Comic Transcripts

MELANIE: Grandma, did you read the story I wrote for you?
GRANDMA: I DID, honey. It was a FAIR first draft.
But nothing of VALUE can EVER be created without SIGNIFICANT, LABORIOUS EFFORT.

GRANDMA: REVISE that story ’til it’s as GOOD as you can make it, then know that it’s STILL not good enough. You have to revise it again, and AGAIN, and AGAIN until you get SICK OF IT.
That’s how you prove you’re SERIOUS. If the process is FUN at all, you’re doing it wrong.
So, take another crack at the story, then BURN it because your first hundred stories will all be CRAP anyway.

MELANIE: But this IS my FIFTIETH draft!
I kept going back OVER it, never SATISFIED, being my own worst critic…
Then I thought, it’s SILLY to be so insecure! I’ll just SHOW it to her, she can’t just HATE IT OUTRIGHT
GRANDMA (interrupting): WRONG!

{{Header: crumple it up at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: The story is entitled ‘A Bear and his Comically-Large Fedora Go to Disneyland: A Heavy-Handed Allegory About the War in Afghanistan’}}

#467; In which Melanie disappoints her Grandmother transcribed by in

MELANIE: Grandma, did you read the story I wrote for you?
GRANDMA: I DID, honey. It was a FAIR first draft.
But nothing of VALUE can EVER be created without SIGNIFICANT, LABORIOUS EFFORT.

GRANDMA: REVISE that story ’til it’s as GOOD as you can make it, then know that it’s STILL not good enough. You have to revise it again, and AGAIN, and AGAIN until you get SICK OF IT.
That’s how you prove you’re SERIOUS. If the process is FUN at all, you’re doing it wrong.
So, take another crack at the story, then BURN it because your first hundred stories will all be CRAP anyway.

MELANIE: But this IS my FIFTIETH draft!
I kept going back OVER it, never SATISFIED, being my own worst critic…
Then I thought, it’s SILLY to be so insecure! I’ll just SHOW it to her, she can’t just HATE IT OUTRIGHT
GRANDMA (interrupting): WRONG!

{{Header: crumple it up at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: The story is entitled ‘A Bear and his Comically-Large Fedora Go to Disneyland: A Heavy-Handed Allegory About the War in Afghanistan’}}

#467; In which Melanie disappoints her Grandmother transcribed by in

MELANIE: Grandma, did you read the story I wrote for you?
GRANDMA: I DID, honey. It was a FAIR first draft.
But nothing of VALUE can EVER be created without SIGNIFICANT, LABORIOUS EFFORT.

GRANDMA: REVISE that story 'til it's as GOOD as you can make it, then know that it's STILL not good enough. You have to revise it again, and AGAIN, and AGAIN until you get SICK OF IT.
That's how you prove you're SERIOUS. If the process is FUN at all, you're doing it wrong.
So, take another crack at the story, then BURN it because your first hundred stories will all be CRAP anyway.

MELANIE: But this IS my FIFTIETH draft!
I kept going back OVER it, never SATISFIED, being my own worst critic...
Then I thought, it's SILLY to be so insecure! I'll just SHOW it to her, she can't just HATE IT OUTRIGHT
GRANDMA (interrupting): WRONG!

{{Header: crumple it up at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{Alt-text: The story is entitled 'A Bear and his Comically-Large Fedora Go to Disneyland: A Heavy-Handed Allegory About the War in Afghanistan'}}

the story is entitled 'A Bear and his Comically-Large Fedora Go to Disneyland: A Heavy-Handed Allegory about the War in Afghanistan'

#467; In which Melanie disappoints her Grandmother

  — December 5th, 2008

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/467/

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20 years ago (in photocomic form)

June 9, 2026 by David Malki !
A young David Malki !, Steve Carey, and Ryan North, June 2006.

The computers tell me it was 20 years ago, June 9, 2006, that I arrived in New York for my first-ever comic convention as an exhibitor, MoCCA.

It was an important trip for me, a milestone in what would go on to become my career.

I wrote a little reminiscence on Patreon (free/unlocked) — including a first-since-then reprint of the photocomics I made at the time, documenting the trip!

Read the rest here: [ 20 Years Ago (In Photocomic Form) ]


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