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Marcus Santiago was born and raised in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and was trained in art and illustration at The Kubert School, which specializes in comic books and graphic novels.

For quite a long time, however, Marcus struggled to get a career in art. He did some freelance work here and there, but he usually had full-time office jobs to pay the bills.

"I'm 41, married, no kids, and have lived in New Delhi since I was about 22 or so. It was only last year that I finally got a job in an animation studio writing scripts and drawing storyboards for animation projects," Marcus told Bored Panda. "It was around that time that I started Useless Facts, Badly Drawn."

It's a project through which Marcus shares interesting trivia accompanied by his own illustration. He says it's 100% interesting but 110% useless knowledge you're guaranteed never to use. Unless, of course, you know how to get a seat at Jeopardy!

More info: Instagram | webtoons

Marcus has always been fascinated with trivia, even as a kid. The stranger the better. "As an only child, I read a lot of books and magazines growing up, which made me a pretty curious kid," he said. "I ran a blog back in the 'old' days of the Internet that had all sorts of random facts and trivia and links to obscure and interesting stuff that had a small but devoted fan following, but I didn't really bother to get it off the ground." Eventually, Marcus even had to delete the blog since he had also posted a lot of personal stuff and ultimately decided to keep his privacy intact."

When I started working at my current job at an animation studio, my co-workers were amused that I could drop all sorts of interesting and weird facts from memory, just in conversation or to be funny or whatever," he said. "And with webcomics becoming so wildly popular on places like Instagram, I thought about doing a simple one-panel strip with strange but true facts on it. Mainly for drawing practice, so I would be drawing for fun regularly."

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nanashi
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can't imagine the mental terror this man suffered for the rest of his life then

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Marcus said drawing for a living is fantastic but at the end of the day, he's drawing for other people. "It's important to nourish your creativity with your own regular drawing and sketching, and I was hopelessly lazy with that. So I figured, if I made a strip, it would give me an excuse to do quick drawings regularly, and it wouldn't be as huge a commitment as trying to draw my own graphic novel from scratch (which is where my passion really lies, but it's such a lot of work)."

When he launched Useless Facts, Badly Drawn, his co-workers and friends were wildly supportive, sharing it and encouraging the creator. After a while, Marcus had a eureka moment: he realized that if he wrote out the "useless fact" bit, added a joke at the end, and made the illustration funny or silly, then it really connected with the reader and got a lot more views, likes, and comments. "If you check, you'll see that the first few strips didn't have a joke, just an illustration and the fact. The later strips started incorporating more humor. So I think the humor helped set it apart from any millions of similar other 'did you know' pages on the internet and gave the strip its own sort of flavor."

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To Marcus, choosing what fact to feature in the series next is easy. "I've always had a ton of trivia in my head. The basic idea is, if I find it really interesting and fascinating, then others probably would, too."

"I've got a few files filled up with facts that are ready to be turned into strips. My biggest problem isn't coming up with facts, it's making sure they're small enough to fit into an Instagram square format, and also coming up with a joke or snarky comment at the end to make it a little funnier."

There's a lot of misinformation running around in the (online) world today, and Marcus really doesn't want to add to that. He said he always tries to find good, solid sources before turning a fact into a comic strip, and that he'd be embarrassed if it turned out to be inaccurate.

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"A good example is my recent strip about George Orwell's 1984, because I read [somewhere] that it was banned in the USSR for being anti-communist, but also banned in the USA for being pro-communist. While the fact is technically correct, it turns out the full story is that it was banned in a few cities and school districts in the USA, it wasn't banned across the country as such. So I feel bad about rushing that research. I maintain that it's still technically true, but it's a reminder that I should be really careful."

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Steve Barnett
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also the first 'found footage' horror film. Oh and also an excellent film (uncut).

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Lucas
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Made me curious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies Might not be 100% accurate of course but still fairly interesting.

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WilvanderHeijden
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Perhaps the USA government should restart the publishing of Continuum denying the existence of Covid-19 and make Trump head editor.

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Troux
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The good news is that this little guy survived the January 2020 eruption of Taal Volcano. https://twitter.com/annamaria_84/status/1234897531265593347

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Monday
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

English is just three languages in a trenchcoat pretending to be a single language.

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chi-wei shen
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only a few people within half a mile experienced vomíting and the evacuation part is a myth not supported by actual records.

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lara
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In a program on pyramids an archaeologist noted that no one knows how many pyramids there actually are as satellite imaging has shown many possible pyramids buried in the sands.

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Stimpy
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Polly want crack. He sold Polly crack!". Make the joke right, guys

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SaltyAK69 CancerAK420
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is a small town in Michigan named Hell. It is only 6 hours away from Paradise, Michigan. YEET

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Al Jones
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a very interesting story but Sealand isn't officially recognised as a country by anyone, so it's status as one is highly debatable.

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Monday
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can still go see some of these monks today. One of the most famous, Tetsumonkai, even wears sunglasses from time to time.

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Oathbraker
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like to think he just got tired of the endless lies of politicians and had a submarine waiting for him to begin his new life.

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ADHORTATOR
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4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

His name was Mithridates VI, he was no roman general but King of Pontos and and so a sworn enemy of Rome....

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Erica
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well that seems odd. Why do we always assume aliens would have superior/advanced technology? Is it not plausible they are developing at a comparable rate or simply short of an ability to reach us and therefore unaware of the phenomenon?

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Fred and George Weasley
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

why would you let your kid fly a plane, risking peoples lives. that kid's dad was pretty stupid

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WilvanderHeijden
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, it's just to protect their interests. They don't want someone to make a profit out of their software. If you can make nuclear weapons with ITumes, Apple will do it themselves.

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WilvanderHeijden
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Seeing all the c**p that people are believing I suspect that (t)rumpology is thriving.

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