Robert T. Balder is a professional cartoonist and singer-songwriter. He graduated from

Roanoke College Roanoke College is a private liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia. It has approximately 2,000 students who represent approximately 40 states and 30 countries. The college offers 35 majors, 57 minors and concentrations, and pre-professional pr ...

with a major in English in 1993 and, after a variety of jobs, entered a seven-year career in IT, starting as a manager of database development, which he left for his current career.

Comics

As a comic author, he was first published in ''Scene'' magazine in 1998. Page 93 and on. In 2001, he started ''

PartiallyClips ''PartiallyClips'' is a webcomic, created by Rob Balder, which ran from 2002 to 2015. At the start of 2010, Balder handed authorship of the comic to Tim Crist, the comedy musician behind Worm Quartet. Premise ''PartiallyClips'' is a constrai ...

'', a social commentary clip art webcomic also featured in the ''

Anchorage Press The ''Anchorage Press'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Anchorage, Alaska and owned by Wick Communications. Established in 1992 by Bill Boulay, Barry Bialik, and Nick Coltman as the ''Anchorage Bypass'', it was renamed the ''Anch ...

'', ''

Cleveland Free Times The ''Cleveland Free Times'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. Its first issue was published on September 30, 1992. The ''Free Times'' and '' Cleveland Scene'', a competing weekly paper, were purchased by Times-Shamrock Co ...

'', ''Concord Mirror'', ''

East Bay Express The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday. The ''E ...

'', ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

'', ''Manchester Mirror'', '' Metroland'', ''Nth Degree'', ''

Salem Observer The ''Salem Observer'' (1823-1919) was a weekly newspaper published in Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans b ...

'' and the '' Other Paper''. He is also the writer for the '' Erfworld'' webcomic, which was listed as one of ''Time'' magazine's "Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007"."Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007"
''Time'' As of October 13, 2019, Erfworld has been discontinued due to personal reasons. Balder is well-known within the webcomic creator community, as evidenced by his writing of guest comics for other webcomics: ''Fragile Gravity'', ''

Goats The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...

'', ''

Order of the Stick ''The Order of the Stick'' (''OOTS'') is a comedic webcomic that satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy. The comic is written and drawn by Rich Burlew, who illustrates the comic in a stick figure style. Taking place in a mag ...

'', ''

Sluggy Freelance ''Sluggy Freelance'' is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by Pete Abrams. Starting in 1997, it is one of the oldest successful webcomics, and as of 2012 had hundreds of thousands of readers. Abrams was one of the first comic artists succ ...

'', and ''

Wondermark ''Wondermark'' is a webcomic created by David Malki which was syndicated to '' Flak Magazine'' and appeared in ''The Onion'' print edition from 2006 to 2008. It features 19th-century illustrations that have been recontextualized to create humorous ...

''. In 2006, he partnered with

Pete Abrams ''Sluggy Freelance'' is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by #Author, Pete Abrams. Starting in 1997, it is one of the oldest successful webcomics, and as of 2012 had hundreds of thousands of readers. Abrams was one of the first comic arti ...

, to create a retail market card game themed around ''Sluggy Freelance'' called ''

Get Nifty ''Sluggy Freelance'' is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by Pete Abrams. Starting in 1997, it is one of the oldest successful webcomics, and as of 2012 had hundreds of thousands of readers. Abrams was one of the first comic artists succ ...

''. In August 2010, he co-wrote a 24-page comic called '' A Duel in the Somme'', based on a story by the science fiction author

Ben Bova Benjamin William Bova (November 8, 1932November 29, 2020) was an American writer and editor. During a writing career of 60 years, he was the author of more than 120 works of science fact and fiction, an editor of '' Analog Science Fiction and F ...

and illustrated by the syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. The comic was released on its own website under a Creative Commons license at a rate of one page per day and used a reward-driven donation model for revenue.

Music

Balder writes and sings comedy songs, and has recorded two CDs. The title track from his first CD, "Rich Fantasy Lives", was co-written with Tom Smith, and won the 2007

Pegasus Award The Pegasus Award is the premier award for filk music and is annually hosted at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF). Awards The Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. As science fiction (sci-fi) became better kn ...

for Best

Filk Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. Etymology and defin ...

Song; they had been nominated the previous year for the same award. He was also one of the seven founders of the FuMP, or "Funny Music Project", along with Devo Spice,

Luke Ski Luke Collis Sienkowski (born January 14, 1974), better known as the great Luke Ski or simply as Luke Ski, is an American parody, filk, and rap artist, who writes, records and performs comedy music. The decapitalization of "the great" in Sienko ...

, Tom Smith, Possible Oscar,

Raymond and Scum The Background Raymond and Scum is a comedy rock band based in Southern California. Vocalist Jeff Smith and guitarist Matthew Dunn formed the band while they were still in high school. Their songs were regularly played on the syndicated Dr. Demen ...

, Spaff and

Worm Quartet Worm Quartet is a comedy music project created by Timothy F. Crist who uses the stage moniker ShoEboX and performs fast, synth-driven, pseudo-metal punk/pop. The band was formed in 1991 and its name is a reference to cartoons Crist used to draw. ...

, in which they present new songs released under a Creative Commons license. His comedy music has received national airplay in the United States on the syndicated '' Dr. Demento Show''. His song "Gamer Funk" was the #1 most requested song on the ''Dr. Demento Show'' in both September and October 2009, and was the third most requested song for that entire year. In February 2009, Balder began a collaboration with ShoEboX of

called "Baldbox". The duo released one CD (''The Dumb Album'') and several follow-up songs, which have also been played frequently by Dr. Demento and other terrestrial radio shows.

Professional and public

Balder is a frequent guest and program participant at science fiction, comic, gaming and anime conventions, participating in as many as 20 events a year. Several conventions have invited him as Guest of Honor, including

Capclave The Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) is the oldest science fiction club in the Washington, D.C. area. It is also one of the oldest science fiction clubs, founded in 1947 by seven fans who met at that year's Worldcon in Philadelphia, th ...

, CoastCon,

I-Con I-CON (short for "Island CONvention") was a (roughly) annual fan convention, held on various college campuses in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. First held in 1982 on the campus of Stony Brook University, I-CON became a very eclectic co ...

MidSouthCon MidSouthCon is an annual multi-day fan convention in the Mid-Southern United States. Background Run by Mid-South Science and Fictions Conventions Inc., the annual multi-day fan convention focuses on anime, comic books, fantasy media, films, ...

, and

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

References

External links

Official website

''Erfworld''

''PartiallyClips''

''A Duel in the Somme''

''The Funny Music Project''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balder, Rob American webcomic creators American comic strip cartoonists American male singer-songwriters American satirists American parodists Parody musicians Filkers Roanoke College alumni Living people 1969 births Singers from Detroit Chantilly High School alumni Singer-songwriters from Michigan