Librarians! Researchers! Savvy readers! I need your help finding this answer: When did Sheldon first go online?

TWICE, this month, I’ve had a journalist ask me when “Sheldon” went online, and I had to hedge my answer…’cause I honestly don’t know. I had to tell the nice lady from Forbes it was “Fall of 1998…or, um, thereabouts”, because I can’t find any official answer in web archives.

So let’s put the patented WISDOM OF CROWDS to use, and see if thousands of heads are smarter than one!

---

When did the first Sheldon strip appear online?

WHAT WE DO KNOW:

1.) Sheldon didn’t start out on “davekellett.com” (archived page from ’99) or on “sheldoncomics.com” (archived page from ’00).

2.) It actually started out a year earlier — somewhere in the Fall/Winter of 1998/99 — while I was studying WWII cartoons at the University of Kent, Canterbury England.

3.) That student webpage, as far as I can remember, was “http://www.ukc.ac.uk/php/djk3”, or perhaps “http://www.ukc.ac.uk/djk3”. Kent, however, has long-since deleted that student page, and changed their own URL to “kent.ac.uk”.

4.) If we can find *any* archived page from that student site, we’ll know the start-date, since the “First Strip” link will exist in hand-coded html.

WHAT WE NEED TO FIND OUT:

1.) While archive.org captured the latter two sites in ’99, it didn’t capture the (obscure) student site of mine in late ’98. Is there any web archive that was active in late ’98 or early ’99?

2.) Might there be a UK-based or university-based archive of student sites from that era?

3.) Is there even one (!) Sheldon reader who’s been following the strip the entire time, and would have some personal record of when it first came online?

4.) Is there some other resource that the search-savvy among us might know?

Figuring out the start-date is so important to me, that I’d like to offer this up to the person who finds *the* definitive date: I’m offering ANY Sheldon Original Art in the archives, plus the entire 6-book Sheldon collection, plus a Sheldon t-shirt of your choosing, plus a personalized sketch of your favorite character! It’s the least I can do, since you’d be doing me such a huge kindness.

…THANKS, ALL!

I had to share this with you.

Sheldonista Jeremy P. absolutely bowled me over with pics of an Arthur sculpt he made. They make me smile in a way few things do. Probably because — and I’m being honest with you, here — whenever *I* try to create a 360-degree view of Arthur, I fail.

But! Along comes Jeremy, producing what in my mind is an absolutely spot-on, 3-D Arthur. With a wonderfully goofy, Arthur-esque facial expression, no less! Jeremy, you nailed it.

Jeremy says that if he has time, he’ll tackle Flaco next. If you do, Jeremy, I’d love to see the pics. ‘Cause these made my week!

To give Sheldon Store customers a little somethin’ extra with their purchase, starting today every store order comes with 8 free wallpapers! With a purchase as small as one bumper sticker, you get all 8 designs:

All 8 designs are available in these resolutions:

800X600 1024X768 1152X864 1280X1024 1280X800 1400X1050

1440×900 1600X1200 1680X1050 1920X1200 iPhone-Sized

…And, it’s super easy for us to add a design — so if there’s a wallpaper you’d like to see, let us know!

Sheldon reader Brandon sent in this photo of he and his pug Roxie “reading through the archives of our favorite comic”.

It’s a great pic…and I believe Brandon when he say he was enjoying the archives. But closer inspection shows that Roxie was less than impressed….

I missed it by three days.

I was poking around the back-end of the Sheldon site, today, and noticed that we’re on Sheldon strip #2,503. That ain’t too shabby!

Seems like an awful lot of strips, looking back on them. Assuming it takes me 2.5 hours each to ideate, draw, cleanup and post, that’s 260 SOLID days of cartooning. Lordy Lord!

Anyway, what I really wanted to do, after looking at that number, was thank you guys for everything you’ve given me over the years. I doubt if I would’ve made it past a few hundred strips without your kind words via e-mail, forum posts, and in-person convention high-fives. (I’m including the low-fives, as well, just for statistical reasons.)

Every day, I get e-mails from one-to-two dozen Sheldonistas, all over the world. You send in kind words, links, funny stories, pictures, or how today’s strip reflected your mood for the day. And I have to tell you…that’s an amazing gift. The kind of gift that feeds an artist’s soul. It’s the reason why a cartoonist does what they do.

So thank you, my friends, for helping make 2,500 strips possible! Here’s to 2,500 more!

============

Postscript: Quick! Someone who’s good at calendar-math: If today is #2,503, what date will we hit 3,000 at a seven-strips-a-week rate? My liberal-arts brain tried to figure it out, but came up with May 5th, 1973…and I know that ain’t right. 🙂 [Edited to note: Almost instantly by e-mail, Twitter, and posts, folks let me know it’s July 12, 2010!]

============

Post-to-the-Postscript: How many of you have read through the entire archive of 2,500?

One of the weird things about websites is their ability to have one page, buried somewhere in the site, that has NEVER BEEN UPDATED SINCE 1965. That’s right, 1965: Prior to the internet. It’s one of the rare phenomena of the Web…right up next to the “I’ll just check my e-mail real quick” phenomenon, where you suddenly look up and it’s three hours later and you’ve been trolling Amazon.com for books on correctly pouring cement. The internet is a weird place.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I realized the Sheldon “Extras” page hadn’t been updated in four years, and started updating it this morning. If you guys can think of anything….extra….(ha!) to add to it, do let me know.

Just a followup: All of the Scottish posters are out the door and winging their way around the world. You should be getting yours in a matter of days!

Update-o-rama: The posters came in today, and they look great. We’ll be shipping ’em out tomorrow and Friday, and most (if not all) should be out the door by then.

Personal sidenote: I’ve never seen so many orders with “Mac” in the surname. 🙂

I’ll be heading to some really cool events in the near future, and wanted to remind you about them:

1.) MASSACHUSETTS: Webcomics Weekend is coming up in Easthampton, MA, March 20-22 — with the big “public” events on the 21st. I hope you’ll make it out if you’re in New England, as I so rarely get out that way. Webcomics Weekend is the single largest gathering of webcomics professionals I’ve ever seen — and that includes past San Diego Comic-Cons. If you read *any* webcomics, the list of official guests reads like a who’s-who. Don’t miss it!

2.) SEATTLE: Also! My favorite comics convention in the U.S. is coming up: Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon runs April 4th and 5th, and I’m excited to say I’ve been invited back as an official guest of the show. That means you’ll see Sheldon right as you walk in the main door! Seattle, you’ve never, ever disappointed me before — come on out for the show!

3.) SAN DIEGO: Later in the summer, I’ve got two San Diego-based events I’ll be heading down for: The always massive San Diego Comic-con (where we’ll be debuting the sixth Sheldon collection aaaand a little some special), and a National Cartoonist Society / Southern California Cartoonist Society talk that they’ve generously opened to the public. More on those two later.

Anyway! If you live in New England or Seattle, I EXPECT to be high-fivin’ you in the next few weeks. And if I’m not, then I’ll be calling your cell the next day to find out what happened. Neither one of us wants that call to happen…so come on out!

I really don’t need to make a commentary here, do I, on the pic Sheldon reader Sandy H. sent in of her pug…