David Malki !

Genre microfiction

I was talking with a friend about a Twitter-based fiction contest that he’d seen, and he mentioned that this contest had stipulated genre requirements. So, of course, the conversation turned to how short a story could possibly be and still have some recognizable genre. I postulated that it wouldn’t take much at all:

“A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Cancer! On our wedding day!” [Drama/romance]

“A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Tuberculosis! On our wedding day!” [Period romance]

“A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Nanobots! On our wedding day!” [Sci-fi]

“A final acidic tear dripped down her dying, scaly cheek. Dragon cancer! On our wedding day!” [Fantasy]

“A sultry bead of sweat dripped down her heaving bosom. Lust! On our wedding day!” [Erotica]

“A bloody tear dripped down her already-rotting cheek. Zombies! On our wedding day!” [Horror]

“A final tear dripped down her bullet-riddled cheek. Mobsters! On our court date!” [Crime]

“A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Cancer! On our gay wedding day!” [Gay/lesbian]

“A final tear dripped down her goggles to her sprocket-laden corset. Brass poisoning! On our wedding day!” [Steampunk]

In fact, I bet between all of us we could write microfiction in every conceivable genre. Leave a comment and let’s prove it.

New Project Wonderful ad slots

I don’t run hardly any paid ads on this site, but as an experiment I’ve added a Project Wonderful leaderboard banner up above and a skyscraper down in the right column. If there’s gonna be ads, I’d rather they be for the other cartoonists, entrepreneurs etc. that use PW, and plus, there are probably far fewer acai berry spammers using Project Wonderful than other ad networks.

If you’re a Wondermark fan, this is a great opportunity to get your message in front of like-minded, fairly friendly people for not very much money at all! For info, click the “Your ad here” text beneath each ad.

Check out: Away We Go

I highly recommend the movie Away We Go, the newest from director Sam Mendes. I don’t think it’s for everybody, but for me, a dude really close to 30 who is in the first sort of nascent stages of starting a family yet who’s still waiting to discover what Adulthood is supposed to feel like, I think this movie was utterly, totally for me.

I won’t link you to the trailer or anything though, because with all due respect to my friends who worked on the marketing, this movie (like pretty much every movie) is better off seen totally cold, without anticipating the big moments that the trailer and commercials give away. So, don’t watch the marketing, but do see the movie. (Oh, and if you don’t like it — well, there’s no accounting for taste. I liked it. Let’s not argue about it, huh?)

Finally: take a look at John Krasinski up there. What do you notice?

He’s bearded.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the only mainstream, non-period American movie in a great while in which the primary romantic protagonist wears a full beard. Leave me a comment if I’m wrong; I’d like to know if there are others!

Last call for signed comic prints!

pretty snazzy

Did you know that you can get any Wondermark comic as a lovely, 12″ x 6″ photo-quality print? And I’ll sign that bad boy for free — even inscribe it for the intended recipient if you like (even if it’s yourself). A great gift for the Marksman or Wonder Woman in your life.

Why do I bring it up now? Because this month will be the last opportunity for signed prints. Comic prints will continue be available later, albeit in a slightly different form — but these next few weeks are the last time they’ll be moving through my hands personally, and thus the last chance I’ll have to sign them.

If that’s important to you, jump on over and order your prints today! (Be sure to specify which particular strip(s) you’d like in the “Special Instructions” box.) Prints are archival and suitable for framing, mail in a rigid stay-flat envelope, and currently (until Comic-Con, anyway) I’m shipping all orders within 3 business days of receipt.

I should also come clean and let you know that I will only be signing books for a limited time too, so if you’ve had your eyes on a Wondermark collection and you’d like it to be signed or inscribed (free!), there’s no time like the present. But I’ll won’t make the “last call” announcement for signed books until a bit later this summer — I’ll be sure to give you plenty of warning!

True Stuff: Metahumor from 1927

These “True Stuff from Old Books” artifacts are from 1927 issues of the humor/satire magazine Judge. Full of articles, cartoons, jokes and poems, Judge, a predecessor to the New Yorker, chronicled the entire first half of the twentieth century.

These cartoons by Judge staff artist Ellison Hoover are emblematic of a crisp, streamlined cartooning style that came into fashion in the twenties and thirties. I really love the Lincoln on the first page (unfortunate racial caricatures aside) and the baseball scene on the second — with their expressiveness and playful take on history, both remind me of Kate Beaton’s work. (click images for bigger)

BOTTOM CAPTION: “If they’d lived in the days of ready-made clothes”

BOTTOM CAPTION: “Confused condition of little Bobbie’s mind during his history lesson.”
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
“Santa Claus at the Battle of Bunker Hill”
“Napoleon at the ole Swimmin Hole”
“Babe Ruth at Valley Forge”
“The little girl across the aisle founding St. Petersburg”
“Washington crossing the Delaware”

This third page, also by Hoover, is entitled “The Perfect Newspaper Comic.” Metahumor’s probably existed for as long as humor itself has existed, but I love seeing examples of it in media that we normally only ever see classic material from — the ephemera I happen across in my research, stuff that nobody bothered to reissue in a special gold-foil commemorative hardbound edition, is always fun to discover. This cartoon apes the tropes of contemporaneous newspaper comics like “Mutt & Jeff”, “Barney Google” or their less-remembered brethren: the mismatched couple, the slapstick violence, nonstop patter and, of course, the classic fall-backward-upon-punchline-delivery (which probably has a formal name somewhere).

Finally, more metahumor, in the form of an article by regular Judge contributor Don Herold. Entitled “A Criticism of the Theatrical Criticism in this Morning’s Paper”, this piece would feel perfectly at home in something like the Onion today. Click for a larger image, or the full transcription is after the jump.

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