Here are a couple of the many Roll-a-Sketches I did in Toronto last week! Thanks to everyone who came by the table, it was a great reminder of why I do that show every year. Everybody’s so nice and it’s such a neat environment for art and friends!

ICE CREAM + KNIGHT: (click pics for bigger)

OSTRICH + AIRPLANE + CAVEMAN + HELICOPTER:

RHINO + ICE CREAM + CAVEMAN + COWBOY:

CACTUS + TOASTER:

Would you like a Roll-a-Sketch of your very own?? THIS WEEKEND I will be returning to the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo! The show is Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19.

I’ll have a booth in the Bazaar Bizarre section, right next to my old pal Chris Yates (handmade puzzle crafter extraordinaire).

BONUS VIDEOS: The last time I was at Maker Faire, two years ago, I recorded a video journal of the drive up and back! Full of HIGH DRAMA and BURRITOS and THE TERRIFYING SPECTER OF FATIGUE. If you’ve ever wanted to see a lot of me in sunglasses, YOU’RE IN LUCK.

I re-watched these videos tonight and the whole thing seems like just yesterday. But it was TWO YEARS AGO. I don’t even KNOW.

I’m heading back to Ol’ Miss (Toronto, of course) for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend!

On Saturday at 1:30 PM, Ryan North and I will be hosting a Machine of Death drawing game panel, featuring Meredith Gran, KC Green, Carly Monardo and Christopher Hastings!

( Here is the blurb on the TCAF website with info about the venue )

TCAF is one of my favorite shows, not least because it’s FREE to attend. Come on up to the Toronto Reference Library and say hello! I’ll be on the second floor.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME WE DID THIS PANEL

“Two Chips” by Adam Patch. [Video link]

“My wife drank a bottle of wine, then wanted to tell me a joke.”

“Finally my 2nd Calarts film is completed! I wanted to make something that focuses on how meaningful it is to make food for someone you love.”

I LOVE THESE BOTH

Here are a few of the Roll-a-Sketch drawings I did in Calgary over the weekend! First up, PIRANHA + CAVEMAN:

KNIGHT + CACTUS:

INSECT + TURTLE + DOCTOR + GIRAFFE:

And of course, PLATYPUS + SHARK:

If you’re in the Toronto area, I’ll be there for TCAF in two weeks! Come get a unique drawing of your very own, I DARE YA

I’m in Calgary all weekend at the Comics Expo! Come say hello at the TopatoCo booth (#922/1022).

Pick up a free Machine of Death convention-exclusive game card, or grab yourself a Roll-a-Sketch or a copy of the newest Wondermark book, Emperor of the Food Chain.

Hope to see you there!

ALSO: IMPORTANT CANADA NEWS: I made a thrilling discovery in the Calgary airport:

WHAT IS HAPPENING twitter.com/malki/status/3…

— David Malki ! (@malki) April 25, 2013

ONE SCIENTIFIC TEST LATER:

PICKLE DORITOS UPDATE: tastes just like pickles

— David Malki ! (@malki) April 25, 2013

BONUS LINK: An interview from a previous trip to Calgary!

Here are a few facts to BLOW YOUR MIND if you want to feel OLD!!!

• Latvia’s post-Cold War declaration of independence happened closer to the moon landing than the present day.
• The release of New Coke happened closer to Alaska becoming a U.S. state than the present day.
• The Bay of Pigs invasion happened closer to Mussolini’s assumption of power in Italy than to the capture of Saddam Hussein in his spider hole.
• The Los Angeles Summer Olympics happened closer to the founding of the Republic of Bangladesh than to the release of Windows 98.
• The premiere of the first film featuring Donald Duck happened closer to the present day than to the succession of King Johann to the throne of Saxony.
• The Battle of Guadalcanal happened closer to the ratification of the Twenty-Third Amendment than to the birth of Russian lexicographer Vladimir Dal.
• Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain happened closer to the same declaration by Paraguay than to the present day.
• The formation of the universe happened closer to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary than the present day.
• The succession of Osman III (1754–1757) as Ottoman Emperor, replacing Mahmud I, happened closer to John Flamsteed’s initial sighting of Uranus than to my graduation from high school.
• The first flight of the Space Shuttle happened closer to the present day than to the Battle of Agincourt.

Ha ha, you’re OLD!!!

I’m getting ready to hit the road for a bunch of conventions! If you’re near any of these places, I’d love to see you there. I’d be pleased to shake your hand, make you a Roll-a-Sketch, or whatever!

Note as well that I’m not always listed in show programs or directories under my name, or Wondermark: sometimes I’m with TopatoCo, other times with other groups — but I always try to mention my location for each show here on the site in advance, so be sure to check in.

PLUS OF COURSE I perform improv comedy every other Monday night at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, CA with my house team “Cool Boss”! Those shows are always FREE so STOP ON BY.

April 26-28: Calgary Comics Expo
May 11-12: Toronto Comic Arts Festival
May 18-19: Maker Faire Bay Area (San Mateo CA)
May 23-26: Phoenix Comicon (First time!)
May 31-June 2: MaxFunCon (Lake Arrowhead CA)
June 2: Machine of Death x 826LA Benefit Party (Los Angeles)
June 22-23: Renegade Craft Fair (Brooklyn) (First time!)
July 11-14: Readercon (Burlington MA)
July 18-21: San Diego Comic-Con
Aug 29-Sept 2: Worldcon/LoneStarCon 3 (San Antonio)
August 15-18: Gen Con (Indianapolis) (First time!)
September 14-15: Small Press Expo (Bethesda MD)

boom I hope I SEE YOU THERE!

My friend Matt Bennardo tweeted a link today to a lengthy article about a fairly obscure corner of literary scholarship that nonetheless completely riveted me. Whenever I worry that my attention span is becoming depleted by the constant noise-barrage of the internet, I remember that certain pieces of reading still have the power to make the world recede for a bit.

I hope I’m not overselling this piece too much. It’s (nominally) about how, in 1862, Charles Dickens may or may not have met Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Although Dostoevsky is known to have visited London for a week in 1862, neither his published letters nor any of the numerous biographies contain any hint of such a meeting. Dostoevsky would have been a virtual unknown to Dickens. It isn’t clear why Dickens would have opened up to his Russian colleague in this manner, and even if he had wanted to, in what language would the two men have conversed?…

“When Dickens Met Dostoevsky”, by Eric Naiman, The Times Literary Supplement. Read the whole thing here. Take my word for it.

A few years ago I had the delight of meeting and befriending one of the greatest stage magicians around, a true master of the old-time patter and a gentleman to boot, Pop Haydn. Pop is performing his signature show this Thursday, April 4, at Magicopolis in Santa Monica, CA — discounted tickets are available on his website.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview with Pop — I love this guy:

We don’t have fraud in nature. The universe is not set up to fool us. If we find facts in nature, they’re usually pretty much what they appear to be. But when humans are involved, there is always the possibility of cheating and trickery. And that’s what magicians are here to remind us about, how easily we can be fooled, when there’s another human being using deception…

You [the public] can’t invent the solution [to a magic trick] because you don’t have the technology. You don’t know the technology of deception. We have a whole deception of camouflage, mirrors, pick pocketing, lock-picking, acting, costuming, lighting, deceit, trickery, lying. All kinds of stuff at our disposal that we’ve studied, that gives us an edge over someone who doesn’t know that technology. Because any technology that is sufficiently advanced looks like magic. Our technology is a technology of deception. That’s what looks like magic to people. (read more)

I was pleased to feature Pop at our Machine of Death Magic & Variety Show a little while back. Here’s an excerpt from his performance! (It starts with me & Ryan North chatting for a bit; Pop comes on stage around at around 2:45.)

If you’re in the L.A. area and free on Thursday night, I highly recommend Pop’s show!

I did a guest comic for Jon Rosenberg’s Scenes From a Multiverse! CHECK IT OUT, it is made from pictures I scanned from a strange French calendar.