blog: interviews

Interview at The Setup: The Stuff I Use

it's-a me

I was interviewed by the site The Setup! It was pretty fun. The premise of the site is asking people “what do you use?” Hardware, software, processes, etc.

I’ll also list mental processes under “software”. All the apps and tricks in the world are just cargo cult trappings if you can’t control the way you think. This is really hard for me! And it’s an ongoing learning process as I struggle to navigate the canyons that streams of habit have carved into the workings of my mind. But the few things I’ve found that work really well (when I can stick to them) are…

Read the whole interview at The Setup!

This weekend! San Francisco!

I am positively glommuxed to be visiting San Francisco this weekend! I’ll be at the Bazaar Bizarre craft fair, held at Fort Mason, this coming Saturday & Sunday.

I’ve been to a BazBiz event once before, at Maker Faire earlier this spring, and I was absolutely glommuxed by the wonderful crowd and the kind response to my wares. I’ll be bringing Monocle Poppers holiday cards, as well as the usual complement of books, shirts, posters &c., so be sure to stop by and say hello!

Also here is a brief interview I gave to the BazBizBlog:

…My list of things to do grows faster than my list of things done, which someday will be a problem and I will be crushed by teetering, top-heavy stack of projects full of pointy ideas and deadly ambitions.

If I don’t see you there I will become fiercely and violently glommuxed

Abe Lincoln is sad

Because his shirt is closing out. The current print run of this one will be its last! The last shirt I closed out — Ninja on a Unicycle — sold out of its common sizes very quickly, so if you’ve had your eye on ol’ Honest Laser-Vision Abe, now’s your chance. Also don’t forget to read his backstory: Part 1 / Part 2

OTHER NEWS! Here’s a video interview with me conducted by rgbfilter, shot at the Toronto Comic Art Festival this year:

I talk about beards. I talk about matter transportation. I talk about my hoard of old books. Beyond that it’s a little hazy.

MOVING ON. Here’s an interview with me in Quail Bell Magazine, which is “a magazine dedicated to fantasy, fairytales, and magical realism, as well as related fields in Medieval and Victorian studies.” They asked me about fairy tales! I never knew I had a position on fairy tales, until I was asked:

I’m trying to think of some way that I can retroactively recontextualize the entirety of Wondermark as one enormously elaborate interweaving fairy tale. I could probably do it if it wasn’t for that 40-strip run in which I methodically and exhaustively disclaimed the existence of pixies in the Wondermark universe. I guess we all have to learn to live with our mistakes.

Speaking of ink (were we?) — here’s some tattoos some people have gotten of Wondermark characters. Daniel’s reads “How Much More Art Can U Take?”

…Based, of course, on the protagonist of Comic #013 and the Russian Elephant shirt. And Denis, a photographer, offers this version, “The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized”:

…Based, of course, on Hobart from my The Revolution Will Not Be Telegraphed shirt. You know, in my travels this year, I have had probably a dozen people come up and tell me that the Revolution shirt is the most comfortable garment they own. It’s 50/50 cotton/polyester and it’s super-duper soft. You will want to snuggle it.

REVIEW! Cory at Boing Boing really loved my latest book, Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters:

…Apart from being a doubtless royal pain in the ass to typeset, Dapper Caps is just plain wonderful. Malki adds a bunch of original prose to accompany the strips, some of it screamingly funny (I literally snarfed water out my nose at the stuff on p.17). It’s just the perfect thing to settle down with on a summer Sunday and point out to your slightly puzzled loved ones.

Such a kind review! Thanks very much, Cory. Slightly-puzzled loved ones the world over thank you as well.

Thanks as well for your thoughtful votes and responses to this week’s query. I think I know what I will be doing, but I have to mull it over a bit yet. Here’s the kind of thing you might see in a hypothetical collection of Malki miscellany — a detail view of Comic #634:

Because I like looking at things big.

Some Links For You

LINK ROUNDUP for a lazy weekend:

Here is an interview with me at Comic Book Resources! Representative quote: “Wondermark is officially, canonically, an allegory about bears in America.”

Sesame Street Fighter is exactly what it sounds like.

From Timothy R., some crazy pictures of a “Victorian computer command center organ cockpit desk thingy.” If anyone ever asks you what “steampunk” means, there are worse places to start your explanation than with these pictures.

And from Kirk B., a video of a workplace beard contest prize-bestowment ceremony, with a very familiar prize presented to the champeen…

Kirk annotates the video thusly:

A while back I bought your Hierarchy of Beards poster because I thought it was awesome but I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it. I had it sitting on the mantel in my living room and it ended up being a great conversation-starter when I had people over. My father has had a beard since he was in college and I have only seen him clean-shaven twice in my life. Unfortunately for me, my facial-hair-growing prowess has been a disappointment to my family. I originally bought the poster in hopes that it would inspire my facial-hair follicles to work harder.

So, at the beginning of February, several of my coworkers embarked on a beard contest which lasted five weeks. I decided to donate the poster as the prize. Unfortunately I did not win the beard contest; I
didn’t even place. But it was fun and I feel like we did our part in raising beard awareness.

You hear that? Be more aware of beards. Kirk demands it.

Three Things You May Like

Check out this amazing video of 8-bit video games invading New York: “PIXELS”, by Patrick Jean.

It’s very cool and very moody in this version…and then also check out the music video version here for a whole different feel. I like it both ways!

ALSO: I’ve just done an interview about the new Wondermark book! I like interviews like this where I get to talk about some new stuff rather than all the same old questions that have been covered in prior interviews. In this one I describe, among other things, my shuttered gun-rental business: “It was a case of doing something because I COULD, rather than because I really WANTED to, and it was growing into quite a nuisance.”

DOUBLE ALSO: Have you ever read tried to read Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics but been off-put by it being so much about boring ol’ dinosaurs? Well NEVER FEAR, my friends, for Science has provided us with a fantastic solution to that problem!