Wondermark

NEXT WEEK: Improv Festival in Hawaii

June 29, 2023September 15, 2016

Next week, September 23 & 24, I’ll be performing on stage at Improvaganza, the Hawaii Festival of Improv in Honolulu!

My team, The Audience, will be doing two comedy shows: Friday night at 9pm, and Saturday night at 9pm.

It was a great honor to be invited to perform in Hawaii and I’m really looking forward to the trip! The festival itself runs for most of the week, with various workshops and performances — which I assume are all great.

I have to admit: this is the only time I’m likely to be in Hawaii on OFFICIAL BUSINESS for quite a while. Barring a future invitation from a convention, I don’t have any current plans to attend any comics-related events there.

But since I WILL be on Oahu next week, well, shoot, it’d be fun to do a meetup! Perhaps at a local comic or game store, or somewhere else comfortable? I’d love to make myself available on this rare occasion.

I’ll actually be arriving on the 20th, so I’ll be around most of the week… AND THE 21ST IS MY BIRTHDAY WHAAATT

Honestly? I have no idea how many readers might be in Hawaii and interested in saying hello! If you are local and have any suggestions or ideas for how this might work, don’t be shy, please shoot me an email — [dave at wondermark dot com]

If it looks like something can be scheduled, I’ll make an announcement here on the site and also on my Twitter.

And if not? I guess I’ll just drown my lonely sorrows in a huge pile of malasadas. What a terrible, terrible fate to be consigned to.

THIS THURSDAY: ‘The Internet Read Aloud’ in L.A.

June 29, 2023September 5, 2016

This Thursday night, September 8, I’ll be participating in the latest installment of “The Internet Read Aloud,” a reading/comedy show hosted by Josh Fruhlinger (of the Comics Curmudgeon, and many other things)!

I will be doing a dramatic reading of my poem comprised entirely of phrases from Jeb Bush’s fundraising emails. And the evening has many other delights in store as well, I have been assured.

It’s at the Clubhouse in Hollywood, and details are also at this “Face-Book Event,” hyperlinked here! I hope to see you there!!

Bonus Roll-a-Sketch drawings FROM THE VAULT

June 29, 2023September 1, 2016

I went back to my collection of Roll-a-Sketch drawings (of which there are many, many that don’t make it here onto the blog) and put together a sort of BONUS PACK of never-before-seen entries!

And I also wrote some commentary on each, which is a new thing that I haven’t done before and which I frankly find fascinating. Perhaps you will too?

The post is available to all $5+ members of my Patreon! The patreonauts who support me and Wondermark and the other things I make for you are all cherished jewels of humanity to me, and if this BEHIND-THE-SCENES oversharing of drawings is of interest to you, I would like to make it a more regular thing.

[ PATREONAUT BONUS: A bunch of Roll-a-Sketch drawings! ]

Roll-a-Sketch drawings from Comic-Con!

June 29, 2023August 2, 2016

Here are a few of the Roll-a-Sketch drawings I did in San Diego last week!

BUT FIRST: I want to thank the patrons who’ve supported Wondermark this month on Patreon! All of you are precious to me, and I appreciate your kindness more than I can say.

But I want to especially thank members of this month’s Cast Card Subscription Program: Miri B., Jack T., Rahul J., Scarlett L., Colin M., lograh, Michael I., Emily R., Brian M., Nicholas M., and Janet O. As top tier supporters, they deserve mention here where everyone can bask in their reflected glory.

These fine patreonauts, and many others, have my thanks and a promise of a firm handshake or mutual respectful nod if we ever meet in person.

Now, here are some drawings!! (Click any image for a closer look)

PANDA + DOG:

VADER + BEE + PHILOSOPHER + MOOSE:

New at San Diego was the introduction of a FULL COLOR OPTION at the Platinum Reserve level. Here by way of example is MILKSHAKE + MERMAID + GHOUL + TMNT [Ninja Turtle] + MOOSE + C-3PO:

This particular gentleman has for years brought around a sketchbook with captions pre-written on the top of every blank page — as a challenge for the artist to draw something matching the caption. Here is BEAR + ANTELOPE + HE-MAN + YAK:

Thanks to these fine folks and many others who dropped by in San Diego!

Want a strange but haunting drawing of your very own? My NEXT stop will be Gen Con in Indianapolis, this coming weekend!

I’ll be hanging out at the Blind Ferret booth, #1437, along with a whole plethora of pals such as Sam Logan, Jeph Jacques, Kory Bing, Alina Pete, and Phil Foglio.

I’ll also be repping T-shirts from TopatoCo pals Kate Beaton, Ryan North, KC Green and more, so come take a browse!

KC even let me make a wooden magnet out of his world-famous flammable dog:

We’ll have them at Gen Con, booth 1437! See you there!!

RIP: Richard Thompson, creator of “Cul de Sac”

June 29, 2023July 28, 2016

A few years ago, I wrote a recommendation of the strip “Cul de Sac,” by Richard Thompson, a gentleman I had the privilege of meeting several times. I wrote:

The characters are eccentric in ways that continually delight and surprise. I read individual strips in bits and pieces (here’s the strip’s official online home), but it wasn’t until I sat down with the full books in-hand that Alice, Petey, and their parents and friends took on strange and hilarious personalities. The language is clever and specific; the drawings are weird and delightful…

In 2012, Richard retired from drawing “Cul de Sac”, following the worsening of his Parkinson’s disease. To aid in a fundraising effort for Parkinson’s research, I and many of my cartooning colleagues contributed original art to a book called Team Cul de Sac. The next time I saw Richard was in my buddy Dave Kellett’s cartooning documentary Stripped.

This week, Richard passed away from complications from Parkinson’s. He was 58 years old.

Here’s a video that shares a little bit of what made Richard’s art — and his life, and his personality — so marvelous:

I hope everyone takes the time to read some “Cul de Sac”, or his editorial strip, “Richard’s Poor Almanac”. Richard was a phenomenal talent, a cartoonist’s cartoonist whose work overflowed with wit and exuberance, and I hope his voice will endure to inspire generations of artists in the way it has me.

He was also a kind, generous, gentle man whose acquaintance I was supremely honored to have made:

To David, the genius behind Wondermark, with admiration from your fan —
Richard Thompson, SPX 2010

He did not have to be so kind, but he chose to be. I will always be grateful that I met him, that I got the chance to experience his work, and that I could be a tiny, tiny part of his life.

We will miss you, Richard.

#1569; The Foldery has Folded

— June 24th, 2025