On behalf of Sheldon readers worldwide, two pieces of Sheldon original art were sent off today to Germany and Canada, in thanks for the over-the-top work put in by Shalaina and Toby. These crime-fighting action squad Grammarians, between the two of them, edited over 1500 strips, and transcribed countless more.

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.

One thing I love about “Sheldon” is that it allows me to make Shakespeare jokes one week, and Apatosaurus/Pokemon jokes the next. You ain’t gettin’ that in your daily “Cathy”!

Speaking of Pokemon, this isn’t the first time the strip has commented on Pokemon’s weird Japanese/English contraction names. Check out this earlier strip.

1.) Don’t forget! The “62% More Awesome” book party is this Sunday, 7-10PM, at the ultra-cool lounge in The Crescent Hotel, Beverly Hills. Free signature drinks from PINK Vodka and Vitamin Water, free sketches, and free, lasting friendship!* Check out how cool this place is: Go to their website, and click “photos”. Come on out!

2.) We are cresting the hill on strip transcriptions: only 300 more strips need final approval, and we’re done with the archives! Woo-hoo!

3.) I have not forgotten about my San Diego Con report! It’s a-comin’! I promise! Stuff with the new book has kept me powerful busy.

4.) I love sayin’ stuff like “powerful busy”. I feel like a 1840’s prospector in the California Goldrush. And that’s a powerful good feelin’.

*True.

A Sheldonista bought the Original Art for a 2005 strip….and when I pulled it out of the art archives, it was like reading a strip I hadn’t drawn. I have no memory of it.

Anyway, I thought I’d share it with you, as it cracked me up to re-read it. I love it when the photographer says “Eünt you brought a little duck…vot a statement!”

Good work, Dave from two years ago! Dave of today had completely forgotten you had drawn this!

Do you remember the project we started about 9 months ago? The one to transcribe all 1900 Sheldon comic strips, so that you could search for your favorite strip…just by typing in a word, a description, or a scrap of dialogue?

Well, I’m happy to report that we’re very, very close to that final goal. As of now, all 1900 archived strips have all been transcibed! And of those, 1430 have been edited and approved by the official Sheldon editors — the crime-fighting action squad “The Grammarians” — and put into the system.

Special, HUGE thanks go to two Grammarians, Shalaina and Toby, who have so far edited 760 and 540 strips, respectively. They have gone above and beyond in the project, and I’ll be sending them both a Sheldon Original Strip of their choosing, as a thank you from all of us.

In the meantime, why not test out the fruits of their labor? Go to the Archives Search page, type in a word like “awesome” or “Klingon” or “jazz hands” or “Winston Churchill”, and see how many strips come up! Even with 500 strips left to go, the system works really well!

Time for another installment of our Saturday-Only Storyline! For those followin’ along, here are the previous installments: 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

After literally hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, we’ve gone ahead and added shirts and buttons to the Sheldon Store! Huzzah!

(The new book will be going on sale in a few days, though — so you may want to save on shipping by waiting to order your book/shirt/buttons all at once. No need to spend more money on shipping than you need to.)

Have you heard of the PBS show Roadtrip Nation? The concept is pretty fun: they put three college students on the road across America, and ask them to interview artists and entrepreneurs, musicians and leaders…to find out how they got to their ideal career…to see how they found their calling in life…how they pursued their dreams…and what failures and successes they found along the way.

Well, tonight…Roadtrip Nation pulled up to the ol’ Sheldon studio, and I had a great time with the interview. We laughed a lot…and hopefully I had a few useful tidbits to help students find their dream career. But maybe not: I did a section of the interview in a jokey Thurston Howell voice from Gilligan’s Island, so that part’s probably unusable on national TV.

I’ll give you the heads up in Fall when the segment is up, but for now, here’s a shot of me at my drawing desk with the awesome, awesome interviewers who dropped by. Thank you guys for the laughter-filled night!

Also! Today’s strip is the start of a few days of Shakespeare jokes. After Sunday’s motorcycle strip, I hope you’ll indulge me in a little literary humor.

But an idea popped into my head tonight – actually, during the interview – that struck me as funny: every time Discovery Channel does their “Shark Week”, I think I’m gonna do a “Shakespeare Week” of comics. And the logo could be a Jaws-esque Bard swimmin’ to the surface.

Today we resume with our Saturday-Only Storyline! For those followin’ along, here are the previous installments: 1, 2, 3, 4,, 5, and 6.

1.) My Con recap, with pics, is still a-comin’! I haven’t forgotten!

2.) After many, many hundreds of e-mails from folks, I’ve decided the shirts and buttons will go for sale up on the site. We sold through darn near all of ’em, though, so it’s gonna take me a little bit to get them on the site. I’ll try to time it for when the new book goes on sale.

3.) Speaking of which! The new book! Will be for sale! On the site! In just a little bit! And! Clearly! I’ve developed! Some terrible! Exclamation-based disease!

I’m currently putting 250 awesome sketches into 250 awesome Artist Editions, and then the whole shebang will go onsale. Time for me to get crack-a-lackin’!

And remember: folks who have signed up for the Sheldon newsletter get first crack at those 250 copies. (If you’re subscribed to the Sheldon-by-Email service, you also get the newsletter.)