I found this to be a fun little shot-in-the-arm, today, and thought I’d pass it along. It’s a brief YouTube video listing famous historical figures, and how each was, at one point in their life, told they’d amount to nothing.

After watching this, though, I kinda fear that I’ll be included in a similar video, 30 years from now, with the voice over: “Was told that it was physically impossible to eat six pounds of Oreos in one sitting: Dave Kellett.”

Spotted on other’s Flickr pages…I thought I’d share more pics from Emerald City Comic-Con:

– Pics of the Sheldon books at the ol’ Halfpixel booth

– Pics of my three Halfpixel friends (I’m seated, and am apparently “free”)

– Halfpixel’s “How To Make Webcomics” talk

– Another one from the panel talk

– Me, signin’ away…with a fantastic bumpkin expression on my face

– Every time we signed “How To Make Webcomics”, we did an author’s one-upmanship. All of them were non sequitors, and ridiculous.

Seattle’s Emerald City Comic-Con, having come and gone like some magical fairy-tale ride of high-fives, is left now only to memory. I have to say, it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at any single convention…and that’s sayin’ something.

Huge, huge thanks to the many hundreds of Sheldonistas who came out for the show, of whom I remembered to snap pics of but a few dozen (Click the thumbnails to see accompanying commentary). You guys made this show a whirlwind of awesomeness for me, and really made me feel at home in Seattle. Thank you for that!

Thanks, also, to the convention organizers, who had invited me out as a “Guest of House”, but who in fact made me feel like a King o’ the House, what with the bedside, single-touch, window-shade switch in my hotel room. Nothing says “You live in a Fancy, Buck Rogers Future like a bedside, single-touch, window-shade switch.” I am clearly a child, as I hit that switch a good six times, just to watch it go.

Special thanks also go out to Wil Shipley for throwing an awesome dinner party on Saturday night to honor the cartoonists behind Sheldon, Starslip, PvP, Evil Inc, and Penny Arcade. In addition to being an awesome developer, Wil throws one heck of a shindig. Thanks, Wil!

Based solely on the content of our strips, I never thought I and the Penny Arcade guys could muster more than a suspicious glance at one another. Two strips have never been less alike, and my social radar had just assumed we’d have nothing in common. But at Saturday’s soiree, Jerry and I had a great talk about fatherhood — and I have to say he’s a solid dude all around.

Lastly, my apologies to all the Sheldonistas who came out on Sunday and couldn’t get a book: We sold out of all our stock around 11:30 on Sunday morning…and the best I could do was supplement with hugs and well wishes. (Which, I think it’s fair to say, did NOT compensate.) Rest assured, though, that I am now duly warned about the level of Sheldon fandom in the Northwest, and will ship a few hundred extra books up the next time I go to Emerald City!

But overall: The weather was perfect, the Sheldonistas were more than awesome, the laughter of my Halfpixel stablemates was infectious, and the overall convention was just radness personified.

Thank you, again, to all who came out!

Just a quick heads up for anyone attending the huuuuuge Book Expo America: I’ll be there Sunday, June 1st… giving out free sketches, high-fiving, and selling books and originals to Sheldonistas.

It’s my first time at BEA, so I’m sort of curious to see how it goes…see if it’s something I should exhibit at in the future. There are four, soon to be five Sheldon books — plus the “How To Make Webcomics” book — so events like BEA might be a good fit.

In any case, I’ll be there at the kind invite of my friends at Unshelved, signin’ and sellin’ and sayin’ hi. Drop by: Sunday afternoon at the Unshelved booth!

I love it when people crack open their laptops on a flight in order to tinker with the Powerpoint presentation they’re giving the next day.

The guy next to me, on my flight back from Seattle, clearly worked in the marketing department for Uncle Ben’s Rice. And he had, I kid you not, a Powerpoint slide with the headline: “Adding Sexiness to Uncle Ben’s”.

Clearly, I need to fly more. I would be a much funnier cartoonist if I got to read more marketing presentations like that. And if you’ve ever worked in corporate America, you know exactly what marketing presentations I’m talking about:

— “Tidy Bowl Toilet Cleaner: Hidden Youth-Oriented Trend Opportunities?”

— “Increase John Deere’s Q3 Tractor Earnings by Synergizing Corporate Myspace Page?”

— “Mrs. Paul’s Fish Sticks: 2009 Strategy to ‘Own’ the Phrase ‘They’re The Fish Stickiest!'”

(Related sidenote: How *do* you add sexiness to Uncle Ben’s? That poor marketing team is fighting a pretty uphill battle.)

Every few months, I get into a real Andrés Segovia mood, and just put his albums on a continuous 5-hour loop while I cartoon. But I’d never actually *seen* him play until, on a whim, I searched for him on YouTube today.

Check him out playing “Leyenda”. He makes that song look easy. My God but it’s amazing to see a true master at work.

Washington-ians! Seattle-ites! People of the Northwest in general! Big reminder that this weekend is Emerald City Comic-Con (Sat, 10-6; Sun 10-5)!

Emerald City has quickly become my favorite convention, because A.) There are tons of Sheldon readers in and around Seattle, B.) The convention itself is super fun, C.) This particular con’ will be the first time my friends and “How To Make Webcomics” co-authors will be in one booth, signing together, and D.) We’ll be giving a featured talk, also called “How To Make Webcomics,” at the show.

It really is going to be a great time. If you can make it, don’t miss it! I’ll be giving out free sketches to Sheldonistas of all shapes and sizes (There were lots of kids, last time I went to Seattle — which was very fun)…and I’ll be chattin’ and givin’ out the Commemorative, Limited Edition, 2008 Emerald City Comic-Con High Fives (Note: Only bringing 65. Get yours quickly, while supplies last).

Also, to say “thank you” to all the Sheldon readers who do make it out, all Sheldon Original Strips will be $25 off the normal price at the show. So if you’ve had your eye on a specific strip, now’s your chance to snag it! Just e-mail me to make sure I bring your favorite.

Thanks! See you there!

Sheldonista George B. sent me an interesting read on “squee” that I thought I’d share….

Hey man. I don’t know if you’ve ever talked about this, but I always think about it, and today was so perfect I just had to comment on it.

Squee, and the way you use it in the strips, is the ultimate word. It’s like Dude. You can say it millions of ways and they all mean something different. Sometimes whole paragraphs with a single Squee.

I am not sure how much you plan this, or if it just happens, but I LOVE Flaco SO much because of this. What I mean is how whenever Flaco comments on something, there’s a duality that is so cool….one part is whatever you intended the “squee” to be which the reader can kind of gather from the context, but the BEST part is deciding what WE think he is saying. I’m sure you have something in mind specifically but today, for instance, I heard “word” when Flaco said “squee.”

Anyhow…not sure any of that made sense, but that is the secret sauce in what makes Flaco so cool!

A thought occurred to me, today, and I’m curious to see if there’s a Sheldonista out there who knows this, off-hand: What was the first strip that showed Arthur sitting on the lamp?

I’m kinda curious to see how long that’s been going on. If no one knows, I may just use the varying archive search features and see if I can figure it out. But I’m guessing there’s an Arthur fan out there who know this.

If you’re a Sheldonista who picked up a book or t-shirt from the Sheldon Store in 2006 or 2007, you know that I like to give out free desktop wallpapers… as a small “thank you” from me to you. A thank you, because it’s your financial support that keeps Sheldon going as a free, daily strip (…and keeps the lights on ’round these parts).

But it looks like everyone who purchased something in the first months of 2008 didn’t get the link to the free wallpapers. Which is a total bummer.

Anyway, I just now fixed the link hiccup… So if you were one of those folks that made a purchase but didn’t get a free wallpaper, just send me an e-mail from the address used in your Sheldon purchase…and I’ll send you the wallpaper link! Thanks!