That forty dollars goes to good use -- it allows the flower shop owner to buy a forty-dollar sculpted soap set from the soapery next door. The soapmaker will go on to buy some paper flowers with that same money. Then both of them will pay income tax on their earnings, which will go toward paying a defense contractor to build bombs for military drones to drop onto various strangers. It’s all part of living in an interconnected community

Caption Contest #4 WINNERS!

Thanks to everyone who entered our latest caption contest! I had a lot of fun reading all the entries, and it was very hard to choose winners, as is always the way of these things. For future reference, the captions were entered on the Wondermark Facebook page, and there were also some in the comments on this post.

Common themes this time around included: the dromedary as stork delivering a baby; puns on “animal magnetism” or “attraction”; mentions of Insane Clown Posse (“magnets, how do they work?”); references to Camel cigarettes or “Arabian” things like shawarma; proverbs about passing through the eyes of needles; instructions to plant the child at some specific spot in the garden; robots; and long Dickensian dialogues.

That all being said, please enjoy some, in no particular order,

HONORABLE MENTIONS

NO HINTS FROM ME

“Mabel had a knack for getting out of her chores.”—Graham Bird

“I’ve told you before! Milkshakes bring boys to the yard.”—Gedbury of Slacks Creek

“I’m terribly sorry madam, sometimes the stork delivers the wrong ones. Thank you for keeping the receipt.”—David Ault

“Back off, Ermengarde, I got this.”—Francis Heaney

“I hate the packaging on these things.”—Pan Outeast

“Stand back, Helen! The bastard still has my ball bearings and I’ve finally got him right where I want him!”—Chuck Jordan

“Is that my good magnet? Are you using my good magnet again?!”—Erik Deckers

“Its budget dwindling rapidly, the BBC production of Moby Dick was forced into increasing levels of abstraction.”—Jorpho

“Dammit, woman, don’t try to stop me! This is science!”—Kristan Wheaton

“My real dad lets me play with magnets whenever I want!”—Alex S.

“And with Mother’s return, the situation went from bad to worse.”—Collin Voyles

“Technical foul. Lose one quarter furlong.”—Doug Zimmer

“Get in the car. No time to explain.”—Shawn LeBlanc

“Wait! I want to change my vote!”—David Tresner-Kirsch

“The view from here is much improv’d:
It is two-toed, not cloven-hooved!”—Pan Outeast

FINALLY, HOWEVER…

…A reminder! Last caption contest, we instituted a rule that we would ALSO consider, as an exhibition entry, a line of dialogue from the current “Garfield”. Which, for the day the contest ended (July 12th), gives us:

“How’s the summer treating you?”

[Hold for polite applause.]

Now, without further ado, or distracting reminders to
come visit me at the San Diego Comic-Con this week, at booth #1229…

THE WINNER:

Read more

SPACE TIME! variety show at San Diego Comic-Con

TIMESPACE

The San Diego Comic-Con is nearly upon us! I’ll be at the TopatoCo booth (#1232) provding Roll-a-Sketches, friendly handshakes, and answers to any questions you may have about life.

On Friday night, I’ll also be sharing some True Stuff From Old Books as part of a cool variety show called SPACE TIME!, hosted by musician Marian Call:

The incomparable variety show SPACE TIME! returns to SDCC this July. Tickets available now!

Songwriter Marian Call hosts her 6th annual showcase of science and art in San Diego. This year’s guests include:

  • Historical comic artist & man-about-the-internet David Malki ! of Wondermark!
  • Songwriter Seth Boyer, with new original songs about space and time!
  • Writers Kayla Cagan and Josh A. Cagan!
  • Author (and financial advisor to the internet) Nicole Dieker!
  • A discussion of life on Mars by emeritus Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell and Mars rover instrument technician Kim Maxwell!

Come ready to sing and learn and laugh with friends old and new.

$12 online tickets are available until 5PM PST on the evening of the event. If the show has not reached full capacity, the remaining tickets will be available at the door for $15. Seating for food and drinks begins at 6:30pm ($10 minimum per person). Learn more about the venue at 98BottlesSD.com.

No SDCC pass is required, and locals encouraged to attend! The event is in Little Italy, away from most traffic and parking woes associated with the con. Easy public transit available via light rail (use the Middletown or Little Italy stops) and by bus (take the 83, 280, or 290).

Get tickets in advance, in the past this show has sold out!


As you may know, you can order prints of any individual comic strip you like from my TopatoCo store.

I also bring selected favorite prints to conventions! They look like this:

sorry for suddenly mooning you

Every convention, people ask if I have specific ones, and while I often do, sometimes of course I don’t.

So I’m starting a new thing: if you’ll be at Comic-Con (or Gen Con, later this summer), and you want to get a print of a specific comic, email me in advance and I’ll make sure to bring it for you.

Just email dave at wondermark dot com, subject: “Comic print.” I’ll have it waiting at the booth for you to pick up! (They cost $7, and you can pay when you pick it up.)

SPEAKING of my TopatoCo store, I’ve got two new shirts in there! “Cooking is Wizardry” from this comic, previously only an apron, is now a shirt as well. And also, now you can enjoy “Turctopus”, hailing from this comic!

Behold, the feathery evidence of the presence of a wizard!!!

I did a Wondermark-style page for the latest Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comic!

I was very pleased to be invited to make a Wondermark-style page for the latest issue (#9, in comic stores now) of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, written by my buddy Ryan North!

I’m really proud of how it turned out, so I wrote out a whole BEHIND THE SCENES breakdown over on Tumblr:

In the story, Squirrel Girl encounters the character Mole Man, who is super old. So, for a page where he’s recounting a flashback, Ryan and Erica thought it’d be fun if it had a correspondingly old-timey look…

With an assignment like this, I try to keep the conceit that the image is an authentic Victorian-style engraving – which means, rather than draw any image I want from scratch, I have to find a bunch of Victorian engravings that contain pieces of what I need, and then build the needed images from them.

It’s kind of like playing with LEGO® brand building bricks, except the LEGO® brand building bricks are drawings created by people who are now dead.

[ Read more at: The Making of an Old-Timey Squirrel Girl ]

whaCHA

Caption Contest #4 now open!

 

NO HINTS FROM ME

Let’s do another caption contest! It’s been a while since the last one.

The overall winner of this contest will get an autographed print of this image with your caption rendered CANON. Update: This is over now! Here are the winners!

And, new this time, I’ll also award the Achievement Card below to all winners and honorable mentions! Participating in this contest will be the only way to get this particular Cast Card, which will be Card #12.

off balance for life

You can enter by leaving a comment on this post or leaving a comment on the corresponding post on the Wondermark Facebook page (where I also post the new comics each update). Please don’t duplicate the same comment in both places.

Single sentence captions are best, and you probably won’t get far with anything too vulgar or profane. Enter as many times as you like between now and midnight Pacific on Tuesday, July 12.

Also, just for fun AND/OR your own research and reference into the sorts of things I and my crack team of judges find funny, here are the archived results of our previous caption contests.

Good luck!!


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