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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Chicago this weekend!

I’ve really enjoyed walking around downtown Chicago the last few days! The weather’s been clear and temperate, and it’s been a wonderful introduction to a city I’ve never visited before. Wednesday I walked from Soldier Field up along the harbor to the river, and everything just seemed nice. People were jogging and biking; I talked to a dude fishing for bass in Lake Michigan; a lady’s dog was just freaking out at a goose who seemed much calmer than I would have been in the same situation. I exchanged a knowing glance with a jogger as if to say, “Yeah, I see it too. That dog is nuts.” Overall I am having a wonderful time!

So much so, in fact, that I am in danger of becoming infatuated with Chicago. Some kind Twitter folks tried nobly to warn me away — they say it gets cold; it’s windy; the politicians are corrupt; Ira Glass is not very tall — but to all that, my heart is saying “balderdash.” If I don’t get over this infatuation, I might uproot my entire family and career to move to Chicago immediately, and that would be devastating and irresponsible! So here is my challenge to you: come see me at C2E2 this weekend (booth 965, with TopatoCo) and tell me something bad about Chicago to bring me to my senses. If you say something that nobody else has said, I’ll give you a free sketch!

So which will it be? Will I destroy my family and ruin my life, or will you come and snap me out of it? We will see how the weekend goes!

I drew some fish

I am in Easthampton, MA at the moment, having just drawn sketches in about a hundred books! All of my books (and shirts, and prints, and pretty much everything) are shipped from the TopatoCo Command Bunker here, so once the Artist Edition orders that I’ve been crowing about were received and compiled, I swung on into The Office Of The CEO and drew strange little vignettes into everyone’s books while The Executive and I listened to folks recount their visits to Saturn on Coast to Coast AM. I shared a handful of the sketches on my Twitter as I went: the one above is among my favorites, and here are several more examples as well. We may be seeing more freakish dinosaur/tank/airplane/fish drawings in the future! These were pretty fun to do, and thanks very much to all the kind folks who ordered Artist Editions. The next opportunity to get sketched books will be in November.

If you would like to know the sorts of things that go on at TopatoHQ on a daily basis, I guest-star in a totally factual documentary account by John Allison, a well-respected subject of the Queen. In fact, I believe this tale bears the Royal Warrant. (Part 1 is at the bottom of the linked page.)

Now then! In just a few short hours I’ll be leaving the cozy confines of the Pioneer Valley for big ol’ Chicago! The Windy City! Chi-burg! Town of The Double Friendlies! The Urban Chicagopolis! Ol’ Jimmybean! I’ll be at the new C2E2 convention all weekend (with TopatoCo, booth 965), including a Friday-night panel discussion about webcomics that’s sure to be a thrill. I’ve never ever been to Chicago before, and I’m super-triple-excited to check it out and meet all the fun people who I’m sure populate its warrens! You guys have warrens, right? (I have been reading up.)

Finally — thanks to everyone who said hello at the MoCCA Festival last weekend in New York, and especial kind double-thanks to Chris and Carly, my gracious and collegial hosts. Chris if you find my jacket can you please bring it to Chicago.

Three Fearsome Things from History

I did not make the above illustration! Marksman Brian G. kindly forwarded me this article at Futility Closet, which reprints a 1910 magazine feature entitled “If Insects Were Bigger”:

What a terrible calamity, what a stupefying circumstance, if mosquitoes were the size of camels, and a herd of wild slugs the size of elephants invaded our gardens and had to be shot with rifles!

Basically, someone beat me to Wondermark by 100 years or so (and this even predates Max Ernst by a few decades). The full article is well worth a read. Thanks, Brian!

Several kind readers brought to my attention the “Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage” exhibit, showing through May 9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here’s a great description from an article in the CS Monitor:

William Henry Fox Talbot introduced photography to England in 1839. Due to the cumbersome equipment and time and expense required, photographs were the exclusive purview of the wealthy. In the 1850s, however, commercial cartes-de-visite with photographic portraits (the size of business cards today) became, as [curator Malcolm] Daniel says, “wildly, wildly popular – a worldwide phenomenon.” Collecting and displaying these pictures fueled a fad called “cartomania.” When Queen Victoria had her portrait made in the 1860s, 3 million to 4 million copies were made and sold. […]

This accessibility and democratizing effect posed a problem for the “upper ten thousand” of high-society England. Wishing to re-establish the display of photographs as an elite activity, amateur artists adopted a cut-and-paste technique that required ample leisure not available to the masses. The female album creators collaged images of family, friends, and celebrities, mixing fact (photographs) and fancy (the sometimes irreverent settings they drew).

Finally, Mike H. sends along this collection of drunken mugshots from 1904. Need more be said?

Three Things You May Like

Check out this amazing video of 8-bit video games invading New York: “PIXELS”, by Patrick Jean.

It’s very cool and very moody in this version…and then also check out the music video version here for a whole different feel. I like it both ways!

ALSO: I’ve just done an interview about the new Wondermark book! I like interviews like this where I get to talk about some new stuff rather than all the same old questions that have been covered in prior interviews. In this one I describe, among other things, my shuttered gun-rental business: “It was a case of doing something because I COULD, rather than because I really WANTED to, and it was growing into quite a nuisance.”

DOUBLE ALSO: Have you ever read tried to read Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics but been off-put by it being so much about boring ol’ dinosaurs? Well NEVER FEAR, my friends, for Science has provided us with a fantastic solution to that problem!

This week! Bellflower & NYC!

I am back from San Francisco! A cheery hello to everyone I saw at WonderCon, I had a pleasant and friendly time. I think that’ll be a show I return to next year! But I will have no shortage of trips to the Bay Area this year yet. The Bay Area shall become my second home, or third office, or Ninth Gate, or Twenty-Third Skidoo. I will know this Bay Area.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll be doing a special in-store signing at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower, CA! Dave Kellett and I will be visiting from 5-8PM, signing books, shaking hands, drawing sketches, and probably solving problems. If you are in the Bellflower area, please stop by!

Then, this coming weekend, I’m in New York City for the MoCCA Art Festival! I will be exhibiting with the stellar Topato Corporation and many of my fine colleagues and friends in the comickal arts. I’m always thrilled to visit New York and this will be my only appearance in NYC this year, so please come out and say hello. Also if you’d like me to bring any prints of individual comics, it’s a new thing I’m trying out at cons! Drop me a line via email or Twitter if you have any particular requests, and I will see what I can do.

Finally, only ONE WEEK REMAINS to pre-order Artist Edition books! For this limited time, I will sketch in your books and it might look like this:

Or, it might not.

ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT


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