I don't demand courtesy, but I do demand rigor!

New books! Discount shirts! GOOD THINGS

Clearance alert! The following shirts are currently DISCOUNTED TO MOVE:

Awesome Piranhamoose Shirt

Bibliophibian Shirt

Bibliophibian Onesie — in sizes for babies 6–24 months

All those things are $15 each while sizes and supplies last! Plus you can get ANOTHER five bucks off when you order any three shirts at once. It’s AUTOMATIC due to COMPUTERS

Here are some other nice things you can add to your order:

Beard Measuring Shirt

I Believe Hoodie — featuring glow-in-the-dark ink

Unparsable Symbols Shirt

Or any of this other great stuff!

Six months ago, back in April, Wondermark celebrated its ten-year anniversary. I didn’t mention it at the time, because I felt it deserved a long writeup of some sort, or some thoughtful reminiscence, an introspective look back at a decade of doing this.

But it turned out to be an incredibly busy six months! Making the Machine of Death game and releasing This Is How You Die, as well as a variety of side projects, have kept me pleasantly occupied.

I felt bad because I didn’t even mark the passing of the anniversary, and then I didn’t come back to talk about it, and now here it is six months later and still, not a peep. But I figure that’s okay, because I am busy. That’s what I want, that’s my goal: to be constantly busy making things.

So the fact that I felt too busy to sit down and write a long nostalgic post about the days when I sat around on my couch and fumbled my way through making a few early comics and posting them online is itself the point. I’ve come a long way and it’s continually getting more interesting. I’m glad to be busy; it’s a sign that things are working.

Still! One thing I want to discuss is this: As you may know, a few years ago I released a series of three books with Dark Horse Comics. They’re lovely hardcover collections of Wondermark strips, each with quite a bit of extra exclusive content as well. The first, Beards of our Forefathers, was even nominated for the Eisner Award for “Best Humor Publication.” How about that!

Well, the hardcover edition of Beards has long since sold through its entire printing, and the second volume, Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death, is just a handful of copies away from doing so as well.

So, with permission from Dark Horse, I’ve reissued both volumes in lovely full-color paperback, complete with a new spot-gloss treatment on the spine:

Beards of our Forefathers – Paperback

Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death – Paperback

And they’re available right now!

If you already know how neat these books are, well, these new inexpensive editions make great gifts. And if you haven’t checked them out yet, I’m pleased to say that for the tenth anniversary of Wondermark, each book is only ten bucks.

Thanks for your support!

Check out: Max Temkin on values

A few weeks ago I was pleased to attend XOXO in Portland, which bills itself as “an arts and technology festival celebrating independent artists using the Internet to make a living doing what they love.”

It was a really fun time, and I got to meet great people and demo the Machine of Death game and eat from some good food trucks and even have pizza too! All around I recommend it as a cool way to spend a weekend.

The first speaker (of many) at the weekend was Max Temkin, one of the creators of the game Cards Against Humanity. Among other things, he talked about the genesis of CAH, and how he and his colleagues have managed its growing complexity as a business as well as a creative endeavor.

Sometimes I feel bogged down trying to figure out what to do — how to run my business, how to be creative, how to spend my time. Max’s answer is to focus on developing and heeding your values: because having a core set of values will make your actions in a given situation clear or obvious, since you will always have a true north to align to.

The talk (as well as the other XOXO talks) is well worth watching, and it also includes a performance by The Doubleclicks, performing an absolutely gorgeous song about the Mars Curiosity rover.

Max Temkin at XOXO 2013 – YouTube

By the way, if you’re into creating custom Cards Against Humanity cards, here are some good ideas, these are free from me

THIS SUNDAY: Ryan North & me: In Conversation at 826LA!

Just announced: THIS SUNDAY, October 6, I’ll be hosting a conversation and signing with Dinosaur Comics/Adventure Time/To Be or Not To Be author Ryan North!

It’ll be at 826LA’s Mar Vista Time Travel Mart in West Los Angeles. As you may know, 826LA is a nonprofit writing & tutoring center for kids ages 6-18. Here’s one of my Machine of Death Kickstarter videos, talking about 826LA and what they do!

At Sunday’s event, Ryan and I will be chatting and signing our books, and if you have an MOD Kickstarter order that includes a Machine of Death book, you can pick up the book and have it signed right there! (The games themselves will be shipping in November.) (And to be clear, you don’t have to be a Kickstarter backer to attend or to grab a book!)

Ryan and I will also be reading from Choose Your Own Adventure books written by elementary school kids at 826LA field trips!

This event is FREE and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30pm. Hope to see you there!!

RYAN NORTH & DAVID MALKI ! – IN CONVERSATION
Mar Vista Time Travel Mart
12515 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90066
Street parking available

OBLIGATORY REMINDER FOR MOD KICKSTARTER BACKERS:
Monday, October 7 is the last day to make any changes to any BackerKit orders, including adding on a copy of THIS IS HOW YOU DIE if you like. More details here!

Check out: Sam Bosma’s dungeon-sports comic FANTASY BASKETBALL

At SPX the other week I picked up this comic by Sam Bosma and I really loved it! FANTASY BASKETBALL is a 40-page story about “teamwork, dungeon-crawling, bosses, ancient tyrants, and the greatest sport in the world.” You should read it!

Sam sold out of his first printing of physical comics, but he’s got a pre-order up now for the second printing. The books have screenprinted covers and risographed interiors for a slightly pulpy, authentic comics feel.

The cover is a two color screen print on French Paper’s Speckletone line (I think the exact color is “Madero Beach”. Sort of an off-white with little dark specks in it. The covers were printed by Jimmy and Dan at Pizza Party Printing in Baltimore. The pink and indigo inks were mixed by the printers. They also scored the covers and made a couple cuts to crop them pretty close to size (though I trimmed the books once they were assembled).

The interiors were risograph printed by my pal Kris. They were printed on sheets of Staples’ brand cream pastel paper. It’s pretty thin (20lbs), but it has a nice rough texture and takes the riso ink really well. I toyed with printing the things digitally, but in the end, I’m really happy I went with riso printing, since it adds a really nice textural quality to the work. (from Sam’s tumblr)

Or, you can get the digital version right here on Gumroad, right now!

Either way, I recommend you get a copy! I really liked it and I hope you do too.


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