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I received a lovely email recently from Joanne, a reference librarian in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Joanne had a problem: her library had to get rid of some old books, and she had to find homes for them! Well, as you might imagine, this is hardly a problem for me, as I told her to send them on over.

And send them she did! Look at this delightful packing job. These books arrived in amazing condition and I eagerly flipped through them hunting for jewels.

Comic #648, the latest as of this writing, was created entirely from images taken from the book on the right, 1896’s Kate Carnegie by Ian MacLaren. Here’s a closer view at some of the original images.

Thank you very much, Joanne! And thank you to Toni, who just sent me a CD full of scans from 1882’s Collier’s Cyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information. Thank you to the kind chap whom I met at Comic-Con and who gave me an illustration of a man’s leg being amputated — that is just waiting to find a home in Wondermark somewhere. Thank you to Douglas who alerted me to a particularly great eBay find; thank you to Conch in Portland who brought me a whole stack of books at last year’s Wordstock (from whence came this); and to David in Colorado who sent me a massive box of 1880s Scientific American that I’ve been mining for years.

Guys I get the best mail

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow (or TODAY, depending on when you’re reading this), the 13th, is the last day to sponsor our fundraising team in 826LA’s Spelling Bee for Cheaters. So far we’ve raised over $1000, which is amazing! You are the best.

But, as of this writing, I am lagging way behind both my teammates, Keith and Dave. I blame part of this on a weird link in the previous message that didn’t seem to load the page right, but now I’ve fixed that and there is no excuse. DO IT FOR THE KIDS

Thank you so much for your support! I’ll be sure to give a full report on the event next week.

Maybe you’ve heard of 826 Valencia, the organization founded by Dave Eggers that helps 6- to 18-year-olds with writing skills through community events and after-school tutoring. 826 has several branches nationwide, and my local chapter, 826LA, has its office just down the street from mine! In fact, I pass it every day on my way to work. My friend and fellow cartoonist Keith Knight is on the board of directors there, and when he invited me to participate in a fundraising event for 826LA, I gladly agreed!

It’s called “A Spelling Bee For Cheaters” and it takes place August 14 in Santa Monica, CA. Keith, Dave Kellett and I are on a team called “The Sweaty Hams,” because we are all men and, well, sometimes things happen. We’re somewhat late-comers to the fundraising game, so we are trying to raise pledges to buy “cheats” so we can be competitive in the event!

Cheats include passing on a difficult word, buying immunity after spelling a word wrong, swapping places with another team member, and other non-officially-endorsed-by-the-American-Spelling-Association deviousnesses. (See how I used a word that’s probably not in their official lexicon?) We only get cheats — and thus, a fighting chance against the other teams with loads of cheats — if we raise money! 826LA is a volunteer-based organization that helps kids in a number of remarkable and wonderful ways. Will you please help our team with a donation?

The event is less than two weeks away and thanks to rudderless team leadership we are entering the fundraising race way at the back of the pack. PLEASE DO NOT LET US FAIL IN THIS

AS WE DO MOST EVERYTHING ELSE