Comic Transcripts

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
The Wi-Fi’s not working.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing left]]
ISN’T it? WELL!

[[Younger man’s face fills frame, looking upper left.]]
An object throwing off the tyranny of FUNCTION forces us to reevaluate it in unfamiliar contexts!
Such as: AS a nonfunctional item, what AESTHETIC stance might the router now assume” How does its mass and volume interact with its environment?

[[Younger man continues]]
Might it have LATENT roles we would never have CONSIDERED had it remained shackled to the drudgery of its “designed operative parameters”?
Do ALL things have facets and dimensions we too rarely cast the proper light on them to SEE?

[[Younger man continues]]
IS, in fact, “non-function” thus a MORAL GOOD, for definitions of morality that include as imperative the pursuit of a deeper understanding of all things?

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
Just…try restarting it.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing right.]]
FINE but you realize you’re leaving me no choice but to TUMBL AT LENGTH about the soul-deadening conformist attitudes of the modern work environment!
Once the wifi comes back on, that is.

{{header: the many roles of WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: No, I can’t post from my phone, it’s an artisanal model made out of a Super Nintendo controller, a barnwood sign from an old hay-distillery, and an obsolete Finnish SIM card}}

#1034; A Masterpiece in every Router transcribed by in

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
The Wi-Fi’s not working.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing left]]
ISN’T it? WELL!

[[Younger man’s face fills frame, looking upper left.]]
An object throwing off the tyranny of FUNCTION forces us to reevaluate it in unfamiliar contexts!
Such as: AS a nonfunctional item, what AESTHETIC stance might the router now assume” How does its mass and volume interact with its environment?

[[Younger man continues]]
Might it have LATENT roles we would never have CONSIDERED had it remained shackled to the drudgery of its “designed operative parameters”?
Do ALL things have facets and dimensions we too rarely cast the proper light on them to SEE?

[[Younger man continues]]
IS, in fact, “non-function” thus a MORAL GOOD, for definitions of morality that include as imperative the pursuit of a deeper understanding of all things?

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
Just…try restarting it.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing right.]]
FINE but you realize you’re leaving me no choice but to TUMBL AT LENGTH about the soul-deadening conformist attitudes of the modern work environment!
Once the wifi comes back on, that is.

{{header: the many roles of WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: No, I can’t post from my phone, it’s an artisanal model made out of a Super Nintendo controller, a barnwood sign from an old hay-distillery, and an obsolete Finnish SIM card}}

#1034; A Masterpiece in every Router transcribed by in

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
The Wi-Fi's not working.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing left]]
ISN'T it? WELL!

[[Younger man's face fills frame, looking upper left.]]
An object throwing off the tyranny of FUNCTION forces us to reevaluate it in unfamiliar contexts!
Such as: AS a nonfunctional item, what AESTHETIC stance might the router now assume" How does its mass and volume interact with its environment?

[[Younger man continues]]
Might it have LATENT roles we would never have CONSIDERED had it remained shackled to the drudgery of its "designed operative parameters"?
Do ALL things have facets and dimensions we too rarely cast the proper light on them to SEE?

[[Younger man continues]]
IS, in fact, "non-function" thus a MORAL GOOD, for definitions of morality that include as imperative the pursuit of a deeper understanding of all things?

[[Elderly balding gentleman in waistcoat standing at left]]
Just...try restarting it.
[[Younger man wearing skullcap seated at right facing right.]]
FINE but you realize you're leaving me no choice but to TUMBL AT LENGTH about the soul-deadening conformist attitudes of the modern work environment!
Once the wifi comes back on, that is.

{{header: the many roles of WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: No, I can't post from my phone, it's an artisanal model made out of a Super Nintendo controller, a barnwood sign from an old hay-distillery, and an obsolete Finnish SIM card}}

No, I can't post from my phone, it's an artisanal model made out of a Super Nintendo controller, a barnwood sign from an old hay-distillery, and an obsolete Finnish SIM card

#1034; A Masterpiece in every Router

  — June 4th, 2014

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1034/

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My newest game: Noodle Battle! At PAX!

September 2, 2026 by David Malki !

The past few weeks have been a frenzy of assembling the very laborious, very bespoke first print run of NOODLE BATTLE, the puzzle game I am releasing this weekend at PAX West in Seattle!

PAX has an event called the PNW Tabletop Game Market (Saturday night ONLY), which is a curated selection of short-run games from local designers. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I applied for a space in this fall’s event mainly as a way to force myself to finish a new game. And here it is!

The drawings are all by Jason Poland, good pal and cartoonist of My Dad Is Dracula. Jason played an early version of this game at Alaska Robotics Comics Camp this spring, and really liked it!

So I said, “Do you want to help me make it?” And so he has! It was his idea to make all the characters fun little animals, and I think it adds a ton of charm.

Because this edition is limited-run, it has been incredibly labor-intensive to make! The boxes and cards were made by a game factory in the usual fashion, but separately. The blank tiles were made by a woodworker dude out of Connecticut. For each game, we have had to:

  • Cut a piece of plastic and install the box window
  • Paint all the tiles, hundreds at a time
  • Apply a sticker to both sides of every tile
  • Apply stickers to the box (we couldn’t get the box back printed in time, so the whole back side of the box is a sticker too)
  • Apply the “Nutrition Facts” sticker, which was a late suggestion by my kid that I just had to run with
  • Fold up the rule sheet (they come from the printer as big strips of paper)
  • Put all the components into the box and seal it all up

I knew it would be a lot of work and would require some inefficient, expensive compromises AND I WAS RIGHT. But the final product is turning out great, which is the important thing!!

I will have 50 copies with me (if all goes well) at PAX, and then between now and the holidays we will be putting together additional copies to round out this first edition.

I will announce additional copies on Patreon first, once they are available online!! And here too, naturally, before long.

You can also sign up here if you’d like me to email you once the game is available online!


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