Rob Balder

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title: "Rob Balder" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-webcomic-creators", "american-comic-strip-cartoonists", "american-male-singer-songwriters", "american-satirical-musicians", "american-parody-musicians", "filkers", "roanoke-college-alumni", "living-people", "1969-births", "singers-from-detroit", "chantilly-high-school-alumni", "singer-songwriters-from-michigan"] description: "American cartoonist" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Balder" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American cartoonist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox comics creator"]

Field	Value
name	Robert Balder
image	RobBalder_Capcon2009.png
birth_date	1969
birth_place	Detroit, Michigan
nationality	American
area	Webcomics, filk music
notable works	PartiallyClips
Erfworld
awards	Pegasus Award
website	http://www.robbalder.com/
::

| name = Robert Balder | image = RobBalder_Capcon2009.png | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1969 | birth_place = Detroit, Michigan | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = American | area = Webcomics, filk music | alias = | signature = | notable works = PartiallyClips Erfworld | awards = Pegasus Award | website = http://www.robbalder.com/ Robert T. Balder is a professional cartoonist and singer-songwriter. He graduated from Roanoke College 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. In 2001, he started PartiallyClips, a social commentary clip art webcomic also featured in the Anchorage Press, Cleveland Free Times, Concord Mirror, East Bay Express, Houston Press, Manchester Mirror, Metroland, Nth Degree, Salem Observer 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". As of October 13, 2019, Erfworld has been discontinued for 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, Order of the Stick, Sluggy Freelance, and Wondermark. In 2006, he partnered with Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance, to create a retail market card game themed around Sluggy Freelance called Get Nifty.

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 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 for Best Filk 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, Tom Smith, Possible Oscar, Raymond and Scum, Spaff, and Worm Quartet, 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 Worm Quartet 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, CoastCon, I-Con, MidSouthCon, and OASIS.

References

References

1. (January 2026). "Biography".
2. "CoastCon XXXII Guests".
3. Schroeder, Al. "At A Fast Clip: Rob Balder Talks to Comixpedia".
4. Rall, Ted. (2006). "[[Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists". Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing.
5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071212161244/http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686244_1692143,00.html "Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007"], ''Time''
6. "Fragile Gravity, with Rob Balder's Guest Comic".
7. "Goats Erfworld Guest Comic".
8. "Order of the Stick Guest Comics".
9. "Comic for 11/16/03". Sluggy Freelance.
10. "Guest Comic by Rob Balder".
11. "Get Nifty - The Sluggy Freelance Card Game".
12. Liu, Jonathan H.. (19 August 2010). "A Page a Day Keeps the Doldrums Away: Duel in the Somme".
13. "Pegasus Awards - Rob Balder".
14. "The Dr. Demento Show #09-39 - September 27, 2009".
15. "The Dr. Demento Show #09-44 - November 1, 2009".
16. "The Official World Wide Dr. Demento Streaming Site".
17. "Disc-overies: Baldbox, "The Dumb Album" - Canandaigua, NY".
18. (7 February 2009). "American Erfs: Rob Balder and Jamie Noguchi".
19. "Capclave 2009: Music Guest of Honor".
20. "I-Con 22".
21. "MidSouthCon".
22. "OASIS 23".

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