blog: reader participation

Would you (or do you know someone who would) like to learn all about the high-stakes world of Professional Webcomics™? Do you have far too much free time, and currently fritter it away counting dust-mites or smelling carpet samples? Are you in the Los Angeles area? And are you not a total lunkhead?

I am looking for an intern at my new base of operations, The Assault Factory, in Venice Beach! This is a one-day-a-week position starting very soon and extending tentatively through the San Diego Comic-Con in July. The position is unpaid, but meals will be provided as well as mileage reimbursement for any errands run on my watch. You will probably end up with some merch as well before the whole thing is said and done. I will sign any sort of school paperwork that you like — internship form? Hot-lunch voucher? Tardy slip? No problem. I also write killer letters of recommendation.

The ideal candidate is friendly, intelligent, vaguely familiar with the comic and my merchandise, and computer literate. Helpful (but not required) qualifications include: car ownership, facility with Photoshop, facility with Final Cut Pro, facility with WordPress, facility with nunchucks, and local to the West LA/Venice area — I hate asking people to drive across town. Although, of course, that’s your prerogative.

Please send your resumé (with a brief cover letter if you like) to dave at wondermark dot com, subject: “Internship”. Include any calendar or scheduling factors I should know regarding your availability. I will be conducting interviews as soon as possible, so please be willing to come to Venice for a sit-down.

See you soon! MWA HA HA HA

The Harvey Awards are one of the comics industry’s three or four major annual awards. Anyone who’s a comics professional can nominate any work they like that was published in the previous year — and what I’m told is that it only takes a relatively small number of nominations to push a title to the top of the list (above the hundreds of books with one vote each).

I don’t really know how to say this any other way — I would like Beards of our Forefathers to be on that list. I’m incredibly proud of the work I put into it, and if you’re a comics professional who feels the same way, I hope you’ll consider sending in a nomination for me.

The deadline for ballots is this Friday, 3/27. I’m not sure what the threshold is for “comics professional,” but if you’ve ever done work for a professional publisher, or have done okay as an indie and have some credits you can list, I say go for it! In addition, this is a great chance to nominate any other comics you’ve read this year that you really enjoyed — you can make up to 5 nominations in each category.

There’s a text ballot at harveyawards.org — I think you can just copy & paste it into an email and send it to harveyballots@hotmail.com by midnight Eastern time on Friday.

You don’t have to fill out nominations for every single category, but DO be sure to fill out the “Brief list of work in comics” section (for the verification of your “professional” status). The votes I would love your support for are:

Special Award for Humor in Comics: David Malki !, for Wondermark: Beards of our Forefathers
Special Award for Excellence in Presentation: Wondermark: Beards of our Forefathers (Dark Horse)

I know Wondermark isn’t necessarily the Best Online Comic of the year, nor was my book the Best Graphic Album, nor am I the Best Writer in all of comics — but nonetheless I will personally be nominating myself in those categories, as well as some of my colleagues. If you’re moved to nominate Wondermark or Beards in those categories, bless you.

Finally, I’ll also be nominating How to Make Webcomics (Image) in the Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation category.

Again, the deadline is in just a few days, so if you qualify to help out (or can lobby a friend or loved one who does), please do so right away. Thank you very much for your support!

Wondermark fans are a special breed of person — they are rarely found in isolation. When I travel to conventions, I love meeting couples who email comics back and forth to one another, or who share the comics with their families and friends. That is what the Internet is all about! Contrary to what you may have heard, the Internet is not a thing unto itself, it is a medium for facilitating communication and connection between live human beings. It is a very long, very tangled string suspended in the air between a tin can that I’m speaking into, and one down the block or across the country or on the other side of the world that you’re lifting to your ear. Hellloooo over there!

So here is a cool thing that you can do this month. If there is someone in your life to whom Wondermark means something, I want to make their day special. There are three ways of doing this:

Would your friend, relative or spouse get a kick out of a personalized greeting card from me? I can hand-write any message you like into any of my greeting cards, hand-address the envelope, and send it directly to a person you specify.

The cards can even be scheduled in advance to mail out at any point in 2009 — perfect for an anniversary or something coming up in a few months. One more thing off your list! One less thing for you to remember! How considerate you are! (I won’t tell your secret.)

Or, order a personalized card with a unique sketch inside! If you’ve seen me live-stream my sketching sessions then you know how wacky my drawings can sometimes get. A Unique Sketch Card is a great way to give your friend or loved one the gift of original art in the guise of a thoughtful gesture.

Finally, the third option! If you have a friend or loved one whose mind would be blown by getting a happy-birthday call from me, or a happy-anniversary call, or (especially!) a congrats-on-the-new-beard call — now such a thing is possible. During the month of March, I will call your friend for free, anywhere in the world. All you have to do is fill out this handy form to schedule the call. It may sound something along the lines of this:

[audio:marchpromo.mp3]

A minor caveat to this final offer. I do not want to confuse people, or freak them out because I am a stranger who somehow knows their birthday. So please use a bit of discretion, and choose a person whom, when I say “This is David Malki ! from Wondermark,” they will know who the heck it is. This will make the ensuing conversation go much more smoothly.

This job is made wonderful by meeting and interacting with the many thousands of you who spend a few minutes twice a week coming to see what I have to say. Hopefully I can repay that joy just a little bit this month!

Maybe you’ve heard of Kiva, the microlending site that allows individuals to loan money directly to small business owners and entrepreneurs in the developing world. Our dollars, pounds and kroner go a lot farther in nations with weaker economies, and for a motivated individual in Peru, Afghanistan, Cameroon or Cambodia, often just a few hundred bucks can make the difference between between continuing to live in poverty or opening a business to support themselves and their community.

I’ve donated to charity before, but I’ve always been bugged by the fact that I don’t know where my money’s really going — is it funding disaster relief in Indonesia, or buying leather couches for the organization’s New York office? And at times, without much disposable income it’s been hard for me to justify even needed expenses, to say nothing of giving money to others.

But Kiva is different on both counts. Your money goes to a specific individual that you choose, with a specific need that is outlined in detail. You can decide to fund a Tanzanian charcoal vendor or an Azerbaijani taxi driver. Also, these are loans that earn interest — the money is used to help the individuals develop and grow businesses, and they are expected to repay the loan. Historically, 97.5% of recipients do.

I knew all that, but had no impetus to actually get involved until now. Fellow cartoonists Zach Weiner and Ryan North started a Webcomics Lending Team on Kiva, where creators and fans can work together to support these entrepreneurs a world away. I checked it out and saw that other team members had already begun funding a Lebanese auto mechanic seeking tools for his garage.

My dad was also a Lebanese auto mechanic:

In the 1940s and 50s, he worked with his father and brothers to support their family, working at various times as a laborer, driver, and mechanic (including, as in the picture above, for the British Army during WW2), eventually managing a tractor dealership.

He came to the U.S. in 1956, and in 1960 opened his own repair shop in California:

Much of his family would immigrate in the coming years as well. For decades, they continued to sponsor the immigration of friends and relatives, whom my dad would often hire to work in his shop while they found their footing in America. Many of those folks went on to open businesses of their own in time.

The entrepreneurial spirit is strong everywhere in the world, and given the opportunity, people prefer to forge their own destinies rather than have them dictated by even the most well-meaning of foreigners. I’m pleased to join Zach, Ryan, and other webcomic creators and fans in this enabling effort, and would like to extend the invitation to every one of you as well.

So far, in less than a week, Team Webcomics has lent over $2,000 among 59 different loans to individuals in places such as Bolivia, Ghana, Tajikistan and the Philippines. We’d love to have you be a part of it!