Malkidian Geometry

gregorypaulking asked: What do you know about the artists behind the Wondermark source material?

Most of the work is unsigned, and I have no idea who they were. Some of them, however, were very famous — for example, one of the most famous illustrators of the latter 19th Century was John Leech, who did tons of cartoons for Punch, and whose work I have used many times. Du Maurier, John Tenniel, and Charles Keene were some other well-known artists whose work I’ve used. 

But these guys were well-known mainly because they were cartoonists — they drew editorial and gag spots, and were known for their wit and worldview as much as their art. Most of the other books I use for source material, such as Harper’s, feature documentary illustration: a portrait of someone, a rendering of a famous building or landmark, a schematic of a machine. This was considered a lesser craft, and the work is almost always unsigned.