Sheldonista Tom M. sent me this YouTube link, and it absolutely blew me away. You have to listen to this Australian Lyre Bird.

As a mating tool, he mimics the sounds he hears around him. “Not so amazing,” you might be saying. But…around the two-minute point in the video, you’ll see just how amazing that mimickry is.

This bird is stone-cold awesome.

For all of you who pre-ordered the new book, How To Make Webcomics (…and there are a LOT of you! Thank you!), I come bearing good news! Image Comics just informed us that the in-store date for the book is March 12th!

If you pre-ordered your book from the Sheldon Store, that means we should be able to start shipping them out on the 13th!

Huzzah! Huzzah, I say!

The orders with an Artist Edition will ship out 1-to-2 days later — only because it takes time to put an awesome sketch in everyone’s book.

I have very high hopes for this book impacting cartoonists young and old…so I can’t wait for it to get out into the world. If you have an artist in your life who you think might like it, pick up a copy!*

*P.S. We’re going to try to put together a PDF of the first 20 pages or so, to show you what the book is like. Look for that in a few days.

A big heads-up for Sheldonistas living in Southern California: the big LA comics show Wizard World Los Angeles is just around the corner… March 14-16!

I’ll be signing and selling books and t-shirts…and giving out free sketches like a madman. There will even be original Sheldon strips for $25 off — only at the show!*

So drop by! Say hi! Get a free sketch! And make sure you ask for your 2008 Commemorative Wizard World High-Five: I’m only bringing 98!

I’ll be at table 2820 in the special Artist Alley section all three days. Come on out!

*If you want to make sure I bring the specific original that you’ve had your eye on, e-mail me. Thanks! See you there!

To answer a few questions that came up…. the “Portland” in the list of Top 10 U.S. Sheldon cities was Oregon! My apologies to Portland, Maine, for getting your hopes up.

Also, we had a lot of Aussies (Oy! Oy! Oy!) write in asking for their list, so here goes: The Top 10 Australian cities for Sheldon readers…

1.) Sydney

2.) Melbourne

3.) Brisbane

4.) Perth

5.) Adelaide

6.) Canberra

7.) Cranbourne

8.) Hobart

9.) Gold Coast

10.) A small family of koalas who live by that one town with that creek that dries up a few months every year. You know the one. With the guy? Who has that blue truck? That one.

Fun fact for me: I was not aware that there was a city called “Gold Coast” in Australia! I’ve always associated that name with a cruddy Las Vegas casino built in the 1960’s…containing the same carpets that were installed in the original construction. My apologies to the Gold Coastians in Queensland! I’m sure your Gold Coast is far, far nicer!*

Also, follow-up question: Would it be “Gold Coastians”? Is that how you say it? “Gold Coastines”? “Gold Coastinians”…?

For everyone who had asked:

After they had unexpectedly sold out, we now have XL and 2XL ladies “Lucky Duck” t-shirts, once again!

Sunday’s strip took a few liberties with Emily Dickinson’s famous “hash-mark” punctuation. I felt bad about that, and started to think of how I would apologize to her, were she alive today. Referencing the wonderful caricature of her I’ve created in my mind, here’s how I think it would go down:

Me: (Knocking at her front door with “I’m sorry” brownies in hand) Miss Dickinson? Hello? My name’s Dave. I wanted to apologize for —

Her: G’WAY! GET OFF MY LAWN!

Me: But I —

Her: G’WON! SCOOT!

Me: But —

Her: DON’T MAKE ME COME OUTSIDE! ‘CAUSE I’LL DO IT! EVEN THOUGH IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKS!

Me: (Walking away from her front door) Um, OK.

Her: (Immediately composing her next poem) “Death’s dear-dark hand was at my door….etc, etc”

———-

Also! A fun fact I wasn’t aware of: Thirty or so Sheldonistas dropped me a note to let me know that every Emily Dickinson poem can be sung to “Yellow Rose of Texas”. Rad! I think we can all feel pretty sure that was her authorial intent! Try it with Sunday’s strip!

It’s time again to check in and see where Sheldon readers are coming from! About 65% of Sheldonistas are from the U.S., 10% are from Canada, 15% are from Europe (1/3 of which are from the UK and Ireland) and the final 10% are from all over the map (but big turnouts from Australia and NZ). Here are some fun breakdowns:

Top 10 U.S. Cities:

1.) Seattle (by a 15% margin)

2.) New York

3.) Chicago

4.) San Fran

5.) Minneapolis (!)

6.) Portland

7.) LA

8.) Washington, DC

9.) Denver

10.) Austin

Top 10 European Cities:

1.) London (by a huge margin)

2.) Helsinki

3.) Frankfurt

4.) Berlin

5.) Munich (Man! Germany in the house!)

6.) Edinburgh

7.) Amsterdam

8.) Dublin

9.) Paris

10.) Brussels

Top 10 Canadian Cities:

1.) Vancouver

2.) Edmonton

3.) Calgary

4.) Ottawa

5.) Montreal

6.) Winnipeg

7.) Toronto (…big drop-off after Toronto)

8.) Kitchener

9.) Mississuaga

10.) Saskatoon

Ever since I did the ol’ switcheroo to Apple a few years back, I’ve really been enjoying John Gruber’s info-licious blog, Daring Fireball.

In addition to being an immensely nice guy (John and I spoke on a panel together at the “South by Southwest” conference a few years back), John is the master at finding useful and interesting Apple tidbits that no one else does. And then he adds a really insightful, funny commentary on top, like a whip cream of awesomeness.

If you’re a Mac lover, check out John’s work over at Daring Fireball.

I particularly like that Arthur’s first Facebook activity was to throw a frog at someone. Seems appropriate, somehow.

Sheldonista Stacey G. sent me a really nice e-mail from Facebook headquarters, this morning. Today’s Sheldon strip is already up at Facebook…next to some hallway artwork:

So, I’m in the process of filming a “How I Make Sheldon” video to show you guys, right? And I borrow two digital cameras from friends, and set them up on either side of my drawing-desk chair, right? ‘Cause that’ll be fancy, and will allow me to edit back and forth in those moments when my hands are blocking what’s being drawn, right?

Awesome. Great idea. Let’s do it.

So I set the two cameras up, and test them both to make sure the POVs are clear and the tapes recording well…and then sit down to begin making a Sheldon toon.

And two hours later, when I’m done with the toon, I stand up to check the recording…and it’s two hours of the back of my head. IN BOTH CAMERAS. Sure, I had tested the cameras before I started, but I forgot to test them when I was in my “drawing posture,” which of course is gonna have a forward lean to it.

So, yeah. Awesome. A collective four hours of the back of my head. Well done, Captain Brilliant. Film School, here I come!