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‘Horrid Little Stories’ – Now on Kindle!

A couple years back, I published a small book called Horrid Little Stories: Sixty Dark and Tiny Tales of Misery and Woe.

It’s a 150-page collection of all the art and verses from the annual Wondermark calendars of 2008-2012 (and a few bonus verses besides!).

Stylistically, it’s a bit of an homage to Gorey, where the stories are all told in rhyme and everything always ends in tears.

The book has been available for some time in my own store (where it can be bundled with greeting cards), in my TopatoCo store (where it can be bundled with T-shirts), and on Amazon (where it can be bundled with a 27-lb tub of cat litter).

But that’s always been for a flimsy, paper edition!

Today I’m pleased to announce that this book is available for Kindle, as well:

horrible. just horrible.

Because it’s a heavily illustrated book, this is a bit of an experiment for me with Kindle’s page layout capabilities — I’ve never offered any sort of comic collection on Kindle, because it doesn’t seem like it’d be that easy to read. But this book, which is half illustrations and half text, works pretty well for e-reading!

If you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can even read it for free… Or, if you are just a normal person who likes Kindle books, it’s a mere few dollars. Cheaper than that 27-lb bucket of cat litter, and it stays in your life longer, too!

Hope you check it out!! I want to move more of my book catalog to the various ebook formats as time goes on, so I am interested to hear if you like this, and whether the format works well enough for this material.


A Free, Printable Progressive Calendar for 2016

Like I did last year, I made a simple progressive calendar for myself to use in my studio — and if you want to use it too, you can download it for free! Here’s the 6-page PDF.

line em up, knock em down

Longtime readers know about my fondness for the “progressive” style of calendar (a term I think I made up), which leaves no unnecessary gaps between months and thus more accurately mimics how human beings experience the phenomenon of time.

I made this calendar super big and clear, so it can be read at a glance from across the room. Since most of the events I attend (conventions and so on) occur on weekends, I prefer to group the weekend days together on the right side.

One change I made from last year is that I didn’t indicate any holidays! I figure anyone who’s willing to print out and hang a calendar like this can also figure out how to mark off whatever holidays are relevant to their country, province, subculture, etc. — and also might appreciate not being bothered by possibly irrelevant information. In other words, by not marking holidays, this single 33-kilobyte PDF file becomes universally usable worldwide.

The PDF is six pages long and, just because of how many dates fit onto a full page, runs all the way through mid-February 2017. In the picture above, I’ve trimmed the tops off pages 2, 3, 5, and 6, so as to present the entire year as two impassive columns.

OR, GO SMALL: I’m also a big fan of David Seah’s Compact Calendar, which applies the progressive concept to a single sheet of paper. This one’s super handy for planning out a whole year’s events in broad strokes. Check out and download his version here!

David’s got a ton of other cool printable productivity tools on his site, too — I’ve played around with quite a few of them in the past, instead of doing actual work. Enjoy!

Get your Valentine cards before the POSTAL INCREASE!

Boo, postal rates are going up again! Regular letter mail is unaffected—and there’s actually an improvement to parcel service: now first-class parcels can go up to 16 ounces, instead of 13! LONG OVERDUE, in my opinion!

BUT, unfortunately, package rates and international rates are going to go WAY up. The price increase takes effect on January 17, and I will have to bump up the shipping rates in the store a little.

SO, if you would like to buy some Wondermark valentine cards, and BE READY for mid-February for once in your life, this week is a really great time to do so!

booooooo

We’ve also got the whole complement of Multi-Purpose Cards in stock, and thanks to our Kickstarter campaign last fall, all sets of the Multi cards now ship in snazzy foil-stamped boxes at no extra charge:

yes they are really that shiny

These boxes contain no labels or branding and are yours to keep forever! You can put anything you like in them, even drugs (CO and WA only).

What great boxes, everyone! Enjoy those boxes. They are pretty super! And the cards are good, too, I am told.

AND HERE’S A SPECIAL DEAL FOR YOU: I like these boxes so much, that for this week only, I’ll include a gold foil box with any set of 10 cards! You can mix and match which 10 cards you like, and I’ll pack them in the lovely elephant box for you to enjoy for the rest of your life and your descendants’ lives.

[ All Manner of Wondermark Greeting Cards ]

2015 Errata

As we do every year around here, it’s time to look back and address any mistakes, errors, gaffes, and boners that might have snuck into our comics during the year of our Lord 2015.

#1091; A Duly Rigorous Experiment
I learned later that Charles Schulz made basically this same joke in 1965.

#1104; In which a Culture exists
The quote is original, not, as is stated by the character, from an episode of Futurama. I made the character say that it was merely for comic effect.

#1123; The Opposite of Prodigal
Deborah had not actually given the matter as much thought as she claimed, but like many of us faced with admitting an error, did not want to admit it once challenged.

#1141; Prime Time Drama
When the character references a “Skilsaw”, or circular saw, he is mentally picturing a “Sawzall”, or reciprocating saw. The latter would be more commonly used to cut through mounted drywall or sheetrock than the former, but I suppose either could work.

#1146; In which Theft is justified
This comic strip about plagiarism seems to have inadvertently exactly copied the trademark panel and character placement from Ryan North’s “Dinosaur Comics”.

#1159; In which a Frame is askew
That picture is really too high on the wall.

#1125; In which a Bean is juiced
Jeremy is describing his favorite beverage using unusual terminology. It is obvious to most that “beet stuff” represents sugar, in his unique patois, but some have wondered about the term “cactus gravy”. While not per se accurate, in the context of this comic strip cactus gravy is meant to mean agave nectar, which is a food sweetener found in the type of grocery store that allows you to scoop up your own personalized mix of granola. “Cow water”, elsewhere in the same strip, of course refers to bull semen.

Wondermark regrets the errors.

Previously:
2014 Errata / 2013 Errata / 2011 Errata / 2009 Errata / 2008 Errata