Comic Transcripts

[[Sports reporter holding microphone to football player]]
Reporter: Great game, Red. Amazing run in those final second. What was going through your mind during that play?
Red: Well, I definitely wanted the ball, you know, I wanted to catch that ball.
And when I did, I just started running, because that’s how you score points and we pretend points are real.

[[Closeup of football player looking thoughtful]]
Red: And then as I ran, you know, the air seemed to dilate around me, and I found myself falling or having the sensation of falling, through a sort of vortex of collapsing spacetime.
I awoke on a desolate plain, to the sound of wailing in a language that was also the sound of my own heartbeat, coming from a girl with eyes like river stone, all dull and gray but smooth as an egg.

[[Closeup of football player concentrating, as if on a task]]
Red: And she asked me these riddles, and every time I tried to talk it was like my mouth was made of wax and my teeth were melting off, and all these crows were cawing and trying to peck at me.
So as I fought these crows I’d look back to her and she’d be older, every time I looked over, until eventually she’s an old woman and desperate for me to answer her riddles… but the crows just never let me…

[[Closeup of football player looking intense]]
Red: Then she eventually blew away like so much dust, and in that moment I realized the crows had been trying to give me answers to the riddles all along. It was up to me to learn to listen.
Once I finally did, you know, I was able to locate the well of Ereskos and drink the Skynectar to return me to this realm, and as I bid goodbye to my clan and my hearthmate I found myself instantly back in my younger body just crossing the two yard line.
So at that point, you know, I just gave it a hundred and ten percent.

{{header: long pass to WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: “I knew not whether the skynectar possessed the power it was rumored to, and took it, frankly, for rumor and myth; excavating and restoring the Well, and inviting the pilgrims to supplicate again after a thousand-year drought, was all the reward I sought from the labor.
And yet… the reflection I caught in that first bucketful was of a world I knew to be but a dream from long ago.
Suddenly, all else fell away, and I wondered in that moment if the score was still tied at 17-all.” }}

#1067; The Post-Game Interview transcribed by in

[[Sports reporter holding microphone to football player]]
Reporter: Great game, Red. Amazing run in those final second. What was going through your mind during that play?
Red: Well, I definitely wanted the ball, you know, I wanted to catch that ball.
And when I did, I just started running, because that’s how you score points and we pretend points are real.

[[Closeup of football player looking thoughtful]]
Red: And then as I ran, you know, the air seemed to dilate around me, and I found myself falling or having the sensation of falling, through a sort of vortex of collapsing spacetime.
I awoke on a desolate plain, to the sound of wailing in a language that was also the sound of my own heartbeat, coming from a girl with eyes like river stone, all dull and gray but smooth as an egg.

[[Closeup of football player concentrating, as if on a task]]
Red: And she asked me these riddles, and every time I tried to talk it was like my mouth was made of wax and my teeth were melting off, and all these crows were cawing and trying to peck at me.
So as I fought these crows I’d look back to her and she’d be older, every time I looked over, until eventually she’s an old woman and desperate for me to answer her riddles… but the crows just never let me…

[[Closeup of football player looking intense]]
Red: Then she eventually blew away like so much dust, and in that moment I realized the crows had been trying to give me answers to the riddles all along. It was up to me to learn to listen.
Once I finally did, you know, I was able to locate the well of Ereskos and drink the Skynectar to return me to this realm, and as I bid goodbye to my clan and my hearthmate I found myself instantly back in my younger body just crossing the two yard line.
So at that point, you know, I just gave it a hundred and ten percent.

{{header: long pass to WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: “I knew not whether the skynectar possessed the power it was rumored to, and took it, frankly, for rumor and myth; excavating and restoring the Well, and inviting the pilgrims to supplicate again after a thousand-year drought, was all the reward I sought from the labor.
And yet… the reflection I caught in that first bucketful was of a world I knew to be but a dream from long ago.
Suddenly, all else fell away, and I wondered in that moment if the score was still tied at 17-all.” }}

#1067; The Post-Game Interview transcribed by in

[[Sports reporter holding microphone to football player]]
Reporter: Great game, Red. Amazing run in those final second. What was going through your mind during that play?
Red: Well, I definitely wanted the ball, you know, I wanted to catch that ball.
And when I did, I just started running, because that's how you score points and we pretend points are real.

[[Closeup of football player looking thoughtful]]
Red: And then as I ran, you know, the air seemed to dilate around me, and I found myself falling or having the sensation of falling, through a sort of vortex of collapsing spacetime.
I awoke on a desolate plain, to the sound of wailing in a language that was also the sound of my own heartbeat, coming from a girl with eyes like river stone, all dull and gray but smooth as an egg.

[[Closeup of football player concentrating, as if on a task]]
Red: And she asked me these riddles, and every time I tried to talk it was like my mouth was made of wax and my teeth were melting off, and all these crows were cawing and trying to peck at me.
So as I fought these crows I'd look back to her and she'd be older, every time I looked over, until eventually she's an old woman and desperate for me to answer her riddles... but the crows just never let me...

[[Closeup of football player looking intense]]
Red: Then she eventually blew away like so much dust, and in that moment I realized the crows had been trying to give me answers to the riddles all along. It was up to me to learn to listen.
Once I finally did, you know, I was able to locate the well of Ereskos and drink the Skynectar to return me to this realm, and as I bid goodbye to my clan and my hearthmate I found myself instantly back in my younger body just crossing the two yard line.
So at that point, you know, I just gave it a hundred and ten percent.

{{header: long pass to WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: "I knew not whether the skynectar possessed the power it was rumored to, and took it, frankly, for rumor and myth; excavating and restoring the Well, and inviting the pilgrims to supplicate again after a thousand-year drought, was all the reward I sought from the labor.
And yet... the reflection I caught in that first bucketful was of a world I knew to be but a dream from long ago.
Suddenly, all else fell away, and I wondered in that moment if the score was still tied at 17-all." }}

I knew not whether the skynectar possessed the power it was rumored to, and took it, frankly, for rumor and myth; excavating and restoring the Well, and inviting the pilgrims to supplicate again after a thousand-year drought, was all the reward I sought from the labor. And yet... the reflection I caught in that first bucketful was of a world I knew to be but a dream from long ago. Suddenly, all else fell away, and I wondered in that moment if the score was still tied at 17-all.

#1067; The Post-Game Interview

  — October 7th, 2014

[ Tags: , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1067/

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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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