Mark Parisi is the multi-award winning cartoonist and writer of the long-running Off the Mark daily comic strip, syndicated to newspapers around the country by Universal Uclick, and children’s chapter books, Marty Pants series, illustrated and written by Mark Parisi, and new book, The Truth About 5th Grade  co-written by Mark Parisi and Kim Tomsic, illustrated by Mark Parisi, published by HarperCollins. Mark Parisi has earned multiple honors from the National Cartoonists Society, winning the Best Newspaper Panel Award in 2008, 2011, 2017, and 2020, with many additional nominations throughout his career. In 2013, he received the Best in Greeting Cards Award, and in 2022, he was honored with a Louie Award for Best Get Well Greeting Card. Most recently, in 2025, Parisi was named Cartoonist of the Year, receiving the prestigious Reuben Award.

Move over, Wimpy Kid. Here comes the imaginative, the inquisitive, the unstoppable Marty Pants! Marty Pants is different from your typical school kid. He has the soul of an artist, and as an artist, he notices things. Except when he doesn’t. When Marty finds a mysterious note, will it send him in the right direction? This hilarious new series follows the endearing, frazzled, embarrassed, and, ultimately, fearless footsteps of literature’s most unlikely hero—Marty Pants.