I thought I was bein’ all clever with my reference to the Spanish Flu Pandemic from the early-20th century…and then I go and call it the “1911 Spanish Flu”.
As dozens of historians have reminded me by e-mail, it actually reached it’s height in 1918.
And thus, I once again learn that cartooning is the art of making 50,000 people laugh and enjoy themselves…and making 50 people kick into OCD-mode over their particular area of specialization.
🙂
Unlike past Unshelved books, this excellent collection of strips features 100% more book introductions by me! (…which, to be frank, probably lessens the book somewhat.)
You remember Unshelved, of course, from the now-infamous Sheldon/Unshelved “Coffee Cup Lid Challenge”! Well, here’s your chance to dive into the Unshelved world! Pick up a copy, and see why tens of thousands of folks follow the strip every day. Snag your copy over at the Unshelved store.
Over the summer, I had a few college readers ask me if and how Sheldon could be in their college paper… so now is probably a good time to follow up on that:
To get Sheldon in your college paper, just e-mail your head editor or features editor and request they add it in. Having your friends join in on the chorus will undoubtedly help: editors can be swayed just like any other human being. And, you can seal the deal with this: unlike professional publications, I give Sheldon to college papers for free. Because, c’mon, it’s not like your college paper is swimmin’ in funding.
Just have them e-mail me to get set up with a login to grab high-res versions of the daily strip.
2.) My favorite part about Sunday’s strip? Sheldon collapsing on Legos. Speaking as someone who worked at Mattel for 8 years, I can tell you that Legos are probably the most amazing toy of the 20th Century. They will still be around long after Barbie, Hot Wheels, Cabbage Patch, and Transformers are gone. But if you’ve ever stepped on one of those puppies while barefoot — it makes you want to curse the great nation of Denmark from which they sprung.
Legos: really awesome toy…really unthinkably painful to step on.
The Book Launch Party on Sunday night was a huge success — in large part due to the hundreds of Sheldonistas who came out and exchanged mighty, awe-inspiring high-fives. Make sure you check out the pics in the new Sheldon Photo Album.Also! And more importantly! Copies of “62% More Awesome” are now officially on sale in the Sheldon Store! Pick up your copy (…or one of the 20 remaining Artist Edition copies) at the store!
2.) Sunday’s book party was fantastic. I’ll be putting up a full write-up with pics later today…but for now: fantastic. We had 150-to-200 people show up over the course of the night — including two Sheldonistas who drove two hours to get there! Good times!
3.) Happy Leaf Studios has created another awesome video from the Saturday-only Storyline strips. Check it out, here: here!
4.) The Sheldon transcription project has officially completed! Woo-hoo! All the archives are transcribed and entered — which means you can search for your favorite strips using word snippets, phrases, or favorite punchlines. Give it a try, here. (…points for the first person to e-mail me with the funniest search and/or search result.)
Whoever is lucky enough to get the last copy gets an extra-special sketch of awesomeness inside.
2.) Regular editions of “62%” will be available in the store next week, after the book launch party.
3.) Regarding orders from the Sheldon Store: some readers have noted that I’ve been refunding excess shipping fees after we’ve shipped their order out.
The goal, for me, is to charge folks *exactly* what it costs us to ship…and no more. Shipping can be expensive enough as it is — and nothing gets me more ticked than when an online store or an eBay seller tries to make their shipping fees a profit center. I always shake an impotent fist at those people.
The Sheldon Store has some automatic shipping algorithms in place that try to apply the right shipping costs to your order, and they’re pretty accurate, 95% of the time. But whenever a reader was charged more than was needed, or whenever we spot a shipping efficiency that the computer missed, the excess gets refunded. It’s the right thing to do.
4.) Also! As a final note for today….I really like Flaco’s little T-Rex arms in today’s strip. Something about that just made me chuckle to draw.
For their thank-you gifts, Shalaina picked this piece of original art, and Toby picked this one. Good choices, I think!
So, with thanks from Sheldonistas everywhere, I hope you two enjoy these Sheldons framed up on your wall!
And for everyone else…check it out! With just 200 strips left to go, the searchable database of Sheldon toons is runnin’ like butter! Like butter, I tells you! Type in a few words to search for your favorite strip, and BAM, that baby is up on your screen.
