Comic Transcripts

[[A parasolled woman and a working-class fellow converse in a field.]]

BLIX: So have you seen HEADSTABBERS: REBORN yet?
BARNABY: Are you KIDDING me? Midnight screening on a CRUISE poking over the international date line LAST TUESDAY!
BLIX: And what’s the SUPER FAN opinion?
BARNABY: Well, I mean, here’s the thing

[[We focus in on BARNABY, who grabs the brim of his cap to focus his thoughts]]

BARNABY: Coming out of HEADSTABBERS: EXODUS there were so MANY open questions, and that film ended up taking such a turn from what we had expected based on leaked rumors about the novelization. Turned out that movie ended right BEFORE the actual exodus occurred, so of course we all figured we’d finally get to see the exodus itself. So it was quite a surprise to realized REBORN is set 5,000 years in the future and all the characters we’d loved now exist only as ROBOTIC THEME PARK REPLICAS.

[[Barnaby’s hand is extended in elaboration]]

BARNABY: And they’re forced to play through a mimicry of their heroic exploits, the details of which have been CORRUPTED by the passage of centuries… You walk into a HEADSTABBERS movie, you expect to see some heads getting stabbed! But INSTEAD we get long-winded arguments about the NATURE of stabbing and whether the heads we THOUGHT had been stabbed were in fact NOT STABBED and whether stabbing ITSELF should be considered a facile means of diplomacy.

[[We zoom back out to the pair]]

BARNABY: It actually took the question of headstabbing UNCOMFORTABLY SERIOUSLY, which is not what I would say Headstabbers as a series is ABOUT.
BLIX: So you didn’t like it because it INTERROGATED YOUR DESIRE to see heads getting stabbed at ALL.
BARNABY: Actually that’s why I LOVED it! Because deep down I TOO think that desire is kind of dumb!

{{header: lights down on WONDERMARK.COM}}

#1364; In which a Film is fraught, Part 1 transcribed by in

[[A parasolled woman and a working-class fellow converse in a field.]]

BLIX: So have you seen HEADSTABBERS: REBORN yet?
BARNABY: Are you KIDDING me? Midnight screening on a CRUISE poking over the international date line LAST TUESDAY!
BLIX: And what's the SUPER FAN opinion?
BARNABY: Well, I mean, here's the thing

[[We focus in on BARNABY, who grabs the brim of his cap to focus his thoughts]]

BARNABY: Coming out of HEADSTABBERS: EXODUS there were so MANY open questions, and that film ended up taking such a turn from what we had expected based on leaked rumors about the novelization. Turned out that movie ended right BEFORE the actual exodus occurred, so of course we all figured we'd finally get to see the exodus itself. So it was quite a surprise to realized REBORN is set 5,000 years in the future and all the characters we'd loved now exist only as ROBOTIC THEME PARK REPLICAS.

[[Barnaby's hand is extended in elaboration]]

BARNABY: And they're forced to play through a mimicry of their heroic exploits, the details of which have been CORRUPTED by the passage of centuries... You walk into a HEADSTABBERS movie, you expect to see some heads getting stabbed! But INSTEAD we get long-winded arguments about the NATURE of stabbing and whether the heads we THOUGHT had been stabbed were in fact NOT STABBED and whether stabbing ITSELF should be considered a facile means of diplomacy.

[[We zoom back out to the pair]]

BARNABY: It actually took the question of headstabbing UNCOMFORTABLY SERIOUSLY, which is not what I would say Headstabbers as a series is ABOUT.
BLIX: So you didn't like it because it INTERROGATED YOUR DESIRE to see heads getting stabbed at ALL.
BARNABY: Actually that's why I LOVED it! Because deep down I TOO think that desire is kind of dumb!

{{header: lights down on WONDERMARK.COM}}

HEADSTABBERS: EXODUS went RIGHT up to the edge of the exodus and then BAM!! Credits. It was VERY subversive.v

#1364; In which a Film is fraught, Part 1

  — December 19th, 2017

[ Tags: , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1364/

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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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