Since 2006 I’ve been working three days a week at United Media as Editor of Acquisitions and Development. My job was finding new talent–comic strip artists, columnists and writers of puzzles–to syndicate to newspapers. Needless to say, this was a difficult time to pitch new features to papers.
Considering the circumstances, I enjoyed remarkable success. My first feature was a daily newspaper version of “Diesel Sweeties,” by R. Stevens. If not the first transition of a webcomic to daily form, it was certainly the most successful. Unfortunately for print readers, the artist decided to focus on his online work and ended the strip. After that came Tak Toyoshima’s “Secret Asian Man,” the first daily comic strip about Asian-Americans by an Asian-American cartoonist. It remains in syndication today, and continues to garner attention. I recruited Signe Wilkinson to draw “Family Tree,” a family strip with an ecological bent filtered through Signe’s uniquely jaundiced eye, and “Family Tree” keeps getting sales as comics pages get slashed. There was also Keith Knight’s “The Knight Life,” in which Keith transitioned his autobiographical alt weekly strip “The K Chronicles” to the daily form. It is a success. Most recently were the daily comic version of Stephanie McMillan’s political cartoon “Minimum Security” and “Rip Haywire,” an updating and parody of adventure comics by Dan Thompson.
I am proud of what I accomplished. Not only did I bring some smart, cool cartoons to wider audiences, I also breathed some life into the daily comics pages, which most readers agree are horribly moribund. I found that I am made to be an editor, helping creators realize their own voices more efficiently and effectively.
Unfortunately, my position as acquisitions editor has been eliminated, and I am out the door–like so many Americans these days, with a mortgage I have to pay somehow.
So if you’re a creator who was hoping to pitch me something, I’m sorry–I can’t help you anymore. If you need a cartoonist, a writer, or an editor, or anything else, please drop me a line. I need work, and fast.
43 Comments.
oh this sucks. I was laid off at the end of Feb after working for 5 years at the same company. It's like getting hit with a sledgehammer.
I wrote recently about the loss of newspapers and their subsequent effect on political cartoons. (http://www.fourfreedomsblog.com/Blog.php?Act=ShowComments&BlogID=651) It seems with your job loss we are seeing the fallout begin to happen.
Sorry – I hope you find something soon…
Ted, will you still be doing your syndicated column and cartoons? Or was that part of your job? I understand you didn't lose your syndication but I'm unsure.
Your comics are a great inspiration and have served as a voice of a generation disenfranchised and at times irate. I hope to see more and I wish you the best of luck.
P.S. Unless you want to move to Fort Wayne, Indiana I can't help you.
Yes, Santiago, I'll still be drawing comics, writing columns, and doing books too. Maybe even some other stuff!
Argh. Sorry, boss man.
Can't I rest my eyeballs somewhere without reading about disappearing American jobs?
I am hearing two things: someone pushing a shopping cart down the sidewalk filled with garbage (is this now an ubiqutous American background noise?) and Obama saying he will cut unnecessary federal programs.
I eye-balled what he wants to cut, such as $3 million on DHS consulting contracts to create new seals and logos. However, there is nothing about ending some real bleed-outs, such as having troops stationed in 138 countries or the whole creepy DHS itself.
So, from my vantage point, the only job opportunities are picking through the garbage of laid-off workers or Craigslist (which are mostly wire fraud and ID theft opportunities).
Great federal logos: "Smile, You Are on Camera" logo
Ted, there's a sofa for you at my place if worse comes to worse…
Well, I think Ted & fam might need a bit more than a sofa. . .
But there's a heck of a lot of cheap real estate here in Jacksonville. . .
Hey Ted,
I'm really sorry to hear that you've been laid off. One possibility that I think might be a pretty awesome opportunity for you is that houses in Detroit are going sometimes for $100-500 at auction. There are a lot of artists, musicians, and writers moving to the area and turning the houses into ecofriendly places, some of which actually generate electricity for the entire block.
Seems to me like it could be a pretty rich place culturally if enough people moved their to reclaim entire neighborhoods from depravity.
I'd offer you my sofa as well, but it is covered in cat and dog hair.
Ted,
Up north in Waterloo, Ontario, if you ever need a place to stay you're welcome here.
The email bro is
zerointolerance@hotmail.com
In Respect and Sympathy
Y_S
Why don't we all pitch in? He takes point all the time so we don't have to. Seems cheap to me. I feel like I owe more.
Oh well. I have a place too.
One word: Pittsburgh.
There's always work and compensation for superior talent such as yours, Ted, but not in post-Busho Amerika. No matter how difficult it may be for the unemployed and other less-fortunates, there's always someone with worse problems. Madonna, for instance, is having problems adopting another foreign kid. But I found a solution for her. Captured Somali pirate, Abdiwali Abiqadir Muse is a teenager! There you go, Madonna. Just like Woody Allen's "The heart wants what the heart wants."
Hey Ted,
I hope this doesn't mean the end of your columns or your 'toons.
Just so you know, you did accomplish a lot. I'm a big fan of many of those cartoonists you introduced, especially Stephanie McMillan, Keith Knight and Tak Toyoshima.
What's more, you're just a decent guy who actually takes time to respond to his fan mail. That shows real class.
All the best.
Your Florida Fanboy.
Hi Sean,
The cartoons and columns will go on, though they appear in far fewer places than they used to.
As for my finances, basically I used to make a great living as a cartoonist, talk show host, columnist and freelance illustrator, not to mention feature writer for magazine.
I lost the talk radio gig when Clear Channel bought my station and fired me for being liberal. I lost my feature writing gig with POV magazine when that mag went under and no other editors seemed interested in what I do. Freelance illustration dried up next. Freelance cartoons have all but gone away, especially magazine gigs like Time, Fortune, etc. That left editorial cartoons and columns, with a client list that shrunk with closures and budget cuts and political reprisals during the Bush years.
Fortunately, I landed the United Media gig in 2006. That replaced a lot of my lost income. But now that's gone.
Obviously I'll use the free time to scavenge for more freelance work, but there's precious little of it left. So I'll keep on keeping on unless and until something comes along that takes me away from it entirely. I do love cartoons so much; it would be hard to give them up. But everything ends at some point, especially if no one's willing to pay for it.
Damn, Ted. I'm sorry to hear that. Genuinely sorry. I hope you can find a way to "keep on keeping on," at least with the cartooning.
That last comment of yours Ted, is a bit depressing. You are someone who's at the top of his game. Regardless of a person's politics, one can easily see your skills are superior within your art form.
I have to say, I'm so god damn sick of the mindset that says "if it's digital, it should be free." I'm really fucking fed up with it.
BTW – I have purchased 3 of your books, and will but the upcoming graphic novel.
Any place to mail donations?
A lot of us could pitch in Pay as you go gift cards with a few bucks left on them, or make money orders for $5 and mail them to you and such…
Just the other day I was looking on Amazon dot com and looking up "Worst things I've ever done" which I read at a Borders in much greener times and for reasons that now escape me I didn't buy it. And I was thinking of buying it, except the asking used prices seemed a bit high this go-round.
So, is there a snail mail to send stuff to you, like $5 money orders, gift cards with a few bucks on them, etc? Hate to ask, but can't find a snail mail to you, are you afraid of right wing nutbags sending you messages with a 'bang' in it?
Ted,
Have you considered the move to a webcomics-based economy?
That is, start selling merch and adding a "premium content" subscription?
I don't know if it would work or not, but it works for a lots of folks (like the Diesel Sweeties people. . .).
I've never been good at coming up with T-shirt ideas, so I don't know whether the web-based solution would work for me. But I have been working to spruce up the website with archives, forum, etc., and will continue to do so.
Anyone who wants to help me out can contact me by snail mail at:
Ted Rall
PO Box 2760
New York NY 10163
One of the best ways one can help out is to contact me (chet@rall.com) about buying an original cartoon. I get money and you get something tangible that will be worth something after I die. It's a win win!
What the..?! Sorry to hear about that man. But I do look forward to seeing what you do next.
New York hates your guts, Ted. Join the club.
Do what my sister did. rent out your place to trust-fund columbia students, charge them double, move to LA and don't work!!!
Bummer, man. I say you should focus your efforts on making more excellent animations with David Essman. I think there's money to be made with those.
It says something about the state of print media and the economy as a whole when an elite cartoonist such as yourself runs into this sort of trouble. Imagine how bad it must be for the little guys. Here's hoping the situation turns around somehow. You do great work.
Ted, from one editor to another, I'm sorry to hear this. I'd be happy to help in any way I can.
Robert Meyerowitz/ robert.meyerowitz@gmail.com
Your industry is in what's probably a permanent downturn. If you were born 20 years earlier you wouldn't have had a problem. At any rate, I lost my job in the tech crash of 2001, and there's nothing you can do but treat it like an opportunity.
Since your a minor celebrity I doubt you'll have trouble finding *something*, but in my case I made the mistake of not downsizing my expenses from day 1. You don't know how long before an improvement…
Sorry to hear about that and hope
it will lead to better things for you.
Ted, you're an important person in today's America. You probably don't recall this, but I was willing to give you money (if I recall correctly, up to $500) in your aborted attempt to sue Ann Coulter for slander. Put up a donation page and I will contribute 25$ to you to help keep you going. Gavin Brown – who referred to the AC campaign as a 401T if that helps you remember.
This is good news you miserable, despicable, appalling, shameful, contemptible, vile, disgraceful, and loathsome no-talent piece of Anti-American piece of shit. This proof positive that there is a God…
Ugh. Sad to say, but welcome to the ranks of the unemployed. I hope you find something sooner than I am.
Ted,
Thanks to Fuzzlenutter's nice comments regarding your work, I'm going to buy one of you original cartoons! I'll take a look, and let you know. Hopefully it will still be available.
Thanks for supporting Ted's work Fuzzlenutter!
Ted;
Sorry to hear that yet another cartoonist has lost work and outlets.
I feel for you and personally relate to tit because it's my own tale. for more than five years I've been struggling with self syndication of my weekly left of center political cartoon http://www.whatnowtoons.com and now I also am losing papers due to financial downturns. First the Illustration work slowed then the strip faced cutbacks. I had a great run in the animation industry but more & more work is going to Canada & France as well as other countries that their governments help their industries & their people don't have to wory about health care.
At least you have a syndicator, self syndication is a bitch. I wish you all the luck, I enjoy your work and I hope you can hang on.
Cheers
Keith Tucker
Has a fund/theme been started? Okay what shall we call it? How much can we raise? 100 200 300 thousand.
Fuck. I'm sorry you're going through this, Ted. That totally sucks.
Ted, I'm sorry to hear that. Getting laid off is always a bitch, and I hope you overcome this downturn quickly with little dents on your expenses and livelihood.
Ted, Wish I still had a venue for you. I do feel confident that things will shake out and a formula will be realized that allows cartoonists, journalists, editors, photographers, etc. to actually make a secure living in the media, though much of it won't be printed on paper anymore, and we'll all have to survive this tough period to get there. People will never stop demanding great work like yours. They just have to be required and reminded to pay for it…
"Put up a donation page and I will contribute 25$ to you to help keep you going."
That would be awesome! If you still feel inclined, there's a PayPal button on the main page (rall.com).
Thanks, Steve! (Steve was my briliant editor of the late, lamented Los Angeles CityBeat alt weekly.) We journos will rise again–there's too much pent-up demand for real news and opinion.
> I have to say, I'm so god damn sick of the mindset that says "if it's digital,
> it should be free." I'm really fucking fed up with it.
That's not a "mindset," that's called the market. You can set any price you want. You'll just find out how many people think it's actually worth that amount.
Good grief! That sucks!
Sometimes–as a Federal employee–I forget what it was like when I worked as a self-employed collectibles dealer and part-time writer. The recession of Bush the Elder sent me into the arms of the USPS.
Damn him.
Hope you find a new gig.
I am really sorry to hear that.
You've been providing a powerful opposition to idiot neo-fascist editorials and toons. I have emailed your editorials to more people that I can recall. Even the ones that I knew would offend the Obamaniacs and selfish boomers that refuse to retire. Oddly they sometimes saw the light, go figure.
Anyway as one Lefty X'er to another I wish you the best of luck but I'm pretty certain that luck isn't something you need – talent will do it.
Sorry to hear about the lay off. Good luck, Ted.
Maybe the NYT could hire you?
All the best Tedster. It was a pleasure of have worked with you these past few years. You're a survivor and will move beyond this bump in the road. Necessity is the Mother of Re-invention.
Hope to see you in San Diego this Summer.
I heard about this a few days ago, Ted. Come to Durham. We have a lovely room in the attic for you. And you can enjoy the company of several other un-, under- and self-employed cartoonists. Martinis for everybody!
I am sorry to hear this. You're so very talented, and you're dedicated and smart enough that I have no doubt you'll come up with a good plan for yourself. Still,it sucks, and we're feeling your pain.