Created by Hayley Gold
What is this?
Letters to Margaret is a groundbreaking puzzle comic book. This crossword-based graphic novel is written and illustrated by Hayley Gold, with puzzles by Andy Kravis and Mike Selinker. Set in the real world of crossword controversy, it combines comedy, romance, and puzzling. Best of all, you don’t just read it. You can solve all the puzzles along with the characters. Take a look below and see if it’s the puzzle comic you’ve been waiting for your whole life.
How does the book work?
Letters to Margaret is a 128-page graphic novel split in two parts, one facing the opposite direction from the other. You can read either tale first and your reading experience will be different each time. But that’s not all you can do. Letters to Margaret is the first comic book you can solve. The book is loaded with crossword puzzles that you can solve before they appear in the characters’ hands. Several are puzzles of the kind you’d find in the New York Times, while others are the crosswords that the character Maggie, an up-and-coming cruciverbalist (that’s a fancy term for a crossword constructor), submits to the New York Times — and then gets a few edits from its long-passed editor, Margaret Farrar. The Letters to Margaret softcover comes with a PDF and .cbz files suitable for a comic reader app. The puzzles also are provided in .puz files for solving in apps like AcrossLite and Puzzazz.
Is there more?
You didn’t think we could fit everything into one comic, did you? The Letters to Margaret: You Can’t Make Up This Stuf Mini-Comic is an 8-page bonus chapter of the Letters to Margaret graphic novel which continues the story from the main comic book. It contains a crossword by and interview with crossword legend Robyn Weintraub. It comes with a PDF and .cbz files suitable for a comic reader app. The puzzles also are provided in a .puz file for solving in apps like AcrossLite and Puzzazz.
Is there more?
You didn’t think we could fit everything into one comic, did you? The Letters to Margaret: You Can’t Make Up This Stuf Mini-Comic is an 8-page bonus chapter of the Letters to Margaret graphic novel which continues the story from the main comic book. It contains a crossword by and interview with crossword legend Robyn Weintraub. It comes with a PDF and .cbz files suitable for a comic reader app. The puzzles also are provided in a .puz file for solving in apps like AcrossLite and Puzzazz.
Who are the characters?
Margaret (Maggie) A. Cross
Maggie’d rather sleep than be woke – but her alarm clock starts ringing when mysterious letters from erstwhile puzzle editor Margaret Farrar make her question her puzzle-writing attempts and her anti-PC mindset. Meanwhile, a crossing with a rival puzzle blogger complicates things further, forcing her to re-examine her language and her feelings.
Derry Down
Graduate journalism student, TA, and part-time crossword blogger, Derry spends his days trying to stamp out racism, sexism, and uninclusiveness in puzzledom, and his nights downing cookie butter. But when a rival blogger slams him for being hypersensitive, his day job takes a back seat to his personal affairs. Can he mend a broken heart and rekindle his love of solving?
Amanda Zucker
Maggie’s blogging sister from another mister, and junk food social media powerhouse in her own right, Amanda knows all about the ‘gram, the grahams, and the anagrams. An expert on the cookie aisle and on crossword history, she might seem like pure bubblegum at times, but she’s a loyal friend and talented blogger.
Professor Dodgson
Lewis Dodgson might be an esteemed journalism professor, but he’s got more street cred as Vox Populi, the founder of crossword blog The Oleo-Garchy. The crowd loves it when he bluntly nails the NYT puzzle what he sees as blatant racism, sexism, and, most offensive of all, crosswordese. He’s looking to cut the crap, and the fat, as the defender of the margarine-alized.
Who are the characters?
Margaret (Maggie) A. Cross
Maggie’d rather sleep than be woke – but her alarm clock starts ringing when mysterious letters from erstwhile puzzle editor Margaret Farrar make her question her puzzle-writing attempts and her anti-PC mindset. Meanwhile, a crossing with a rival puzzle blogger complicates things further, forcing her to re-examine her language and her feelings.
Derry Down
Graduate journalism student, TA, and part-time crossword blogger, Derry spends his days trying to stamp out racism, sexism, and uninclusiveness in puzzledom, and his nights downing cookie butter. But when a rival blogger slams him for being hypersensitive, his day job takes a back seat to his personal affairs. Can he mend a broken heart and rekindle his love of solving?
Amanda Zucker
Maggie’s blogging sister from another mister, and junk food social media powerhouse in her own right, Amanda knows all about the ‘gram, the grahams, and the anagrams An expert on the cookie aisle and on crossword history, she might seem like pure bubblegum at times, but she’s a loyal friend and talented blogger.
Professor Dodgson
Lewis Dodgson might be an esteemed journalism professor, but he’s got more street cred as Vox Populi, the founder of crossword blog The Oleo-Garchy. The crowd loves it when he bluntly nails the NYT puzzle what he sees as blatant racism, sexism, and, most offensive of all, crosswordese. He’s looking to cut the crap, and the fat, as the defender of the margarine-alized.
Can I see some pages?
Yes!
Click the picture to make it bigger!
Who made this?
Hayley Gold
Hayley is a New York-based cartoonish and cryptic crossword enthusiast. She has cartooned about the New York Times crossword in her former webcomic Across and Down. Letters to Margaret is her graphic novel debut, the first of several puzzle comics she is creating. She likes writing, drawing, and being stressed out—since not being stressed out is stressful.
Andy Kravis
Andy is a puzzlemaker, editor and writer living in Brooklyn, NY. He has been the Assistant Puzzles & Games Editor at The New Yorker since 2020. His crosswords have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.
Mike Selinker
Mike is the developer of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Lords of Vegas, Risk Godstorm, Unspeakable Words, Apocrypha, The Ninth World, Thornwatch, and many other games, was the author of The Maze of Games, Puzzlecraft, The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design, and Game Theory in the Age of Chaos. His puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, Wired, Dragon, Games, and The Chicago Tribune.
Who made this?
Hayley Gold
Hayley is a New York-based cartoonish and cryptic crossword enthusiast. She has cartooned about the New York Times crossword in her former webcomic Across and Down. Letters to Margaret is her graphic novel debut, the first of several puzzle comics she is creating. She likes writing, drawing, and being stressed out-since not being stressed out is stressful.
Andy Kravis
Andy is a puzzlemaker, editor and writer livingin Brookly, NY. He has been the Assistant Puzzles & Games Editor at The New Yorker since 2020. His Crosswords have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.
Mike Selinker
Mike is the developer of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Lords of Vegas, Risk Godstorm, Unspeakable Words, Apocrypha, The Ninth World, Thornwatch, and many other games, was the author of The Maze of Games, Puzzlecraft, The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design, and Game Theory in the Age of Chaos. His puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, Wired, Dragon Games and The Chicago Tribune.
Where can I get the book?
The graphic novel Letters to Margaret and its minicomic You Can’t Make Up This Stuf are available on the Lone Shark Games store.
Where can I get the book?