Month: July 2015

Many of you have heard me talk about “Tales of the Drive,” and today we begin our first story: YOUR DISTANT HOMELAND, by the Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist, Dylan Meconis. It’s an origin story of Nosh’s time stranded in Russia, and will be updating once a week for the next 12 weeks. You’re going to love it. Dylan is super talented, and her Nosh story is delightful.

“Tales of the Drive” will all be stand-alone stories set in the Drive universe, by some of the best artists working today. Some stories will focus on the crew, some on their backstory, some on distant parts of the empire. But all of it is just meant to be fun. More of what we all like, essentially. It’s a filling out of the universe: Letting talented artists play in this sandbox for a while, and seeing what awesome things they create.

These stories are made possible by the financial support of backers on Patreon — so I hope you’ll consider becoming one! With your help, we can have more and more artists playing in the DRIVE universe!

More than anything else, I hope you enjoy these! The world of DRIVE feels like a special place to me, and letting more artists play with these characters and these locations feels like a great thing. *I’M* excited as heck to read these stories — and I hope you will be, too!

-Dave

It’s time to reveal the FOURTH incredible artist creating a “Tales of the Drive” short story….

It’s JON ROSENBERG, the cartoonist of “Scenes From a Multiverse“!

Jon’s super unique comics format and imaginative sci-fi settings and super unique comics format won him the Silver Reuben Award for excellence in cartooning…and I’m excited to see his take on the DRIVE universe. He’s already shared his first few pages with me, and I am DELIGHTED.

You guys. YOU GUYS. These “Tales of the Drive” short stories are going to turn out so fun.

For those of you who like it when I talk shop, I thought I’d show you the new way I’m trying out to create SHELDON.

Traditionally, I’d take a 6″x14″ piece of paper, pencil the strip, ink over those pencils, erase, scan and color.

NOW….I’m replacing the pencils with a digital process, before I ink the strip the usual way. Here’s how it works:

1.) I “pencil” out the strip on the computer, which allows for greater flexibility, manipulation, and experimentation.
2.) Then, when everything feels right, I print out that “pencilled” strip, and bring it to my drawing desk.
3.) Using a lightbox, I now hand-letter and ink the strip with archival inks on acid-free, Bristol vellum stock. This is exactly the same as how I’ve always done it…just that there’s no pencil underneath my ink.
– When I’ve inked the “original art”, I then scan and color the strip in Photoshop.

I’ve pasted a visual guide, below. And here’s a much larger version, if you’d like to look in more detail [CLICK HERE].

I’m at San Diego Comic-Con this week, at booth 1228. Just look for the big Sheldon/Drive/Stripped sign on row 1200.
I have an exclusive poster at the show, this year, so snag yours early: I’m only printing 50 numbered posters.

I’m at San Diego Comic-Con this week, at booth 1228. Just look for the big Sheldon/Drive/Stripped sign on row 1200.

TWO QUICK THINGS:
1.) I have an exclusive poster at the show, this year, snag yours early: I’m only printing 50 numbered posters.
2.) Original art is $25-off at the show, but I need you e-mail me and tell me which strips that you want! Date, punchline, or broad topic is fine ( [email protected] )

Back to the normal cast, we go!

Thank you all for the kind words and feedback, during the recent run of Anatomy strips. There were a few of those that were among the most-shared, most-retweeted strips I’ve ever had. More importantly to me (and my sanity), they were immensely fun to do, after SEVENTEEN STRAIGHT YEARS of drawing Sheldon. Even the most-loved things need a break, now and again!

We’re about half-way through the “Anatomy” book I want to draw…but we’re going to go back to the normal cast for a bit. I imagine we’ll do the second half of the Anatomy strips…somewhere toward the end of July or August? Somewhere in there.