Ted Rall here. I’m packing up to do a French tour. The French edition of SILK ROAD TO RUIN, which NBM published in 2006, is coming out this month! I’m going to be at the big cartoon festival at Angoulême as well as a travel-oriented festival in Paris in ate January and early February, respectively.

I know it’s been a while since my last book, which is why I am excited about my new project, THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY. It’s a graphic novel, written by me and about me and drawn by BLUESMAN cartoonist Pablo Callejo, that returns to the autobio territory I abandoned after MY WAR WITH BRIAN in 1998. The first of my “Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll” trilogy, YEAR covers the year beginning in mid-1984, when–in short order–I was expelled from college, evicted from my home, dumped by my girlfriend and fired from my job. Jobless, broke, with no prospects and nowhere to live, I found myself living on the streets of New York City in the mean, lean Reagan years.

Pablo has finished 80 pages so far. The book will be 128 in all, so he’s getting close to completion. We’ll have to make some edits. It’s amazing how he’s able to channel NYC in the ’80s across the Atlantic just from my descriptions, but there are some inevitable errors that creep in. For instance, the Village Voice wasn’t given away at the time; it was sold at newsstands. After continuity and other errors are fixed, we’ll go to press. It’s hard to know the exact pub date, but I think it’s safe to say that YEAR will be released in 2009.

I’m very excited about returning to the graphic novel form with a muscular, balls-out approach that rejects the wimpy navel-gazing I’m-a-sensitive-artist-who-can’t-get-laid BS that’s so prevalent in indie comics nowadays. This is also my first-ever collaboration with another artist, which has gone very smoothly. Pablo is a pro!

Chris and I wander the then-sketchy streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Friends can drag you down--even friends who save your life.