Editorial budgets have not been kind to cartoonists in recent years, so political cartoonist Ted Rall is trying a different tack: cutting out the middleman and selling his services direct to the public on eBay.

“I was thinking about how cartoons are popular with readers but not editors, and how it might be possible to get more money from readers than newspapers,” said Rall. “Then I thought: eBay!”

In a listing posted yesterday, Rall offers to draw a political cartoon on “any subject you want,” though he specifies that the winning bidder will only choose the topic:

You will NOT instruct Ted what to draw or how to do it. You will provide ONLY the topic of the cartoon. The topic should involve an item that is in the news, whether political or pop cultural or economic, etc. You should provide a LINK to said news story. In other words, no cartoons about personal stories, someone you know, etc.

Ted will draw whatever he feels like saying about this topic.

Rall notes that the offer is also available to editors.

The auction ends on May 2 and as of this writing, the bidding is already at $202.50.