Comic Transcripts

[[A banner at the top says: “CONVERTING EVERYTHING TO COAL POWER [How to do it terribly – expensively – and with great difficulty]”]]

[[Another banner states: “WONDERMARK’S” “Nominally-essential” “Tinkerer’s Handbook” “The magazine for people who cannot leave well enough alone”. A woman is shown operating some sort of water pump.]]

[[A badge reads: “TAKE IT APART”]]

[[Three pictures on the side state “CUT IT”, “HIT IT”, and “STUFF IT”, depicting a screwdriver of some sort, a hammer hitting a nail, and two hands grasping a piece of wood.]]

[[A newspaper-style block of text reads: “LET US MEDDLE.” A rallying cry for a generation.]]
Newspaper text: Such are the benefits afforded us all by the unending march of Progress, that each new dawn finds many a person safe, fed, clothed and sheltered. A citizen of our modern era rarely finds him- or herself in a deadly battle for survival, as was common for the first generations of Mankind. Thus do our bodies, evolved for and hardened by constant struggle, often find themselves idle; and without some constant whetting, thus swiftly begins the degenerative process of death.
Newspaper text: Some people have rebelled against this notion, and constantly keep on the move, busying themselves with the creation of novel problems and competing to find overly-elaborate ways to solve them. This magazine is our attempt to cash in on that demographic.

[[A banner at the bottom reads: “Over 2 projects inside”]]

{{alt-text: ‘We have taken a gamble as to whether people will pay 8.95 to feel like they are the sort who would invent something, given the time, and it seems to be paying off.’}}

The Tinkerer’s Handbook, Page 1 (of 8) transcribed by in

[[A banner at the top says: “CONVERTING EVERYTHING TO COAL POWER [How to do it terribly – expensively – and with great difficulty]”]]

[[Another banner states: “WONDERMARK’S” “Nominally-essential” “Tinkerer’s Handbook” “The magazine for people who cannot leave well enough alone”. A woman is shown operating some sort of water pump.]]

[[A badge reads: “TAKE IT APART”]]

[[Three pictures on the side state “CUT IT”, “HIT IT”, and “STUFF IT”, depicting a screwdriver of some sort, a hammer hitting a nail, and two hands grasping a piece of wood.]]

[[A newspaper-style block of text reads: “LET US MEDDLE.” A rallying cry for a generation.]]
Newspaper text: Such are the benefits afforded us all by the unending march of Progress, that each new dawn finds many a person safe, fed, clothed and sheltered. A citizen of our modern era rarely finds him- or herself in a deadly battle for survival, as was common for the first generations of Mankind. Thus do our bodies, evolved for and hardened by constant struggle, often find themselves idle; and without some constant whetting, thus swiftly begins the degenerative process of death.
Newspaper text: Some people have rebelled against this notion, and constantly keep on the move, busying themselves with the creation of novel problems and competing to find overly-elaborate ways to solve them. This magazine is our attempt to cash in on that demographic.

[[A banner at the bottom reads: “Over 2 projects inside”]]

{{alt-text: ‘We have taken a gamble as to whether people will pay 8.95 to feel like they are the sort who would invent something, given the time, and it seems to be paying off.’}}

The Tinkerer’s Handbook, Page 1 (of 8) transcribed by in

[[A banner at the top says: "CONVERTING EVERYTHING TO COAL POWER [How to do it terribly - expensively - and with great difficulty]"]]

[[Another banner states: "WONDERMARK'S" "Nominally-essential" "Tinkerer's Handbook" "The magazine for people who cannot leave well enough alone". A woman is shown operating some sort of water pump.]]

[[A badge reads: "TAKE IT APART"]]

[[Three pictures on the side state "CUT IT", "HIT IT", and "STUFF IT", depicting a screwdriver of some sort, a hammer hitting a nail, and two hands grasping a piece of wood.]]

[[A newspaper-style block of text reads: "LET US MEDDLE." A rallying cry for a generation.]]
Newspaper text: Such are the benefits afforded us all by the unending march of Progress, that each new dawn finds many a person safe, fed, clothed and sheltered. A citizen of our modern era rarely finds him- or herself in a deadly battle for survival, as was common for the first generations of Mankind. Thus do our bodies, evolved for and hardened by constant struggle, often find themselves idle; and without some constant whetting, thus swiftly begins the degenerative process of death.
Newspaper text: Some people have rebelled against this notion, and constantly keep on the move, busying themselves with the creation of novel problems and competing to find overly-elaborate ways to solve them. This magazine is our attempt to cash in on that demographic.

[[A banner at the bottom reads: "Over 2 projects inside"]]

{{alt-text: 'We have taken a gamble as to whether people will pay 8.95 to feel like they are the sort who would invent something, given the time, and it seems to be paying off.'}}

'We have taken a gamble as to whether people will pay 8.95 to feel like they are the sort who would invent something, given the time, and it seems to be paying off.'

The Tinkerer’s Handbook, Page 1 (of 8)

  — April 26th, 2011

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/tink1/

Today marks the first day of Year Nine of Wondermark. To celebrate, I present to you the Nominally-Essential Tinkerer’s Handbook, a magazine in eight parts, running this week and next.

Buy a Print

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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