A note to PR people everywhere: Oh man maybe it’s time to find a new catchphrase.

It’s my birthday week!

And to celebrate, here’s a way to give you AND me a gift!

Through Friday, the Sheldon three-packs (books 1-3, and books 4-6) are just $30. You get 3 books for the price of 2, AAAAAaaaaand, I get to pay my electrical bill. It’s a birthday win-win! 🙂

Thank you guys for continued support of the strip. You make Sheldon possible, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me.

Let’s look at all the ways today’s meta Sheldon breaks normal conventions:
– We’re seeing backstage, which is weird.
– We’re seeing Sheldon with his glasses off, which is also weird.
– We’re seeing Flaco talk, which was super weird to draw.
– We’re also seeing Arthur get along with Roger…and we *know* them two just ain’t never got along. Lookit the quiet contempt on Roger’s face.

For those of you wondering, this is indeed the “end” of Season 13 of Sheldon. It’s been online 13-14 years, now. (If you’re curious, you can read this blog post, explaining how Sheldon is in its 14th year, online.

For those of you concerned that I might be ending the strip…worry not. But! I will have a blog post in the new year about my changing project priorities. As we finish up the film over the next few months, I think I’ll be changing things up. But all for the better, I assure you!

U.S. Sheldon readers: Wednesday is the last day to your Sheldon order in, if you’re using Priority Mail shipping for Christmas delivery. I was gonna make it Thursday…but we’re a mom-and-pop organization, round these parts, and I wanted to make sure we get all those last-minute orders out the door one time.

And if you’ve never picked up a Sheldon book before, try it now: Thanks!

So, I’ve seen the Hobbit six times already. Huge nerd, over here: Huge, huge nerd. And while I love it, and will watch it four dozen more times over my life….it…ain’t great. Not like Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, which in so many ways was a near-perfect execution of three very dense books.

There’s a good movie *somewhere* in The Hobbit — but it’s clear that nothing hit the editing room floor. If there was a scene where Bilbo picked out socks in the book, it became a 20-minute montage-with-song in the movie.

But! That being said…I’ve already seen it six times. And will watch it umpteen more times. They’ve got my money…rest assured. And in a lot of ways, the Lord of the Rings was so note-perfect, that Jackson can kinda do whatever he’d like with The Hobbit. He’s earned it, in my book.

For my fellow Tolkien fans, here’s some of my favorite past “Rings” strips….

The Balrog
The “new” Tolkien books, part 1
The “new” Tolkien books, part 2
The “new” Tolkien books, part 3
The Silmarillion
What it takes to be a fantasy novelist
Fantasy Authors, cont’d
The Balrog’s motivation
Throw It In, Mr. Frodo!
Tom Bombadil
The Battle of Minas Tirith (read forward from here)

This, folks, is the classic mistake. You don’t get the mob boss’ son killed when you’re on a planet looking for pilots. That’s just Exploring 101 kind of stuff.

For those who’ve been thinking of getting the DRIVE books: Good news! There’s now a three-pack of the books in the store that save you money both on the books and on the shipping!

Walk, don’t run, to the Drive store! (…safety first!)

In tweeting the idea for this strip this morning, the always delightful Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics shared this Frosty storyline with me. Go check it out: An ice golem frosty is every bit as delightful as a “Three Laws” Frosty.

ONE, TWO, and THREE

To all U.S. Sheldon readers, a heads up: Please get your Sheldon orders in by Dec. 20th, if you’re using Priority Mail shipping for Christmas delivery.

And on a personal note: THANK YOU to everyone who’s gifting a Sheldon book, this year! You are the ones who keep the lights on around here — and it means the world to me. When readers like you buy books or original art, your financial support allows me to keep creating the strip, and share it for free, online. So thank you!

And if you’ve never picked up a Sheldon book before, try it now: Thems good gift-givin’!

There were a lot of really fun, inventive entries in the Black Friday caption contest. You guys are awesome: And you made it very hard to pick. But the winner gave me an unexpectedly dark laugh, in a sort of Addams Family way. It was Kybasset’s entry:

“At least we got Uncle Ned back!”

Other runners-up included ones that I thought took a sideways approach at it. I always appreciate the orthogonal approach:

Macsnafu: “Hey, look what’s on sale. Ham!”

NDF: “That was fun. Now it’s your turn to push me around in the cart!”

Andhedrew: “It’s the third step in the process: denial, anger, then great bargains!”

…Thank you for all the great submissions! High fives all around!