and out-of-print books, original cartoon artwork for sale, and advance previews of my upcoming SILK ROAD TO RUIN: IS CENTRAL ASIA THE NEW MIDDLE EAST? Many of the other artists from ATTITUDE 3 will be there, as well as from ATTITUDE and ATTITUDE 2, so this is your chance to collect signatures from a bunch of great cartoonists.

I look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. As usual, many of you will ask why I'm not appearing on any MoCCA panels this year. Please stop asking, or more to the point, please stop asking me. The event organizers determine these things, not me, so please ask them. It's not like I'm turning them down, as some people seem to assume.

AMERICA GONE WILD: CARTOONS BY TED RALL

Not only is my new Central Asian travelogue/graphic novel/current affairs analysis SILK ROAD TO RUIN coming out this summer, there's another treat for fans of my cartoons.

AMERICA GONE WILD will come out this fall. It's a 160-page cartoon collection similar in format to SEARCH AND DESTROY, collecting my work from 2001 until now and featuring an introduction by hard-hitting UK Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell. A special bonus is my extremely lengthy behind-the-scenes discussion of the media shitstorms surrounding my most controversial cartoons, including "Terror Widows", "FDNY 2011" and those about Pat Tillman. Here for the ages is the hate mail and death threats I received, my personal interactions with personalities like Bill O'Reilly, etc.--all the dish you've always wondered about. Do I go too far? Find out in AMERICA GONE WILD.

Book Tour Shout-Out

If you live in one of the following cities and are connected to a bookstore, media organization, politically active organization or college that invites speakers, please e-mail me at chet@rall.com. I am planning my summer and fall book tour and am trying to determine whether appearances to these places are viable:

Washington
Boston
Seattle
Portland OR
San Francisco
Chicago
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Boise
Las Vegas
Denver

If you live somewhere else, don't despair! I'll go anywhere provided there's a sponsor willing and able to cough up travel expenses and an honorarium. (Total cost, for those who wonder about these things, usually runs about $5000.)

Memorial Day No Show

There will be no Ted Rall Radio Show this weekend because of the Memorial Day holiday.

Coulter Update

Short answer: There is none. My lawyer's still working the research. More later.

SILK ROAD TO RUIN: IS CENTRAL ASIA THE NEW MIDDLE EAST?

Years in the making, my upcoming book "Silk Road to Ruin" is finally done. A follow-up of sorts to TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, SILK ROAD TO RUIN is part travelogue, part current affairs, a comprehensive look at the "Stans" and why Central Asia will be to the 21st century what the Middle East was to the Middle East: the lynchpin and perrenial hotspot that will keep American and other Western foreign policy makers jumping. I'll post more about this book in the weeks to come. Total page count is 304, of which 200 pages are prose chapters of analysis and essays about what makes Central Asia so important and fascinating and 100 pages are in graphic novel format. Included is an introduction by Ahmed Rashid.

You may advance order SILK ROAD TO RUIN from Amazon; early orderers should receive their books in July 2006.

Why It's Best to Turn Off Your IMs

I hate instant messaging. If you want to contact me, send an email. I was doubly reminded of why and how much I hate IMs when a computer crash reset my privacy settings so that anyone who wanted to send me an IM could. Apparently there are right-wingers who are so sad and pathetic and creepy-stalky that they added me to their buddy lists with the express purpose of sending me nasty tidings if and when they were to see me online. Generally I pride myself in being available to anyone, including critics, who wants to engage me in conversation. But I can't be completely open. For example, I don't have a comments section on my blog, as much as I'd want to, because I've learned the hard way that it only takes a couple of right-wing turds to ruin such forums for everybody. Here, for your edification, is a classic example of why it doesn't pay to make yourself available in real time:

GBPckr8: WHAT THE JAHOOSAFUDGE
GBPckr8: YOUR THAT GUY WITH THE TALKIE SHOW THINGY
GBPckr8: YOU AFFENDED ME PEOPLE
GBPckr8: AND YOUR CARTOONS SUCK
GBPckr8: BIG FLOPPY DONKEY DICK TED
GBPckr8: i knew u were too antichrist to talk

As you were.

Please Stand By

Sorry about the lengthy absence. I'm finishing my book Silk Road to Ruin and still awaiting word from legal research about Ann Coulter. More next week, probably.