On certain days, when I pass by a trash can full of rotten fruit and children's vomit, I get a very strong sense memory of being inside Jambalaya Jim's

#1564; A Cold Stare From a Tall Bookshelf (Part 3)

  — April 7th, 2025

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1564/

This storyline started with Part 1.

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THIS FRIDAY: First-ever “Magazine Time Machine” stream

Earlier this week, I streamed the making of a Wondermark comic on Twitch!

It was a little experiment to make sure I had all the technical stuff figured out for streaming—the infrastructure for it has come a long way since the last time I streamed regularly, let me tell you.

One of the things I’m interested in starting (perhaps as a bonus for subscribers on Patreon) is regular livestreams, and one of those regular streams will be called Magazine Time Machine.

On every different computer I use, I’ve got about ten open tabs of old books and magazines that I would LOVE to browse through and read and share, but just haven’t been able to dedicate any otherwise-unallocated time to.

This Friday, January 18th, changes that!

At 12 noon Pacific time / 3pm Eastern time / 8pm GMT,  I’ll be live on Twitch reading you VICTORIAN CHILDREN’S BOOKS. 

We’ll start with 1899’s An ABC For Baby Patriots (pictured above) and see where that leads!

For maybe an hour or so? We’ll see how it goes! Hope to see you there!

UPDATED TO ADD: It was great! You can watch the video on Twitch, if you like — it’s a little less than an hour and a half.

Download: A Free Progressive Calendar for 2019!

I made a simple, printable wall calendar for my office! You can have it too — here’s a PDF file you can print yourself.

As you well know, I make high-end desk calendars (there are twelve copies left), but I also like having a calendar I can write on.

Those of you who’ve picked up copies of the Wondermark Calendar in any of the last seven years know about my interest in progressive calendars.

By that, I mean a calendar that doesn’t have any breaks between months. I think I invented the term? By that, I mean “nobody else has ever used this term.”

Back in 2012 I wrote all about it. The special Wondermark branded calendars, of course, address the matter with their modular card design.

But this year, I also wanted a big work calendar I could mount on the wall and write on. I like being able to see the coming weeks and months at a glance.

So I made the calendar you see here!

It’s an entire 2019 calendar (through most of February 2020, actually) that fits on six sheets of regular typing paper:

I’ve trimmed the pages so I could make columns of 3 pages each; you could arrange it a different way, if you prefer.

I tried to make it very simple and very clear, with no wasted space or ornament – so holidays and other observances are not marked.

I figure the relevant holidays will vary depending on where you live (and maybe what you do for work), so if you want to take a pass through at the outset and mark all the relevant ones to you, that will help you internalize them.

Since I also do a lot of weekend travel, I decided to group the weekend days together on the right, and start each week with Monday on the left.

I thought this might be useful to you as well, so here you go! Please feel free to print out your own! 

If it proves valuable for you, feel free to kick over a buck or two via PayPal, but no obligation as far as that goes — I hope you find it useful, and would rather you have it for free than insist on any payment!

Longtime readers know I did this once before, in 2015, and I’ve missed having one every year since.

And there will actually be one FURTHER calendar-related offering coming soon… So if the premium Wondermark desk calendar is too rich for your blood, and this is too simple and too plain, I will have a nice compromise for you, coming very shortly.

A SECRET about the last dozen comics

A SECRET about the last dozen comics

The last dozen comics have had a secret.

As the sick elephant saga was winding down, I thought to myself, “Surely I can’t just drop back into gag-comics-as-usual. It would feel too abrupt!”

So I decided I would write another series, one that wouldn’t feel like a series but that could still work on multiple levels.

All the comics since the elephant saga have ended have been part of this series, starting back with #1437 in November and continuing through today’s #1448.

I wasn’t sure if anyone would notice, or let me know if they did. So I mentioned on Twitter that the recent comics were all linked in some way, and asked if anyone had figured out how.

Anna had:

If you want to see what Anna’s talking about, start with comic #001 in one tab and comic #1437 in another — then read forward in both timelines, and check out where the journey leads you.

More pictures of the Wondermark Calendar!

I’m back in the office after the Christmas break, and have resumed shipping out Wondermark Calendar (and Sick Elephant book collection) orders!

We’re making the associated Cast Cards at a rate of about 50 a day, so it’ll take another couple days to catch up to all the orders backlogged from December  — thank you very much to those of you who indicated you’d be OK with receiving your order in January.

Your orders are next on the docket! And now that we’re back on the assembly line, we’re moving through the backlog briskly.

I’m aware that last month, a feed error meant that a lot of readers missed some of the updates about the calendar. So I’m pleased to say that we do indeed have copies still available, if you’d meant to check it out but hadn’t yet!

This year’s calendar, Examining Ill Pachyderms: A Veteronorfian Field Manual, is narrated by celebrated veteronorfian Sir Kel F. Finnt, who writes in the introduction:

An Up-To-Date Handbook For Progticioners of Modern Veteronorfory

Since my grobduation from mordical school, I have traveled the world exormining and diagmosing every manner of wild creature. I have specialized in pachyderms; particularly, the noble noodlenoser. I present here, in this useful guide, a description of conditions I have encountered in the field, as well as troitments I have administered to the afflicted animals. I also include reports from fellow progticioners in cases where I can personally vouch for their accuracy and efficacy.

The included illustrations were either drawn from the actual patient, or from memory or a third-hand description up to fifteen years later.

As a noodlenoser veteronorfian, you will encounter many animals suffering from the most peculiar of conditions. It is my hope that this guide will aid you in your diagmoses and troitments. Remember that you are not “veterinarians” — you are something different and thus, I must assume, better.

— Sir Kel F. Finnt

Sir Finnt also takes pains to remind any of us who may wish to attempt the “troitments” included in his field guide that “diagmoses” are legally distinguishable from actual medical diagnoses.

Each calendar also comes in a FREE ENVELOPE.

You can re-use a stand from any previous year if you already have one; or, you can pick up one with this year’s unique design!

The legs fit into the holes, so it can be shipped more compactly! It’s a MIRACLE OF EFFICIENCY.

You can, of course, also pair your calendar order with a copy of The Elephant of Surprise — or, just get the book instead of the calendar.

I already have a second printing of the book on its way!

My wife, once again, got conned into helping out. Maybe she’ll pack your order!

[ The Wondermark Calendar 2019 and/or Sick Elephant Book ]

Wondermark Cast Cards Update!

For a few years now, I’ve been making Wondermark Cast Cards – little commemorative plaques that memorialize special events and reader participation:

With this year’s end, so ends the program, so I thought this would be a good time to let everyone know how they might obtain some of the last few to be issued!

Here’s how they’re made – and which ones are still available:

• On our Patreon, subscribers at the $21 tier are entitled to a different unique card every month!

Patreon is a great way to contribute any amount to support the things you like to read, and the very kind folks who are able to contribute a higher amount are rewarded accordingly. Pictured above in the top row are the October, November, and December cards.

(Psst: I also posted a couple bonus comics to Patreon this week.)

There are still a few days to qualify for the December card if you like – just be in that tier by the end of the month. The December card is Bill Claus, from the holiday storyline a few years back.

And that’ll be it for the subscription tier! That tier will be morphing into something different in January.

• Then, there are two Wondermark Calendar-related cards: Sir Kel F. Finnt is awarded to anyone who gets a copy of this year’s calendar AND/OR a copy of the new The Elephant of Surprise mini-collection, both of which are still available while supplies last.

• If you qualify as a Calendar Ace (a patron of that product five or more times over the years), then don’t forget to claim that card as well when you make your order this year, if you haven’t already.

• And finally, there will be one last card in the spring, shipping with the next hardcover Wondermark collection, Friends You Can Ride On.

If you’ve reserved a copy of that book already thanks to backing our Kickstarter, then great! You’re all set.

If you missed the KS but would still like to secure a book (and card), I’ll reopen pre-orders via BackerKit in January, so you’ll have another chance! Watch for that in a few weeks.

How Cast Cards are made

It’s been a while since I first introduced Cast Cards, so I thought maybe it’s worth a little refresher of what they are and what goes into making them.

I wanted some kind of premium item to honor reader participation and accomplishments. Cast Cards are mini-commemorative plaques that each feature a character from the Wondermark cast on one side, with all their relevant “stats” on the back.

The base piece is laser-cut tempered hardboard (Masonite). Each blank is cut out of a sheet, and engraved on both front and back, by our giant industrial laser:

Each sheet of wood yields 44 blanks:

I lay out the artwork in Illustrator, then print out a set of 9 cards’ worth at a time onto label paper:

Then each individual piece is cut out with the laser! I used to do this part by hand, but why, when you have a laser???

This process creates a series of individual stickers.

I transfer each one onto a blank sheet of sticker backing paper – so they can be removed again – then match each front and back with a glossy gold foil cover sticker (rolls of which I had custom made):

The back is just a frame shape, while the front also has the WONDERMARK text in gold:

The gold foil is really the part that gives it the special touch, in my opinion! I’ll have to figure out what to do with the leftover gold stickers.

Then each combined sticker gets applied to a wooden blank, front and back sides both:

Yes, I custom-made a little form for my thumb to fit onto, because it was starting to hurt putting pressure on the corner of the roller over and over.

And the card is finished! The “feet” are cut separately – each card ships with a foot, of course, so it can stand up.

That’s the whole process! It is fun and satisfying but also elaborate and painstaking. I am happy to have done it for so long, but equally happy to try something new in the future. There will be 52 in all once all of these last few have been issued.

If you’d like to get ahold of any of the final few, now you know how! When I blog about anything related to these last couple, I’ll say CAST CARD AVAILABLE in big letters so you know.

And thanks once again to everyone who has participated so far. I hope you enjoy the ones you have!!


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