Month: February 2008

Re: Today’s strip…

I am so immensely happy the Writer’s Strike is wrapping up this week, if for no other reason than “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann.”

Now don’t get me wrong: Even though I’m a grown man, I’m not immune to a well-structured talent show. I can dig ’em, when they’re done well. But with the TV writer’s out of work, the networks had to stretch the natural viewing length of a lot of these shows… and “Dance War” became an hour-and-a-half nightmare of Bruno’s ridiculisms (as I call them). That man, and that long format for that show, are both pain-inducing to watch.

To watch that show slowly, painfully unfold over an hour and a half is like watching Portabello Mushrooms grow.

Brad Guigar, my co-author on the “How To Make Webcomics” book, called me with some great news tonight: Apparently, our book reached number one on a couple Amazon lists today, and in the top ten in a few others!

Thanks for all the support — that’s very cool news!

And just a reminder: If you can, pick up your copy from the Sheldon Store, rather than Amazon. That’ll help all four authors avoid Amazon’s “unique” distributor cut.*

*Amazon gets 106.5% of the sale. The author gets to mow Amazon’s lawn. 🙂

It’s been great to see the excited response folks are giving the “How To Make Webcomics” book.

Before we’ve even had the chance to put up sample pages to show folks, we’ve had thousands and thousands of pre-orders. Thank you for that! It’s exciting to see that cartoonists and artists all over the world are really looking forward to the book. (You’re never quite sure, when you write something like this: “Will only my mom read it?”)

The good folks over at Comic Book Resources have an interview with all four authors, if you’d like to swing by and check it out.

Equally interesting have been the foreign-language writeups that I’ve been seeing about the book, via Google searches. I’ve seen tidbits in French, Portuguese, and Spanish — like this mention from Spain’s Público Newspaper site. (My secret hope has been to see this book translated into the French/Belgian “bande dessinée” book market… so any foreign-language writeups get me all excited.)

If you’re a librarian, and want to pick up copies for your district, the ISBN-13 number is: 978-1-5824087-0-5.

But librarians, bookstores and Sheldonistas alike can preferably reserve their copy direct from the Sheldon store, in one of four ways:

1.)
The normal copy of “How To Make Webcomics”

2.) The Sheldonized Artist Edition of “How To Make Webcomics”

3.) 5-pack: All 4 Sheldon books + “How To Make Webcomics”

4.) 5-pack: All 4 Sheldon books + an Artist Edition of “How To Make Webcomics”

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this bit of news: “How To Make Webcomics,” is now on sale in the Sheldon Store as a pre-order!

There are four different ways you can pick up a copy:

1.)
The normal copy of “How To Make Webcomics”

2.) The Sheldonized Artist Edition of “How To Make Webcomics”

3.) 5-pack: All 4 Sheldon books + “How To Make Webcomics”

4.) 5-pack: All 4 Sheldon books + an Artist Edition of “How To Make Webcomics”

Written by myself, Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub and Brad Guigar, the book is being published by Image Comics — and will be available across North America and the English-speaking world in the next 4-5 weeks. Buuut, we’re putting the book on sale now as a pre-order, so that we know how many copies to reserve from the publisher’s first print-run!

What does “pre-order” mean? It basically means that the book can be purchased right now, and that your order will ship as soon as that first print-run comes off the presses. If you’re thinking about purchasing a copy, I’d ask that you do it in this pre-order period, as it will help our printing/delivery logistics immensely. Also, buying your copy direct from the four of us means a higher percentage to the authors. Just sayin’. 🙂

This book is the perfect how-to for the next generation of cartoonists who are looking to bring their art online. For years, young, creative men and women have dreamed about making a living from their comic strips. But their only avenue for success was through the slowly dying medium of newspapers. Now, more and more cartoonists are doing it on their own and self-publishing their comics on the Web. This is the book for that generation of artists.

Pick up a copy for the artist in your life!

Today’s a sledge-hammer-and-chisel day for me: I’m in the process of tearing out my old, 1951 yellow-and-puke-green bathroom tile in my house. (By the way, what were they thinking, in 1951? “We won the war! Now let’s go home and design ugly tile! 23-Skadoo!”).

When I’m done with the demo, I’ll be replacing it with some black bamboo flooring.* But since I haven’t laid flooring in a while, here’s my question for the wiser ones among us, before I start:

Let’s say, theoretically, that a room is perfectly square. If the initial “impression” of the room will be had from one vantage point (…aka, the door), what’s the better direction to lay the planks to create the impression of a larger room, overall? Left-to-right, or front-to-back?

I’m curious to hear everyone’s opinion. Go ahead and discuss below!

*Yep, they can do bamboo in black, now. Looks cool.

Now that four or five hundred Glornak stickers have made their way into the world, I’m anxious to hear: Anyone had a good response to them, yet? My guess is that, like most bumper stickers, you wouldn’t actually *hear* from the folks who you cracked up… but it’d be fun to see!

Post below if you’ve had a response from friends, family, or strangers!

California is voting today… and my wife and I always get a goofy grin when we go to our polling place.

In the past, our voting places have included fire houses, public gyms, synagogues, churches, and warehouses… but our current one takes the cake: It’s the living room of this sweet little old couple. And when I say “sweet little old couple,” I mean sweet little old couple. It’s like walking in to your grandma’s house to go vote. “Okay, dear, here’s your ballot. And stand up straight and tall when you vote — this is a wonderful thing you’re doing, remember! And here’s a cookie.”

All voting should be like that: Accompanied by sweet grandmothers.

What’s the best/worst/weirdest polling place you’ve ever had?

I had the huge pleasure of guest speaking at Loyola Marymount University the other day… and it got me reinvigorated on an old goal of mine: Teaching cartooning at the university level.

The Director of LMU’s Small Business Development Center asked me to come over and talk to his upper-level business class, and it was a blast. I gave a short, 10 minute presentation on how artists like myself are able to make a living online — sans mediation from publishers, syndicates, distributors, etc. — and it evolved into a 50-minute-long, rapid-fire Q&A session with the students. Needless to say… I loved it.

When we were done, the Director stood up and gave me one the nicest compliments I think I’ve ever received. He said that, in the “ten or so years of inviting people in to talk, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Q&A session last that long, or with that much energy.” Which is great by me. I absolutely swam in the back-and-forth with the students.

But now it has me all fired up to start teachin’. See, back when I was pursuing my two graduate degrees in cartooning… I did so with the hope-beyond-hope that I could one day not only draw as a cartoonist, but also teach as a cartoonist. And the energy of this guest talk got that all stirred up again.

So, a huge ‘thank you’ to the students for a great Q&A… and know that you stinkers have me looking for my academic resume on my hard drive, now. 🙂

I’ve been trying out a beautiful Japanese brush for some inkwork these last few days. The resulting linework is not in the comic yet, as I want to tame it a little better than I have thus far (…brushwork can be tricky to control with ink).

Anyway, as I’m drawing with the brush today, my nose starts itching. Absent-mindedly, I go up to scratch it…without even thinking of the brush still in that drawing hand.

Three-inch swipe of India Ink across my forehead.

…A proud moment.

Gramp’s litte outburst today got some great e-mail responses — thank you for those. It’s one of those phrases that fits into the “non-sequitorial bon mot” category. Or, to put it better: “Weird outbursts that are funny just for sheer randomness.”

Thus far, I think Arthur has my favorite weird outburst in this lemony exclamation.