About

The author.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

I spell my name with an exclamation point, like so: David Malki !

It’s considered an honorific, and used in the same manner as “Jr.” or “PhD”: there’s a single space before it. You don’t need to write it in the middle of a sentence, only when listing my name by itself. The exclamation point is not pronounced — though many have tried, often with hilarious results.

I live in Seattle with my wife Nikki and some kid we had, and I love kittens.

In addition to making these comics, I work full-time as a product designer.

I started Wondermark in 2003, as a fun side project while working as a professional movie trailer editor. In 2009, I retired from that to focus on making Wondermark and related projects full-time.

For 10 years, basically all I did was make Nonsense on the Internet™. Starting in 2019, I began to work full-time for Actual Companies, but Wondermark is still my first love, and the place where I can do basically whatever I want. Which is what you can find on this site!

Wondermark also provides me with income: mainly from sales of interesting products, patron sponsorship, as well as (in much smaller measures) private art or design commissions, speaking and/or consulting fees about this nonsense, and syndication/licensing/reprint fees for the comics themselves, when they appear in other media.

You are more than welcome to write me for any reason whatsoever! My email address is: dave at wondermark dot com. Many emails are responded to eventually (I try to, at least).

For store inquiries, please write to store at wondermark dot com. We used to have a phone number for the store, but that proved to be a bad idea.

For professional inquiries, such as appearances, speaking engagements, publishing, or press inquiries, please write to business at wondermark dot com.

You can also write me a physical letter, and I will try my darnedest to write you one back! (Caveat: no guarantees.) As a kid, I wrote to Jeana Yeager (who co-piloted the Voyager aircraft around the world) and we were pen-pals for like six months.

Wondermark
4701 SW Admiral Way # 429

Seattle, WA 98116


MERCHANDISE.

I have three online stores at the same time:

  • My pals at TopatoCo sell my T-shirts, comic strip prints, Wondermark posters, and lots of other fun items like mugs and bags. They also carry my books.
  • Via my in-house store, I sell books, greeting cards, magnets, stickers, and occasional other special handmade items.
  • Digital downloads of books and greeting cards are also available via Gumroad.

ABOUT THE COMIC.

Every Wondermark comic is created in Photoshop as a collage, using images from 19th century woodcuts and engravings. Like so:

The images are scanned from my personal collection of old books, and also from volumes in the Los Angeles Central Library and the UCLA Rare Books Collection.

In addition, I’m always finding more and more collections online – a few good ones are:

The most common source of the images I like best are general-interest magazines such as Harper’s, Frank Leslie’s and Punch, but my collection also includes special-interest magazines such as Scientific American, Sears-Roebuck and other catalogs, and children’s storybooks and primers.

I’m always interested in acquiring more source material, so if you find a moldy old book in your attic (from about 1870 through 1915), and it’s full of old drawings, cartoons, or engravings, drop me a line!

The very first Wondermark comic was posted to v.1.0 of this website in April 2003. The comic has been syndicated in several newspapers over the years (most notably in the print edition of The Onion from 2006–2009, and the online AV Club from 2009–2013), but these days it’s found mostly online or in book collections from Dark Horse, as well as from my own small press, Bearstache Books.

You can feel free to re-post any comics from this site on your blog, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. without asking permission, so long as you include a link back to wondermark.com as well!


ABOUT THIS WEBSITE.

I generally try to post a new comic each week, and sometimes am successful.

The tags below each comic and after each blog post, or the “All tags” directory, may alert you to other comics or posts on similar topics.

There are loads of ways to subscribe to Wondermark posts — email, RSS, LiveJournal, and Twitter are the best, and all will give you 100% of the content of the site.

Past Wondermark comics also re-run (asynchronously) on GoComics.

Aside from this website, up-to-date feeds of new comics are also provided on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, sent to you free via email – and early access is provided on Patreon.

Note that social platforms – Facebook in particular – may not show you all the content on a regular basis. Take it up with them.

By design, I have removed all ads from this site, so you never have to worry about your browsing habits being picked up by Facebook’s ad cookies or whatever.


HEY MALKI, WILL YOU BE MY FACEBOOK FRIEND?

To be honest, I don’t use Facebook much at all – and when I do, it’s mainly just to stay in touch with family.

So as a rule, I don’t accept friend invites from anyone who’s not my in-person, real-world friend…it just makes everything easier to handle.

Besides, I don’t do anything on Facebook anyway; it’s not like you’re missing out on anything.

As mentioned above, there is a Facebook page for Wondermark, and that might be something cool to check out! All the comics are posted there too (although, as noted, Facebook might limit how often it shows them to you. Nothing I can do about that, sadly).

I am on LinkedIn, but I don’t really add strangers there without a reason. If you have something professional you want to discuss with me there, feel free.


HEY MALKI, CAN I INTERVIEW YOU FOR AN ARTICLE / SCHOOL REPORT?

Yes, this is possible! But to be honest, I have done a lot of interviews and most of them are freely available to read. (In fact, scroll down a little bit for a list.)

I respectfully ask that anybody doing a school report, etc. take a brief look through that list; in there you’ll find answers to all of the common questions I’m often asked.

If you have further questions not covered in a prior interview, new follow-ups, or your report is about a particular theme that I haven’t publicly discussed, I’d be happy to look over your questions, but I am kind of slow at these things. If my previous interviews can answer your questions then it’s really much easier for both of us.

If you would like to conduct a new interview for a news article or feature story, that’s great! I am happy to speak with you. However, I still ask that you look over the list of prior interviews, just so your new interview doesn’t cover ground that has already been trod to death.

If you write me with an interview request, please include the word “huckleberry” in your subject line so I know you’ve read this. If you haven’t, please don’t feel bad if I send you here first! It really saves both of us quite a bit of time.


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Articles / Columns:

True Stuff from Old Books [series]
The Making of Wondermark
[2004]
‘Comics’ is Killing Webcomics [2007]
One More Chance (an essay about flying) [2007]
Where Do You Get Your Ideas? [2007]
Nine Ways to Feel a Bookstore (Poets & Writers) [2011]

Stories:

Dispatches from Wondermark Manor
“Fever” (horror-ish)
“Life-Sized Arena Tetris!”
Machine of Death: “Cancer” and “Cocaine and Painkillers”
Other misc. stories and jokes

Guest comics:

Dinosaur Comics 1 / 2
Whispered Apologies 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Reprographics 1 / 2 / 3
The Webcomic Hurricane Relief Telethon
Thinkin’ Lincoln 1 / 2
Alien Loves Predator
Pirate and Alien
Scribs
Goats
Perfect Stars
Unshelved
Scenes From a Multiverse

Reviews of my work:

The Annotated Wondermark
Beards of our Forefathers 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death 1 / 2 / 3
Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters
Expendable 1 / 2
“Fever”
My books are all on Goodreads.


INTERVIEWS & MEDIA.

TEXT INTERVIEWS:

Webcomics series in The Observer (2015) part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4
Theology of Games (2013)
VanCAF interview (2012)
The Sound a Doggy Makes (2011)
Washington City Paper (2011)
Quail Bell Magazine (2010)
Comic Book Resources (2010)
Things I’d Rather Be Doing (2009)
The Comics Reporter (2008)
Greylock Arts: .Comics (2008)
Comic Book Bin (2008)
Illiterate Magazine (2007) page 1 / page 2

PODCASTS & AUDIO:

Who, What, Why: Cut.games With David Malki (2022)
Daily Tech News Show Labs Interview (2018)
The Power Was In You All Along @ ECCC 2017 (panel audio)
Comics Manifest (2017)
The Wallet Inspectors (2017)
The Art of Engineering
 (2016)
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (2013)
New Disruptors (2013)
To The Top (2012)
Jordan, Jesse, GO! 2011 / 2013
War Rocket Ajax (2011)
Mustache Rangers (2011)
The Sound of Young America (2009)
Words and Pictures (2008)
Webcomics Roundtable @ Heroes Con 2008 w/Nicholas Gurewitch
Webcomics Weekly
Blank Label Podcast

VIDEO:

Empowered Human Academy (2022)
I Work Here: Inside the Work Space of David Malki (2018)
Urban Dictionary Game Show @ ECCC 2014 (panel video) NSFW language
Crowdfunding with Matthew Lesko (2013)
The Creative Penn(2010)
C2E2 interview with Kurt Sasso (2010)
RGBfilter @ TCAF (2010)
Comic Book Club @ MoCCA(2010)
Metropolis Comics in-store appearance (2010)
STAPLE! 2008


SOME OTHER PROJECTS.


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