The Ohio State Cartoon Library & Museum has asked me to donate a piece of Sheldon original art to their (huge) collection of American cartoon art.
That’s cool in and of itself…but here’s what I was thinking: Rather than *me* just picking a strip, let’s open it up to suggestions, and see which one strip *you* think should be preserved for posterity! The strip that best represents what “Sheldon” is.
Here are the limitations:
1.) The original art must still be available in the physical archives. (You’ll know it’s “gone” if it says “Purchased” directly under the strip).
and…
2.) That’s it. #1 was the only limitation.
So feel free to suggest your favorite strip in the comments below!
1.) Today’s Sunday strip was wonderfully colored by our Sheldon intern, Cari. She gave it such a great golden, Autumn feel, didn’t she? Group high-five to Cari, everyone!
2.) Sheldonista A.R. informs me that there is actually a name for the eye-boogers that form during the night: “Haw”. I don’t have a suitably sized Oxford English Dictionary next to me, but the professors among us can perhaps look it up and give us the exact definition in the comments, below.
3.) Sheldon reader Andria S writes in with this:
I happen to teach Physics at a community college, and one of the most
useful tools I teach is the Order of Magnitude calculation, also
called a back of the envelope calculation. If you’re unfamiliar with
this, it’s a way to get a rough estimate of any calculate-able
quantity just by making some reasonable estimates to start. Regarding
your eye crud strip on August 2, 2009, I made what I feel are
reasonable estimates that a bit of eye crud is a small cube with sides
of 1mm; that you either get crud every night of your life in only one
eye, or else in both eyes but every other night of your life; and that
you live 80 years. These estimates get you around 6 teaspoons (2
tablespoons) of crud in a human life time, and I could easily see
getting 1 teaspoon instead with slightly different input guesses.
So Sheldon got it right – though on a test I’d dock him points for not
showing his work. 😉
.
Coming out of Comic-Con, there are lots of upcoming appearances to share with you. Let’s review:
LOS ANGELES, AUG 9th: This is the big book launch party for “Living Dangerously (With Saturated Fats)”. Here’s the earlier announcement with directions, times, etc.
BALTIMORE, OCT 10-11th: I’ll be back for a second year in Baltimore …but this time as a Harvey Award nominee!
LOS ANGELES, NOV 15th: I’ll be lecturing about comics at the prestigious Hammer Museum of Art. More info as we get closer!
CALGARY, APR 24-25, 2010: Big news, Canada: It’s my first show north of the border! Do you remember when I asked Sheldonistas which international show I should attend in 2010? Well, as a result of Sheldon readers contacting the show, I’m now invited as a special guest of the Calgary Comic Expo in 2010! WARM UP THE HUGS, CANADA. And for all you folks in Toronto saying I should come to *that* show: Know that it’s up to you! E-mail the organizers of the Toronto Comicon and suggest they have me as a guest: If they invite me, I’ll be up there in a heartbeat.
First things first: THANK YOU to everyone who came out to San Diego Comic-Con. It was a fantastic five days of laughter and sketches and high-fives and good times. To be able to get out there and meet you all at conventions means a lot to me. I will admit it: The kind words you share about the strip at conventions…? I carry those with me all through the year. So thank you for that!
Thanks also to the three or four English Sheldonistas who brought me Hobnobs cookies from the UK. I and my expanding waistline thank you…they were amazing.
We gave out all the free Dilly Duck prints by Thursday morning and sold out of all the “Pugs” and “Living Dangerously” books we brought (and almost all of the “Nerds on Parade” books as well). Surprisingly, to mostly new readers. Thank you to everyone who dragged their friends/cousins/office mates over to the booth to introduce them to the strip. That means a lot.
This year, I was in a corner booth in a fantastic location, and it seems like everyone found us pretty easily. I shared the booth with my co-authors and friends Kris Straub and Brad Guigar. I laugh all weekend with these two, and miss them greatly when the convention ends. They are two of the most naturally funny guys you could ever want to meet. If you’re not familiar with their work, do yourself a favor and check them out.
On another note: If you took any photos at SDCC of your Sheldon sketch, your high-five, etc., please e-mail ’em to me! Cap’n Forgetful forgot to take pics, and I’d love to show folks how the show went. Thanks!
Oh, and one last thing: The new Sheldon book will be going on sale after the Book Launch party on August 9th. More news on both of those later in the week!
A quick heads-up for Sheldonistas coming to San Diego Comic-Con: All Sheldon Original Art is $25-off at the show. Your favorite strip involving Lord of the Rings? Bam. 25 smackers off. How about the one onBluetooth headsets or Aquaman? Bam. $25 off.
All I ask is that you e-mail meto tell me which strips you’re interested in. Here’s why! Every year, people get to the show, and say “I’d like to get the strip about XYZ, please,” not realizing that there are 3,000 strips, and I couldn’t possibly bring them all. So please drop me a note. TRUST ME: You-from-four-days-from-now will be thanking the you-from-today. And me-from-today will be high-fivin’ a happy you-from-four-days-from-now.*
*Note: Both you-from-seven-days-from-now and me-from-seven-days-from-now will be sad, though, because SDCC will be over, and we’ll be back to our normal routine.
If I can take a personal moment, I want to publicly congratulate my parents on something pretty fantastic:
Today, my folks celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! Which is pretty darn impressive, no matter how you slice it. 50! They renewed their vows with all their kids and grandkids gathered ’round, and we all had a pretty spectacular day. Congrats, Mom & Dad!
Glornak, as you’ll recall, first made his Sheldon appearance in this strip… and then went on to star in this bumper sticker.
Sheldonista Christine B. has brought ol’ Glornak to life, though, using the awesome power of knitting.
Here’s a scale shot of Christine’s hand-made Glornak next to a water bottle:
But then, as Christine tells me, “I realized that what the picture really needed was terrified little people running from Glornak. Then, I realized that no, that wasn’t right. Glornak needed to be facing down a whole bunch of little green army men.” Et, voila! Notice that Glornak has trapped one of them under his (assumedly) slimy appendages.
Even better, Christine started to lose her daylight while taking the shots, requiring her to move to flash photography. The results were suitably dramatic:
My favorite shot is this one, though. It feels like 1950’s B-Movie. “Attack of the 400-Foot Potato” or something.
Christine wanted everyone to know that “… in the end the green army men were victorious, though they suffered heavy losses. After an extensive rehabilitation period and continuing anger management therapy, Glornak has found a new home with Tim, Susan, Jimmy, Becky and Spot. He is extremely proud of his place in their “Our family” sticker and says that whenever he feels the urge to go on a rampage, he remembers that, how it symbolizes just how far he’s come, and it calms him back down.”
Cartoonist Daryl Cagle, I believe, coined a phrase in editorial cartooning for the real-life scenario when five separate editorial cartoonists end up doing the exact same joke on the topic-of-the-day: “The Yahtzee”.
As I’m finding out from readers this morning, the setup of today’s strip was already tackled — and tackled funnier — by the strip xkcd.
As a cartoonist, when you accidentally go to the same concept like that, my gut tells me the only intellectually honest thing to do is acknowledge the first cartoon as soon as you find out about it. It’s bound to happen after 3,000 Sheldon strips, but it’s an embarrassing bummer nonetheless.
My apologies to Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd. You got there first, and you tackled the topic way funnier.
