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George Mallory (1886-1924) was an English mountaineer and could possibly have been the first man to reach the summit of Mt Everest, almost 30 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. During a 1924 expedition, Mallory and fellow climber Andrew Irvine were last seen 245 metres from the summit before vanishing. In what had been the greatest mystery in climbing for over 75 years, Mallory’s body was only discovered in 1999. It’s still debated whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before their death.

Mallory’s most famous quote is the shorter reply he gave to the same question in this comic. Asked “Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?”, Mallory answered “Because it’s there.”

The character in this comic is obviously not Mallory, he’s my boy genius inventor first seen in the Make Gifts For People comic. I’ve been wanting to use him again for awhile now.

– Good news, the Zen Pencils book is back in stock in most places, including Amazon US, CANADA and INDIA. Get it in time for the holidays!

– Thanks to Steven, Rachel, Mark and Danny for submitting this quote.