It was on Wikipedia the whole time, dude. You could have looked.

#1559; In which a Home is Haunted (Part 8 of 8)

  — February 1st, 2025

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1559/

This storyline began with Part 1.

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11 portraits of me from Alaska

I am back from the Alaska Robotics Mini-Con & Comics Camp in Juneau, Alaska!

(I wrote about camp previously here and here).

It was a great time. But here is one very specific thing that was fun! Celebrated likeness-capturer Scott Campbell had the idea for a group of artists to break into groups and draw portraits of each other.

Here is Scott hard at work on some of them (with bonus Raina Telgemeier):

And here are a bunch of Scott’s portraits, next to a bunch of other people’s portraits of him:

I didn’t have the presence of mind to take pictures of all the ones I drew. But here are the ones people drew of me! I love seeing all the different styles and perspectives. Click any image for a closer look.

CREDITS:

1. Kerstin LaCross @Kerstinlacross
2. Mike Grover @mikegrovercomics
3. Colin Anderson
4. Tony Cliff @TangoCharlie
5. Scott Campbell @scottlava
6. Averyl Veliz @averylveliz
7. Chris Yates @superyates
8. Hollis Kitchin @hollis_kitchin
9. Payton Francis
10. Megan Baehr @nonesuchmegan
11. Haley Boros @hihaleyboros

…For reference, I actually look like this:

(Kate Beaton, April 2008)

This weekend: Alaska Mini-Con in Juneau!

This weekend I’ll be returning to the Alaska Robotics Mini-Con in Juneau!

On Friday night there’s a variety show at the Mendenhall Valley Library, and I’ll be part of it, doing a li’l slideshow.

Then, on Saturday, I’ll be tabling at the convention at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center.

Then I’ll be going off to Comics Camp for a few days!

Previous excursions to camp have yielded the following accounts: an examination of an 1886 article about camping, and the shocking true story of how Juneau ate my boots.

Not in Juneau? Near Huntington Beach instead? NO PROBLEM.

Later in May — the weekend of the 18th — I’ll also be at the first-ever NCSFest (National Cartoonists Society Festival) in Huntington Beach!

At both locations I will have FRIENDSHIP APLENTY. It will be a good time!

Check out: Examining Victorian styles of humor

I’ve enjoyed following historian Bob Nicholson on Twitter, @DigiVictorian.

He often posts examples of interesting things he finds in old newspapers, which as longtime readers know is also an interest of mine.

These two particular examples are even on similar themes to my own areas of fascination, that is, modernity and beards:

A full, bushy thread on beards begins here.

A bit ago, he went viral with his diatribe against inaccurate Victorian-era newspapers in film & television:

You can read the whole (constantly-being-added-to) thread beginning here.

He’s also working on a survey of Victorian jokes and humor in particular. In this article he describes the prevalence of Victorian puns and groaners:

It turns out the Victorians joked about much the same topics as we do: cutthroat lawyers, quack doctors, mothers-in-law, foreigners (particularly the French), celebrities, political news, romantic misadventures, family squabbles, fashion faux pas, cheeky children, and other amusing situations drawn from everyday life. For a historian like me, these gags offer valuable insights into the inner workings of Victorian society. Laughter, after all, is a powerful thing – as anybody who’s ever been the butt of a cruel joke can attest. […]

Entire books of puns were also published, including Puniana (1867) and More Puniana (1875), which contained hundreds of pages of exquisitely tortured wordplay. Consider this appropriately festive example:

If you were to kill a conversational goose, what vegetable would she allude to?
Ah-spare-a-goose! (asparagus)

Or this bizarre bit of wit:

When do we possess a vegetable time-piece?
When we get-a-potato-clock (get up at 8 o’clock).

Jokes and puns in particular he regulalry posts to the Twitter account @VictorianHumour.

And here are some other good threads to read!

It’s all good stuff, and he’s doing the Lord’s work out there.

Check out: 826LA’s Time Scouts book

My friends at the literacy nonprofit 826LA have just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new book called Time Scouts!

Here is their video (starring Marc Evan Jackson, whom you may recognize from various of the teevee):

My other friend Beth illustrated the book & designed the merch, and her husband Stephen wrote it, which I guess is important too!

It is a handbook for time travelers.

You can get the book, and other Time Scouts stuff like merit badges too.

You can back the Kickstarter for a copy of the book here, or read more about TIME SCOUTS here.

 

ECCC Roll-a-Sketches! + THIS WEEK: WonderCon!

THIS WEEK, Friday March 29th–Sunday the 31st, I will be at WonderCon in Anaheim!

I’ll be at booth #1704, right near the entrance, with my buddy Sam Logan, who will be happy to draw your pet for you, or anything else.

As for me? I’ll draw you a Roll-a-Sketch!

Here are a few of the ones I drew in Seattle the other weekend (click any image for a closer look)…

X-MEN + DRAGON:

UNICORN + CONSTRUCTION + FRANKENSTEIN + CYCLOPS:

LION + KNIGHT + YODA + SITH LORD:

BAT + TERMINATOR + YODA + PEANUTS:

And of course, RACCOON + CONVICT + SUPERMAN + GRADUATE:

If you’ll be at WonderCon, I’ll make one for you, too! What a deal!!

I’ll be offering Roll-a-Sketches online, too, later this year — probably in May or June. Probably!


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