Every bus heads full-speed toward the edge of the cliff. All but one falter, and tumble to their doom. The last one flies across the chasm, landing heavily, the passengers screaming but alive. Then we do it all again next year

#1576; In which the Audience participates (Part 3 of 3)

  — October 31st, 2025

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Contest: Win my Hendrick’s Gin Artist Box!

The fine folks at Hendrick’s Gin kindly asked me to participate in their “Artist’s Box” program, whereby they sent me a blank, unfinished wooden box and asked me to adorn it however I liked (and fill it with Wondermark goods).

The above is the result — and they will be giving the box away to a random lucky person! You can enter the giveaway here. (US residents only, I’m afraid — they’re an alcohol company and have to abide by certain regulations.)

Making the box was a fun challenge. I wanted to try and do a collage in my usual style, but without the aid of computers — this meant hours looking through books for things that already matched each other without the aid of digital manipulation, and then additional hours spent with old magazines (mainly 1880’s Scientific American) and an X-Acto.

The inside of the box is lined with 1850’s advertisements and book pages as well, all varnished to a high sheen, and the opening is rimmed with leather strips reclaimed from the binding of some 1902 Dickens editions that were a gift from a reader.

I’m tremendously pleased with how it turned out. For more pictures of the box, an interview and more details about its design and assembly, or to enter the giveaway, see the Hendrick’s site:

Post 1 – Introduction and giveaway entry form
Post 2 – Interview with me about my work and philosophy generally
Post 3 – More detailed info about how I made this box specifically

I’m curious about the world, of course, but I’m also curious about myself: the reason I gave myself the challenge of doing this piece physically rather than digitally was that I was curious to see what I would make of it. I trust my artistic vision more than I have a clear sense of what the final product will be — so I’m always curious to see what I can do, what I’ll come up with, what the next piece will suggest to me in a way I haven’t anticipated. I wouldn’t have any fun with my art if I didn’t leave myself open to surprises, and that’s why I like working with external elements so much (rather than simply drawing everything from scratch).

Thanks to Hendrick’s for thinking of me, and good luck to the contest entrants! Also feel free to check out some of the other entries in the Artist’s Box series — they’re gorgeous.

Nobody tell Hendrick’s that I am not a trained fine artist like these people please

UPDATE: The box was won by Peter S. of Chicago. Congratulations, Peter! Hope you enjoy!

Check out: Hark! A Vagrant in book form

Are you familiar with the work of the inestimable Kate Beaton? If not, the above is but the merest sample of her whimsical linework and delightfully daffy humor. (She was also one of the many cartoonist contributors to Machine of Death.) And today marks the release of a new collection of her “Hark! A Vagrant” comics in hardcover!

Advance copies of Kate’s book were made available both at Comic-Con in July and at SPX earlier this month, and in both cases they vanished very quickly. Kate’s posted some reviews and tour info on her site (below the Wuthering Heights comic) if you want to know more — or just take it from me. It’s super, duper-great, and doubly so if you have an interest in history or literature. But if you do, I bet you’re already reading Kate’s work — and if you’re somehow not, you better get with it!

TopatoCo is also offering a special double-pack with Kate’s earlier book, Never Learn Anything From History, a collection of specifically history-themed comics. The new hardcover is available pretty much anywhere — like Amazon if you want — but Never Learn is exclusive to TopatoCo and/or selected comic shops such as Toronto’s The Beguiling. Grab em both! You’ll like the smiles they put on your face, I guarantee it.

THIS WEEK: Machine of Death game testing!

You may have heard that we’re developing some Machine of Death card games. If you haven’t heard — well, now you have! We are. And even better — I’m hosting some play-testing events at my studio here in West Los Angeles, and you’re invited! Come have some pizza and play card games with me!

The first two events will be TONIGHT, Tuesday September 13, and TOMORROW, Wednesday September 14, from 8-10pm. I know it’s short notice, but if you’d like to come, leave an RSVP on the Machine of Death site and I’ll be in touch with directions!

Each evening will be limited to eight people, so if there aren’t eight RSVP’d yet for the night you’d like to come — and you know you can make it — go ahead and sign up. (You can come both nights if you want! We’ll be playing different games each time.)

Now, if you’re not local, that’s okay. The MOD card games will be coming to other cities and the internet soon! We talk a little more about them here. And even if you can’t make it to a play-test event, there’s details at that link about how to, right now, (a) play a dice-based role-playing game I just invented and (b) fire up your arts-n-craftiness to make us a custom Machine of Death prediction card.

You see, the motto of the entire Machine of Death opus is, “Things to keep you busy.” If you do end up playing my dice game, “Hitman on a Budget,” let me know what you think!

Book Review: “The Story of a Broken Arm,” by Amelia Vaughan

Childhood is a time when mysteries loom tall, when the mind is still sorting out what is real about the world, what might be just assumption, and what is outright lie. Childhood memories often betray a fluidity in the nature of reality, and the contrast between imagined dangers and their real consequences is the subject of this remarkable new work by first-time writer Amelia Vaughan.

Part memoir, part roman à clef, The Story of a Broken Arm tells the tale of a childhood accident that left lasting scars on its victim — and for all the brutal caprice of the incident, the account blends poetic questions of causality with meditations on the truth and power of the imagination into a visceral story of survival.

I believe The Story of a Broken Arm was printed only in limited edition, and I was very fortunate to secure an autographed first-run copy direct from the author.

Recently I stopped by my local print shop, DSJ Printing in Santa Monica, to pick up a batch of Machine of Death card games. While my order was being brought out, a tiny hand suddenly popped up from behind the counter and casually placed out a sign: “The Story of a Broken Arm, by Amelia Vaughan. Only $1.99!”

Of course I leapt at the chance. I grew up as a kid running around my parents’ business, amusing myself however I could in stacks of car parts, coming up with weird schemes and cutting up cardboard boxes and bolting together old pieces of junk just to stay sane during the interminable afternoons after school. I am totally, 100% behind any kid-at-the-parents’-work (DSJ has been Vaughan-owned for 55 years) enterprise. I gladly paid my $2, took a polite penny in change, and was pleased to also teach Amelia, who’s maybe about seven, the concept of “autographing your work.”

I didn’t realize it would only be a single page long until after I’d already pre-paid, but what a page it is. Action, pathos, heartbreak, and a bit of ambiguity right at the end as well. Anyway, I consider this an (inflation-adjusted) pay-it-forward for the guy who bought “bitten beans” from me for a dollar, back in about 1994, after I realized that “I SELL BITTEN BEANS” was the only thing I could spell out of a bunch of leftover stickers I found.

(I tell the story of the transaction in Tweet Me Harder 31, and my mom comes on to verify it all in TMH 34.)

The moral is: I started out as a teenager selling dry beans with bite marks. And look at me now! I own my own business where I sell even more ridiculous things. Support entrepreneurial kids, folks!


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