Comic Transcripts

[[A woman, KYLEEN, whom attentive readers will remember from a previous comic, strolls with a man, BOYSWORTH, whom attentive readers will not remember because this is his first appearance, but who carries a cane.]]

KYLEEN: Did you catch the series finale of HEADSTABBERS UNIVERSITY?
BOYSWORTH: YEAH, I watch all that garbage.

BOYSWORTH: I don’t envy their task of wrapping up so many story threads. The DEMIDUKE and the thing with the Waxwork Guillotine… bringing back the SKULL MERCHANT with a NEW DOG… I thought it was ALL RIGHT. Not great, but all right.

BOYSWORTH: Thinking back now, there was a HUGE missed opportunity. When KARLO went into SPACE… They could’ve done a whole “Charles Lindbergh ended up becoming a Nazi” thing! It would’ve RESONATED!

KYLEEN: Maybe that DID happen, but off-screen. We can IMAGINE it!

BOYSWORTH: I can’t STOP imagining it! What a SMART twist that would have been! Oh well. It’s OVER. Nothing to be done.

[[Kyleen joins her friend BRINDLA, reading a book in a garden, whom attentive readers will also remember from her previous appearance in the series that introduced Kyleen.]]

BRINDLA: SO? Has he discovered fan fiction yet??
KYLEEN: SLOWLY! SLOWLY! His kind spook easily!

{{header: it all came together at WONDERMARK.COM}}

#1587; And Onward One Opines transcribed by in

[[A woman, KYLEEN, whom attentive readers will remember from a previous comic, strolls with a man, BOYSWORTH, whom attentive readers will not remember because this is his first appearance, but who carries a cane.]]

KYLEEN: Did you catch the series finale of HEADSTABBERS UNIVERSITY?
BOYSWORTH: YEAH, I watch all that garbage.

BOYSWORTH: I don't envy their task of wrapping up so many story threads. The DEMIDUKE and the thing with the Waxwork Guillotine... bringing back the SKULL MERCHANT with a NEW DOG... I thought it was ALL RIGHT. Not great, but all right.

BOYSWORTH: Thinking back now, there was a HUGE missed opportunity. When KARLO went into SPACE... They could've done a whole "Charles Lindbergh ended up becoming a Nazi" thing! It would've RESONATED!

KYLEEN: Maybe that DID happen, but off-screen. We can IMAGINE it!

BOYSWORTH: I can't STOP imagining it! What a SMART twist that would have been! Oh well. It's OVER. Nothing to be done.

[[Kyleen joins her friend BRINDLA, reading a book in a garden, whom attentive readers will also remember from her previous appearance in the series that introduced Kyleen.]]

BRINDLA: SO? Has he discovered fan fiction yet??
KYLEEN: SLOWLY! SLOWLY! His kind spook easily!

{{header: it all came together at WONDERMARK.COM}}

You're suggesting that HEADSTABBERS UNIVERSITY, a midseason-replacement spinoff show conceived expressly to draft off the brand recognition of the famous franchise but feature mostly younger, lower-priced actors with only token cameos from the more famous and more expensive core franchise cast, and which seems to be painstakingly written to justify reusing extensive special effects footage from previous seasons of its parent show is, what?? Garbage???

#1587; And Onward One Opines

  — June 5th, 2026

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1587/

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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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