THE SILK ROAD TO RUIN
Ted RALL
Part graphic novel travelog, part tongue-in-cheek travel guide, here are the adventures of caustic cartoonist Rall in the wild and wooly central Asian countries, a powder keg sitting on tomorrow’s oil... Combines articles with comics chapters relating his experiences retracing the old legendary Silk Road starting with the sublime history of China and ending in the absurdity of the petty dictatorships of the “The ‘Stans” where Rall had the temerity -or was it blustery stupidity?- to go back, including once with a group of listeners to his radio show, on a dare. It’s exotic adventure, satire and a fun way to find out more about a part of the world that looms in importance with its immense reserves of oil...
"A rollicking, subversive and satirical portrait of the region that is part travelogue, part graphic novel. It's fresh and edgy and neatly captures the reality of travel in the region."
-Lonely Planet Guide for Central Asia
"As a ticking package, the visual and verbal delivery is irreplaceable. This is wrenching stuff. I admire the hell out of the way Rall walks the walk."
-Rich Kreiner, Comics Journal
"His awestruck descriptions of the region's natural beauty, crowded bazaars, and chaotic sporting tournaments will make adventurous readers want to see it all firsthand. The author takes a serious subject and infuses it with humor."
- School Library Journal
"Neither fearless nor stupid, Rall nonetheless casts himself into situations that turn into various combinations of unimaginably stressful, impossibly uncomfortable and mind-blindingly dangerous. All to a purpose: "Silk Road to Ruin" is a crash course on Central Asia, essential for anyone who's at all interested in what the U.S. is up to (see: oil, projection of power) in the region, and what's likely in store for us (see: blowback)." -San Diego Union Tribune
"Stuffed with information, characterized by courage, in photos, "comic novellas," and pictures, he serves up a travelogue of a region teetering on the brink of irreparable political and environmental failure." -The Boston Globe
"Offers a great read that is packed with facts, accessible dissection of thorny issues, and a narration that reads like suspense fiction." -Voya
"The bottom line with Rall's Silk Road To Ruin is that this is an inspired work written with accuracy, wit and passion about what is already becoming an extremely important corner of the planet." -Counter Punch.org
"Gritty observations, told in wonderful cartoon panels."
-San Jose Mercury News
"Funny and knowledgeable and serves as a fair (if biased) introduction to a region that we all should be paying more attention to."
-Eric Hanson, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A sincere (yet still wry) attempt to stave off another disaster. His forte is exposing the comic-tragic truth buried within political rhetoric."
-Village Voice
"Much of "The Silk Road to Ruin" focuses on the absurdities he witnessed traveling through the region. There is a chapter on how to properly bribe guards at checkpoint; horror stories about the food; a collection of the philosophical wisdom of Turkmenbashi, the bizarre and megalomaniacal dictator of Turkmenistan, who re-named the month of September in honor of the title of a book he wrote."
-New York Daily News
6x9, 288pp., B&W, jacketed hardcover, $22.95, ISBN 1-56163-454-9

GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO
Ted Rall
Rall compiles his most scathing cartoons and commentary aimed at what he portrays as our first non-elected president, one of the most hawkish and mean-spiritedly incompetent in U.S. history.
"Rall, unlike practically everyone else, allowed the president no honeymoon. There was, he felt, too much at stake. Given all that has happened since, it appears he was right. The fume-o-meter for both pro-Bush and anti-Bush readers, will be close to exploding. Better uses of the $19.95: None." -The New York Times Book Review
"Even when the country was rallying around President Bush, syndicated cartoonist and columnist Rall remained in a state of outrage-one he effectively maintains throughout this book. Love him or hate him, Rall is never less than provocative." -Publishers Weekly
"On the summer reading list. Mixing incendiary prose with disturbing, deceptively simple, quasi-cubist art, Rall will have you seething in 5 pages flat. Keep a defib handy ."
-Arthur Salm, San Diego Union Tribune
"Concise, well-argued." -Larry Tritten, San Francisco Chronicle
6x9, 288pp., B&W, jacketed hardcover: $19.95, ISBN 1-56163-384-4
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ATTITUDE: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists
Edited by Ted Rall
TO HELL with those hackneyed mainstream political cartoons! Donkeys and elephants are history. Daily newspaper cartoons make lame jokes about the news while sucking up to the corporations that own them. Here's the NEXT generation of artists out to save the world: political cartoonists who run in your local weekly alternative paper, uncensored and in the raw! ATTITUDE includes cartoons and interviews with: Tom Tomorrow, Peter Kuper, Ruben Bolling, Lloyd Dangle, Andy Singer, Don Asmussen, Clay Butler, Jen Sorensen, Scott Bateman, Tim Eagan, Derf, Lalo Alacaraz, Joe Sharpnack, Eric Bezdek, William L. Brown, Ward Sutton, Stephanie McMillan, Mickey Siporin, Jim Siergey, Ted Rall, & Matt Wuerker.
"The best of [these cartoonists] possess so much lacerating wit and unswerving commitment that they fairly shame their hidebound mainstream counterparts into retirement."-BOOKLIST
"A perfect primer on [these cartoonists] individual flavors and uniformly impressive skills. In bringing them together and pushing them toward the highter visibility they deserve, Attitude serves almost as critical a function as they do themselves".-Tasha Robinson, The Onion
"Provocative!" -The Baltimore Sun
81/2x11, 128 pp., B&W, trade pb.: $13.95
ISBN 1-56163-317-8
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ATTITUDE 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists
Edited by Ted Rall
The first collection sold more than 8000 and it’s back for more! Featuring interviews and cartoons by Shannon Wheeler, Alison (Dykes to Watch out For) Bechdel, David (Get Your War On) Rees, Aaron (Boondocks) McGruder, Keith (the K Chronicles) Knight and 16 others with a slant on satirizing our everyday life.
These books are significant contributions to the library of modern cartooning, and Rall is to be applauded for the diligence he has displayed in, first, having the idea to produce the books and, second, getting them done. The latter was no easy trick.
-RC Harvey
"Reaction is what these doodlers are after. "Question Authority" is their collective motto, and as long as they're making people mad as hell, they must be doing something right."
-San Diego Union-Tribune
"Rall's interviews with the artists are short but incisive; his subjects speak with the most point and eloquence in their work." -Booklist
"The book encapsulates an, er, attitude prevalent in today's syndicated comics: humor is a constant, but these day's it's strongly laced with sarcasm, cynicism and a certain amount of neurosis. This worthy compilation of cartoonists showcases the continuing vitality of comics as social criticism." -Publishers Weekly
"This compilation has enough breadth to keep readers entertained and enough substance to make them think. Go read!" -The Boston Weekly Dig
"No aspect of life goes unscathed." -L.A. Weekly
"Highly recommended." -Library Journal
"TOP TEN GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2004." -Salon.com (See the full article)
"This is satire in an angry-youth-with-piercings mode." -The Guardian
81/2x11, 128pp., B&W, trade pb.: $13.95, ISBN 1-56163-381-X
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ATTITUDE 3:
The New Subversive Online Cartoonists
Edited by Ted Rall
The top political and social e-cartoonists found on the web today provide yet another incisive irreverent alternative view of our society and politics. As for the previous volumes, Ted Rall interviews them along with numerous cartoons sprinkled throughout. The web has the unfettered opinions. Here’s the best among them. From the series of books that has sold over 25,000 copies!
"Many of these people seem awfully young, just-out-of-college, and new. However, much like the '70's beginnings of Punk, this group of mostly young creators is operating on new terrain with new ways to achieve things, different goals, and new values to develop. Some of them will undoubtedly establish artistic careers equal to those of the major '80s and '90s print cartoonists."
-Maximum Rock & Roll
"The standouts are unique and personal." -Booklist
"Interviews and artwork leap from the page and grab the readers by the lapels."
-Voya
81/2x11, 128pp., B&W, trade pb., $13.95, ISBN 1-56163-465-4

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