THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY (NBM, October 15, 2009, $18.95)
MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, suite 401
Thursday, December 3, $5, 7:00 pm
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org
www.nbmpub.com
In the summer of 1984, Columbia student Ted Rall suddenly found himself with no money and no place to live. To survive, he went on an unending quest using the only thing he apparently had left – his sex appeal. Going to bars, protest events, parties, the dorms, and anywhere else women might be, he hooked up primarily to have a place to sleep. Rall, who has published such successful politically driven works as THE SILK ROAD TO RUIN and TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, tells his compelling personal story in the excellent graphic novel THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY, which features fab full-color illustrations by Pablo G. Callejo (BLUESMAN). Throughout the story, Rall does not portray himself as some hot stud muffin hopping from bed to bed with reckless abandon, a master conqueror of women; instead, he merely goes with the flow, doing his best to be at least a little considerate until things start getting a bit out of hand. In his foreword, Rall writes that the book “is a chronicle of desperation, of how easy it is for anyone – even a white male attending an Ivy League school – to fall off the merry-go-round of U.S.-style laissez faire capitalism.” And to put it all in proper perspective, the Happy Hooker herself, Xaviera Hollander, contributes an introduction. Rall will be discussing his “annus horribilis” and signing copies of the book at MoCCA on December 3 at 7:00.