I was doing what you said many people were doing -- catching up with the weekend stuff on Monday mornings.
Will the old "Drive" stuff get moved over to the new site? I'd love to read it from the beginning.
Dave,
You absolutely have my full support on this. As someone who has every artist edition book, and a few originals (PANCAKE!!), I would much rather you go to 5 days a week and to be able to expand your artistic horizons, then get burned out or lose the joy that producing Sheldon gives you. Also, I'm one of the people that catch up on Drive and Sunday on Monday morning.
As for the Cintiq, a video of you working on that would be pretty cool!
And I'm digging Drive as well.
Scott
If Drive is still Saturday, you're really only getting Sunday off, right? Personally, I say go with whatever you need, be that 4, 5, or 6 comics per week. In the end, happy Dave leads to better comics and quality > quantity. Good luck with your new project.
I tend to read a week at at time, so this change is fine w/ me. As a wife of a fellow comic artist, I think it's more important to NOT burn out and foster creativity than to crank out volume. I'm a huge fan of yours and I'm looking forward to the new project!
As for the Cintiq, Nick got one used last year. It saved us several hundred $$ and was pristine. He didn't like the line quality of the cintiq for drawing, so he still draws on paper but the cintiq has sped up his coloring/shading immensely. **The pen type is very important.**
Will you start typesetting digitally w/ the cintiq?? OH NOES! I 3 your hand drawn lettering! :-) You could make your own font...
I will dearly miss the regular, every-Sunday color strips. However, since I'm not drawing them I have no vote in the matter.
Good to hear you'll continue Sheldon. With "Little Dee", "Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet", "Barkeater Lake" and several others biting or having bitten the dust, I'm happy to still have Sheldon to look for each weekday. People get attached to their regular strips, and very attached to their favorite strips. That's why Peanuts, in reruns, is still netting the Schulz heirs a tidy sum each month and why Superman early comics are worth fortunes.
So very few things make us happy and can get us to chuckle and forget our troubles as a good comic strip or cartoon. Cripes, I still read "Marmaduke"! Keep drawing yours, even if we do miss out on the Sunday strips.
OBTW, "Drive" is becoming quite interesting. It doesn't have the immediate grab of a child genius/millionaire/orphan living with his grandpa, but it's beginning to grow on me. Especially with the "Gilligan's Island" of a crew being assembled.
Dave, I've been reading the comic via email since the site went up, I was with you back when we read you via comics.com, and have bought many strips and every book. If you say no strip on Sunday is the best balance point for you, then of course you have my support. I hope your creative juices never stop flowing. Thanks for all the humor and great comics over the years.
Let me first say that I agree that those who said that Sheldon five times a week is better than burned-out-Dave-Kellett.
That said, I am disappointed to hear that you're discontinuing Sunday strips. Honestly, I've had great admiration for the consistancy with which you have had those, and, since I am reading fewer print comics, it is a treat to still get double-sized color strips once a week. I second the suggestion that you make it a Monday thing, if not on Sunday. I love the way a Sunday strip makes it feel like the week is brand-new. I also enjoy coming in on Monday and reading Drive and the Sunday Sheldon, all in one fell swoop, but I understand your reasoning. I do hope that there will be color strips with some regularity, though... I hope!
Finally, I am loving Drive and truly don't care how you make it. Go for the Cintiq! Why not? (BTW, I love the fact that we have a character in Drive who looks like a talking Flaco... Squeee!)
Whilst it is a little disappointing to lose the Sunday strip (one of the sad, socially maladjusted nerds to actually visit every Sunday for the comic here), I can see why you might need to call a halt to it. Better to miss a day of Sheldon than to see it vanish entirely, as some webcomics do. So I think we can cope.
Psyched about Drive finally getting its own site, that's needed doing for some time now.
@ahughes: that link is cool but the "source" link is defunct... here's the site with the instructions on building a cintiq for $190 (and some free time). :)
http://www.bongofish.co.uk/wacom/wacom_pt1.html [bongofish.co.uk]
Dave, I'm one of those people who feel like Sunday oughta come with more and better comics, and Sheldon one of the few webcomics that was there for me...but I see the world achangin'. I'm loving Drive and I'm excited to see what you do next, so just throw me a double-size, full-color bone once in a while during the week and sleep easy. And maybe I'll leave the house more on weekends.
That said, would you consider posting a bit about your new digital process as it develops, for those of us who are having cintiq envy (perhaps even a Ustream, so your rakish charms come through live)? I'd like to make the transition too, but I have fears...and as I'm still drawing with sticks in dirt, there's plenty of time.
I'm afraid this is going to be yet another post to agree with everyone else. I will certainly miss the Sunday strips because I'll happily read all the Sheldon I can get. On the other hand, if the trade off is a happy, healthy, and relatively sane Dave who can keep drawing Sheldon, Drive, and more, then it's certainly a worthwhile trade. :)
I am totally flabbergasted that there are people who not only don't read the Sunday strip on Sunday, but don't have the sense to at least read it on Monday. What is wrong with these people? What is the world coming to? This is why we can't have nice things.
A "Sunday" strip on Monday is a nice idea. But, yeah, do what you need to do. Oh, and, more pugs.
Thank you!
Hear-hear, Dave!
I am a huge fan of Sheldon and have been reading it for years. I confess, I panicked when I didn't see a Sunday Strip, but now that I know that you're okay and not in a hospital or face-down in a drained pool, I am relieved. Even if that relief comes at the price of no new Sunay Strips.
But that must be a relief for You. One more day to flex "the ol' muscles" of creativity and try something new; one more day to spend with the family. The Sheldon Community supports you, Dave. Please just keep bringing us the familiar "Awesome sauce" that you've kept comin' since '98.
Good luck, amigo.
Dave... Even god only worked a 6-day week- have you been trying to outdo him these past few years?!? :) Congrats on 3000 strips- a mighty accomplishment- and we'll be here for the next 3000.
Limited print-run of Drive Comic at San Diego Comic-Con? Say it ain't so!
I can't make it to SDCC. :(
However! My wife reminded me that I was the very FIRST person ever to request a Drive sketch from you while we were at Emerald City Comic Con...
So... would that qualify me as the #1 fan of Drive and maybe get an copy of the limited print-run of Drive? :)
(The Deaf Guy with the awesome name of Yes Serious)
I have a question. Have you thought of using Sunday as a place for your fans to make comics for you? I am sure that many(Myself included) would like to make a web comic strip for you to read and share!
And I totally support your decision to have a break from Sheldon, like the others I would rather the production slowed rather then stopped!
I am just re-posting to make sure you have seen the post I made about fan strips, nobody posted after me.
