You're suggesting that HEADSTABBERS UNIVERSITY, a midseason-replacement spinoff show conceived expressly to draft off the brand recognition of the famous franchise but feature mostly younger, lower-priced actors with only token cameos from the more famous and more expensive core franchise cast, and which seems to be painstakingly written to justify reusing extensive special effects footage from previous seasons of its parent show is, what?? Garbage???

#1587; And Onward One Opines

  — June 5th, 2026

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/1587/

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San Diego Roll-a-Sketches! PLUS: A REQUEST

I had a good time in San Diego the other week! And I also had a good time at the Toronto signing earlier this week! If I saw you in either place, I hope you came away as delighted from the encounter as I did. At both places I had my full-scale mockup Machine of Death, and it was a real eye-catcher — in San Diego specifically, where the aisles are full with people shuffling along waiting for anything at all to catch their eye, it was neat to see people stop, squint at my “Free Death Predictions” sign, look at me quizzically, and actively volunteer to have their death predicted.

Here’s one account from someone in San Diego who’d never heard of the MOD before:

While we were staring at the machine trying to figure out what the hell it was, a bearded man approached from behind the counter and asked us if we would like to give it a shot…

THAT’S ME. I’M “A BEARDED MAN”!

Anyway here are a few of the Roll-a-Sketches I did at the show!

RHINO + TURTLE + MERMAID + TANK:

PIRANHA + PENGUIN:

ELEPHANT + SAILOR:

TURTLE + VADER:

PIRANHA + JELLYFISH + PENGUIN:

That last one was drawn in a copy of my recent book Emperor of the Food Chain! Perhaps you recall SOME MONTHS AGO when that book was released, I made sketched copies available online.

Now that I’ve been doing these sketches in earnest for over a year (last year in San Diego was when I came up with the idea), I’d like to put together a little book collection of just Roll-a-Sketch drawings. I’ve tried to be diligent in photographing the sketches I do at conventions, and back when I drew in all those books last fall, I made sure to photograph every single one.

Unfortunately, I lost the memory card that I used to photograph the book drawings. Tragedy!! But luckily, those drawings are all in your hands now.

So I need your help:

If you have a Roll-a-Sketched book (or multiple books) that you ordered last fall, I would really like it if you could send me a scan or hi-res photograph of the drawing(s).

If you do so before the end of August, I will put your email address on a list and send you a free PDF copy of the complete Roll-a-Sketch book collection once it’s done!

To ensure book-print-level quality, the images you send should be:

• If a scan: at least 300dpi. Grayscale is fine. Crisp with no blurry areas.
• If a photo: evenly lit, in sharp focus, no lens distortion. Grainy or blurry photos will be unusable. The photos I post here on the blog are the sort of thing I’m looking for: straight-on shots with no shadows. Any camera these days should probably take a high enough resolution picture for my purposes — please don’t re-save it at a lower size.

Email your images to dave at wondermark dot com, subject: “Sketch Rescue”. I’ll write back to let you know if the images work OK.

Thanks for your help with this!! You can send them anytime, but again, if you can send in yours before the end of August, I’ll send you a free PDF of the finished book. To reiterate, I only need copies of the drawings I did in books last fall — I do already have pictures of all the convention sketches. UPDATE: Actually I would like any sketches from 2012’s SPX (in Bethesda) or APE (in San Francisco.) Thank you for your help!

NEXT CHANCE FOR SKETCHES (and other goodies): GEN CON, in Indianapolis! Booth 743!

CHOOSE YOUR OWN BOOK LAUNCH in Toronto on Monday!

I’m coming to Toronto this Monday night for the CHOOSE YOUR OWN BOOK LAUNCH: Two parties, side-by-side, for two different books! WHICH WILL WIN??

THE CONTENDERS:

To Be or Not To Be, a choose-your-path adaptation of Hamlet, written by Ryan North, William Shakespeare, and you! It’s over seven hundred pages and QUITE AMUSING, I’ve read it (and I also have a couple illustrations in it, along with tons of other great folks!). In the book, you can play as either Hamlet, Ophelia, or Hamlet’s dad, but if you play as Hamlet Sr., then you die on the first page and play the rest of the book as a ghost. It’s pretty great.

VS.

This Is How You Die, the brand-new sequel to Machine of Death that is just as good as the first book, if not better! The A.V. Club reviewed it and gave it an A. I helped write it, and I helped edit it, and so did Ryan. WE ARE PALS. But on Monday night we will be BITTER RIVALS.

AT THE EVENT

There will be Shakespearean rap battles! Dramatic readings! Death predictions by the score! Games and laughter! It will be a fun time; this is a guarantee from me personally. I hope you can come! (And if you already have one or both of these books, bring ’em to be signed! If you don’t, come pick ’em up there!!)

IT WILL BE HELD AT

• The Beguiling (601 Markham Street in Toronto, in Mirvish Village, beside Honest Ed’s)
• on Monday, July 29th, 7pm-10pm

More info here! Facebook invite here!

After that: Gen Con Indy! PAX Prime in Seattle! But first: this thing. THIS THING INDEED.

TWO DAYS LEFT for TIHYD! + Signing at Comic-Con!

CONFIDENTIAL TO THE PEOPLE AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON CHECKING THIS BEFORE 11AM ON FRIDAY MORNING: Come to booth #1116 (pictured above) at 11 for our This Is How You Die signing! We’ll have several of the book’s authors and illustrators on hand to SCRIBBLE AWAY in a copy that you can take home and cherish.

And/or come on by my own booth (#1229) for a Roll-a-Sketch! Like THESE LOVELY PEOPLE DID (I’ll post bigger pictures of the drawings themselves later):

CONFIDENTIAL TO EVERYBODY ELSE: We have just TWO DAYS LEFT to tally copies of This Is How You Die to count toward our attempt to make the New York Times bestseller list!

If you like, here’s another free preview story from TIHYD — Ryan Estrada’s tale of a MOD call center operative, featured on Wired:

“While overall the percentage of ironic readings is forty-nine percent,” Manisha answered, “with your reading in particular it’s been pretty straightforward. One hundred percent of those we’ve gathered data on have in fact been killed by locomotives.”

“Well, the reason I’m asking is because I just started a new job, and I begin training tomorrow,” the customer interjected nervously.

“No need to be concerned, sir.” Manisha knew what he was getting at. “If training were your cause of death, the card would certainly say ‘training’ or ‘trainer.’ Not simply ‘train.’ While unexpected synonyms are often the cause of ironic readings, the machine always gets the grammar right.”

Training might be the death of me, though, Manisha thought, remembering she had to be in three hours early for her next shift. For the third time in a month she was going to have to trade sleep for a mandatory training session…

We’re also very grateful for kind mentions about TIHYD this week from Vimeo (our video was named a Vimeo Staff Pick); Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, and bestselling author Brandon Sanderson:

I think the concept is a great one, and the first book is quite entertaining. If you’ve read the first volume and are wondering if you should read the second, you may have noticed that one issue with the first is that a number of the stories tread the same ground, making a few of them a bit repetitive. The second book breaks that mold — the editors specifically put out a call for stories that took the concept in new and interesting directions.

I’ve read the second volume, and it certainly does that! A few of the stories do start out seeming like they’re going to be retreads and then you realize that something is wildly different…

What if you haven’t read the first volume? Don’t worry. These are both concept anthologies, not a coherent narrative. Each story stands on its own. All you need to know is the initial concept of a machine that predicts how you die, and you’re good to go. The stories can be read in any order or no order. If you haven’t read the first volume, don’t hesitate to read the second one now and decide later whether you want to read the first one. These are the cream of the crop (though the first volume also has some very good stories.)

Thanks, Brandon! If you haven’t gotten the book yet, I have only one request: DON’T WAIT. And if you have, thank you so much!!


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