Today I’m talking to David Malki!, creator of Wondermark. Wondermark is a gag strip crafted from Victorian-era illustrations and other period artwork. Even before I had the pleasure of bringing it to Modern Tales, I was hooked by the comic’s distinctive look and acrid sense of humor.

SHAENON GARRITY: How did you start doing Wondermark? Where did the inspiration come from?

DAVID MALKI!: Like tons of other people, probably, I read Reinventing Comics and thought, “You can do comics on the Internet?!” My own attempts at doing comics were always met with frustration–I’m a decent artist, but I’m very impatient with myself. I guess I should say I’m a decent sketcher. So I thought, well, here’s a way I can make comics that are still visually interesting, and not be hamstrung by my own artistic limitations.

SG: Where do you get the artwork for the strips?

DM!: I started with a book of Dover clip-art. It’s fun to laugh at the silly style of Victorian illustration, but I’m really drawn to the craft involved. It was because of the great respect I have for these anonymous artisans that I wanted to reinterpret their work for a new audience.

Over time, as I started to see the same clip-art pop up all over the web, I decided that I wanted to move away from widely-available material. Luckily, I live just across town from the Los Angeles Central Library, which has a huge Rare Books collection. I’ve spent many Saturdays in their stacks with my digital camera and a tripod, photographing pages. I have a 17-page printout of library call numbers. I will never, ever run out of material.

I’ve also started my own collection of nineteenth-century volumes, which I scan. I really love poring through these old tomes and unearthing amazing works of art. Some of my favorite characters–Honeymoon Bob, Sudoku Guy–you’ll never find in a clip-art book. They’re my own discoveries.

SG: Where’d those two come from?

DM!: Sudoku Guy is from an August 1879 issue of The Graphic, a British newsweekly. Honeymoon Bob is from a German satirical weekly called Fliegende Blätter, which is a rich source of amazing, wacky illustrations. The original caption beneath Bob read, in German, “I’ve already drunken a quarter of [the inheritance from] a rich uncle!”

SG: As somebody who writes continuity-heavy comics, I’m always impressed by people who can do self-contained gag strips. Is it hard to keep coming up with ideas?

DM!: It’s easy because I don’t have the weight of a story to conform to, or loose ends to wrap up, or worries about how the overall narrative is developing. But it’s also hard because it’s back to square one, every day. That means that I can make jokes about Batman one day and horse pee the next, but it also means that I have to set up new characters and a new situation every single strip.

I like doing gag strips because it’s easy for new readers to jump on at any point. But there’s nothing (besides whatever credit you’ve earned for quality) to bring readers back for the next installment. The format has its own freedoms and its own challenges, and I think on balance it’s no easier or more difficult than doing a continuity-based strip.

Also, I like being able to do whatever I want. One panel, ten panels, who cares. There aren’t a ton of non-narrative gag strips in the newspaper-style, multi-panel format, so I don’t ever feel like I’m imitating anyone.

SG: What can you tell us about Treachery!, your print-only Wondermark book?

DM!: I noticed that the same archetypal characters kept appearing all over the Victorian era: illustrations from different volumes, on different subjects, by different artists would feature characters that looked remarkably similar. Since my particular style of comic is dependent to a large degree on the source material available, noticing this really opened up a ton of possibilities. I collected many appearances of these similar-looking guys, and tried to figure out what narrative the pictures suggested. The result is Treachery!, an eight-page work that (I think) actually tells a complete story, with a beginning, middle, and end.

It was a lot of fun to make, because for once I could stretch ideas jokes out over a long period of time, and let a concept mature and grow over the course of pages. I decided to make it only available in print because I really wanted to showcase the beauty of these old engravings. Also, it feels neat in my hands.

SG: What strips have gotten the most feedback? Do you ever get absolutely crazy responses to your work?

DM!: Recently, strip #220–”In which a Plan comes together”, about terrorists brainstorming ways to make airline travel more inconvenient–got the most response of any strip I’ve done. It was linked on BoingBoing and my traffic for that day increased by a factor of ten. I don’t particularly like doing timely humor, because when you read the strip later in the archive or in a book, it can really seem flat. But I understand how commentary on today’s issues can resonate with people more than garden-variety poop jokes.

It’s tough, because now there’s that pressure — will my next outing be as good? What will these new fans think? But whatever. I don’t want to get caught in that trap of second-guessing my audience. I have to keep making comics that I think are funny, and the people who are on that same wavelength are going to be the ones that’ll hang around.

SG: Are there any other webcomics you follow?

DM!: Sure, there are ton of great ones out there. I don’t want to name a lot of names because I’d have to name everyone and I’d feel bad for those I left out, but I especially love my fellow Playground Ghosts–Chris Yates, Colleen AF Venable, Steve Hogan, and Chris Dlugosz–because we’re such an eclectic mix. That’s the promise and the fun of webcomics, I think–doing things differently, making your own rules, succeeding or failing on your own terms.

SG: That’s a great group. How did you get together?

DM!: The Chrises and I knew each other from Ryan North’s Truth & Beauty Bombs messageboard, and Yates and Colleen have been photocomic buddies for a while. As it happened, Yates mentioned offhandedly that he was interested in starting his own forum; so was I, so I emailed him and it went from there. The Playground Ghosts have exhibited (plus or minus a member or two) at a few cons now, with more to come, and it’s worked out very well for us. Our various skills and talents really complement each other.

I’ve also had the wonderful experience of meeting many talented creators in person, and it makes reading their comics more fun because I see how it’s a window into their personality. I’ve made some great friends through webcomics.

SG: Any final thoughts?

DM!: Jamie Moyer got traded to the Phillies in the middle of the game. What the hell is that about.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 1:37 am and is filed under Modern Tales News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.