Category: Blog

I have a question for the non-American Sheldonistas in the house:

If I was to attend one international comics convention somewhere in the world in 2010, where would you suggest I go?

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

1.) It would have to be a show that’s welcoming toward American-style, black-and-white strips written in English. For example, French/Belgian shows and Japanese shows probably would be less in love with that style of comics.

2.) Is there already an audience of Sheldonistas in that city/region? If you suggest Amsterdam or Auckland or Alberta, we can check it against the website’s server logs and see how many readers come from that area.

3.) Would the costs to get there make it impossible to attend? For example, a show in Sydney’s going to be a leeeeettle more expensive than a show in Vancouver. 🙂

4.) To that end: Does your suggested convention sometimes invite international cartoonists as “Guest of the House”? That would help defray some of the costs to travel/stay.

Anyway, suggest away, below! What comics convention would you recommend for “Sheldon”?

Attention, Baltimore residents! Attention, Baltimore suburbanites! Attention, people who live within a totally comfortable drive to Baltimore!

Team Sheldon* will be rolling in to the 2009 Baltimore Comic-Con on Oct. 10th and 11th!

So make plans now to come out, say hi, get a free Sheldon sketch or two, and take in a really fun comics convention!

* Calling it “Team Sheldon” makes me chuckle. It makes it sound like there’s gonna be one of those guys with a t-shirt gun shooting Sheldon t-shirts at the crowd and asking if they’re “pumped”.

Sheldonista Richard H. sent in some awesome wallpapers for everyone of the recent Cirrrr-cle of Liiiiiifestrip, so I’m posting ’em here for you to grab.

Richard writes: “I’ve only made 2 sizes of each version, as most computers are capable of resizing desktop images to fit. The files 1920×1200 are in 16:10 flatscreen ratio, and the files 1600×1200 are in 4:3 CRT ratio. Hope you like them!”

Thanks, Richard — these are great!

1600×1200 version

1920×1200 version

1600×1200 version

1920×1200 version

1600×1200 version

1920×1200 version

In fun news, our book How To Make Webcomics was nominated for a Harvey Award!

Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. They will be presented October 10, 2009 in Baltimore, MD, in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con.

(Extra congrats to my compadres Scott Kurtz, David Malki and Kazu Kibuishi for their nominations for
Pvp, Wondermark and
Flight. All much-deserved nods!)

It’s confirmed: We’ll have advance copies of the new Sheldon book “Living Dangerously (With Saturated Fats)” at San Diego Comic-Con! The advance copies came in on Friday, and LOOK AWESOME. I’m so excited for you guys to see it.

Anyone picking up their book at SDCC will get a free, personalized sketch in theirs, as well as the “Official 2009 San Diego Comic-Con Commemorative High Five.”

I just realized that my Kaiser entry is sitting two posts up from my own ridiculous photo. Irony, thy name is Kaiser

I had a Sheldon reader e-mail me today, asking “which Kaiser” I meant in Thursday’s strip. Let’s be honest: When it comes to dopey facial hair, most any Kaiser offers a solid choice. It was almost a prerequisite for getting the job. But for my money, you can’t beat the ridiculous, ridiculous chops on Wilhelm I.

Not a lot of ladies swooning when this dude walks in with his sails unfurled on both cheeks.

In the forums, a reader asked if there was a Sheldon-group in Facebook. There is, but I’ll be honest: Since their redesign, I don’t know how to find anything in Facebook anymore. I’m like a 90-year old in there: There’s all these strange buttons and links and noises and wolves and I wander around scared.

Anyway, Sheldon forum-goer “zoster_i” kindly set us up with the link, and it is thus.

Actually, that’s a fib. This is me at the Wondermark book launch party: They had a pretty sweet dress-up photo booth.

Wondermark, for the uninitiated, is created by fellow Los Angeleno cartoonist David Malki, and brilliantly uses Victorian-era illustrations in a Monty Pythonesque mashup with modern-day themes. It’s pretty awesome.

Anyhoo, Dave’s second book just launched, and I couldn’t recommend it more. It’s beautifully hard-bound, beautifullly printed, and beautifully funny. (Bam: What a turn of phrase, right there.)

Also: Let’s not discuss it at great length, but check out the quadruple (quintuple?) chins I was able to generate.

If you’re not a cartooning buff, you may not have heard of early 20th-Century cartoonist Winsor McCay. But to every cartoonist from Charles Schulz to Walt Disney to yours truly, he’s held up as one of the true, pioneering greats of his (or any) time. His strips “Little Nemo” and “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend” are among the most gorgeous, fantastical creations you’ll ever see. Spend 10 minutes with a Google Image search: You’ll see what I mean.

His hometown held a “Winsor McCay Day” yesterday…and in honor of that I thought I’d share another one of the hallmark works he was known for pioneering: Animation. (Each one of these 4,000+ panels, keep in mind, were drawn by him and hand-colored by him.)