As long as I can remember, I’ve had a huge fear of getting anything near/on/around my eyes. Perfectly normal fear, I suppose, and not one to worry about…except that it’s kept me from getting contacts for my vision.

Been totally terrified of it.

But I decided that it was about dang time for a dang grownup to get over his dang fears…so off I went to the optometrist. And in the process, I found the perfect cure for eye-related fears: A super-tough-but-kind-hearted nurse from Russia.

Man! Now I see how the Russians survive those winters: Sheer, unyeilding stubbornness…tainted with genuine big-heartedness. This woman was awesome.

And by God, she did. Took me 2 1/2 hours, but with her help I got ’em in!

And today, when I tried it again at home, it only took me an hour. So…progress! Right?

Amid all my goings-on, I almost forgot to mention: If you’re going to New York Comic-Con this year, make sure you swing by booth #1863 and say hi to my friends Brad Guigar and Paul Southworth. Both are cartoonists and gentlemen of the highest order…and will be two of the “guest” cartoonists for Sheldon next week!

What are the odds that “Sheldon” and the thoroughly excellent “Little Dee” would make an “Anna Karenina” reference on the same day?

That, my friends, is some rare comics/literature convergence, right there.

Every once in a while a podcast will invite me on for an interview about “Sheldon”…but I’ve rarely had as in-depth or enjoyable an interview as the one I recorded with “Art & Story“.

My portion starts at the 10-minute mark, so skip the exposition at the front, if you’d like. Here are some of the topics we covered in the chat:

– How do I create “Sheldon”?

– What’s the point of the strip? Why do I do it?

– What’s more important in cartooning: The art or the writing?

– How does an artist piece together their “style”?

– What’s the tone of “Sheldon”? Optimistic toward the world? Cynical?

– Looking at how Arthur Conan Doyle originally composed “Sherlock Holmes” in episodic updates, what can we learn for longer-form comics online?

– Why did I/we write “How To Make Webcomics”?

In the cartooning and illustration worlds, few sites have generated as much respect for their links and reviews as “Drawn”. Even Time magazine ranked it among its “50 Coolest Websites” list.

So I was really chuffed when “Drawn” put up a nice writeup of “How to Make Webcomics”. You can check out their write-up here.

After a week or so away from any computer larger than my phone, I’m back to work and catching up!

There are a few bits of fun news to report in the next few days, but that’ll have to wait until I catch up on a few dozen admin things, and a massively clogged inbox. 🙂

In the meantime, thanks for all your posts and e-mails on the recent Oso storyline. It was a fun change of pace for me, and I’m glad to see you guys enjoyed it!

Because he’s not particularly good with The King’s English, Oso’s adventure tale will be a completely non-verbal story. Which, unless I’m mistaken, I’ve never tried before. I hope you won’t mind me experimenting with something different…it’s fun to stretch the ol’ wings from time to time.

Anyway, each strip in this 8-day arc will be a double-sized strip…with a little more background detail than normal, to help pick up the communication when words are absent.

Lookin’ at them all spread out on my drawing desk, I think they came out pretty neat — I hope you enjoy ’em!

Also, just a head’s up: I’ll be away from the inna’net for the next 5-8 days, so please forgive me if I don’t get back to your e-mails for a while. As soon as I can, I’ll be responding to each and every one…as I always do!

Fun news for every Sheldonista who missed their chance on this Original Art: today’s your day to snag the Original Art for the Pancake-Eatin’-Extravaganza Splash Page in the “Good Luck, Baby Duck” storyline!

This drawing was an exclusive for “A Blizzard of Lizards” — flip to page 125 and you’ll see all cool little drawn details in the pic. Then head on over and throw your hat into the ring… here.

I love it when I really get a chance to *draw*…to stretch out, take my time and enjoy all the little nooks an crannies of a drawing. This drawing was definitely one of those times. Here, let me show you some close-ups:

For whoever ends up getting the drawing, I’m also going to add in the original pencil sketch for the splash-page, like so:

So, if you want a little slice of pancake awesomeness, swing on over!

This elephant is kinda awesome. If I didn’t think he was “trained” somehow to recreate this shape again and again…I’d be even more amazed.

I doubt, though, that elephants have the ability to think abstractly about themselves dancing with flowers… yes? Is that a safe assumption? I mean, I know dolphins and some monkeys have enough sense of “selfhood” to identify themselves in a mirror, but can an elephant independently abstract what “elephantness” looks like, recreate it in lineart, and give it a flower for good artistic flourish…all on his own? Surely this is just a trained set of actions.

If you’re an animal behavioralist who knows of such things, by all means, chime in below!

Regardless…pretty cool elephant. An awesome fella to have around at parties, I’d imagine. “Hey, Tumbaala, come show my friends your version of Whistler’s Mother”.

I’ve made fun of the look and feel of Australian money before…so I wanted to give all my Aussie friends a gutting comeback they can use against an uppity American cartoonist.

If I start making fun of the Australian Dollar too much, just point to any currency converter and say “Oh yeah? Well unlike the American Dollar, ours can still buy stuff.”

Zam! Topical monetary humor!

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Also: I’m sure there are goofier Australian Dollar designs than the one I picked…What’s generally considered to be the goofiest Australian bill in the last 15 years?