Wondermark Vol.1: Beards of Our Forefathers

by David Malki

I first came across David Malki's bizarre collage comics in a volume of Myspace Dark Horse Presents, and then tracked down his website.

Malki builds his webcomics in the classic newspaper strip format of between one and five horizontal panels, but he doesn't draw them.  Instead, he cuts out figures and images from 'old-timey' publications, populating his strips with men in top hats and women in multi-layered, ruffled dresses.  They drive old fashioned cars, and everything has a very Victorian look to it.

However, the dialogue and context of the strips is very modern, and this where much of the humour lies.  Malki does a great job of playing with peoples' expectations, and subverting the reactions we are conditioned to have to these types of images.  This book collects a number of his strips, and one longer-form comic.  Each strip has his alt-text included below it, which is often the location of the punchline.  The comics are mostly funny, although Malki's sense of humour sometimes goes too far into the surreal for my liking.  I recommend checking out the site, and getting a feel for his work before grabbing one of the books.