Comic Review: Wondermark: Beards of Our Forefathers by David Malki

As insouciantly entertaining as his twice weekly Internet comics may be, there's something extra satisfying about reading (or re-reading) David Malki's "Wondermark" strips on good ol' pulpy paper. Perhaps the visually anachronistic nature of his cartoon work - a collage of repurposed 19th century illustrations - makes it best suited for bound paper. The new collection of Malki stripwork, Beards of Our Forefathers (Dark Horse Press) is certainly well-served by its hardbound packaging.

Malki's biggest jape - using Edwardian imagery in the service of absurdist 21st century tomfoolery - is nothing new, of course. Terry Gilliam was doing something very like it, after all, for Marty Feldman and Monty Python back in the 1960's. (There's even a Pythonesque "apology" joke embedded within the collection.) But when the initial connection between image and dialog could've only come from some strange synaptic leaps in the cartoonist's brain - a strip featuring three young maidens in "poetic" dance poses is service of a fraudulent hangover cure, for instance ("I'm going to hurl all over your shoes in about three seconds," one promises) - the results can still be potently risible.

To be sure, the demands of regular stripwork mean that the cartoonist will occasionally stoop to the obvious - as when a quartet of turbaned types from some doubtlessly rousing adventure yarn are put to the service of silly terrorist jokes. But, in general, Malki displays a ripe sense of grim whimsy. I'm still "patronizingly chuckling" (to use a term from the cartoonist's afterword) over his cat with a blog strip. ("It's not even wordpress or blogger, it's some crap like xanga," the cartoonist notes in his final punchline.) In many of the darker strips, Malki contrasts his found art's sentimental imagery with a mordant sense of comic despair, as when a young boy describes his depressing plans for adulthood ("First I'll flunk out of college, then I'll marry too young," he begins) to the title "In Which Marvin Is All Set." Occasionally, Malki just indulges in just plain goofiness: perching a tiny triceratops on the barrel of a soldier's rifle, for instance.

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is a Books editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy comic fat acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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