Comic Transcripts

Bishop: I’m seriously uncomfortable with your ‘maltheism’.
The God I serve weeps at the evil in the world, yet you mock him!
Woman: Not at all! I use the term ‘God’ to mean ‘a deity’.
I admit it sounds shocking when you consider it to be the Judeo-Christian God — but saying ‘Loki’ just doesn’t have the same impact these days.

Woman: I don’t know that I really believe that God is cruel. It’s just a thought experiment. It’s just that positing that He is makes the world make sense to me.
But replace ‘God’ with ‘the forces of the universe’ or ‘fate’ or ‘luck’ or ‘the way things are.’
The deck is stacked against us, man. Every day is a struggle. Let’s frame this thing as a fight we can win, you know?

Bishop: We can win. We have won. Our reward is promised to us in Heaven, not on Earth.
Woman: See that’s just the type of thing a mean sort of god would say!

{{header: make peace at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: Maltheism also has the advantage of being a theism that’s totally fine with evolution and gay people. You get to have a spiritual connection with the infinite wonder of the universe AND still be treated like an adult.}}
{{note: There’s a much longer 12 panel version of this comic on the website.}}

#806; In which the Argument is made For Her transcribed by in

Bishop: I'm seriously uncomfortable with your 'maltheism'.
The God I serve weeps at the evil in the world, yet you mock him!
Woman: Not at all! I use the term 'God' to mean 'a deity'.
I admit it sounds shocking when you consider it to be the Judeo-Christian God -- but saying 'Loki' just doesn't have the same impact these days.

Woman: I don't know that I really believe that God is cruel. It's just a thought experiment. It's just that positing that He is makes the world make sense to me.
But replace 'God' with 'the forces of the universe' or 'fate' or 'luck' or 'the way things are.'
The deck is stacked against us, man. Every day is a struggle. Let's frame this thing as a fight we can win, you know?

Bishop: We can win. We have won. Our reward is promised to us in Heaven, not on Earth.
Woman: See that's just the type of thing a mean sort of god would say!

{{header: make peace at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: Maltheism also has the advantage of being a theism that's totally fine with evolution and gay people. You get to have a spiritual connection with the infinite wonder of the universe AND still be treated like an adult.}}
{{note: There's a much longer 12 panel version of this comic on the website.}}

Maltheism also has the advantage of being a theism that's totally fine with evolution and gay people. You get to have a spiritual connection with the infinite wonder of the universe AND still be treated like an adult.

#806; In which the Argument is made For Her

  — March 2nd, 2012

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/806/

If you are interested in even more about the implications of maltheism, here is a much longer version of today’s comic.

(If it doesn’t pop out large enough to read, right-click and ‘Open Link in New Tab’.)

The maltheism discussion began here.

Update: A poster of all three maltheism comics is available here. (Looks like this)

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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