For new Sheldon readers who might be unfamiliar with it… they’re pointing to the Glornak sticker.
Also: Adam, you are a far cooler man than I could ever be, just for flashin’ them white shoes. You are “smoove” with a “v”.
The basic idea is “Rapid Serial Visual Presentation”: It keeps your eyes comparatively at rest at a central focal point, and sequentially displays the words at a rapid-fire clip.
Try it out: Copy and paste a big block of news, literature, or homework in there…and see how fast you can plow through it. I read some looooong articles in 2-3 minutes!
Interesting thing to note: I tried Spreeder on a long bit of “comedy” text. Doesn’t work at all — you lose all sense of timing and pacing. But for factual, dryer text…works like a charm.
Interesting (nerdy) thing to note: Am I the only one to remember that rapid serial visual presentation is how the Bene Gesserit used to send communiques in Frank Herbert’s “God Emperor of Dune”?
The best part? About two minutes before they announced the winner, I turned to her and said, “Oh, hey, did you write up a speech in case you win?” And she said “Oh heck no. I’m up against the Ugly Betty head writer.”
And when she did win, and recovered from the shock of it, she then proceeded to give the funniest off-the-cuff acceptance speech I’ve ever heard. She’s pretty awesome, that one.
And thank you, to everyone, who e-mailed my buddy Dave Scales to thank him for editing the video. Remember: For every e-mail you send him, that’s one less beer I’m going to owe him at some point.
We’re going to the award-show taping tomorrow night. My preferred activity while I’m there? I’m gonna try to talk to Edward James Olmos ALL NIGHT about “Battlestar Galactica”.
**Cut to me getting nowhere near Edward James Olmos, and quietly nursing a mojito over in a corner.**
School is starting soon, which unfortunately means the end of my internship here at “Sheldon”.
To round off the summer, I went to the “Pugs: God’s Little Weirdos” book-launch party. I felt so LA sitting there in that swanky lounge with low lighting. Except instead of it being exclusive and pretentious, there was an incredible warmth present. It was so exciting to see and meet the readers that came out. I’ve noticed the dynamic between Dave and his fans is an interesting one. People aren’t necessarily infatuated or weird: The interaction seemed like it was among friends.
Dave’s family was present as well. I especially liked Dave’s mom, who recognized me immediately from across the room to mouth to me “I’ve read your blog!” That was so cute.
The book party was definitely a fun night, especially to celebrate the final product when I had seen the book in all its earlier forms. Meeting new people and drinking “The Pugly” were fabulous ways to end the night.
I can not even begin to say how thankful I am for this experience over the past three months. It’s been an incredible summer and I’m leaving with more knowledge and experience than I had before. To all the Sheldonistas: Thank you for welcoming me into the comic world with open arms, I hope to visit it often. And a huge thanks to Dave, who has shown me that the “best things in life are squee!”
Newsletter subscribers will get first crack at the limited Artist Editions this coming Monday*, after which they’ll go into the store on Wednesday!
And for those just starting their Sheldon collection, we’ll have a specially priced collection of all five books.
Also: I should have pics from the “Pugs” launch party up on the site early next week. Huge thanks to the Academy Award’s Bruce Vilanch and “My Name Is Earl” star Nadine Velazquez — both dog lovers — for comin’ out, as well as the packed room of Sheldonistas who made the night so awesome. I’m still on cloud nine from how fun that night was — thank you!
*Didn’t get the newsletter last time? We recommend checking/clearing out your spam filters, or signing up under a different e-mail account. We checked the last mailings, and all e-mails went out as planned — so spam filters (either server-side or home-computer-side) are looking like the big culprit.
How the Comic Strip “Sheldon” is Created from Sheldon Comics on Vimeo.
The video follows the creation of this strip, and was wonderfully edited by my good friend Dave Scales.
I can’t say enough about how hard Dave worked on it. He took 3 hours of raw video from two cameras and made something that really bounces along nicely. Had I done it, it would have looked like your great grandma had edited it – so we *all* have Dave to thank. (In fact, if you liked the video, do me a favor and drop him a line and thank him along with me!)
…and I hope you enjoy the video!
It all goes down this Sunday, Aug. 10th, from 7-10 PM, at the Beverly Hills night spot, The Crescent.
We’ll have free sketches, free high-fives, and free cocktails sponsored by the Sheldon-lovin’ folks at P.I.N.K vodka.
And because this book focuses solely on pugs, we’re giving 10% of all the night’s sales to the LA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They’ll be on-hand that night as well.
So come on out! Say hi! Snag a free sketch, free high five, and a free drink or two! And enjoy the night out on the outdoor lounge, under the swaying palm trees. Should be an awesome night, temperature-wise!
See you there!
(Click here for personalized directions!)
My good buddy and “How To Make Webcomics” co-author, Kris Straub, has just launched a fantastic new strip… and I completely forgot to mention it.
Kris is, without doubt, the “hardest working” “man” in Webcomics…with not one strip, not two, but three concurrently running strips. The third being quite possibly my favorite: The already awesome F Chords.
I’ve read the next month’s worth of strips…and I’m not kidding when I say I think it’s the best work Kris has ever done. And that’s sayin’ something. So do yourself a favor and check it out!
