Two things you need to know:

1.) I’ll be at the Long Beach Comic-Con all this weekend, at booth #515, with all the Sheldon books, Drive books, posters, and even Arthur sculptures for sale! PLUS I’m giving out free sketches and gen-u-ine, lasting friendship.

2.) I’m also giving a talk on Saturday at 3PM in room 103-B. It’ll be a great one for fans of Sheldon and Drive: I’ll be taking any questions you like on the strips, the characters, how they’re made, and more. And I’ll be giving some sneak-peak info into our upcoming documentary on comic strips: STRIPPED. Please come by! The more of you that are there, the better the talk will be.

So! Recap! Long Beach Comic-Con! Booth 515! Talk on Saturday at 3 in room 103-B!

See you guys then!

I’ve gotten the most heartfelt and wonderful e-mails, in the last week. About the move, about Gramp’s reasons for it, how it’ll impact Sheldon and the animals, about where this leaves Dante and Emily and Lil’ Butter…

It’s been this wonderful outpouring from you all. Thank you for that! I’m glad to see the storyline is really resonating for some of you. I care very much for Gramp ‘n Sheldon and the whole family…and it’s so nice to see that you do, too.

This week, Tesskans bring a new wrinkle to the “mash the keyboard” technique….

Cartooning mashups are super fun to watch happen: You take two artists who are super talented in their own right, mix ’em together, and watch great art spontaneously pop into existence. That’s what happened with my two friends Bill Barnes and Paul Southworth, whose strip Not Invented Here is super fun to read.

Tech-centered, but not tech-focused, the strip is set in a software development house, and has a brilliant one-two of great writing and great art. Check it out for yourself: The entire archives are free to read!

Orrrrr, check out the first book collection they put together for new readers. Dive right on in: It’s totally worth it!

For those wanting a refresher on the poetic side of Fillipods, might I recommend the encyclopedia entry on them…

…keep in mind that this is Arthur’s Venn Diagram, not mine. 🙂

Today’s strip is not the first loving jab at the Scottish. Perhaps you remember this favorite from two years ago.

I absolutely love the Scottish, because no one takes a joke better: When we made a poster of that strip’s last panel, we had huuuuge numbers of orders from Scotland for it.

In fact: I thought we were sold out of them, but a quick check just turned up five remaining copies, if you’d like one. Better move fast, though!

For the next 4-6 months, I’m going to reduce the update schedule on DRIVE. Until we wrap production on STRIPPED, the schedule for DRIVE will change from every Thursday to “most Thursdays”. Rest assured the strip’s not ending or going anywhere…it’s just that we may miss a Thursday or two.

It’s a bummer, admittedly…but I have to acknowledge the elephant in the room: Producing a feature-length film is a huuuuge undertaking, and is going to monopolize my schedule until we finish it. And rather than continually disappoint DRIVE readers, I’d rather be upfront about it, and explain the reasons why.

See, right now in my professional life, I have two “jobs” and one “hobby.” SHELDON, as my main job, will continue to come out every weekday on schedule…as it has for the last 12 years. That’s a promise I’ve explicitly made to my readers, and I intend to keep it. Similarly, STRIPPED, as a project that was publicly funded under a huge auspice of trust, is a job that I’ve promised to complete.

But DRIVE is a different animal. As I’ve always said, DRIVE is a gift I’m giving myself. And in a time of immense schedule crunch, it unfortunately becomes the project that will have to take the temporary hit. But because I love the strip so much, I can assure you DRIVE is not going anywhere. It’s just that, over the next 4-6 months, we may miss a Thursday, here or there.

SO! TWO RECOMMENDATIONS:
So that you’re not continuously refreshing your browser every Thursday, might I recommend one of two things:
1.) Sign up to get new DRIVE strips in your e-mail.*
or…

2.) Add the DRIVE feed to your RSS reader.

*(Existing Sheldon users: Trouble signing up for Drive? Try this trouble-shooting approach here.)

This is the ORIGINAL SHELDON ART is a nice little summer tribute! The cardstock itself measures 14″ x 5″ inches, while the drawn image is roughly 13.5″ x 5″ inches. It’s drawn in lightfast, archival inks on acid-free, vellum Bristol stock. There are no mistakes or corrections in the artwork itself, so it will frame up especially nice. This original art will be shipped for *FREE*, anywhere in the U.S.A! (And just a flat $5 to any point outside the U.S.A.) Also! For the lucky Sheldonista who snags the artwork: This piece can be signed and personalized at the winner’s request. This could include a personal note like: “To the coolest person I’ve ever met, with thanks for saving my life from sharks that one time: I totally owe you forever. All my love, Dave.” Something like that. Or maybe something totally different! Maybe you’d prefer it to say “a T-Rex” instead of “sharks”. TOTALLY YOUR CALL. Anyway! I’m starting the bidding at one penny, as I’d rather leave it up to you to decide what it’s worth. And shipping is free within the US! So if you’re interested, head over and throw your hat into the ring!

With the STRIPPED drive ending today, my work life got a leeeetle buried in admin stuff, as you can probably imagine. It’s my hope to have this week’s DRIVE up tomorrow, as it definitely won’t make it up today. So! With apologies, let’s all meet back here tomorrow for DRIVE and s’mores.

Also: Who’s bringing the s’mores? Have we established that, yet?