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.

Introducing: The Devastator!

First, a quick Boston-n-Austin update: Thanks very much, kind Austinites, for your notes and emails — I think I’ll be covered! I’ll be writing back to you in the next day or two to follow up. And Bostonians: I’m looking forward to meeting you at The Asgard tonight! It might be a bit crowded, but please consider this your official permission to not be shy. I insist you come right up and say hello. Hope to see you there!

NOW THEN. The Devastator (pictured above) is a brand-new quarterly comedy anthology! The brainiacs behind the whole thing are my friends Amanda Meadows and Geoffrey Golden. Here’s a recent interview with The Apiary in which they talk about it. And guess what: I have an original Wondermark story in the book! It features Inspector Gadget. Yes. A Wondermark Inspector Gadget. He was so fun to make. It’s a fun little tale of a man with a thousand pounds of clockworks stuffed in his body. The small stories are the most universal.

Amanda and Geoffrey are funding the first issue using Kickstarter, meaning that in order to actually put the thing to print and pay all the contributors, they’re essentially doing pre-orders for the final book in the form of pledges. Pledge a little, and you’ll get a PDF or a hardcopy of the book; pledge more, and you can get all sorts of nifty limited-edition swag as well. But here’s how Kickstarter works: if the total amount isn’t pledged, then nobody pays anything — and the book doesn’t get made. But it’s so close right now! There’s about a week left in the pledge period, and at the time of this writing, it only needs about another $500. UPDATE: You are the best. That seems to me like a highly surmountable obstacle, so won’t you please check it out?

Oh and here is a video too!

IT’S DEVASTATOR TIME!! Thanks for your support!

Three Fearsome Things from History

I did not make the above illustration! Marksman Brian G. kindly forwarded me this article at Futility Closet, which reprints a 1910 magazine feature entitled “If Insects Were Bigger”:

What a terrible calamity, what a stupefying circumstance, if mosquitoes were the size of camels, and a herd of wild slugs the size of elephants invaded our gardens and had to be shot with rifles!

Basically, someone beat me to Wondermark by 100 years or so (and this even predates Max Ernst by a few decades). The full article is well worth a read. Thanks, Brian!

Several kind readers brought to my attention the “Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage” exhibit, showing through May 9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here’s a great description from an article in the CS Monitor:

William Henry Fox Talbot introduced photography to England in 1839. Due to the cumbersome equipment and time and expense required, photographs were the exclusive purview of the wealthy. In the 1850s, however, commercial cartes-de-visite with photographic portraits (the size of business cards today) became, as [curator Malcolm] Daniel says, “wildly, wildly popular – a worldwide phenomenon.” Collecting and displaying these pictures fueled a fad called “cartomania.” When Queen Victoria had her portrait made in the 1860s, 3 million to 4 million copies were made and sold. […]

This accessibility and democratizing effect posed a problem for the “upper ten thousand” of high-society England. Wishing to re-establish the display of photographs as an elite activity, amateur artists adopted a cut-and-paste technique that required ample leisure not available to the masses. The female album creators collaged images of family, friends, and celebrities, mixing fact (photographs) and fancy (the sometimes irreverent settings they drew).

Finally, Mike H. sends along this collection of drunken mugshots from 1904. Need more be said?

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!

It’s been One Too Many Mornings

My friend Mike Mohan is a filmmaker. We went to film school together, worked on projects for each other, and both got jobs in the industry when we graduated — in fact he’s got one of the coolest breaking-in stories around:

I started out as an intern at Fox Searchlight Pictures. I actually got that job through the strangest of ways. They were having a test screening of Super Troopers at the local theatre, and I snuck in (film students weren’t allowed).

I was really hoping to weasel my way into the focus group at the end of the screening to meet one of the Searchlight executives, but apparently they already had enough 20-year-old white dudes. But after the screening they handed out a flyer that had the email address of someone that worked there. It read something like: “if you have any additional comments on Super Troopers, please email soandso@fox.com.”

At that moment, that was my only connection. This one email address of a complete stranger.

So I stayed up all night long composing the best email of my entire life. The thing would have made Tolstoy blush, it was so long. I discussed every minute detail of Super Troopers -– I even looked on imdb at the upcoming comedy releases, and tried to give them advice on exactly when they needed to release it later that year -– when there were no other competing comedies in the marketplace.

At the bottom of the email I even wrote “it will be in your best interest to call me tomorrow so we can set up an appointment for you to hire me as an intern.” The thing was absolutely and completely naive, but full of passion.

It worked. The next day both a development exec, AND a creative advertising exec called me.

In the years since we both graduated, as I began to develop a career doing comics and talking to all you people, Mike kept making movies. I always joked with friends how I hadn’t seen Mike’s latest film because he’d made a dozen more since the last one. He made slightly disturbing shorts, moody music videos, absurd children’s shows, and a memorable fake infomercial. And now he’s made a feature film.

After two years of shooting on nights and weekends, One Too Many Mornings premiered at Sundance this year. The film is self-distributed — meaning that Mike, along with Anthony Deptula and Stephen Hale (the co-writers and stars), are putting DVDs into envelopes themselves, booking theatrical gigs themselves, and showing the movie everywhere they can to whomever’s willing to come out and watch it. It’s a ballsy move, but it can work — it’s a close cousin to what I do, after all. And folks have taken notice of them: here’s the LA Times talking about OTMM; here’s the NY Times; here’s famous screenwriter/blogger John August, and the filmmakers talk a lot about their process, and link to other interviews, on their blog as well.

I’m hugely proud of what these guys have accomplished, and I’d encourage you to check their screening schedule to see if OTMM’s coming to your town soon, or consider a DVD or direct download of the film. In fact, OTMM is having its next Los Angeles screening next Tuesday, the 16th of March, 8PM at the Downtown Independent, with John August hosting a filmmaker Q+A after the show. Tickets are $7

OR…how about free? In an amazing example of cross-internet synergy, Mike and the gang have decided to award two pairs of tickets to the March 16 screening to LA-area Wondermark readers, as well as two limited-edition DVDs to anyone out of town! Here’s the word direct from Mike:

In the first 5 minutes of One Too Many Mornings, the main character, Fischer, wakes up with the worst hangover of his life. He’s late to his little league soccer practice — and he’s the coach. You would think that nursing a pounding headache and queasy stomach while being surrounded by excited 8-year-olds would be the most horrible scenario possible, but go from bad to worse: he throws up. Not in front of any kids, but literally on a cute and unsuspecting kid who was quietly tying his shoe behind him.

We pose this question to you: What was the worst thing you’ve ever had to do with a hangover?

Enter to win by answering this question on Twitter or Facebook: either tweet using hashtag #otmmLA (to enter for the screening tickets) or #otmmDVD (to enter for a DVD), or post on the official OTMM Facebook wall (using the same hashtags — I know Facebook doesn’t really do hashtags, but work with us here).

Mike and the OTMM gang will read your replies — and regardless of who wins, everyone who enters will receive a link to download one of their prior short films! “La Dentista” tells the strange story of an illegal dentist operating out of an apartment building. It is pretty nutty.

So there we have it! One Too Many Mornings! Hangover questions! Enter to win! Free! Yes. Okay. Hooray! OH YEAH UPDATE: The deadline is Friday midnight! UPDATE 2: Which is now in the past!