blog: reader participation

From whence the comic comes

I received a lovely email recently from Joanne, a reference librarian in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Joanne had a problem: her library had to get rid of some old books, and she had to find homes for them! Well, as you might imagine, this is hardly a problem for me, as I told her to send them on over.

And send them she did! Look at this delightful packing job. These books arrived in amazing condition and I eagerly flipped through them hunting for jewels.

Comic #648, the latest as of this writing, was created entirely from images taken from the book on the right, 1896’s Kate Carnegie by Ian MacLaren. Here’s a closer view at some of the original images.

Thank you very much, Joanne! And thank you to Toni, who just sent me a CD full of scans from 1882’s Collier’s Cyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information. Thank you to the kind chap whom I met at Comic-Con and who gave me an illustration of a man’s leg being amputated — that is just waiting to find a home in Wondermark somewhere. Thank you to Douglas who alerted me to a particularly great eBay find; thank you to Conch in Portland who brought me a whole stack of books at last year’s Wordstock (from whence came this); and to David in Colorado who sent me a massive box of 1880s Scientific American that I’ve been mining for years.

Guys I get the best mail

Friday: Last day to help me SPELL

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow (or TODAY, depending on when you’re reading this), the 13th, is the last day to sponsor our fundraising team in 826LA’s Spelling Bee for Cheaters. So far we’ve raised over $1000, which is amazing! You are the best.

But, as of this writing, I am lagging way behind both my teammates, Keith and Dave. I blame part of this on a weird link in the previous message that didn’t seem to load the page right, but now I’ve fixed that and there is no excuse. DO IT FOR THE KIDS

Thank you so much for your support! I’ll be sure to give a full report on the event next week.

Help me CHEAT AT SPELLING

Maybe you’ve heard of 826 Valencia, the organization founded by Dave Eggers that helps 6- to 18-year-olds with writing skills through community events and after-school tutoring. 826 has several branches nationwide, and my local chapter, 826LA, has its office just down the street from mine! In fact, I pass it every day on my way to work. My friend and fellow cartoonist Keith Knight is on the board of directors there, and when he invited me to participate in a fundraising event for 826LA, I gladly agreed!

It’s called “A Spelling Bee For Cheaters” and it takes place August 14 in Santa Monica, CA. Keith, Dave Kellett and I are on a team called “The Sweaty Hams,” because we are all men and, well, sometimes things happen. We’re somewhat late-comers to the fundraising game, so we are trying to raise pledges to buy “cheats” so we can be competitive in the event!

Cheats include passing on a difficult word, buying immunity after spelling a word wrong, swapping places with another team member, and other non-officially-endorsed-by-the-American-Spelling-Association deviousnesses. (See how I used a word that’s probably not in their official lexicon?) We only get cheats — and thus, a fighting chance against the other teams with loads of cheats — if we raise money! 826LA is a volunteer-based organization that helps kids in a number of remarkable and wonderful ways. Will you please help our team with a donation?

The event is less than two weeks away and thanks to rudderless team leadership we are entering the fundraising race way at the back of the pack. PLEASE DO NOT LET US FAIL IN THIS

AS WE DO MOST EVERYTHING ELSE

Here lie most of the biggest remaining chunks of David Malki !

With reference to today’s comic — a few weeks ago, Boston hosted a marathon epitaph-writing session between myself, Joey & Emily, Ryan, Randall, and Kris. Some of my favorites (that I can remember):

~ Here lies Emily Horne, or at least her most recent host body
~ Here lies Joey Comeau, or at least someone wearing his face
~ Here lies Randall Munroe and the items his atoms have been fused with
~ Here lies Ryan North, PROVEN WRONG FOR ONCE
~ Here lies Kris Straub / 1979-2004, 2005, 2007, 2010
~ David Malki ! / 1980-2005 / 2010-

What’s your epitaph? Leave a comment and share!

Austin & the world: Thoughts about cards

Thank you to everyone who came out to TCAF last week! Man alive, that was a fun show. I saw so many friends, picked up some really neat books to read, and enjoyed the city of Toronto in a pleasant and life-affirming way. I love that TCAF is in a library, and that it’s free to attend — it positions the show as a cultural event and something with a low barrier to entry, rather than a remote, cavernous media circus (or dingy swap meet aspiring to the level of media circus), and it attracts a literate, curious, and enthusiastic crowd. My kudos to Chris Butcher for his hard work putting the show together, and I already can’t wait till next year!

I hope this coming weekend goes just as well! The latest (and near-to-last) leg of my Absurdly Exhaustive Spring Book Tour finds me in Austin, Texas at the Renegade Craft Fair! It’s a FREE event held at Palmer Events Center this Saturday and Sunday, and I hope you’ll come check it out. This is an entirely new type of show for me, and I’m keen to watch it unfold, hopefully into a pleasing and elegant shape.

I’m hoping that you, the lovely and kind Wondermark reader with an easy smile yet distinct sense of boundaries, will come out to say hello, since I haven’t been in Austin for a while — but another big chunk of my time at shows is always spent meeting new folks, handing out flyers and sample comics, and doing my level best to spread the word about my little operation here. I’ve found that the success of the pitch is strongly related to the tenor of the show itself (insofar as certain events tend to attract certain types of people), and I’ve spent all week coming up with stuff for the table that’ll hopefully speak the language of this show in particular.

I’ve sold greeting cards for quite some time, of course — right now they’ve been shifted to a lower priority as far as online sales go, just because I haven’t had time to process orders between all the traveling of these last few months — but they’ve always been their own thing, a collection of gags that looked and sounded kind of like Wondermark but shared no overlap in content with the other stuff I create. It struck me yesterday that there’s no reason I can’t take some of my more interesting design work (for books or other projects) and adapt it all into art-print and note-card form in a way that might be arresting to someone wandering the halls of this craft fair, waiting for something to strike their eye — so that’s what I’ve spent a few days working on. I’ve now got a whole new complement of cards and prints I’m eager to share with you (and eager to test out in the world), and depending on how they do, we may see quite an expansion of my online card offerings. I’ve been very pleased with the reception my holiday and Valentine cards in particular have had, and I’m definitely keeping all the existing lines alive — but I’d like to do more, much more, as well.

So let me ask you: What do you look for in greeting cards, occasion cards, or note cards? What are the things to keep in mind, the occasions or themes you care about, or things that frustrate you about existing cards (mine or others out there in the world) that I could do better? I’m keen to hear your thoughts — please comment on this post, and I’ll take it all into consideration. Thanks very much for your feedback!

And Austin, you’ll get a sneak peek at the new cards! See you at the fair!