My buddy Katherine and I, in preparation for the next Sheldon book cover, have been poking around 1950’s advertising, looking for inspiration. And today, I’m quite sure that Katherine has uncovered the most disturbing advertisement that the 1950’s ever produced.

Without further ado, I present to you THE WEIRDEST 7-UP AD EVER:

Items of interest:

– That baby is not only drinking 7-Up, he is chugging that bottle whole hog.

– Closer examination of the 7-Up bottle in the foreground reveals a coagulated mass of green ooze floating in the center. (Original formula, perhaps?)

– There is, for reasons unknown, a tiny little lamb in the ad. Perhaps to underscore that down-home, lamb-shank flavor in every delicious bottle of 7-Up.

– Apparently, at one point, the tagline “Nothing does it like Seven-Up!” was considered fantastically persuasive.

– And finally — and most importantly — there can no longer be any doubt as to why we Americans are fat. OUR PARENTS WERE FEEDING US 7-UP AT TWELVE MONTHS, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!

(If you’re interested in seeing more like this, head over to adclassix.com — they’ve got some great stuff.)

The Coffee Cup Challenge got in the way before I could finish off the Star Wars storyline. And so, strange though it may be to head back to that storyline on Easter, back we go!

(By the way, George Lucas was incredibly fun to draw.)

Take a moment in the Sheldon archives, won’t you, and vote for your favorite Easter moment. My vote is for #1. I love seeing 6’3″ dudes on Easter Sunday in powder blue suits with pink ties.

When two comic strips compete to see who can get the most humor out of coffee cup lids, doesn’t everyone win?

A hearty handshake to the lads at Unshelved for the week of silly revelry. It was good fun. I honestly don’t think I ever would have ventured into 1950’s propaganda films without the desperate need to find something funny about lids.

If you haven’t done so already, bookmark Unshelved, or sign up for their free, daily, ad-free e-mail deliveryof the strip. I highly recommend it.

I’m going back to the well and revisiting Crotchley Labs for a second day. I had too much fun to do it just once.

There’s something so wonderfully absurb about 1950’s short-film propaganda. They pretty much consisted of what I like to call the three “B’s”: “Build it! Buy It! And beat back the Reds!”

***

On a different note, a doff of the cap to Unshelved for Wednesday’s toon. That’s been my favorite of theirs thus far.

Working within the contest’s confines of “Create something funny about coffee cup lids”, today’s is my favorite strip so far.

Just for the sheer randomness of it.

(Plus, I’ve always thought that the line “Building a better tomorrow…today!” is the single greatest piece of cheesy copy ever written. The 1950’s copywriter who first thought of that phrase must have known, on that grand day, that their career would never, ever top that.)

Since the site launched in November, we’ve gained a few thousand new readers. And with all the new Unshelved readers dropping by these past few days (…you guys will like this strip, by the way), now is a good time to review some of the cool site features:

For new readers, I’ve tried to put together a Welcome Page to introduce you to the strip. Check that out first.

Then, when you’re ready to start reading the archives, use the back/forward arrows in the blue box underneath the strip; or click the Archives button for a wider calendar selection; or click the Random button to jump randomly into the archives. (It’s pretty fun.)

The blue navigation bar also lets you purchase the original art for that day’s strip with one click. Any strip that doesn’t display the word “Purchased” is available for sale.

After you’ve read through some of the archives, you may want to check out the Extras page, with a bunch of fun, additional stuff to see.

And of course, at any time you can drop by the ol’ Sheldon forum to talk about the day’s strip or say hi to other readers from around the world.

If you’d like to sign up for free delivery of the strip to your e-mail, use the yellow post-it note underneath the strip, or click Here.

Prefer to get the strip by RSS? We have that, as well.

Want to send a particular strip to a friend? Just type in their e-mail address in the grey napkin underneath that strip…and off it goes!

And of course, down the line you’ll want to pick up the Sheldon book collections at the Store. They make every reader 36.5% better looking, which is awesome.

So welcome! Enjoy the strip! And help yourself to some lemonade!

And if you have any questions or comments, drop me drop me a line personally. Thanks!

There’s only one day left in the Rex Chestington auction, if’n you were interested.

I just wanted to extend a huge thanks on behalf of myself and the Blank Label Comics crew to Jim Demonakos and the folks at ECCC. The convention was top-notch — and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Whenever they’d like to invite me again, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.

Even bigger thanks to all the Sheldon readers who came out to say “Hi”. In addition to all the Seattlites (Satellites? Seattlerons? sp?), we had folks from Oregon, Canada, and even three separate Aussies! You guys made my day. Also: I forgot to bring my camera…so if you’re a Sheldon reader who took some photos (and many of you did), forward them along, as I’d love to see them. And if you don’t mind them being shared, I’ll post them up for everyone to see. Thanks!

And so it begins! Today is day one in trying to find six days of funny out of a thin, circular piece of plastic!

If you remember, the lads behind Unshelved threw down the gauntlet a few weeks back, challenging me to a one-week duel of comics…where the topic is the mundane, unfunny, thoroughly boring coffee cup lid. And today the battle royale starts!

And you! You will be able to tell your grandchildren you were there, at “The Great Coffee Cup Lid Challenge”! You were among the throngs that watched as two comic strips tried desperately (emphasis on desperately) to find something funny to say about plastic coffee cup lids! You were among those who paraded the victor through the streets, like the ancient Roman Triumphs of old! And you were there as the mob proceeded to sack the home of the losing cartoonist, taking all of their moderately-priced furniture for their own!

So make sure you add Unshelved to your daily reading list…then sit back and enjoy the show.

(Sidenote: I highly suspect that, by day six, we’ll both be dipping into old Vaudeville jokes about seltzer water, desperately looking for anything funny to say about coffee cup lids).