Cut and paste comic strips are pretty much like walking a tightrope without a net, or showing up at Busch Stadium wearing a Brandon Phillips jersey (forgive my homerism, it’s baseball season). It’s a good cover if an author doesn’t know how to draw, but otherwise it’s harder to pull off as one has to rely entirely on strong writing skill, great plotting and a decent cast of characters. And for well over a decade, gaining general acclaim and recognition from the Eisner Awards along the way, David Malki! ‘s Wondermark has managed to stand head and shoulder above its contemporaries, despite only having one of those three ingredients.
Wondermark is a vaguely steampunk influenced, Victorian styled universe without any recurring characters, and outside of its absurd spinoff series of comedy novels Dispatches From Wondermark Manor, no ongoing storylines save for the occasional running gag. What it does have, as is obvious from things like an annoying yapping moon, lovestruck mermaids, giant dogs and local franchises named “Murder Hut”, are some of the driest, most twisted and bizarre gags on the net, all backed up by Malki’s katana sharp wit and comedic timing.
Most of the strip is scanned from 19th century illustrations found in old magazines and books, with the odd edit to help define the joke better (in fact, Malki from what I can tell is a solid artist in his own right). Our adventures are pretty much just random conversations between Wondermark’s population, which seems to be entirely made up of very dapper looking mental patients who probably shouldn’t be left unsupervised for extended time periods, mixed with dark humor and Monty Python style slapstick. The folks here love a good debate, even if the topic isn’t what you expected or if they simply just trail off into random nonsense. And trust me, that’s quite often (though maybe not as often as your average internet forum, but still).
Malki does, however, get in the occasional pop culture dig despite the nature of the world he’s built. And it’s a pretty interesting world- through some good design work, clever concepts and the odd bit of anachronism (most of the cast is well aware of modern day amenities, it’s pretty much The Rule Of Funny at work), Wondermark could probably play host city to an epic adventure tale if it wanted.
It’s more than content to revel in madness though, including- among other things- some well done fart jokes, which are in my opinion comedy’s answer to the triple axel in figure skating. With its hybrid of sophisticated imagery and base level humor, reading this comic at times is like, I can only imagine, listening to Morgan Freeman making armpit noises. I say that with a deep level of respect.
Luckily Malki can’t control his artistic curiosity, and the first volume of Manor as well as some of his other, more horror themed works show what he’s capable of. There’s also his takes on certain long runner newspaper strips in The Comic Strip Doctor, which prose quite frankly as a fellow comic critic makes me a little jealous. Regarding some of his opinions, I have to admit I still have a soft nostalgia based spot for Garfield despite how far it’s fallen, but I’m more than with the doctor on just how hard B.C. sucks.
What especially makes Wondermark so wickedly funny is that no one in this town seems to be aware of how far gone they are. It might have a lot to do with the art direction, but either way David Malki has understandably built up a strong following with a great strip that is somehow as lowbrow as it is highbrow. Here’s a link to get you started, and even with its lack of backstory I still found myself happily getting lost in its archives.