I really wanna bring back the free-to-listen-to DRIVE podcast, answering readers’ questions that they’ve left on our voicemail — about the strip, the characters, the story, or anything DRIVE-related!

We’re less than $250 away from that goal on Patreon, so we’re going to record our first “test” episode: And we need your questions!

Call 1(650) 550-VINN — free VOIP calls are fine by us — and leave any question you’d like about DRIVE.

Thanks!

(And if you waant to help the podcast get here faster? Become a DRIVE “Patron of the Arts” here, for a buck or two a month on Patreon!)

For fun, thought I’d share the timeline of the story so far!

I think I got everything… but if there are any dates mentioned/implied in the strip that I’ve left out, do let me know!

—-

1870 First Veetan ships begin venturing into space
1980 Renegade pre-Maker’s ship has catastrophic accident and begins drifting through space
2081 Veetan ship comes into contact with a Continuum ship. No conflict noted.
2258 Conrado finds the Continuum ship in Spain
2273 First human contact with Veetans. Establishment of the Veetan/Human alliance.
2289 Emperor Pablo (“the Great”) dies
2290 Emperor Osvaldo begins his reign. Jinyiwei established. Nuevo Chile banned from the Empire.
2291 First human contact with Tesskans/Fillipods. There are skirmishes in and around Tesskil, but it mostly ends there for the Empire… as it will take Tesskans 80 years to get to Earth.
2331 First human contact with The Vinn
2332-2334 Human-Vinn War. Ends in unstated armistice, with the introduction of the Daisy Cutter weapon into the war.
2350 “The Rebellion” begins in Las Hermanitas (the three outer colonies)
2365 The Tres Primos begin their campaign against the Empire
2379 The first Tesskan near-light-drive ships begin entering human space
2380-2383 Human-Tesskan War. Ends one week after the Veetans entered the war.
2384 First Imperial contact with the Continuum
2384 Machito re-christened as a military scout ship
2386 Taneel takes command of the huge battle cruiser Sevillana. She is promoted from Captain to Ship-of-the-line Captain (capitán de navío)
2392-2398 Nosh stuck in Moscow
2398-9 Nosh joins Captain Taneel’s crew
2400 Fernando joins Captain Taneel’s crew
2401 Emperor Manuel Jose Cruz murdered. Nosh taken into custody. Captain Taneel relieved of command of Sevillana. Skitter wakes up in prison.

The drivecomic.com site just had a minor refresh of links/navigation: If you notice anything broken as you click around, please let me know! Thanks!

I wanted to take a second to thank the 344 readers who have supported Sheldon on Patreon.

Your financial support has already allowed me to take 3 of the existing 4 advertising slots off the site — which is great. Plus, you’re directly supporting art you enjoy, which is a wonderful and kind thing to do. So thank you, one and all!

And if you’ve enjoyed Sheldon over the years, please consider becoming a patron of the arts, and support the strip HERE!

Here’s the video to explain Patreon:

I just wanted to thank the 622 DRIVE readers who have supported the story over at Patreon. Your financial support of art you enjoy has allowed us to take all advertising off the site, to start the “Tales of the Drive” stories, and most importantly, allowed me to devote a ton more energy and time to the strip.

So thank you! You are awesome!

And if you’re a fan of the story, as well, and would like to support the strip at $0.25 or $0.50 — that little bit goes a long way, when combined with other readers!

(https://www.patreon.com/drive)

I actually think the Airblade is a genius invention, but hooo nelly is there a major gap in its implementation. With paper towels, water’s soaked up. With traditional air dryers, it’s evaporated. With the Airblade: BAM, squeegeed right onto your shoes by a blade of air.

Many of you have heard me talk about “Tales of the Drive,” and today we begin our first story: YOUR DISTANT HOMELAND, by the Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist, Dylan Meconis. It’s an origin story of Nosh’s time stranded in Russia, and will be updating once a week for the next 12 weeks. You’re going to love it. Dylan is super talented, and her Nosh story is delightful.

“Tales of the Drive” will all be stand-alone stories set in the Drive universe, by some of the best artists working today. Some stories will focus on the crew, some on their backstory, some on distant parts of the empire. But all of it is just meant to be fun. More of what we all like, essentially. It’s a filling out of the universe: Letting talented artists play in this sandbox for a while, and seeing what awesome things they create.

These stories are made possible by the financial support of backers on Patreon — so I hope you’ll consider becoming one! With your help, we can have more and more artists playing in the DRIVE universe!

More than anything else, I hope you enjoy these! The world of DRIVE feels like a special place to me, and letting more artists play with these characters and these locations feels like a great thing. *I’M* excited as heck to read these stories — and I hope you will be, too!

-Dave

It’s time to reveal the FOURTH incredible artist creating a “Tales of the Drive” short story….

It’s JON ROSENBERG, the cartoonist of “Scenes From a Multiverse“!

Jon’s super unique comics format and imaginative sci-fi settings and super unique comics format won him the Silver Reuben Award for excellence in cartooning…and I’m excited to see his take on the DRIVE universe. He’s already shared his first few pages with me, and I am DELIGHTED.

You guys. YOU GUYS. These “Tales of the Drive” short stories are going to turn out so fun.

For those of you who like it when I talk shop, I thought I’d show you the new way I’m trying out to create SHELDON.

Traditionally, I’d take a 6″x14″ piece of paper, pencil the strip, ink over those pencils, erase, scan and color.

NOW….I’m replacing the pencils with a digital process, before I ink the strip the usual way. Here’s how it works:

1.) I “pencil” out the strip on the computer, which allows for greater flexibility, manipulation, and experimentation.
2.) Then, when everything feels right, I print out that “pencilled” strip, and bring it to my drawing desk.
3.) Using a lightbox, I now hand-letter and ink the strip with archival inks on acid-free, Bristol vellum stock. This is exactly the same as how I’ve always done it…just that there’s no pencil underneath my ink.
– When I’ve inked the “original art”, I then scan and color the strip in Photoshop.

I’ve pasted a visual guide, below. And here’s a much larger version, if you’d like to look in more detail [CLICK HERE].

I’m at San Diego Comic-Con this week, at booth 1228. Just look for the big Sheldon/Drive/Stripped sign on row 1200.
I have an exclusive poster at the show, this year, so snag yours early: I’m only printing 50 numbered posters.