Enciclopedia Xenobiología: The Continuum of Makers

Species: The Continuum of Makers

Homeworld: Unknown

Size: Average 2.10 m tall, 135 kg

Color & Markings: Though comments regarding physical differences have been witnessed in the presence of Makers and pre-Makers, the human eye has immense trouble discerning them. There is, however, a noted tendency towards highly individualized dress, presumably as it is “Spirit-like”.

Reproduction & Development: The Continuum reproduces asexually, budding over a two-day term within a semi-buried, silica-based cocoon. (See attached holograph.) Offspring emerge with a surprisingly large racial memory that includes basic language, mathematics, and physical abilities. After division, offspring in the Continuum go through two developmental and sociological stages: Adolescent “pre-Maker” stage, and the adult “Maker” stage. It is theorized that new offspring in the Continuum undergo a roughly 300-to-400 year developmental period before their coming-of-age to “Maker” status. Lack of genetic diversity within the Continuum is considered to be the root cause for their complex animistic religion, which expresses individuality, right-of-passage, and socio-religious heirarchy through one’s technological inventiveness: Literally, what machinations (“spirits”) you have brought into the world. (See Mackey, Robert L. “Makers and their Spirits”, Imprimátur del Imperio, 2388.)

Diet: Unknown.

Lifespan: Unknown. Presumably in the 500-to-600 year range, based on autopsies performed at the Centro Imperial de la Xenobiología.

Language: Highly complex. Translation A.I.’s have postulated that up to 30% of text translated from the Continuum may be incorrect or lack key subtleties.

Social Structure: Hierarchy within the Continuum is based solely on the Spirits one has “birthed.” Manual labor, grunt warfare, and menial tasks are left to pre-Makers; while administration and command are left to Makers. References to a third, ruling class known as the “Colegium” (presumably, upper-level Makers) have been recorded on two occassions. However, no member of the Colegium has ever been witnessed by a human being.

Intelligence Rating: Untested. Presumed in the Kilo-Lima range for pre-Makers, and possibly as high as the Victor-Whiskey range for Makers.

Interaction with Humans: With two key exceptions, every interaction with the Continuum has been hostile to the point of violence.

Historical note: (Claims to “Spirit-theft”) —— — ——- — ——— — — —- —— — ——- — —— — ——- — ——— — — ————- — — —- —— — ——- — ——— — — —- —— — ——- — ——— — — —- —— — ——- — ——— — — —- —— — ——- — — — —- —— — ——- — ——— — — —- (Redacted: Imperial Censor MJK:29 [Clase “La Familia”])

We’ve learned something today, friends. We’ve learned that Dave can get his homonyms mixed up with this homophones and his homographs and his heteronyms and his hemoglobins.

I’m editing the original strip to reflect the correct usage of “homophones”, with a doff of the cap to my various professors who e-mailed me. (It’s like I’m back in grad school! They keep pulling me back in!)

Here’s where my mind went astray. For some reason, I thought that “homonym” was the umbrella or catch-all term encapsulating both homophones and homographs. The Greek suffix “-nym” being “name” I *thought* put it as a classification encapsulating “-phone” (“sound”) and “-graph” (“writing”). But alas, my supposition would earn me no supper tonight. Turns out I’m just a moron.

So! To my former professors, a kind thank you…and you shall get no more language classification jokes from me for a while. 🙂

Sheldon summer intern Cari wanted to add a bit of extra awesomeness when coloring Sunday’s strip: See if you can spot Cap’n Kirk in the background there.

Writing and drawing “Sheldon” is one of the great joys of my life. It’s a strip I will create until my dyin’ days. But for a while now, I’ve had an idea for a second strip that I’d like to do, and it’s something very different: A long-form, long-in-the-telling, sci-fi strip. And if you’ll indulge me, today will be the first dip of a toe into that world.

It’s a bit of a long yarn, and I frankly don’t know where I’ll find the time to tell it. But as I often tell young cartoonists, sometimes you have to just start. So much is lost in life due to an inability to start. To take that first, molasses-like step into a new project. And so even though I have no time for it, and even though I have no website for it, and even though I don’t have a proper title for it, and even though I’m not sure when/where/if it will have the chance to appear…by God I’m starting it.

We’ll flit on Conradito’s life for a bit here in the prologue, then be off a few hundred years further in the future for the duration. This first page in the prologue makes it seem a tad serious, but pay that no mind. It’ll primarily be a comedy.

My plan, such as it is, will be to create installments on Saturdays when and where I can find the time. We might have several Saturdays in a row where we dive into this strip, or we might have several months where it doesn’t appear at all. But a start is good enough for Present-Day Dave. Tomorrow is a problem for Future Dave to worry about.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Now in the Sheldon Store: Living Dangerously (With Saturated Fats)!

[Click for a larger image]

(Edited to note: There are just under 100 Artist’s Editions left, as of this blog entry.)

Ahead of Wednesday’s release of the book in the store, there’s a new pug print available, too! Anatomy of a Pug! We had this print at Comic-Con, and it was a huge hit with folks. (A surprising number of vets, funnily enough, snagged one for their offices.) Check out a larger image of it here, and snag yours over in Ye Olde Sheldonne Storre.

I thought I’d share a few pictures from the big ol’ book launch party the other night. And I’ll try to do a little running narrative as I do it…

So! Let’s begin! The night was held at the very swanky Crescent Lounge. And as you walk up to it, you see it’s sort of an indoor-outdoor configuration. As folks were walking up, they were greeted by big ol’ fat Arthurs on signs scattered about:

When you walk inside, you could saddle up and order the Arthur-colored (pineapple) drink, “The Fat Duck”:

“The Fat Duck” was a free drink for all, courtesy of our sponsors, Ocean Vodka. Tara, in the black, was the kind Ocean Vodka employee on hand for the night. A high-five to Tara and the Ocean folks for making the night awesome!

So, the lounge has this sort of multi-level thing going on in the inside, so I was signing up in this big, open-walled room where I could chat with folks from a couple different angles while I sketched:

Here, let me show you some different angles on that room. The Crescent set up a nice, long, white, leather, couch-y thing for folks to sit on while they waited for their sketch:

Looking around the lounge, it was really awesome to see folks reading their books and talking…

Moreso than in years past, we had a lot of families come out, which was awesome. This first family was especially awesome. Young Ryan and Lindsey were awesome fans of the strip, and — I KID YOU NOT — Ryan knew more Sheldon trivia then I did. He stumped me like four times on FACTS FROM MY OWN STRIP. So, going forward, I nominate Ryan to edit the Sheldon Wikipedia page. 🙂

Aaaand my family came up from San Diego, which was especially awesome!

Oo, oo, I gotta tell you about this. So, do you remember when I blogged about the special, knitted “Glornak” that someone had made? Well, that someone was Christine, seen here, who showed up with her Glornak… as a gift! Needless to say, Christine was competing with Ryan in the “Coolest Sheldonista of the Night” Contest.

Oh, speaking of contests, we actually had one where you could win books ‘n stickers ‘n posters ‘n shirts and stuff. One part of the contest was to see who could draw the best character from the strip. I have to tell you, these were hilarious. If I have time, I’ll scan ’em all in and share ’em with you.

But, as you can see from my face, here, not all of the drawings were, ahem, “Michelangelo-quality”. But we still ended up giving out a lot of great prizes.

The night overall could not have gone better. Thank you to everyone who made the trip out, from points near and far! Thank you for making it a truly joy-filled night! And I hope you enjoy your books!

We’ll have photos up tomorrow, but in the meantime, I wanted to thank everyone who came out to the book launch party and made the evening so spectacularly fun. Some folks drove in from as far away as San Diego and Santa Barbara, some folks brought gifts (pictures tomorrow!), and everyone just made the night fantastic. So thank you! If only every night could be so joy-filled!

Next week, the new “Living Dangerously” book will available in the Sheldon Store…but before that happens, first crack at the Artist Editions will go to Sheldon Newsletter Subscribers and Twitter followers on Monday.

The Artist Editions, as you know, are stamped, hand-numbered, autographed, and feature an awesome character sketch inside your cover.

Only 300 of ’em are made for this book, and they tend to go pretty quick. So if you think you might be interested, check out the newsletter or Twitter for the secret link to snag one!

It’s time, my friends, for the o-fficial book launch party for “Living Dangerously (With Saturated Fats)”. On August 9th, from 7-10 PM, at the very cool Crescent Lounge in Beverly Hills, it’s a big ol’ gathering of Sheldonistas in one spot. It’s free and open to all Sheldon readers, family and friends…so come on out!

Here’s what’s in store:

– Free themed drink called “The Fat Duck”, courtesy of our sponsor, Ocean Vodka!

– Free sketches made-to-order in your book!

– Special prizes of Sheldon books & more!

– And of course, free high-fives flowing like the River Jordan.

The Crescent Lounge is located at 403 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 — (310) 247-0505. Here is their site, and here’s a Google Map you can use for directions. The Crescent is this awesome, indoor-outdoor lounge with double-sided fireplaces and lots of places to stretch out and chat. Here’s an exterior shot of it. Come on out!