Do you guys remember these strips ( ONE, TWO, THREE ), where Arthur and Sheldon talk about the real surname Crapo?

Of course you do…because it generated one of the funnier discussions in the Sheldon forums.

Well, Sheldonista Gail K. Just sent this political sign in, with the addendum “I like the way the stars highlight the word ‘Crapo'”. That is awesome…thanks, Gail!

When I was speaking at Ohio State a few weeks back, the curators of the school’s (excellent) Cartoon Museum indulged my request and pulled out some original art from Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. Aside from being amazed at how small they were, I was struck by how gorgeous his brush-work was.

And it got me thinking…that after a decade of drawing Sheldon by more modern means (read: archival pens), I should give it a go with good ol’ brush-and-inkwell, and see how I do.

So! While lecturing at Savannah’s SCAD last week, I ponied up for some brush supplies, and gave it a go in a park. This first attempt, below, is more than a tad overdrawn (I was experimentin’ with line weights and brush techniques), but it let me know I was at least passable at it.

(Click HERE for a larger version.)

Cut to: Today’s strip. This’ll be the first one I’ve ever drawn by brush-and-inkwell. And it came out pretty OK! So it’s something I’ll be trying more and more of. I figure if I bust out the ol’ brush 2-3 times a week, I’ll be pretty fair at it in five years or so.

So…let’s check back in five years and see whether that’s true. 🙂

Just a reminder: The sale on the complete Sheldon 9-book collection ends today!

It’s $36-off when you get all the books — which essentially means you’re getting two of the books for free!

If you’ve got gift-givin’ coming up in the next few months, then BAM…gift-givin’ solved.:)

SOLVED.

All this weekend, I’ll be at the second annual Long Beach Comic-Con, signin’ and sketchin’ and salutatin’.

I’m in booth #407, along with my compadre David Malki (Wondermark). We’re right up toward the front entrance: You can’t miss us.

I’ll have all 9 Sheldon books, plus the Drive book, plus all the prints, plus Sheldon original art at 20%-off. I’ll also have doughnuts, but those’ll be out-of-sight, and mainly for me…and it’s probably best if you don’t even mention them, as it’ll just make me self-conscious about how many I hork down.

Anyway! For those coming, we’ve put together the o-fficial Sheldon guide to the show. Click HERE for the full-size, printable version.

From now until Nov 1st, the complete Sheldon book collection is on sale!

I’m pretty sure we’ve never had an all-in-one price this low… but it’s pretty dang sweet. You’ll save $36 when you get all the books — essentially getting two of the books for free!

I have done a LOT of math in my life, and I’ve never had math that felt this right. ….It just feels right.🙂

Anyway! Snag the entire collection right now!

Get a print of the above “Should I Have a Cookie?” cartoon, by clicking HERE!

EDITED! MONDAY NIGHT is the big night!

So, I’m in Savannah to lecture on comics at SCAD and drop in on a few sequential art classes.

But! While I’m there, I’m giving a bigger talk on comics and webcomics…and hot buttered ham you should come!

The talk is at 6PM at The Pirate’s Head, and it’s open to the public, but there’s a max capacity of 150 people. After the talk, I’ll be signing and sketching free for everyone (I don’t have books with me, so it’s more of a “bring the Sheldon books you have” kinda thing), followed by a possible stroll down to Leopold’s ice cream for amazing ice cream.

So! To review:
– Monday night, 6PM
– The Pirate’s Head, maximum 150 people
– Free sketches, etc, to follow
– Possible group stroll for ice cream at Leopold’s
– Hugs

I arrived home from a (very, very busy) Festival weekend in Ohio, only to realize that Friday’s strip never made it to the server, and so never made it to the website.

Rather than go back and post it for “Friday” in the archives, though, I’m going to just accept that accidents like that happen, and use it for this week. Huzzah: Lemonade outta lemons!

This past weekend was the triennial “Festival of Cartoon Art” at Ohio State University, and the weekend was an absolute joy.

I told the Festival organizer, Jenny Robb, that it was the single greatest cartooning event I’ve ever attended — and I meant it.

The weekend is designed for pro-cartoonists, historians, academics, and passionate comics fans. It’s the perfect mix of academic talks, professional talks, beautiful museum exhibits, cartoon library tours, and big headliners like Matt Groening and Art Speigelman.

I was honored to be one of the guest speakers this year, especially among such an amazing list of folks.

If the video of the speech came out all right, I’ll share it with you guys… or, I’ll pass along the transcript to Fleen.com as I promised.

Since giving the talk, though, I’ve had two other cartooning organizations ask me to give the talk again, though — so it may be coming to a town near you. 🙂

Wednesday’s strip about getting astronauts to Mars without boring the spit out of them generated a great e-mail from NASA engineer Lee S.:

I am an engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and I work on the telemetry processing systems that handle the current internet connectivity for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. I have forwarded this particular strip to a number of engineers and controllers here for their amusement, and promptly received a hardy LOL from one controller. Good stuff! Keep it up!

No word yet on whether they forwarded the strip up to anyone on the space station: Most of the station’s internet time is dedicated to LOLcats and Facebook, purely for scientific reasons.