Now that four or five hundred Glornak stickers have made their way into the world, I’m anxious to hear: Anyone had a good response to them, yet? My guess is that, like most bumper stickers, you wouldn’t actually *hear* from the folks who you cracked up… but it’d be fun to see!

Post below if you’ve had a response from friends, family, or strangers!

California is voting today… and my wife and I always get a goofy grin when we go to our polling place.

In the past, our voting places have included fire houses, public gyms, synagogues, churches, and warehouses… but our current one takes the cake: It’s the living room of this sweet little old couple. And when I say “sweet little old couple,” I mean sweet little old couple. It’s like walking in to your grandma’s house to go vote. “Okay, dear, here’s your ballot. And stand up straight and tall when you vote — this is a wonderful thing you’re doing, remember! And here’s a cookie.”

All voting should be like that: Accompanied by sweet grandmothers.

What’s the best/worst/weirdest polling place you’ve ever had?

I had the huge pleasure of guest speaking at Loyola Marymount University the other day… and it got me reinvigorated on an old goal of mine: Teaching cartooning at the university level.

The Director of LMU’s Small Business Development Center asked me to come over and talk to his upper-level business class, and it was a blast. I gave a short, 10 minute presentation on how artists like myself are able to make a living online — sans mediation from publishers, syndicates, distributors, etc. — and it evolved into a 50-minute-long, rapid-fire Q&A session with the students. Needless to say… I loved it.

When we were done, the Director stood up and gave me one the nicest compliments I think I’ve ever received. He said that, in the “ten or so years of inviting people in to talk, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Q&A session last that long, or with that much energy.” Which is great by me. I absolutely swam in the back-and-forth with the students.

But now it has me all fired up to start teachin’. See, back when I was pursuing my two graduate degrees in cartooning… I did so with the hope-beyond-hope that I could one day not only draw as a cartoonist, but also teach as a cartoonist. And the energy of this guest talk got that all stirred up again.

So, a huge ‘thank you’ to the students for a great Q&A… and know that you stinkers have me looking for my academic resume on my hard drive, now. 🙂

I’ve been trying out a beautiful Japanese brush for some inkwork these last few days. The resulting linework is not in the comic yet, as I want to tame it a little better than I have thus far (…brushwork can be tricky to control with ink).

Anyway, as I’m drawing with the brush today, my nose starts itching. Absent-mindedly, I go up to scratch it…without even thinking of the brush still in that drawing hand.

Three-inch swipe of India Ink across my forehead.

…A proud moment.

Gramp’s litte outburst today got some great e-mail responses — thank you for those. It’s one of those phrases that fits into the “non-sequitorial bon mot” category. Or, to put it better: “Weird outbursts that are funny just for sheer randomness.”

Thus far, I think Arthur has my favorite weird outburst in this lemony exclamation.

Heads up, original art collectors: The auction for the cover art is almost done. Just a day or so more to get in your bid!

This is the original art for the cover of the fourth Sheldon book, “A Blizzard of Lizards.” It’s drawn in lightfast, archival inks on heavy, acid-free, Bristol vellum stock. The cardstock itself measures 11″ x 14″, while the drawn image is roughly 10″ x 10″.

The auction also includes a bonus concept sketch of the cover…created with pencil on a separate piece of non-archival artist’s paper.

Head on over: Time is almost up!

Whoa! I just noticed there are only five copies left of the “Pure Ducky Goodness” Artist Edition over at the the Sheldon Store!

Included in these last five copies is the much-desired #250, which features the patented super-mega-awesome-sketch-9000. Every Artist Edition sketch is awesome, but #250 always is super-mega-awesome-9000.

If you’re just starting your Sheldon collection, a particularly good option is to go for the Four Pack, including an Artist Edition.

Your sample year-end reviews at a corporation always fall along the lines of “Great job landing the Johnson account,” “Increased after-tax earnings by 12%.”

I’d love to see that Societe Generale end-of-year review: “Sorta maybe kinda lost 7 billion dollars. But is *totally* gonna make up for it next year. Totally promises to work weekends and stuff.”

I had a great night of gameplay tonight, trying out the German boardgame “Settlers of Catan” for the first time. Jorge, Amy, and Kazu took my wife and I through the gameplay, and it lasted long, long into the night. What a great game: I highly recommend it, and will be picking up my own copy, post haste.

The only reason I mention it is that Sunday’s strip hadn’t been put up on the server before venturing over to Jorge’s house — whoops — so it’s going live a little later than normal. My apologies for the late-night update. 🙂

Also, I have to give a doff of the cap for today’s strip to my friend Joey Aucoin. The concept for today’s strip is an ol’ chestnut that I’ve laughed at for years with Joey. He’s honed it into a much finer bit than I could ever express… but I wanted to draw it up for him as a late birthday gift.

Today must be my day to recommend good cartooning. I had some spare time this morning to catch up on some reading, and it’s put me in the mood to share great work you may not have seen.

So here’s a recommendation that Philadelphians (and a whole host of non-Philadelphians!) are sure to love: “Phables.”

Created weekly by my very good friend Brad Guigar, each installment of “Phables” is a wonderfullly drawn and intimately told tale of Philadelphia, with expansive, beautiful linework and heartwarming tales that earned it a nomination for cartooning’s Eisner Award. I’ve never lived in Philly, myself, and I love it. I know you will, too.

Here’s one of many great ones: Look at that linework!