The commotion is that the flying man who always comes by has returned once again.

#1581; The Longest, Most Fruitless Search

  — January 23rd, 2026

[ Tags: , , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1581/

Continued from Wondermark #024
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New shirt! “Unparsable Symbols”

In tenth-grade chemistry, I converted my name to an unpronounceable symbol, like Prince was doing at the time.

As I recall it was a bunch of math gibberish, like a compound expression inside a cube root, and Kilroy was peeking over the top of it, and the whole thing had an integral or something too. Mrs. Stockwell was tolerant enough to let me use the symbol on all my classwork, even going so far as to ask me which ASCII symbol she should use for me in the computer where she kept the grades.

The Student Formerly Known as David Malki (these antics preceded, and I suppose foreshadowed, the exclamation point) is no longer, but my fascination with preposterous semiotics continues. Thus my new shirt. Enjoy!

Calgary photos & a TALE OF VICTORY.

Just look at that strapping fellow in the photo! What a delightful book he’s holding, what a clever shirt he’s wearing! (Pay no attention to the seething jealousy seeping from the eyes of the man in the background. He is clearly a man consumed.)

Many, many thanks to the hero of the photo and the many others who came to visit at the Calgary Expo. It was tremendous fun and I sold out of pretty much everything I brought, which made it even more fun. We had a blast playing Machine of Death Draw & Guess on Sunday, and all in all I left Calgary feeling INSPIRED.

Not least because of an incredible achievement I managed on the way home:

…I am the type of person who wants things to work out. I want puzzle pieces to fit, and I want objects to be aligned. I once sorted a stack of bills by serial number because I was bored. I stack coins by size, take exhausting and overlong trips because I can make the itineraries mesh like beautiful gears, and before every trip I agonize over which suitcase will most exactly fit the things I need to pack. I HATE the idea of 43 Canadian cents burning a worthless hole in my pants as I cross the border home.

(Read more on my Tumblr)

Here is a picture I drew in a book:

And here is a newspaper headline that I saw:

…Which at first glance appears to indicate that R2-D2 and a charming moppet dove from a bridge to save a drowning man in an incredible moment of heroism.

Unless R2-D2 is what they mean by “motorist.”

Quick Calgary update

Update to this weekend’s Calgary plans — I’ve just confirmed that on Sunday afternoon, I’ll be hosting a game of Machine of Death Draw & Guess, which is a Pictionary-type game played with audience volunteers! We did it in Toronto as well, and had a whale of a time.

There’s no pun there; we just had a really great time! Here’s video of the Toronto event so you can see for yourself.

This weekend, Ryan North and I will be playing the game with Kate Beaton, Christopher Hastings, Dave Kellett and Kris Straub! Come join us on Sunday at 2:00 PM!

Heroes Con sketches / Next up: Calgary!

Here is a sketch I did at Heroes Con the other week! I believe the request was “mermaid.” So I drew the only mermaid I knew how.

It planted a seed, though, so I decided to work on a more polished version of the same idea:

This final, inked version was donated to the Heroes Con Art Auction, the proceeds of which go toward putting on the show. But I know it will remain firmly in your hearts forevermore!


(click for bigger)

BONUS SKETCH:

This weekend I will be in Calgary for the Calgary Comics & Entertainment Expo! TopatoCo has a map of the show. It’ll be my first time in Calgary, so I won’t know any of the local customs. Please don’t make fun of me for “shaking hands” — it is what we do where I come from.

What should I watch out for in Calgary? What faux pas will I certainly stumble into, without your kind guidance? Leave me a comment!

Finally, here is a little thing I wrote yesterday about a haircut that made me cry.

Submit to Machine of Death VOLUME 2!

Machine of Death — the short story collection that I put together with Ryan North and Matthew Bennardo — continues to do great. We’re well past 20,000 copies sold, with no end in sight, and we were one of Amazon’s best-selling books of 2010. The reviews have continued to be overwhelmingly positive, and we keep doing strange things like inviting you to send us things in the mail.

Now we’re doing another whole book! Because why not.

We expect the book will be out sometime in the middle of next year. But before we release the book, we need to make the book! Through July 15, 2011, we are accepting submissions of short stories and art portfolios for Machine of Death Volume 2.

I spoke to Chris Lough at Tor.com about the submission guidelines:

Are you hoping to see more genres come in? Not just SF, but fantasy, romance, steampunk, pulp, and so on?

DM: Yes, absolutely! The first anthology wasn’t “hard” SF anyway, though the SF audience seems to have embraced it and it’s now found on SF shelves in bookstores. But breaking out of genre is one of the great ways we hope to see folks broaden the content of the second volume.

We’ve posted, and will be continuing to post, some cool writer’s resources for you on the MOD blog:

• Full submission guidelines for MOD2
• Direction for stories we’d like to see
• Insights into the selection process
• Tips for avoiding pitfalls in short fiction in general

And much more cool stuff in the archives at machineofdeath.net. Add the MOD RSS to your reader, or like us on Facebook, to stay up-to-date on MOD stuff! We keep coming up with new weird things to try, many of which you can be a part of.

The deadline for MOD2 submissions is July 15, so get cracking! And of course, if you don’t know what any of this is about, you can check out Machine of Death Volume 1 as a free PDF, free podcast, or grab a copy in paper or electrons.


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