Word: rall
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...known that one of the first books about the war in Afghanistan came from a cartoonist. Ted Rall's "To Afghanistan and Back" (NBM Publishing; 112pp.; $15.95) describes itself as a "graphic travelogue" but belongs in the milieu of war-torn foreign correspondence trail blazed by Joe Sacco's "Palestine" and "Safe Area Gorazde." Unlike those carefully rendered books, however, Rall's has come out quick and dirty, like a dispatch from the front lines of an on-going war. Rall, a syndicated political cartoonist whose weekly "Search and Destroy" appears in alterna-papers, felt the only way to discover...
...seems utterly miserable. Rall reveals that "contrary to the propaganda back home, the U.S.A.F. bombed anything and everything," even though "the last thing [Afghanistan] needs is more bombs. Bombing is redundant..." Reasoning that the odds of being hit are slim, people learn to disassociate the sound of bombs from death. Instead they worry about the gangs of heavily-armed thugs who rob and murder with no recourse. Rall's interpreter explains that having someone killed would cost $100 if you bargained well. "Would anybody care?" Rall asks. "Why would they?" is the hard-boiled reply. Even through his limited experience...
...well be America's Most-Despised Cartoonist--a title he earned earlier this year by making fun of Sept. 11 widows--but at least Rall came by his iconoclasm the hard way. Last November he went to Afghanistan, where he spent the next few weeks bored, terrified and enraged with the corruption and cynicism he witnessed. Rall's "graphic travelogue" is a gritty mix of photos, prose and his distinctive cartoons, which look as if they were drawn on the back of a math notebook. Though his perpetual jadedness can be infuriating, it's an astringent alternative to government press...
...though with Hellman presumably taking whatever anyone would give him, it lacks in editing what it gains in abundance. Comix scholars will appreciate the serendipitous class reunion of so many first generation underground cartoonists. Most notably, Spiegelman provides a back cover depiction of the Temple of Cartoon Gods, with Rall's effigy placed in the bathroom. It's his first public statement on the case and, by implication, Rall's article. The other really big name, Robert Crumb, has handed over what look like a couple pages from his sketchbooks, depicting a pair of medieval "Crumb Girls" in a catfight...
...most hi-brow material when it's in support of a guy who calls himself "Dirty" Danny. All of the pieces mean to be humorous and Tony Millionaire provides several of the best of these. My favorite contribution of his reads like a devastating, thinly-veiled reference to Rall, about a vicious, self-pitying giant snake roaming around the desert seeking love from the things it devours. Other artists use Hellman as an actual character, taking part in silly adventures that inevitably end in some vulgarity...