Our Final Guest Artist: Paul Southworth of "Ugly Hill"!

I like guest strips. It's understandable that when you do this every day for a living, you sometimes need a break, especially now that you've got a new little one to divide your attention.

Guest strips not only allow the artist to take a break, but it gives the readers a chance to see a familiar world from a different angle, not to mention giving us a sampling of different artists' comic styles to find and enjoy. Several of the webcomics in my reading list were added due to followed links after a guest strip.

So it's really a win-win-win situation. The artist gets a break, the reader gets new reading material, and the guest artist gets new site traffic. It shouldn't be too often, but I don't think a guest strip week, say, twice a year should be anything to get upset over.

First of all I'd like to echo Dave's thanks to all the guest artists. I really enjoyed it and would love to see it again. I'm not sure of the ethical implications of this, but I think it would be a great print only thing to include with your books.

I'd love to see Tracy Butler (http://www.lackadaisy.foxprints.com) Andrew Power (http://aptitude.surfacingpoint.com) and Jjar (http://jump-leads.com) take on Sheldon and co.

This is definitely something that I'd like to see every 2-3 years. This week was really enjoyable.

Guest artist week was super awesome, Dave! I'd like to see it happen again, just so it doesn't cut too much into the normal Dave-generated awesomeness we've grown accustomed to here at Sheldon Central! Congrats again on the new baby!

Once is enough.

I read Sheldon because I like your work. I love the art, the characters, the humor, everything that is uniquely Dave Kellet.

So I'm always underwhelmed by guest strips. If I wanted to read Paul Southworth, I'd read Ugly Hill (I don't, because his work just doesn't do it for me). "Guest week" just means that I'm deprived of my daily fix and given an inferior substitute.

I love Wapsi Square, Wondermark, and Unshelved, etc., but I love them for the same reasons I love Sheldon: because the art, characters, dialog and humor combine to make something that's consistently beautiful. Take away any of the elements, and the charm is gone.

I liked it. In some ways it reminded me of the Great Comics Switcheroonie of 1997. It was neat to see the characters interpreted by other artists. I think you should do it again, sure, but not too often. Say once every year or so, maybe less. Still I really enjoyed it. Congrats again on the wee one!

This was fun, but I think I prefer it when you draw it, Dave. With guest artists my mind has to work extra to accept them -- is this strip "canon"? Did this really happen in the Sheldonverse? And sometimes seeing different art is just jarring -- I found myself looking forward to the end of guest week.

That said, maybe a universal comic that has no single artist could be interesting.... Have two to four weeks of cartoonists rotating in, drawing a single cartoon every couple weeks, so nobody's workload is burdened. Do it just as an advertising effort to bring folks to each cartoonist's main comic, etc.

And because it was my idea, we'll call it Randytaylerville. And I get all the rights and proceeds. Oh, man, I love this idea.

Dave,

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Everyone needs time off and the guest strips have been awesome. People need to remember that your site is FREE for them and they do not have the right to a new Kallett Sheldon every day. It cool though that everyone is so passionate about your work.

Dave,

I really enjoyed guest week; it was a fun change of pace.

Of course I miss my usual 'Sheldon,' but it was really cool to see it, in your words, "interpreted and reimagined in different ways and in different styles."

I would say once a year might be a good thing. You don't want to do it too often, but now that you have a baby you'll find that as she gets older, you'll want to spend more and more time with her. Guest Artist week will allow you a good break to make that happen! And it gives the readers something fun too. It's win win!

That's my opinion, anyway.

I too think this was an enjoyable change of pace and allowed us readers to stretch our minds a bit. However, while I did truly enjoy it, I think (from a purely selfish view) once a year would be lovely but probably not more than that.

We as readers should also keep in mind that Dave needs breaks now and then, like anyone else. The alternatives to having guest strips are (1) Dave works like a madman before his vacation to make up a backlog of strips that can be posted while he's away, or (2) Dave posts an Out Of Office notice on his site, and we go without for a week or two. I can tell you from personal experience that the first option is no fun; you spend most of your vacation recovering from all the work you did preparing for the vacation! And the second option would be no fun for us as Sheldonistas. Given the alternatives, I much prefer the guest strips.

I too, enjoyed Guest Week. I read the strips of the guest artists and it was great fun to see Sheldon and Co through their eyes. It certainly beats a couple of weeks of re-runs (hear that, Gary Trudeau?) or no strips at all! Still, I prefer Sheldon ala Kellett, so as long as Guest weeks don't happen too frequently I will welcome them. Will you be returning the favor on your fellow artists' strips, do you suppose?

Guest Week was fun, I'll have to admit. All those new perspectives, styles (I especially like Brad Guigars and Tyler Martin's, hoped I spelled the name right), it's fun to see some variety.

I think once a year would be perfect. You know, make it a tradition. Besides, you have a baby growing up, so you get some...well, I'd use the words "bonding time", but that mostly used for boys. Anyway, I REALLY don't want it to be once a decade. I'll be 23 by then!!!

BTW: Loved the alligator going "Squee" on today's strip. That line alone makes the entire week worthwhile

I thought the guest strips were interesting, wouldn't want to see it too often, however.

A few things to point out: (1) next time, find someone who can spell (see "diferent" [sic] in the preamble of the last guest strip, and yes I'm now subject to hypocriticism if I don't scour this epistle); (2) a ruling is required on whether the stories (albeit short) from the guest strips actually "count" in Sheldon world (same thought as a previous poster); (3) the idea about a universal strip that is done by one artist at a time for a week or two is pure genius (see Randytaylorville above); and (4) it was disappointing that none of the guest artists included Dante in their renderings (Dante seems to be more and more a forgotten character all the way around, much to my dismay).

Oh, and congratulations on the new addition to the fam and welcome back from a well-deserved break.

Well, we don't know that Flaco is full grown. This one might just be prophetic anyways.

Couldn't resist being, um, HYPERcritical. "Hypo-" means too little or less than normal! :-)

I would like to second your first sentence, though.

I stand corrected. Thanks, Lightningbug.