Back in 1998, when I was in grad school in England studying WWII cartoon propaganda and working at the British Cartoon Archive, I was putting together my first 50 or so "Sheldon" strips. My intention was to submit them to syndicates when I got home...but somehow, somewhere, I stumbled upon Steve's comic strip online, at Melonpool.

Now, you have to understand: For me, this was so inventive and awesome. It was the first time I had ever seen a comic strip online. It had never even occurred to me to do it. But once I saw Steve doing it, I had to give it a try! So I sorta-kinda taught myself to scan, sorta-kinda taught myself to use MSPaint or Photoshop 2.0 or whatever it was I using back then... and got my first overly-pixelated gifs up online!

(Super-duper fun fact: The first Sheldon Website in 1998 was at http://www.ukc.ac.uk/djk3 — a site for which I've never been able to find an archive or duplicate of. So here's a fun offer: If you can find an archived page from that first Website — and trust me, it'll be tricky to find — I'll give you a free Sheldon original of your choice!)

Anywho, in one of those kismetic, "What a small world we live in" moments, Steve and I now live about 1/2 of a mile apart from each other, and meet up for pancake-fueled shop talk every now and again. So please don't forget: If you enjoyed today's strip, drop Steve a note to thank him for today's awesomeness!