It’s just around the corner: Baltimore Comic-Con, Sept 27 and 28! I’ll be there exhibiting with my “How to Make Webcomics” co-authors at the Halfpixel booth. I’m especially excited, as this is the only time I’m heading to the Northeast this year.
I’ll have all five Sheldon books in tow, as well as shirts, buttons, Glornaks, and original comic strip art! (E-mail me if you have a specific strip you’d like, to make sure I bring it with me.)
And don’t forget to collect your big con-exclusive: The “Baltimore Comic-Con Commemorative High-Five.” Only 85 in stock!
Just a reminder: To make sure we order the right quantity, please have your manatee order in by Friday. I know there’s gonna be one dude or dudette that e-mails me next week and says “OhwaitholdthephoneIwantone”. Please don’t be that dude or dudette. 🙂
(Also, the store will inconveniently be down for an hour or so, Thursday, from 11 PM PDT to 12 or 12:30. So avoid shopping at that hour. College students, I’m lookin’ at you.)
It’s the small things that sometimes get you. Today’s strip, for example? My favorite part is that the elven character is wearing plaid on the cover of the “70-Foot Hobbit”. It’s a tiny little detail that probably only cracked me up.
The Eagle & The Child, by the way, is a real pub. My wife and I shared many a bitter in there, in the back corner where JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and others used to hold their “Inklings” meetings. For a nerd like me, it was nirvana. Also, the bitter was good. If you’re ever in Oxford…do swing by The Eagle & The Child (or The Bird & The Baby, as it’s also known).
Related note: I love how the English always have nineteen names for their local pub. When I lived in Canterbury, I swear my local had 500 different nicknames. You never knew what people were referring to when they asked you to meet up for a pint. 🙂
Over in the Sheldon Store, we’re taking advance orders for the “Mind of a Ninja, Body of a Manatee” shirt!
It’s the only shirt made for people who have crafted their body into a fighting machine. A fighting machine powered by delicious, delicious chocolatey snacks.
We’re taking advance orders this week so that we know how many to make. So please put your order in by Friday, Sept. 12th so that we can start shipping ’em out 7-10 days afterward. Also! There is free shipping on this shirt to anywhere in the U.S! Boo-yah!
Even though I write “Sheldon” for adults, I try to keep the strip family-friendly for all reading ages. I like the idea that folks could share the strip with their children, if they choose.
So it bummed me out to see “Sheldon’s” Google Adsense ads running a tad on the risque side, lately.
Advertising, as I’m sure you know, helps defray some of the cost of giving away two million “Sheldon” pageviews for free every month…but that’s not to say that ads should have free reign around here. Even though most of us (myself included) have an ability to filter out online ads completely, the fact remains that they do exist on the site.
Because of that, I’ve always opted for far less ad subsidy if it meant we could avoid annoying/offensive/cloying ads. Bad ads just aren’t worth it.
Going forward, I’ve decided to do a top-to-bottom change in ad systems and test out new ones over the next few weeks and months. I’m going to be testing out different systems from Yahoo’s Direct Media Exchange, from Tribal Fusion, from Gorilla Nation, from AdsDAQ, and from others.
1.) Sheldonista Katy M. sent in this little adventure, which sounded very Flaco-esque.
2.)
Jan-Erik S. from Sweden sent in a pretty awesome wooden Flaco that he saw in an art shop. (Jan-Erik also mentioned that 123 Krona = about 20 bucks.)
3.)
Sheldonista Judy K. sent in this photo after reading her copy of “Pugs”. This pic cracks me up, because, oddly, my brain has put a Jersey accent to the pug, saying “Deeez are not da droidz you’re lookin’ faah.”
4.)
Barbara C. sent in this pic of her reading “Pugs” while on vacation at California’s Montana de Oro State Park. Apparently, the book has helped win over three of the four family members to becoming Sheldonistas. Dad’s the hold out. C’mon, pop.
5.)
Fellow cartoonist Krishna sent in this little gem for the gang. I like how the colors are rendered in 50’s/60’s flat tones. Nice! (And of course, Sheldon’s wearing a shirt from his favorite toy line: Starslip Crisis. In the Sheldon-verse: “Starslip” is a Saturday-morning kid’s show that’s been running since the mid-80’s. I’m not sure what “Sheldon” constitutes in the “Starslip-verse”. A2Z programmed by Sheldonsoft, perhaps?)
6.)
And finally, Sheldonista Karloman H., from Flanders, sent in a colored reworking of yesterday’s desktop image.
If you want a 2600×1500-size image that you can crop/fit to your monitor, here you go.
Thanks, one and all, for the e-mails! And I only have about 300 more unread in my inbox, so I’m catching up as I’m feelin’ better!
Two Sheldonistas sent in versions of the “Awesomeness” drawing that I thought I’d share:
Wilbert R. sent in this motivational poster, which is pretty fantastic…
And Ryan B. sent in this desktop background…
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You can download a 2650×1900-pixel version
of Ryan’s desktop here and modify it to fit your screen.
Thanks to you both!
Also, just a heads up: I’m a little under the weather at the moment, so forgive me if I’m not responding to your e-mails as fast as I usually do. I imagine by Monday I’ll be feelin’ better — but my apologies in the meantime!
Over in the Sheldon Store, we’ve dropped the price of the remaining “What Would a Klingon Do?” shirts to a mere $5.
Five smackers. Five clams. Cheaper than a burger and fries.
The catch? There are only Smalls left. But c’mon! Surely somewhere there is a sci-fi fan who enjoys a deal, and who wears a Small. If you are that person, than this is your day to say “Kerplah!” to savings. 🙂
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