You know as well as I do that education — especially arts education — has taken it on the chin in this recession…but here’s your chance to help a little bit:
826LA (a non-profit writing/tutoring center) helps 6- to 18-year-olds with writing skills through community events and after-school tutoring.
My friend and fellow cartoonist Keith Knight is on the board of directors there, and when he invited myself and fellow cartoonist David Malki to participate in a fundraising event for 826LA, we said “heck yes”. But here’s the deal, guys: I’M SUPER LAME. There’s only two more days to fund-raise for the event, and I completely forgot to blog about it! So help me overcome my own forgetfulness..and help kids in their arts education: Read on and donate!
The event is called “A Spelling Bee For Cheaters”, and it takes place August 14 in Santa Monica, CA. Keith, David and myself are all on one team, battling it out in a spelling bee against other teams. We’re somewhat late-comers to the fundraising game, so we are trying to raise pledges to buy “cheats” — so we can be competitive in the event! As we are cartoonists, and not Yale literature professors with a knack for spelling!
Potential cheats include passing on a difficult word, buying immunity after spelling a word wrong, and swapping places with another team member. But! We only get cheats if we raise money! 826LA is a volunteer-based organization that helps kids in a number of remarkable and wonderful ways. Will you please help our team with a donation of $5, $10, $20, or $50?
Or heck, way, way higher! This is for kids, after all!
Just a note: The new Drive and Literature books will go on sale the day after the Aug 22nd book launch party. We’ll start with the 250 Artist Editions for both books, then have the regular edition available a few days later. Sound good?
Just a reminder for those of you enjoying the Saturday SciFi feature, “Drive”: You can read the full archives of the story here, at the temporary site.
Do you guys remember this cartoon, about the very rare dog, the Himalayan Squishie?
Well, Sheldonista Susan C. has sent in shocking photos that have captured the rare beast. But first, her letter:
I have a friend in the US Foreign Service who is currently stationed
in Nepal. I sent her an e-mail yesterday asking if she’d ever heard of an
Himalayan Squishie. I didn’t hear back from her. Then early this
morning there was a knock on the front door. By time I got out of bed
to answer the door, all I found on the porch was an animal transport
carrier, and a car with diplomatic plates swooshing down the street.
Inside the crate? A little dog that looks like a wrinkly loaf of
bread! I’m shocked – I don’t know if my landlady will let me keep an
Himalayan Squishie in the house, as I already have a cat. We’re headed
to the vet later today to get him all checked out and all his shots
updated. Then it’s off to get a dog bed and some chew toys.
And now, finally! The shocking photos revealed!!!
For more pics of the wild pup, check out her Flickr set here.
Just a reminder: For the three new prints, try to get your order in by Friday, if you would. It’ll be super helpful on our end of things.
If you were waiting for the new books to get into the store to make one big purchase, no need to wait: These are shipped specially anyway, so they’d be shipped off separate from any book order you’ll be making.
All of the prints are professionally made on matte-finish photo paper, measure 12″x18″, and look awesome. Anyway: I you can, try to get your order in by Friday. Thanks!
On Aug. 22nd, the Crescent Lounge, Peligroso tequila and Steaz energy drinks are hosting the book launch party for the new “Literature” and “Drive” books — and you’re totally invited!
There are FREE drinks from Peligroso Tequila and Steaz Energy Drinks, FREE sketches from yours truly, aaaaand FREE contest give-aways at 9PM. It’s gonna be pretty dang rad.
It all takes place in Beverly Hills, at the very cool Crescent Lounge (see below pic). It’s free and open to all Sheldon readers, family and friends…so come on out!
Here’s a Q&A that anticipates your every need:
1.) Wait: You’re being serious…there’ll be free drinks? YES. 2.) And free sketches? YES. 3.) Will there be free high-fives? UNDOUBTEDLY. 4.) Will the new books be available for purchase there? YES: THAT’S WHERE YOUR FREE SKETCHES GO! 5.) Will there be much awesomeness? ONLY IF YOU ATTEND. THIS CAN NOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH.
6.) I’m in! Now how do I get there?
The address for the Crescent Lounge is: 403 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Here is their site, and here’s a Google Map you can use for directions.
7.) Is there a Facebook Event page for this? SURE, WHY NOT.
Before time slipped by too far, I wanted to collect a few memories of San Diego Comic-Con 2010 and share them with you.
San Diego, as you probably know, is the biggest geek-fest on the planet. 125,000 folks traipsing through one big ol’ convention center for five days, checking all the best pop culturey stuff around. Amid all that, I get the chance to meet and talk to Sheldonistas from around the world. Seriously, around the world: This year I met Scots, Aussies, Kiwis, lots and lots of English and Canadians, South Africans, Mexicans, Chileans, Germans, French and a few Belgians, and one Swiss reader. It was the most international “meet-up” I’ve ever had…which was rad.
And in general, this was the high-water-mark in terms of readers coming out and saying “hi”. San Diego has always been a show where I sort of see how Sheldon is “doing,” you know, in terms of readership? A sort of litmus test as to how many folks are reading it? And this year was just much, much bigger than previous years. So that’s nice! Thank you for tellin’ friends about the strip!
As in previous years, I exhibited with my friends and “How To Make Webcomics” co-authors Kris Straub and Brad Guigar.
It was also the debut for two new books, the “Literature” book, and the first ever installment of “Drive”:
I did a quick little interview that starts at the 40-second point and really picks up at the 2-minute point in this video. It’s a bit bouncy, but there’s a fun spoiler toward the end of it:
A lot of Sheldonistas came by for free sketches and the obligatory high-five, but I was really, really touched by all the kind words and gifts that folks brought by to celebrate the 3,000th Sheldon strip last Wednesday. Sheldonista Amanda W. even framed a custom piece of congratulatory art:
Sheldonista Joe C. brought by a copy of (the now pretty hard to find) “Well Balanced Meal” — my first book of comics from 1996:
There were many ridiculous poses for photos, like my overly earnest handshake with Kevin L., here:
And anytime anyone asked if they could get a sketch of me sketching “like I normally sketch”, I tried to recreate my standard pose at home. Just an artist sittin’ at his desk, sketching totally normal. As one does:
But most folks just got custom sketches and high fives, like Stephanie P., here:
Here, let me share some of those custom sketches with you. I only took pics of maybe 1/100th of them (I kept forgetting), but there are some funny ones in the mix:
There were a lot of requests for “Sheldon/Drive” mashups, too, which made for some weird sketches:
But the big theme-sketch for the show this year seemed to be literary figures in folks’ copy of the “Literature” book:
Speaking of the “Literature” book, I should update you on the new books. The big book launch party for both new books will be on August 22nd, after which Artist Editions and regular versions of both books will go on sale in the online store. That’s right, I said both books. There are copies of “Drive” still available!
As you remember, my intention was for this first “Drive” book to be a super-super-limited print run…to sorta gauge interest on whether there was interest. But two things happened: A.) The printer printed 128% MORE copies than I ordered, and B.) The Drive book outsold *all* the Sheldon books at Comic-Con. So, in retrospect, it’s kinda good that the book run got overzealous. Anyway, we’ll have more info on the big book-launch party and books themselves later in the week. For now, a huge, huge thank you to everyone who came out to SDCC!
Whaaaat?! 3 new prints in the Sheldon Store, you say? Tell me more!
FIRST PRINT:
So, you remember this strip from a few weeks back? It was one of the most popular strips I’ve ever done. And I got so many requests for a print of this, I figured, “heck yeah all right let’s do this.” <—My exact words.
The second print is for everyone who plays Fantasy Football or D&D (…or, who has to *deal* with someone who plays Fantasy Football or D&D). This used to be a convention exclusive, but now it’s debuting in the online store!
The third print is for the coffee lovers, who will recognize that, What Coffee Giveth With One Hand, It Taketh Away With The Other. Namely: Energy. It’s the “Coffee: Circle of Life” print!
I’m home from San Diego Comic-Con, and it might just have been my favorite Comic-Con ever. Sheldon and Drive readers showed up in numbers I’ve never seen before (…it kinda blew me away a little).
I’ll complete a big write-up about the show later with pictures…but I wanted to mention a few quick things:
1.) If you have any pictures from SDCC that we took together, please e-mail them to me! It’s fun to share those on the blog.
2.) If you were hoping to snag the huge original art to the 3,000th Sheldon strip, you have about an hour left to try…so head on over!
3.) Today’s strip is a little too real to life: Every once in a while, our pug looks intensely concerned about some major world issue. Like only he can solve it, if he just thinks hard enough about it. Which, now that I think about it…is kind of a worrying thought for the rest of us.
