Ted S. McGregor, who has served as editor and publisher since the paper's founding in 1993, will remain as publisher and president.
Gustavo Arellano will take over for Ted Kissell, who announced his resignation earlier today.
In a listing posted yesterday, political cartoonist Ted Rall offers to draw a political cartoon on "any subject you want."
The Village Voice released its Comics Issue this week, with an inventive and eye-catching cover done by longtime alt-cartoonist Ward Sutton.
Ted Rall has teamed up with Pablo G. Callejo for The Year of Loving Dangerously, which is based on Rall's experience getting arrested, dumped, expelled and evicted in New York City in 1984. It's Rall's first collaborative effort, and it hits stores next month. "Year is an allegory for the economic collapse, showcasing what can happen to anyone, even a white Ivy-educated male, who suffers a run of bad luck," Rall writes. "It's also a shot across the bow of other male graphic artists who wallow in self-pity and alienation." The Washington Post's Michael Cavna says the book is "a little bit Midnight Cowboy in tone, and part The Graduate."
His position for the syndicate -- editor of acquisitions and development -- has been eliminated. Over the past few years, Rall had successfully brought several alt-cartoonists into the fold at United, including Keith Knight ("The Knight Life") and the Weekly Dig's Tak Toyoshima ("Secret Asian Man"). Rall, who had held the acquisitions job since 2006, says he will still be drawing comics and writing columns for United.
Ted Rall, who is president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists president, has written an open letter to the Overseas Press Club of America president over an increase in the awards entry fee from $150 to $175. Rall accuses the organization of using the fees as a "revenue enhancing" operation at the expense of "beleaguered cartoonists," and says that at least 11 cartoonists will not enter the contest this year. The list includes other alt-cartoonists Mikhaela Reid (The Boiling Point) and Jen Sorensen (Slowpoke).
Rall, whose cartoons and columns appear in many alt-weeklies, took over as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists on Sept. 12. "For some reason my colleagues have made me president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), the organization for professional political cartoonists. (I suspect cartoonists' predilection for hard drinking had something to do with it.)," Rall writes in his weekly column. "Kidding aside, I'm honored." V. Cullum Rogers, the cartoonist at North Carolina's Independent Weekly, remains the group's secretary-treasurer, and Mikhaela Reid, whose work appears in Metro Times and other AAN papers, was elected to the group's board of directors.
Ted Rall and Matt Bors, whose strips appear in many AAN papers, are releasing cartoons this week ridiculing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for returning to their TV shows without making a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America. "The stakes are too high, the issues too important, the hypocrisy too hypocritical for us to just put down our pens and tune in to their union-busting, albeit highly amusing, programs," Rall and Bors say in a joint statement. They both say they will not be available to appear on either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report while the strike remains in effect. "We'd rather fight in Bush's wars than cross a picket line," they say. The cartoons go live today at TedRall.com and MattBors.com.
The addition of the widely syndicated sex-advice column to the Eugene Weekly is "stirring up controversy," according to KEZI-TV 9 News. The local ABC affiliate, which led with the story on Friday evening, took to the streets to get reactions; two of the three locals interviewed didn't have a problem with the column, with one woman offering, "I lived in New York City for many years. I'm way beyond ever being offended by anything." KEZI also talked to Eugene Weekly editor Ted Taylor (pictured), who wondered: "What's the big deal? They are just words about sex. Why not be outraged by what I consider the real moral issues?" Director of Advertising and Marketing Bill Shreve tells AAN News the paper picked up Savage Love in October, and e-mails and calls to the Weekly have been split about evenly between supporters and opponents of the column. He also notes that the whole thing has "been good for business."
