Review - Beards of Our Forefathers by David Malki
The Web comic “Wondermark” is the sort of creature that begs mystery — how did it come about? And how can you effectively describe it?
It might sound less than the sum of its parts, but here goes — “Wondermark” is a collection of traditional three or four panel daily style comic strips that, instead of cartooning, uses stock art cut outs manipulated to act out the humor scenario in David Malki’s mind. The humor itself is sometimes coarse, but not in a stupid way, and employs modern attitudes, conversational tones and absolute absurdity in the dialog juxtaposed with the “ye olde” and sometimes stodgy visuals.
I know, that means nothing, but somehow, it all works, it all comes together into something magical.
“Wondermark” is the place to go if you want to quickly bust a gut, or if you wish to wince a little while chuckling. In Malki’s world, boxing bears woo fancy ladies, tradesmen sell fancily-named poo out of wheelbarrows to crotchedy old men, gentlemen complain about the employment of quantum theory in plot lines and men clean kelp from their squid children.
The human condition, in Malki’s world, is just a bunch of stock characters preoccupied by their own warped interactions with each other. Nothing is beyond your own personal panel.
Malki is a social critic extraordinaire, ready to take down the rest of the world as he folds in on his own work. “Ironists wear shirts that they would normally hate, just because they are being ironic,” one of his characters explains. “It is what passes for cleverness with young people.” Malki then explains he is actually selling the t-shirt in question.
Absurdity and irreverence are not enough to make a modern, adult-oriented comic strip, though so many lesser creators — far too many — tromp along with those twin weapons, never learning to use them with any panache. Not David Malki. I think with “Beards of Our Forefathers,” Malki’s first collection of “Wondermark” strips, a superstar might well have been born. Zippy the Pinhead beware.
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