(Photo by @donutage)

Good news! My Hyperbolic Upgrade Stickers (one of which is pictured above) are now available at TopatoCo. So, if you want to bundle a sticker order with greeting cards, you can get them from me, or if you want to bundle them with posters or shirts, get them from TopatoCo!

Also, I’ll be in Toronto this weekend at TCAF, and I made some special prints for the show! (Pictured above.) I’d be happy to sign one for you and draw a word balloon indicating what words of advice Gax has for you. TCAF is a free show held in Toronto’s Downtown Reference Library, and it’s a ton of fun! I’ll be on the second floor waving my arms furiously.

I’ll also be at the TopatoCo Book Release/TCAF Kickoff Party on Friday night! Come say hello! Hooray!

Are you in Calgary, Los Angeles, Nashville, Newport Beach, or Baltimore? WELL I GOT STUFF FOR YOU TO DO.

Calgary

I’ll be at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo next weekend, April 27-29! I’ll be signing books and stuff at the TopatoCo table! That’s pretty cool!

Los Angeles

Thursday, April 26, at the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, there’s an improv comedy show called The Grind. They play every Thursday night (and they’re super great and you should go see them and it’s free besides), but on the 26th in particular, opening for them will be the fantastic MC Mr. Napkins, a musician I’ve mentioned before but who deserves another mention. Here he is performing a rap about moustaches.

I can’t wait to see him live again — if he does his song about vegetables, you will be in for quite a treat. (It’s no party hit of the summer, but what is?) Also I perform improv at this theater every other Monday with my team “Battlesocks” but that is neither here nor there.

Other Places

My friend and filmmaker Michael Mohan is bringing his feature comedy Save the Date to film festivals around the country! It’s co-written by (and based on work by, and featuring art by) cartoonist Jeffrey Brown, it stars Lizzy Caplan (Party Down), Alison Brie (Community), Geoffrey Arend (Super Troopers), and Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks), and it’s great. Some upcoming screenings are:

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
April 21 – 5:30pm – Regal Green Hills Stadium 16*
April 24 – 2:15pm – Regal Green Hills Stadium 16
Tickets & Info

NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL
April 28 – 8:15pm – Triangle Square 5**
May 3 – 7:45pm – Island Cinema 3
Tickets & Info

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL (BALTIMORE)
May 4 – 8:00pm – Charles Theatre***
May 6 – 2:00pm – Charles Theatre
Tickets & Info

* Actor Lizzy Caplan and director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.
** Director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.
*** Co-writer Egan Reich and director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.

You can read reviews of the film here (the Onion AV Club gave it an A-!). In addition to these particular festivals, there’ll be more info on future screenings in other cities posted to the Save the Date Facebook page, here.

The film premiered at Sundance this year and it’s currently being shopped around to distributors, so I’d like to give it all the support it can get! If it’s coming to a town near you, you might say you should…SAVE THE DATE

for the screening

This weekend I’ll be at WonderCon, in its new location at the Anaheim Convention Center! Kris Straub and I will be at Booth 617, near Dave Kellett, Danielle Corsetto and other fine friends.

The show is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I’ll be there the whole time, provided they let me sleep in the bathrooms. WE SHALL SEE.

This weekend I’ll be in San Diego for ConDor, a friendly neighborhood sci-fi convention! I will be speaking, opining, and making enemies discussing the following:

SATURDAY, 4PM: “Synergy between Writer and Illustrator” — Kevin Gerard, Jennifer K. Fong, Laura Brodian Freas, David Malki !, Sue Dawe.

SATURDAY, 5PM: “Extemporaneous Story Telling: Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory 2″ — Our panelists take elements from the audience and tell the conspiracies that interconnect them. Gradually they interweave these elements into a theory that explains EVERYTHING. David Malki !, Sherwood Smith, Chris Weber, David Ross, Mike Bocianowski.

SUNDAY, 10AM “The Making of Wondermark” — Comics created live on stage, in front of your very eyes!

SUNDAY, 11AM Autograph session in the dealer’s room.

SUNDAY, 12PM “Ebooks and the Future of Publishing” — Richard Dean Starr, John Oliver, David Malki !, Val Ontell, J. M. Perkins. (I’m moderating this one.)

SUNDAY, 1PM “What Makes a Story Steampunk?” — David Malki !, Scott Farrell, Denise Dumars, Sharon Mock, David Lee Summers.

SUNDAY, EVENING “David please go to bed” — My brain

At the end of March I’ll also be in Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon, which is three days long this year and will surely, surely be an amazing show. Come say hello!

Also on my calendar for the spring are:

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, April 27-29

Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 5-6

Vancouver Comic Arts Festival, May 26-27 — My first-ever Vancouver appearance. (Oh, and the show is soliciting volunteers now!)

And maybe others too!

If you’re attending the World Fantasy Con in San Diego this weekend, keep an eye out in your gift bag for our Machine of Death Volume 2 Sampler booklet! It contains two stories from the upcoming sequel. (We’ll be announcing the full lineup for MOD2 next week.) You can also pick up sampler booklets next weekend at the Minneapolis Indie Expo — I won’t be there, but my co-editor Matt will be, along with MOD contributor Katie Sekelsky. More info about these fine events at the Machine of Death blog.

I’ll be at World Fantasy this weekend, but I won’t have a table. I will, however, be signing books on Friday night, and I have a panel on Sunday:

10AM: Intellectual Property Rights vs. the Free Web

Does information really want to be free? Do the people who say that still think so once they’ve been published? Generational differences in attitudes toward information and its effects.

Justin Ackroyd, David Chanoch, Jeff Conner, Ashley Grayson (M), David Malki !

Come hear us discuss all the attitudes toward information and its effects.

Here’s a rundown of some other upcoming appearances as well, all in the Los Angeles area:

NOVEMBER 7 (8 PM). My new improv team, “Battlesocks,” will be performing at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica! It’ll be our first salvo in a month-long improv tournament, so depending on how we do there’ll likely be other performances throughout the month as well. Free admission! Cheap drinks! Probably some laffs! Come cheer us on!

NOVEMBER 17 (8 PM). I’m throwing a magic and variety show in Hollywood to celebrate a year of Machine of Death, and I’m putting all my hilarious friends on stage! Free admission! MOD2 news and giveaways! Here’s more about the Super-Stupendous Machine of Death Magic & Variety Show. Save that date!

DECEMBER 10-11. At the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market at the L.A. State Park, I’ll have a full complement of holiday cards and pleasant goods.

BONUS VIDEO: Here is rapper MC Mr. Napkins. I first learned about him when he performed an amazing set at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater. This song is called “The Aggressive Bee.”

The time I saw him, he did a song about vegetables that blew my mind.

This weekend I’ll be returning to Bethesda, Maryland for the annual Small Press Expo! I’m on a panel too:

Constraint Based Cartooning : Saturday 5:00 pm
A blank canvas and an infinite palette can be liberating—and intimidating. Most work ultimately ends up operating according to a set of self-generated rules which govern its scope. Bill Kartalopoulos will talk to David Malki ! (Wondermark), Brian Ralph (Daybreak), Karl Stevens (The Lodger) and Daniel Spottswood (Disquietville) about producing comics which operate more explicitly according to a governing set of aesthetic, stylistic and formal principles.

SPX was one of the first shows I ever considered attending, back in the early 2000s when I would buy their annual anthologies at my local comic book shop. I’ve now been going since 2006, and ever since I discovered that North Bethesda is just a short train ride from the Library of Congress, I’ve made a habit of building an extra day into my trip. Saturday and Sunday I’ll be at the show, and then Monday I’ll be in DC researching some strange Victorian children’s books for a future “True Stuff from Old Books” installment.

SPEAKING OF WHICH: Earlier this summer, I was honored to be invited to Google Boston to speak as part of their excellent “Authors@Google” series (which can be viewed for free on YouTube). This version of “True Stuff from Old Books” runs about an hour long and is full of some of my favorite finds from Victorian-era magazines and newspapers. Enjoy!

As you can see, “True Stuff from Old Books” is full of hilarity and wonder, and throughout all the strangeness, it uniquely illuminates the modern human condition through a sepia-tinted lens of the past. If you’re part of an organization that might be interested in hearing me speak, please drop me a line! I’m constantly adding new weird old tidbits as I stumble across them, so the talk has yet to be the same twice.

In a few weeks I’ll be attending my very first World Science Fiction Convention — this year it’s in Reno, Nevada, and called Renovation! I’m excited to be on a number of panels (including one discussing humor with Dr. Demento!) and I’ll also have a table with Wondermark and Machine of Death books.

UPDATE: Thanks, I’m all set now!

Would you like to attend Renovation for free? I’m looking for one person to help me out at the table. I’ve learned from experience that manning a table by myself for days is a very difficult thing to do. My MOD co-editor Matt will be hanging out with me, but even still I’d rather have someone who I can count on to be a dedicated assistant.

If you live in Reno and would like a free attending membership to Renovation, in addition to having your meals covered all week long, in exchange for helping out at the table — please email me at dave at wondermark dot com. Thanks!

I was very kindly invited to the Readercon literary conference in Burlington, Massachusetts, and I’ll be there tomorrow and through the weekend! If you’re interested in genre literature, these folks really now how to put together a compelling program — just look at all the cool panels and presentations.

I’ll be involved in these in particular:

Friday, 12:00 PM : Writing Within Constraints. Scott Edelman, Elaine Isaak, Michael Aondo-verr Kombol, John Langan, David Malki ! (leader), Madeleine Robins. Whether it’s writing on a theme for an anthology, writing on assignment or commission, or simply imposing rules to jump-start your creativity, writing within constraints can be an incredible way to defeat “the tyranny of the blank page.” We discuss the rewards and challenges of starting with someone else’s idea.

Friday, 5:00 PM : Kaffeeklatsch with David Malki !, Delia Sherman.

Friday, 7:00 PM : True Stuff from Old Books. David Malki ! of Wondermark presents a slide show of fascinating, forgotten articles unearthed from Victorian-era newspapers and magazines. A man breathes fire! A steam-powered flying machine attempts its first flight! Inventors and adventurers dream big, and often die! And human nature remains unchanged through the ages.

Saturday, 11:00 AM : Autographs (and sketches!) with David Malki !, Barry B. Longyear.

Saturday, 2:00 PM : Tin Foil Hat Open Mike. Rose Fox (moderator), K.A. Laity, Shira Lipkin, David Malki !, Charles Platt, Eric M. Van, Harold Torger Vedeler. Bring your wildest and wackiest ideas to this open mike session. Each speaker gets five minutes, ruthlessly enforced, to try to convince the audience of an unprovable (and ideally undisprovable) theory related to speculative fiction. The viewers are free to applaud or heckle as they see fit. No handouts, no visual aids, no multimedia, no Q&As, no spitballs, and please, no politics or religion.

Sunday, 11:00 AM : Reconsidering Anthologies. Mike Allen, Leah Bobet, David Boop, Robert Killheffer, David Malki ! (leader). Anthologies are incredibly popular for writers to submit to and proudly display their work in — but who reads them? Why don’t they sell well? Is there some reason they occupy the same cultural mind-space as foreign films: culturally relevant, but rarely bothered with? David Malki !, editor of last year’s bestselling anthology Machine of Death, leads a discussion group about this outcast art form.

Sunday, 2:30 PM : Reading. David Malki ! reads from the parody Victorian novel series Dispatches from Wondermark Manor.

I believe memberships are still available at the door if you’re in the Boston area and would like to attend! I’m looking forward to it!!

Two big events coming up next weekend! I’ll be at the Renegade Craft Fair on July 9 & 10, which is held at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion and is totally free to attend!

Come say hello, pick up a book or some greeting cards, or a sketch, or even just a handshake. I’m determined to have at least one new thing since my trip to Maker Faire just a few weeks ago, so I’ll be bringing new little pocket-sized Tinkerer’s Guide booklets!

ALSO: This is cool. I am super-excited about this:

Machine of Death is pleased to partner with the Un-Scripted Theater Company of San Francisco for a special one-night-only Machine of Death stage performance.

The Un-Scripted Company has a new improv showcase called “Act One, Scene Two.” Each night, the actors perform the first scene of an unfinished play — a script that has been previously written, but not completed. Then, the actors will improvise the entire rest of the play.

It’s a different play each night, and on July 9, they’ll be performing a piece from Machine of Death: “Murder and Suicide, Respectively” by your friend and mine Ryan North. Ryan will even be present on Skype for fun chats after the show!

Tickets are $20 ($10 for students & seniors), all of which goes to the theater. It’s a fairly intimate venue, so if you’re interested in attending, you should pick up your tickets in advance! This is a one-night-only performance that will never be repeated. (And if you like it, check out the other plays on other nights! Different Act One, Scene Two shows will be running every weekend through August.)

Also I will have a Machine of Death there at our show, giving out free death predictions. But that’s just a bonus.

ADDENDUM: Are you a Bay-Area-based photographer and/or videographer? I am looking to capture extremely high-quality photos and/or video of the show. If this is something that you do professionally, please email me with your rates.

Tickets for the show are on sale now!

Update to this weekend’s Calgary plans — I’ve just confirmed that on Sunday afternoon, I’ll be hosting a game of Machine of Death Draw & Guess, which is a Pictionary-type game played with audience volunteers! We did it in Toronto as well, and had a whale of a time.

There’s no pun there; we just had a really great time! Here’s video of the Toronto event so you can see for yourself.

This weekend, Ryan North and I will be playing the game with Kate Beaton, Christopher Hastings, Dave Kellett and Kris Straub! Come join us on Sunday at 2:00 PM!