Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the coloring contest — we had 53 entries, which is a ton for a contest that only ran for seven days, and I’ve now made the acquaintance of many very skilled colorists, which will be a great asset moving forward into new projects.

The final decisions were difficult, but we had to take into consideration thematic concerns, what the strips would look like on paper, and how they would incorporate into the existing page designs. I think we made decisions that will produce the best book as a whole package. The book will also contain five strips colored by Carly Monardo, my collaborator on the Futurism poster.

The contest winners are:

#291, In which Notability is determined: Alyssa Stock
#302; In which the Moon is annoying: Anita Hawkins
#319; In which He is watching: Kory Bingaman (website)
#324; In which Alvin chooses wisely AND #326; In which the Day is seized: Marcus Thiele (website)
#333; In which Everyone had better Shape Up: Mario Martín (website)

(Guys if you have websites you want me to link to, let me know)

Where are their entries? Why, they’ll be printed in Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death, out in May!

“But I wanna see some co-olor,” I hear you saying. Okay! Here are some pretty cool honorable mentions (click for bigger):

#291 by Katherine Wirick (website). Katherine did some nice work in the skin tones, giving the shapes dimension.

#302 by Christina Major. Christina was the only one to color all six comics! In this one she’s explained why, exactly, the Moon is so annoying. This made me laugh out loud. Nicely done, Christina!

#302 by Danielle Gavino. This was a really lovely take on the strip. I commend Danielle for a creative palette choice!

#324 by Shazzbaa (website). Shazzbaa was one of several to use color to make the Walt-Whitman-headed bat slightly more magical. I also like the muted palette.

#333 by Taryn Trousdale (website). Taryn made extensive use of textures in her entries, which is something I do a lot of in my books as well.

These honorable mentions will all receive prizes for their effort! WHAT PRIZES? Who knows!

Thanks so much for your work, everybody. It’s been a real treat to see! Exactly what I’d hoped for has happened: folks have applied their very divergent personal styles to make these strips unique and distinct from one another. The six strips chosen for the book are very different from these as well, and I think you’ll really enjoy seeing them in May!

Finally — these six strips are now colored and done, but I’ll extend an open-ended invitation to anyone and everyone: If you’d like to take a crack at coloring your favorite strip(s) from the archive, just drop me a line and I’ll send you the full-rez, layered file. If I like your coloring, I’ll replace the black & white version in the archive with your version, and include a link to your site! Easy as that. (You just have to promise not to take it personally if I don’t like it, my standards are pretty high for this sort of thing.) Of course, any entries submitted will also serve as auditions for paid coloring work, just like these have been. So there you go! What are you waiting for, etc.

In late 2006, the satirical newspaper The Onion launched a comics page in its print edition (currently available free on newsstands in 10 metropolitan areas). I was thrilled to feature Wondermark on that page in every market, and for about two and a half years, the comic ran in 700,000 papers every week.

Now, however, the Onion comics page is going away. The issue appearing on newsstands in a few days will be the last to feature a Wondermark strip.*

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed — it was wonderful to attend conventions in cities like New York, San Francisco, Austin, and the D.C. area and have people recognize the strip from the paper, thrilled to discover things like book collections and the email list. It was always a kick to pick a paper off the newsstand and see my work in print, and knowing that bored people on the subway would be reading my comic helped give me perspective — and kept me from making too many internet-nerd in-jokes. The whole time, the editors at the Onion have been uniformly gracious, accommodating and supportive, and I am deeply indebted to Tasha Robinson and Joe Garden particularly.

But the financial realities of the newspaper-publishing business are what they are. (That is to say, miserable.) Moving forward, my goals are twofold — both of which heavily involve you:

> First, I want to make sure that people who enjoyed Wondermark in the Onion know that the strip itself is still very much alive and continuing online. If you have friends who regularly read the comic in the paper, remind them that they can sign up for email delivery of comics and not miss a beat. In fact, they’ll get twice the comics! (Since the Onion only published one comic a week, but I post two a week here on the site.)

>> Second, if you attend or work for a school (high school or college) with a newspaper, let them know that Wondermark is now available for syndication through MCT Campus, the same syndicate that offers comics such as “K Chronicles”, “Brewster Rockit”, and “Bliss” to schools. MCT is offering Wondermark on a trial basis, which means that it lives or dies based on newspapers electing to participate and reader feedback — both things that I can’t provide, but you can.

Yes, you (in the aggregate) have the power to make Wondermark available to millions of students and faculty (in the aggregate) who might enjoy them. With the loss of the Onion audience, this opportunity for additional exposure is very precious, and I’d love to make a good showing. Please contact an editor at your school paper, share a few words about why you enjoy Wondermark and why it could be a good fit for your school, and ask them (very kindly) to contact Tony Regan at MCT Campus about syndicating the strip.

And if the paper picks it up for syndication — tell me about it! I’ll send a personalized thank-you gift to anyone who sends me a scan of Wondermark in their school paper.

Thanks so much, everyone! And to any fugitive Onion fans who’ve found your way here, thanks for making the leap online. Here’s the email subscription list, the RSS feed, the website’s Twitter feed, the LiveJournal feed — pick your flavor. It’s nice to have you around.

*If you live in Madison, San Fran., NYC, LA, Austin, Chicago, Denver/Boulder, the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, or DC, pick up an Onion late this week. You might be glad you did, hint hint