Sheldonista Joshua H. sends in these two pics from Maryland. He tells me he passes the sign all the time, and finally snapped a few pics to share with you. Thanks, Joshua!

(Note: It’s possible that I’ve been snookered into advertising someone’s insurance agency on the Sheldon site. But, I figure if someone went through the trouble of reprogramming their sign with some Sheldon-oriented cleverness…let’s send ’em some bidness.)

I had to share this with you: Artist Trevor Kent sent in his take on the Sheldon cast. Click HERE for a larger, better version…

A lot of new readers have discovered Sheldon these last few months, which is awesome. To help those folks start their Sheldon book collection on the cheap, Ye Olde Sheldonne Store is having a sale:

Pure Ducky Goodness, the first Sheldon book, is only $10 until May 15th! You save $5!

That’s 136 pages of Sheldon awesomeness for just 10 smackers. Or, look at it this way: That’s like trading 10 pieces of paper for 136 pieces of funnier paper. There is no scenario in which that’s not a good trade.

In the days following the LA Festival of Books, a few Sheldonistas sent in some great pics…and I thought I’d share them with you.

First up! Do you remember this awesome sculpt by Sheldonista Jeremy P:

Well guess who showed up at the Festival with a gift in tow!

Jeremy, I can’t thank you enough: That sculpt is amazing — and sits proudly right above my computer.

Next up, a pic from Sheldonista Jeff H. Jeff’s a Notre Dame alum, and asked for Flaco as the Fighting Irish leprechaun. It took me a minute to figure it out, but the final result came out pretty funny:

Thanks to everyone who came out — and keep those photos comin’!

Quick heads up: Your last chance to order a Balrog print before they’er gone is this Friday. Head on over the Sheldon Store to snag one before they’re gone.

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A huge thank you to everyone who came out to the LA Festival of Books this weekend! I didn’t know what to expect from an outdoor book festival with 130,000 people…but now I do: Patented Good Times. Thanks also to the folks at Image Comics, who were nothing but kind hosts and awesome all around.

As it turns out, there are an awful lot of Sheldonistas in the LA area. ‘Twas a busy weekend, and a fun one, thanks to everyone who came by! But now that I know you’re all here, you’re on notice: I expect all of you to turn out for the Beverly Hills book-launch party later this summer!

Speaking of summer: The next appearance for me is the big ol’ San Diego Comic-Con, July 22-26. San Diego is the big enchilada of the comics world…and if you’ve never been, try it out! (There are still tickets for Thursday and Sunday available, I notice!)

Heads up to folks in Bellflower, CA: Due to a family function in San Diego, I’m unfortunately going to miss the “Free Comic Book Day” signing at Metropolis Comics on May 2nd.

But! Fear not! The kind store owners and I agreed I’ll come for a signing ’round-about September…so I’m-a still comin’!

My apologies in the meantime — and I’ll see you in September!

The Balrog prints are in, and they came out great! We have enough extra for about 50 more orders…so if you were thinking about snagging one, head on over to The Sheldon Store. We’ll have them in there for six more days.

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Quick reminder: This Saturday & Sunday, from 10-5 both days, I’ll be at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, signing and sketching at the Image Comics booth (#752).

I’ll have copies of the one-off “Balrog” poster, all the Sheldon books, “How to Make Webcomics”, and Original Art for $25 off the normal price.

Image Comics booth (#752) is in the special comics area known as “The Comic Strip”, and there are a whole host of comics pros who’ll be there signing and saying hi.

So come on out! Admission is free, the weather’s gonna be fantastic…and this is one of the rare times you can meet me and Salman Rushdie on the same day. 🙂

Caveat: I have a BA and MA in Literature, and like the rest of the English-speaking world, I have absolutely no understanding of how English actually works or why it does what it does. Zero.

Hidden Secret: No one does. And if they tell you they do, they’re lying. They just know different parts than you do of the imperfect whole.

Case in Point: My use of the phrase “wail on” in today’s strip. Growing up in Southern California, I always heard surfers use the phrase to describe punishing surf. I thought I was using a slang phrase correctly with “wail”, but I had a dozen professors and professional editors pounce on me this morning. In the interest of sharing, here’s how my intensive, five seconds of subsequent research netted out:

Apparently, there are two official ways it works: Both whaling on and waling on. I honestly didn’t even realize it had been codified, and thought I was using some street-slang form: waling on. As it turns out, all I ended up doing was picking the one conceivable form where it *doesn’t* officially work! 🙂

Interestingly, if you type in “wail on” into Google (always useful to see how commonly used a phrase is in everyday life — English ain’t following L’Academie francaise rule book, after all), you get 366,000 matches.

Typing “whale on” gets you 7,500,000 matches.

And typing “wale on” gets you 2,670,000 matches.

So there you have it! Even in the court of public opinion, I failed utterly, and picked the absolute worst option of the three. English: It’s Awesome!