A surreal and wonderful strip to check out, if you’ve never seen it before. Lots of linguistic twists of “Americana” mixed in with Spanish and flavors of the southwest…all set in odd, dream-like versions of the high desert.
And the simple yet endlessly mutable relationships between Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisah Pup were wonderful. Weird, but wonderful.
Putting Flaco and Arthur into that style was great fun to draw. …I hope you enjoyed it.
This week, I hired an awesome guy to start bringing Sheldon books to stores around the country. But we’re doing it in a very cool new way. We’re going to bypass Borders, Barnes & Noble, Wal*Mart, Amazon…and just focus on local book stores and comic book shops.
Why avoid the mega-chains? Because the fundamental way they do business is broken…and even they kinda know it. Borders essentially declared bankruptcy this week, and Amazon and Wal*Mart constantly chase each other to see who can offer “Harry Potter” books at a bigger money-losing price of 70-or-80%-off. And in the meantime, all the little guys up and down the line can’t survive.
But! Since Sheldon doesn’t traditionally rely on bookstores anyway, we can afford to try something new. Something different. Something better.
We’re going to bypass the big guys altogether, and just deal directly with real people who own their own local stores. The store owners will get waaaay-better-than-usual rates and freight, you’ll get Sheldon books locally, and no one will need to go bankrupt in the process. 🙂
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Share with us your favorite local stores or comic book shops that you think would welcome having “Sheldon” on their shelves. Your local eye is key, here: You’re our eyes ‘n ears! You’ll know way better than we would if “Sheldon” fits in your local store. Plus, it’ll just take a second to fill out THIS E-MAIL LINK….and send it to us. Easy-peasy!As a thank you, everyone who e-mails in will get free Sheldon desktop wallpapers next week, when I’m back from the Savannah talk! *Thank you!*
[EDITED TO ADD:] In case you’re on Gmail, Yahoo, or webmail, and the link doesn’t work for you, here are the details we ask for. Feel free to just e-mail these to “[email protected]”:
NAME OF SHOP:
ADDRESS:
IS IT A COMIC BOOK SHOP OR BOOKSTORE?
PHONE #:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
CONTACT AT THE SHOP (IF YOU KNOW IT):
ANYTHING ELSE THAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE SHOP?
Friday is the deadline to get your punchline in for our first-annual caption contest! So far, we have about 1,000 entries in 370 posts…but you still have time to get yours in!
To take part, first go check out the strip itself, then post your caption over in this forum post…after reading the few rules.
Reminder: Only captions entered into *that* forum post are eligible. Please don’t e-mail them to me, or post them in *this* forum post. Thanks!
The day before, we’ll be visiting various SCAD art classes to give spot lectures, critiques, and some hands-on instruction on the creation of sequential art and comics.
But here are the deets you need to remember:
– WHEN: Tuesday, October 14th at 8 PM
– WHERE: Trustees Theater
– WHO: Open to the public. No tickets or advance reservations: First-come, first-in. (Although, the theater seats 1,100…and I doubt we’ll fill that puppy).
– WHAT ELSE: Scott and I will be signin’, sellin’ and sketchin’ in books afterward, and giving out the “Limited Edition 2008 SCAD High-Fives” (Scott’s bringing 62, I’m packing 63).
– WHAT ELSE, WHAT ELSE: I’m also told that a special Sheldonista will be bringing a super-duper-awesome-cake that may or may not have Sheldon and PvP characters on it.
Come on out if you’re within drivin’ distance — I almost never get to go to the South, so I hope a lot of Southern Sheldonistas will come out and say “hi”!
This may be of interest to few people but me, but since I did my second Masters degree on WWII cartoon propaganda, it’s kind of a landmark: Efimov was sort of the last of the last WWII cartoonists still kickin’ around. It’s interesting to note because we live in an age where newspapers are painfully diminished in scope and impact: They’ll largely be gone in five years or so (especially now that General Motors, P&G and others are cutting back on their advertising due to the worsening recession). And cartooning, which for so long rode those circulation numbers to mass-market appeal, is a much-diminished artform in terms of cultural impact. The most popular among us, online, can boast only a 2 or 3 million readers a day.
But! Back in the day, specifically, back in the days of WWII, cartoonists were king. My chosen graduate focus, Phillip Zec, worked for London’s Daily Mirror (13 Million subscribers in 1939, 22 Million in 1948 — with a secondary readership far, far larger than those numbers communicate). He and guys like Efimov, Low, Mauldin — they spoke to tens and tens of millions of people a day. And in the way a cartoonist/propagandist can only do in an all-out, existential war…they swayed the moods and opinions of huge swathes of the populace.
So, Efimov’s passing is sort of a landmark for me. He literally is the final passing of an age for cartooning.
“The best things in life are Squee!”
Congrats to Sheldonistas AyersRock2000 for their winning submission: They’ll be getting their choice of any Original Art they want from the Sheldon archives.
Also, I should mention our two fantastic runner-ups:
– “When life hands you billions, make a talking duck.” (Which is the best summary of the strip I’ve heard in a long while.), and…
– “100% Awesome-Sauce”. (Which is a great summary of the mood of the strip.)
The runners-up will both receive invisible-but-highly-potent-high-fives-sent-over-the-internet.
Thanks to everyone for participatin’. It was so much fun to read all the suggested taglines, and I hope you had fun with it! Thanks!
Also: I should mention, in regards to Monday’s Caption Contest, that I’m aware the Sheldon Forum signup system is a bit — ahem — clunky, and I apologize if it’s given you any grief. I’ve gone in and manually “confirmed” all the new signups from the last few days…so new users should be good to go. But if you’re finding you still can’t log in, drop me an e-mail and we’ll fix what needs fixin’! “Technology: Makin’ Life Super Easy For As Long As Anyone Can Remember.”
Here’s how it’ll go down…..
Thems the Rules:
– Everyone gets only three entries. So! I’d recommend not going-to-town and posting all three right away. Maybe take an hour, a day, a few days…and let it stew in your noggin’. You’d be surprised how jokes can transmogrify when you give them time to percolate.
– Entries have to be posted below. My poor inbox already gets clobbered, so please don’t e-mail them to me. Plus, sharing your ideas publicly is half the fun. It’s cool to see what other people come up with. (And to see who beat you to the punch!)
– Keep it clean! It’s a family-friendly comic!
– Remember that brevity is very often the soul of wit: Not only does the joke *have* to fit in Arthur’s voice bubble…I can tell you from experience that the shorter joke is often the better option.
– Have fun with it!
– But seriously: Only three entries per person. 🙂
Thems the Winnin’s:
– You have until October 10th to get your caption(s) posted.
– After that, I’ll pick my 10-15 favorites, post them in the forum for your feedback/comments, and then I’ll pick the final winner a few days later.
– The winner will get a free Sheldon book and shirt of their choice…along with the original art from the contest WITH their caption written in! Blam-o!
Nice work, Google-folk — they may be takin’ away your super-subsidized daycare, but they ain’t takin’ away your creativity!
Baltimorians! Baltimorites! Baltimoroccans! People who live in Baltimore…!
This Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be at Baltimore Comic-Con along with my fellow Halfpixel cartoonists Brad, Scott and Kris.
I’ll be giving out the Super-Limited Commemorative Baltimore High-Fives that we special-ordered, along with everything you see here:
Two special things to note:
1.) If you were hoping to buy a Sheldon Original Art at the special convention price of $25-off, PLEASE E-MAIL ME with the specific one you want, to make sure I bring that one along.
2.) Also! We have 15 of the Artist Decision Tree posters left over from San Diego Comic-Con…so I’ll be bringing those along as well. Snag yours early!
(And if you want to re-read ALL of the entries, you can go here.)
