3 out of 5

Another lovingly embellished Wondermark! collection, replete with funny extras in the form of silly panel border diagrams, old-timey ads, a bears in hats gallery, another full-length, colored strip, some unpublished bits and a page that hints at how strip elements are assembled, as well as a pointless but adds-to-the-overall-effect “Childrens’ Special” book printed one line at a time, upside down, on every page.  And the strip titles, and alt texts, of course.

As usual with collections of material that covers a spread of time, we see shifts in Malki’s style, particularly becoming much more adept at background blending about halfway through the book: blank backgrounds become a rarity, and the settings are no longer hazy references, but consistently fully patched-together affairs, matching the style of the foreground.

So why the lower rating?  Well, it’s just not as funny this time around.  Wondermark, at its best, blends an era-appropriate patter with surrealism, or childishness, and the occasional modern reference for kicks.  But I guess this was the year of Obama, and wars, and economy, so far too often things are very topical, and even when that’s not the case, it really feels like it’s written like a modern strip, and no longer the oddball timeframe mash-up that’s led to past hilarity.  New memes are started and the Malki! hi-brow / low-brow humor is absolutely there, just not as consistently as before, and so the jokes aren’t as surprising.

Still worth a read, of course, for Wondermark fans, and you can’t beat the overall presentation of these books, but if you like the weirder stuff like I do, it’s not as in abundance here.