Comic Transcripts

WALTER: Huh, look at that guy. Looks kind of like an older version of you.
JIM-BOB: Whenever I see people like that, I always wonder who they are.

JIM-BOB: Are we related? Maybe they’re some COUSIN I’ve never met?
Maybe that’s my REAL DAD, you know? Maybe the jerk married to my Mom STOLE me as a baby.
Maybe that guy is the KING of some far-off country, come to CLAIM me and make me a PRINCE.
WALTER: I take a DIFFERENT view. I always imagine those people to be ME FROM THE FUTURE, sent back to WATCH OVER me in the PAST.

WALTER: They never SAY anything, ’cause they don’t want me to KNOW. It might jeopardize their very EXISTENCE in the future!
But I will RECALL this moment, when I am THEM, and know I won’t HAVE to say a single word.
Seeing folks who might be Future-Me is REASSURING. It lets me believe that behind the scenes, things are quietly being arranged for my life to progress successfully.
And no matter how dark things seem, I’ll be FINE–because someday I’ll make it to the point at which I’ll go back in time.

JIM-BOB: See, I like YOUR thing better.
WALTER: REALLY? All things considered, YOURS is more likely to be real.

JIM-BOB: Of course NEITHER is REAL. But in YOURS, the fact that the stranger walks away without so much as a glance is PART of it.
If he SAID anything, he’d WRECK it.
In MINE, when the stranger walks away, that ENDS it. It’s NOT REAL.
It’s OVER.

JIM-BOB: As far as YOU know, you’re visited by your future self EVERY DAY.
But no KING has ever come to save ME.

[[A biplane flies low over a lake.]]

[[In a spectacular hall, the bearded man in the background during WALTER and JIM-BOB’s conversation meets with the QUEEN.]]
QUEEN: Did you LOCATE the LONG-LOST PRINCE?
BEARDSLEY {{Why not?}}: Yeah, but he was sort of a whiny emo bitch, so I said FORGET it.

{{Header: looks just like WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: you never know who’s listening!}}

#487; In which One has to Wonder transcribed by in

WALTER: Huh, look at that guy. Looks kind of like an older version of you.
JIM-BOB: Whenever I see people like that, I always wonder who they are.

JIM-BOB: Are we related? Maybe they’re some COUSIN I’ve never met?
Maybe that’s my REAL DAD, you know? Maybe the jerk married to my Mom STOLE me as a baby.
Maybe that guy is the KING of some far-off country, come to CLAIM me and make me a PRINCE.
WALTER: I take a DIFFERENT view. I always imagine those people to be ME FROM THE FUTURE, sent back to WATCH OVER me in the PAST.

WALTER: They never SAY anything, ’cause they don’t want me to KNOW. It might jeopardize their very EXISTENCE in the future!
But I will RECALL this moment, when I am THEM, and know I won’t HAVE to say a single word.
Seeing folks who might be Future-Me is REASSURING. It lets me believe that behind the scenes, things are quietly being arranged for my life to progress successfully.
And no matter how dark things seem, I’ll be FINE–because someday I’ll make it to the point at which I’ll go back in time.

JIM-BOB: See, I like YOUR thing better.
WALTER: REALLY? All things considered, YOURS is more likely to be real.

JIM-BOB: Of course NEITHER is REAL. But in YOURS, the fact that the stranger walks away without so much as a glance is PART of it.
If he SAID anything, he’d WRECK it.
In MINE, when the stranger walks away, that ENDS it. It’s NOT REAL.
It’s OVER.

JIM-BOB: As far as YOU know, you’re visited by your future self EVERY DAY.
But no KING has ever come to save ME.

[[A biplane flies low over a lake.]]

[[In a spectacular hall, the bearded man in the background during WALTER and JIM-BOB’s conversation meets with the QUEEN.]]
QUEEN: Did you LOCATE the LONG-LOST PRINCE?
BEARDSLEY {{Why not?}}: Yeah, but he was sort of a whiny emo bitch, so I said FORGET it.

{{Header: looks just like WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: you never know who’s listening!}}

#487; In which One has to Wonder transcribed by in

WALTER: Huh, look at that guy. Looks kind of like an older version of you.
JIM-BOB: Whenever I see people like that, I always wonder who they are.

JIM-BOB: Are we related? Maybe they're some COUSIN I've never met?
Maybe that's my REAL DAD, you know? Maybe the jerk married to my Mom STOLE me as a baby.
Maybe that guy is the KING of some far-off country, come to CLAIM me and make me a PRINCE.
WALTER: I take a DIFFERENT view. I always imagine those people to be ME FROM THE FUTURE, sent back to WATCH OVER me in the PAST.

WALTER: They never SAY anything, 'cause they don't want me to KNOW. It might jeopardize their very EXISTENCE in the future!
But I will RECALL this moment, when I am THEM, and know I won't HAVE to say a single word.
Seeing folks who might be Future-Me is REASSURING. It lets me believe that behind the scenes, things are quietly being arranged for my life to progress successfully.
And no matter how dark things seem, I'll be FINE--because someday I'll make it to the point at which I'll go back in time.

JIM-BOB: See, I like YOUR thing better.
WALTER: REALLY? All things considered, YOURS is more likely to be real.

JIM-BOB: Of course NEITHER is REAL. But in YOURS, the fact that the stranger walks away without so much as a glance is PART of it.
If he SAID anything, he'd WRECK it.
In MINE, when the stranger walks away, that ENDS it. It's NOT REAL.
It's OVER.

JIM-BOB: As far as YOU know, you're visited by your future self EVERY DAY.
But no KING has ever come to save ME.

[[A biplane flies low over a lake.]]

[[In a spectacular hall, the bearded man in the background during WALTER and JIM-BOB's conversation meets with the QUEEN.]]
QUEEN: Did you LOCATE the LONG-LOST PRINCE?
BEARDSLEY {{Why not?}}: Yeah, but he was sort of a whiny emo bitch, so I said FORGET it.

{{Header: looks just like WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: you never know who's listening!}}

you never know who's listening!

#487; In which One has to Wonder

  — February 6th, 2009

[ Tags: , , , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/487/

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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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