“News-Free Comics” collects Sheldon and lots of other great strips into one “news-free” monthly newsprint collection.
I’m not involved with it’s production or sale, but I thought I’d mention it for the Sheldonistas that might be interested.
– California, Texas, New York, and Washington have the biggest Sheldon readerships by state.
– Sheldon does really well in the UK. Mostly in the greater Londonopolis area.
– Not a lot of love from France. (…clearly, these strips continue to haunt me with “La bande dessinée” readers: #1, #2, #3.)
– Germany, however, has a bigger readership than 80% of US states. Mostly from Frankfurt and Munich. Who would’ve guessed?
– A surprisingly large showing from Sweden. Given my love for IKEA’s meatballs, this brings special joy to my heart!
– Big Sheldon readerships in Toronto and Vancouver.
– The southeast coast of Australia is a little hub of Sheldonistas, with big showings in Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney.
These little geographical tidbits will help me plan out what future comics conventions I’ll be coming to in 2008.
In fact, I can already announce one conclusion for my 2008 travel plans! South Dakota, you’re out. I’d love to see Mount Rushmore again, but I’m sorry…it’s just not working out between you and I.
Today’s candidate was a store sign that said “DOUGHNUTS & CHINESE FAST FOOD!”
H…how? …wha? Who EVER craves those two things together?
Even weirder: imagine what the standard order is in a place like that:
“Uh, yeah…gimme two jelly-filled, a glazed, six with sprinkles…and, heck, throw some Moo Goo Gai Pan in there.”
[EDIT: I have to post this image sent in by Sheldonista Aaron B. It’s even funnier than the one I saw. Donuts, Chinese Food, and Liquor! It’s, like, the exact three things that I’ve never wanted to eat together…combined into one superstore!
2.) Regarding Friday’s strip: Have you ever noticed that people that go Lincoln…never go back? You can’t just buy one Lincoln biography, apparently. It’s like an overpowering addiction to re-read well-crafted speeches and debates…again and again and again and again. I wonder what Lincoln would make of it all, were he to see the publishing industry that’s risen up around his legacy?
“Whoa, whoa, people. Easy. Seriously. Another book about my formative years in the House of Representatives? Really? I think we need to take a chill-pill, here…maybe write about Taft for a while.”
That’s Lincoln, in my head. He says “chill-pill”.
3.) Another song recommendation for those interested in such things: “Take These Thoughts”, by Chris and Thomas. If you download this song, listen to it, and then decide you don’t like it…then you and I must fight.
3.) Anti-Matter
5.) The Secret Klingons in Star Wars
6.) And my absolute favorite… …WWAKD?, WWAKD?, part 2, and WWAKD?, part 3.
For TV sci-fi, you often see writers creating a monolithic culture just for expediency alone. So you end up with cultures defined by one or two attributes that are the key. The Borg “will assimiliate you”, the Klingons seek honor in battle, the Ferengi are always looking for profit, etc., etc. It works great in the hour format, ’cause you instantly know what you’re dealing with…and the story can move along.
But if you’re a true nerd, you start to wonder about the Klingon who’s really into accounting, or the Ferengi who wishes his parents would get off his back and let him do regional theater for a few years. And that’s where the current story arc came from: the idea of a Klingon that just wanted to stitch up a fabulous three-piece suit that accentuated the shoulders…made me laugh.
(Which of course led me to Wednesday’s brief appearance by “Torvak: Vulcan Party Planner”. I am so infinitely happy with how his facial expression came out. Look at him! That’s a Vulcan that’s ready to throw an awesome party. It makes me laugh just to look at him.)
Also! Thanks to Sheldon-guest-editor and even-larger-Star Trek-nerd Gary Tyrrell over at Fleen, who informs me that I spelled Stovorkor wrong. I found, like, 19 different spellings for it online…but Lord knows Gary probably has a compendium of Klingon theological works by his bedside to which he can refer. 🙂
Made me think of this Sheldon toon.
2.) Those of you who get the Sheldon newsletter saw this news weeks ago, but now it’s time to share it with the world! I’m talking about the cover for the third Sheldon book, “62% More Awesome”:
[Click here for a bigger image]
The cover was designed by my buddy Katherine, and has a slightly scuffed-up 1950’s-poster theme…kinda like those “Pan Am Airlines: Flying you to tomorrow, today!” posters. Hope you like it as much as I do!
The book itself features every strip since the last book, plus some strips that we couldn’t fit into “The Good, The Bad & The Pugly”. It includes the “Coffee-Cup Lid Challenge” strips between the boys at Unshelved and I….aaaand, it features the Flaco-in-Space Saturday Storyline — in an expanded format and with material not seen online! This book really does live up to it’s name.
Copies should (fingers crossed) be available at San Diego Comic-Con, so it’s another incentive to come on down to San Diego. Online, the books will go on sale first to newsletter subscribers in the next few weeks as “pre-sales”. This is mainly so that they get first crack at the limited edition Artit’s Editions. But there’s nothing stopping you from getting the free newsletter as well, so sign on up!
3.) I signed up for Facebook, which I’m already enjoying far more than Myspace. If you wanna be super best-buds on Facebook, drop me a friend request. (But make sure you mention Sheldon in your request, or I won’t know who you are.)
2.) Back-to-back episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” tonight and next week (CBS – Mondays 9:30) were written by my talented wife! Tune in!
Tonight’s episode is especially fun, as it involves the daytime game show “Price is Right” — a show which holds a special place in my heart. No other show so effectively taught me how to price out dish soap as a way to better my life than did “Price is Right”.
When they were filming the episode, I was workin’ at the ol’ Sheldon studio with my buddy and fellow cartoonist Kris Straub. My wife suddenly called and says, “You have to get down here to CBS — this is awesome.” So Kris and I jumped in the car and raced down to Television City, and were instantly transported into the high-color-saturated world of 1973 “Price is Right” sets.
And she was right: it was awesome. The prop pieces, the games, and the sets were all clearly put together in 1951 using WWII surplus supplies and cans of bright orange paint. We were like giddy schoolkids — who hasn’t watched 10,000 episodes of “Price is Right” at one point in their lives?
Anyway, we took a few pics of the ensuing silliness… so I thought I’d share.
3.) Also: I recognize that recommending music is like being the annoying guy at the table with a fork full of weird-smelling food saying “Try it! Try it!”, but you have got to download “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s. Just a beautiful song.
Please, take a minute and e-mail 10 friends, family, or co-workers…asking them to try Sheldon at https://sheldoncomics.com. You’ll know immediately what people in your life to send it to: they’ll be the awesome ones.
It’s such a simple action…but sending that e-mail is the nicest thing you can do for this li’l cartoonist. And, you’ll have new Sheldon readers to talk over the strip with!
(To make it easy, here’s a basic e-mail you can modify and send. Just click here.)
I’m looking forward to this one. I hope you’ll tune in.
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