Click on image for full version of all the comic panels by Steven Stwalley.

I thought you may find amusement in a comic strip I drew that is appearing in the news weekly City Pages in the Twin Cities on the “Mall of America Mandrill.” I’ve been enjoying your site for some time and put a reference to your name in there (you can take comfort in the fact that I didn’t base the character’s appearance on you!). Enjoy!Steven Stwalley

I asked Steve’s permission to share his strip – please click on the above panel visible to see the entire story of Stwalley’s “Mall of America Mandrill,” from the Volume 28, Issue 1389, July 18, 2007 issue of City Pages, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. I appreciate Stwalley taking the time to draw this, and enjoy doing what I do that stimulates such humor and art.

What’s really funny to me is the intriguing coincidence I find in this comic. I’ve been to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, only once in my life, a few decades ago, as I recall. My friend and colleague, who was living in Bloomington at the time, Mark A. Hall, invited me to visit and go to the Mall of America to view an enormous Russian display on Siberian mammoths, including the complete body of a baby mammoth. It was a remarkable exhibition, and to find it in the Mall of America, well, I was quite happy to have seen it.

Now along comes Mr. Stwalley bringing a smile to my face with this amusing strip. What I think was strange was how the cryptozoologist named “Loren Moleman” vaguely reminded me of Mark Hall vs me. That was very Fortean.

Mark A. Hall

Loren Coleman