Ted Rall

"I was a history major with a minor in physics at Columbia. I never really had any kind of formal art training and some people might even say it shows."

CARTOONISTS

Charles Schulz - "I imported the four-panel comic strip structure into the editorial cartoon convention. Anyone who works in four panels post-1950 owes a debt to Schulz's 'introduce the gag, expand upon it, pause or counter, punchline', structure. I've tried to emulate his magnificent simplicity, but ineffectively."

Jules Feiffer - "I came across his Village Voice cartoons in books in my teacher's classroom while growing up in Kettering, Ohio. He was my biggest influence. Not only did he do wordy cartoons—Garry Trudeau showed that one could as well—he did work that focused on the trials and tribulations of typical people as they responded to political and current events. Most other cartoonists focused their work on personalities like the president."

SOURCE

Mike Peters - "The local editorial cartoonist at the Dayton Daily News was a master of black ink, contrast, and a vicious skewerer of President Nixon while I was growing up. I got to meet him and was amazed at the lifestyle that he got to live. After that, all I ever wanted was to draw cartoons, make fun of the president, and get paid for it."

Ruben Bolling - "Strictly speaking, "Tom the Dancing Bug" isn't an editorial cartoon. But when Ruben tackles politics, he draws from his experience as a lawyer to draft a devastating legal brief against stupidity."

Matt Bors - "He's 23. He's a great artist. He's hilarious. He's brilliant. I want to kill him."

Tom Tomorrow - "He's my biggest competitor. He has developed an amusing clip-art-influenced drawing style, and he is amazingly consistent. His biggest gift is deconstructing right-wing arguments."

SOURCE

"During the Bush Administration's first term it was pretty hard to this job. People became hypercritical and newspapers and magazines dropped editorial cartoons all together. The whole atmosphere just became so toxic."

MUSIC

The Clash - "Produced with timeless, low-budget, shittiness and delivered with painful earnestness, The Clash were the revolutionary theoreticians of punk rock. Classic, eternal and nearly as surprising today as they were at the time."

Ramones - "Every song a wannabe hit single, every singer weirder than weird, every lyric willfully tongue in cheek, a boundless reserve of pure pop energy. Their fans are assholes but they're great."

Credit: Ian Dickson/Star File

J Church - "The lead singer may have had the worst voice in rock—I could do better—but no one ever explored more topical range or brought more love of life to a recording studio. RIP, Lance Hahn."

"I interviewed for a cartoon job at this newspaper out in NJ and I aced it. Answered all the questions right and then it came time for that final question - the one that decides if you get or not - and the editor looks at me and says 'if you work here and I look out this window, am I going to see people outside protesting because of something you drew?' I looked at him and said, 'I can't guarantee that.' Which, of coarse was the wrong answer, because he hired someone more moderate in their political views."

RADIO

I used to listen to Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby on WABC. The best four hours on radio ever, period. Also check out Rush, because he's essential, and Sean Hannity, because he's such an asshole. I gave up on Air America years ago. It's so borrrrrring. On NPR, I love Brian Lehrer and Diane Rehm.

"It takes a certain masochism to shop at some of the record stores in New York because the clerks are total pricks. When I used to make a lot of money I would buy records every week for 15 years and I swear, out of all those times, only once did the clerk at the register look at my records and give the sign of approval. All the other times I got looks of seething contempt for my shitty taste in music. But that's part of why you go - you go to try to make this pricky little minimum wage worker think you're awesome."

WEBSITES

Editorialcartoonists.com – Syndicated editorial cartoons
Cagle.com – More of the same
Yahoo! News Comics
Dailycartoonist.com – Industry News
TCJ.com – also comics news
Cartoonistswithattitude.org – Group blog by cool cartoonists

STORES

"Some of my favorite spots in NYC are out of business:  Things change so fast here! Of those that remain, it's hard to beat The Strand bookstore for used books and Other Music on West 4th Street for CDs (I refuse to buy MP3s)"

Jim Hanley's Universe - "It has a wide selection, and is equally committed to superhero, manga and artsy stuff. The staff is professional and knowledgeable."

Molly (left) at Jim Hanley's Universe
SOURCE

St. Mark's Comics - "Kind of a rathole, but you can't beat the location on Main Street, East Village. It has a nice intimate feel of New York in the '80s. That includes the insulting bag check policy to deter shoplifters. (Do I look like a shoplifter?)"

"I'm working on a graphic novel about my early 20's in New York. I was broke. I was dumped by my girlfriend, expelled from school, fired from my job, evicted from my apartment and had basically 8 bucks in my pocket. I survived by picking up girls at bars and spending the night at their apartment. I was basically a man slut. Shortly after, I moved in with a crack addict and spent my time hanging out with the Dead Kennedys."

RESTAURANTS & BARS

V&T Pizzeria - "V&T on Amsterdam is one of my favorite pizza spots in town."

Tabla - "It's savory and sweet and everything good at all once."

SOURCE: Nicole Bengiveno for The New York Times

7A - "They have the best cheap brunch in NYC."

The Landmark Tavern - "My favorite bar, which cartoonist Jeff Danziger turned me on to ("no TV") is the Landmark, at 11th and 46th. It still has 19th century water closets in the bathrooms."

Tom's Diner - "My old college diner, made famous by Seinfeld. Best damned coffee anywhere. And the waitresses know me."

NEIGHORHOODS & PARKS

Riverside Park - "I love Riverside Park for running and hanging out with the Sunday New York Times."

Morningside Heights - "It's ethnically diverse, affordable and vibrant. In the summer, it's 10 degrees cooler than Midtown. And the air smells relatively clean. Subway service is spotty, though."

SOURCE: Flickr

"When you go to a party in New York everyone's always scheming or up to something. They're all going on an audition or writing a screenplay or having their novel published or having an upcoming gallery show. It's depressing. When you go home you're like, 'shit, I'm fucking lazy, I better do something.' It's really a good thing because if I lived in Ohio where I grew up I would be the most accomplished person in the room and that's bad. You always want to be the least accomplished so you'll be inspired. In New York, you'll never be the top of the heap."

MUSEUMS

Aside from the usual suspects, I recommend the Transit Museum (New Yorkers call it the subway museum) in Brooklyn. It has all these cool old subway trains and is in an abandoned subway station. The Museum of the City of New York is often overlooked, but rocks. The Museum of Sex is worth seeing.

SOURCE

NEWS OUTLETS

The New York Times - "Like many people, I have a love-hate relationship with the New York Times. It's an absolutely essential read and its international coverage continues to remain the gold standard in the United States (which isn't saying much). But its NYC coverage is an embarrassment. Its arts coverage is pathetic, ignoring most of what's relevant and interesting in books and music. Worst of all are the opinion pages, which only features one liberal (Paul Krugman) and atrocious "op art" pieces that wouldn't have made the cut in my junior high school paper."

The New York Post - "The Post is my afternoon paper. I need Keith Kelley's media gossip, the ridiculous right-wing columns and celebrity crap to be fully rounded as a trash-loving American."

The Daily News - "The Daily News used to be a regular read for me, but stopped being essential after they lost their best writers during the 1980s Newspaper Guild strike."

OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST

SOURCE

Night Court - "For my money the best place to see New York City at its best and at its worst is night court. Quick and hilarious and a serious eye-opener as to what's going on in the naked city while you're working in some office."