‘Glitter Bomb Your Enemies’ Guy Unveils Most Twisted ‘Where’s Waldo?’-Style Activity Book Ever

First Mat Carpenter capitalized on the universal horror over cleaning up spilled glitter. Now he’s turning our fascination with a tragic international mystery into a very dark (and very funny) children’s book parody.

Carpenter became Internet famous last January for creating a goofy “glitter bomb your enemies” website and then selling it for a cool $85,000 just days later.

He’s been busy since then. His latest project will delight people with a somewhat twisted sense of humor (and probably offend many others): a cartoon treasure hunt book where you look for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that vanished last spring.

Related on Yahoo Makers: The True Story of ‘Glitter Bomb Your Enemies’ Success: A ‘Stupid Idea’ That Netted $85K in One Week

Carpenter, a 24-year-old Australian, watched his site, shipyourenemiesglitter.com become a global viral hit virtually overnight last January. He found he had thousands of orders and media coverage from England to South America, all thanks to the nightmare of trying to clean up sparkly, unvacuumable bits of glitter.

He told Yahoo Makers he was happy to get out of the novelty website business as soon as possible.

“I had no desire whatsoever to turn Ship Your Enemies Glitter into a ‘mini-empire,’ nor do I think it would even be possible,” he said last spring. “The idea behind starting Ship Your Enemies Glitter was just to create a fun site that got a bit of attention, not to cement my place as a leader in the glitter industry.”

Instead, Carpenter has self-published a treasure hunt-style illustrated book that echoes the beloved Where’s Waldo? books and other I Spy titles geared toward kids. But in Carpenter’s book, you don’t search for a smiling character in a striped shirt. You’re looking for the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared without a trace last March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane had 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard.

The mystery of MH370 dominated headlines for months and spurred all sorts of wild theories. Was it shot down? Hijacked? Did it crash-land on a deserted island? One website has even argued the plane was somehow switched with Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over Ukraine in July as part of a convoluted spy agency plot.

For many news junkies, the enigma of MH370 became a months-long obsession. For Carpenter, it became Where’s MH370? In the book, you try to find wreckage from the plane by scanning various crowded landscapes. The detailed, often profane scenes include North Korea, the bottom of the ocean, Australia, Russia, the moon, and the North Pole. Oh, and hell too.

Yahoo Makers interviewed Carpenter via email to discuss his project. The text has been lightly edited for clarity.

How’d you go from Ship Your Enemies Glitter to a Where’s Waldo? parody book about a jumbo jet mystery?

I worked on Ship Your Enemies Glitter because I hate glitter. As a reward for dealing with that mess, I decided to work on Where’s MH370? because I loved Where’s Waldo? growing up.

You’re clearly not hoping to get rich off this, right? What’s the plan? Will you sell it in bookstores? Or just online? Set up a “Ship Your Enemies a Macabrely Funny Activity Book” site?

I’m open to the idea of having it on the shelves of the last remaining bookstores in the world; there are like eight left or some s**t, right? The plan is to keep it as a light setup, only selling online.

Why Flight MH370?

MH370 was a no-brainer. When coming up with the idea, the question was, What’s the hardest thing in the world to find? The logical answer was MH370. If the people who were searching for the plane did a better job, the book would never have been made.

How’d you create it? Did you hire illustrators? What was the hardest part?

I had a really small team work on the book, all of whom wish to remain anonymous (which I find hilarious). The hardest part was definitely finding people to work on the project with me; a lot of people had issues with the idea.

What’s your favorite page in the book? Why?

I think my favorite scene is definitely hell. I loved having the power of deciding which C-list celebrity and political figures got to pass straight to the eternal fires of hell.

Favorite hidden Easter eggs?

There are a s**tload of Easter eggs in the book, so it’s hard to pick a favorite. Maybe putting myself in hell? Seemed like the right thing to do.

Were you worried the mystery would be solved before your book was ready?

Absolutely. I was the only person in the world praying this plane wasn’t found. Luckily for me, the people running the search are clearly incompetent.

Did you plow all your SYEG profits into the book?

Surprisingly, no. I was pretty efficient with expenses for the book.

Are you worried some folks will find this in poor taste?

I’m not worried; I know some people are easily offended. If they are, we do have a complaint form on the website’s FAQ page.

There’s kind of a trend of twisted versions of classic kids projects — Go the F**K to Sleep, Coloring Books for Stoners, and Bad-Ass Feminists. Do you like those? Do you think your book fits into that?

I can’t say I’ve read all of them, but I have checked out Go the F**k to Sleep. I don’t think we fit into that sort of niche. We’re more in the “restricted section.”

Have you put SYEG completely behind you? Any idea how they’re doing?

I’m not exactly sure how they’re doing. However, they seem to be doing all right. They’re constantly adding new SKUs. I’m disappointed in the rebranding but wish them the best.

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