Month: November 2006

Lots to report today, so let’s get to it:

1.) THE BOOKS ARE HERE! And good Lord ‘n Butter, they look fantastic. I’ve always made it a priority that the Sheldon books look and feel awesome, and I was really happy with how Pure Ducky Goodness turned out. But I’ve gotta be honest: The Good, The Bad & The Pugly blows it out of the water. The cover stock is nicer, the inside pages are nicer, and the strips themselves reprint with such clarity that, as an artist, I couldn’t be happier. You’ll be very impressed when your copy arrives.

Haven’t ordered your copy yet? Then head over to the
Sheldon store now for Christmas shipping. You’re gonna love this book.

2.) SHELDON BOOK PARTY! If you live anywhere near Los Angeles, don’t forget to join us on Monday night at the Pugly book launch par-tay. From 7-11 PM, sponsors Hpnotiq and Vitamin Water will be serving up free refreshments in the very, very cool lounge of Beverly Hills’ own Crescent Hotel. The drinks are free, book sketches are free, and the indoor/outdoor setting is awesome, so please join us! (Check this place out, it’s pretty dang cool.)

Here’s your map. There’s free street parking on the surrounding streets, or a valet out front, if you’re Bill Gates.

3.) CHARLES SCHULZ MUSEUM / CARTOON ART MUSEUM! If you live in Oakland, San Fran, or surrounding burbs, please drop by the Charles Schulz Museum next Saturday, or the S.F. Cartoon Art Museum on Sunday. I’ll be demonstrating how a strip is created, answering folks’ questions, and signing books. I’ve been to both museums before, and I can tell you they’re a fun afternoon out. Swing by! Bring the kids! Bring the cat!

4.) INTERVIEW! The Gigcast has an interview with me, for those of you who have wondered what my lilting voice sounds like. If you’re pressed for time, my section starts at 19min, 59 sec…
http://gigcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=156247

5.) HBO’s ASPEN COMEDY FESTIVAL! You may remember me mentioning my wife’s recent play, Skirts & Flirts, which had two sold-out runs and which raised $4500 for a local homeless charity. Well, HBO has called, and wants to see the show once more, for consideration in the Aspen Comedy Festival. So in true ninja-theater fashion, a one-time performance is suddenly going up this Sunday night in Santa Monica. Keep your fingers crossed for her — as this could result in a fun week of laughter in Aspen on HBO’s tab. 🙂

SKIRTS & FLIRTS
Westside Eclectic Theater
1323-A 3rd. St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
7pm
No reservations necessary.

6.) CHRISTMAS ORDERS! If you live outside of the US, I’d ask that you get your Sheldon orders in by Dec. 1st or 2nd if you want guaranteed Christmas delivery. And if you live in the US, try to have your orders in by Dec. 9th for Media Mail orders, and Dec. 17th for Priority Mail orders. But help out the Sheldon elves and order now, if you can.

Man, how was THAT for a blog post? Hot diggety….lot going on….

I’m happy to report that Sheldon-By-Email deliveries have started. Now you can enjoy the daily strip, the daily blog, and all your favorite site links… delivered right to your inbox.

Folks have been e-mailing me all day letting me know how happy they were when they got their first strip this morning. Thanks for that. And if, by chance, you didn’t receive your Sheldon e-mail this morning, check out these helpful tidbits…

Q: I don’t seem to be getting my Sheldon e-mail. What up with that?

A: It’s most likely being flagged as spam by your mail filters. Take a minute to go through your filters and take Sheldon out of the “baddies” list…it shouldn’t be in there!

Q: I signed up, but have never received the daily delivery. What gives?

A: Did you click on the link in the confirmation e-mail? If not, that’s probably what’s holding up the works. Or, if you did confirm your signup already, and you’re still not getting it…? It may be that your mail filter thinks it’s spam. See the question above.

Q: My e-mail address changed when I moved/graduated/changed jobs. What do I do now?

A: First, sign up for Sheldon By E-mail under your new address. Then, please unsubscribe at your old e-mail address, as that will help us out tremendously. If for some reason you can’t access your old account, just pop us an e-mail so we can take your old address off the list.

Q: I get the e-mail, but the strip isn’t there! It’s blank! Why-oh-why must these technological woes afflict me so?

A: Some email programs (notably AOL and Hotmail) allow you to disable images. You’ll need to enable them in order to see the daily strip.

Still have questions/problems? Head to the Sheldon forums, and we’ll see if we can’t solve it together.

Since the launch of the new site, I’ve been happy to tout all the free stuff that the site gives you: free archives, free e-mail delivery, free RSS feeds, and lots of free, little extras. But since something has to pay to keep the lights on at “Sheldon”, I do rely on a few revenue streams. Among these streams is Google Adsense text ads.

For those that don’t know, Adsense ads are the text-based ads that match the content of the site itself, potentially offering you ads you’d actually be interested in. And up until this evening, they were working exceptionally well on the site.

In large part, that was due to the fact that Sheldon readers have ploughed through 6 million pageviews since the new site’s launch on Nov. 6th. This voluminous traffic, when coupled with Google site-matched ads (thanks to transcribed comic strips), was going well, and I was very thankful for the extra income that Google Adsense would provide.

But alas, tonight Google informs me that my account has been completely disabled, and all monies returned, due to “invalid clicks”. What caused that to happen, I’m not sure. (I have a cartoonist’s insight, after all, not a programmer’s).

I have asked them to take another review of the account, and my fingers are crossed that it was just a huge jump in traffic that triggered their fraud algorithms. But in the meantime, all I can do is wait to hear back from them.

-Dave

PS: I will ask this, though: if you’re a Sheldon reader, and you work for Google, please drop me a line. I’d appreciate any help I can get in clearing this up.

PPS: Don’t think the irony is lost on me that Google has a Sheldon original hanging in their lobby. *Sigh*

My chum-a-roos Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz are branching out into new and exciting territory. Today, they announced PvP: The Series. Based on the talent between these two, I’m excited to see the final product. Check it out!

‘Twas a good Thanksgiving at the Kellett house this year. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner in this house, and pulled it off rather nicely. Family, friends, and even a wayward Brit who had never been to an American Thanksgiving before.

Her best line of the night? “Well this is just like an English Sunday roast. Only with 85% more gluttony.”

(Speaking of England: I’m noticing, based on orders coming in for “The Good, The Bad & The Pugly”, that there are a ton (tonne) of English readers. Specifically, there are a ton (tonne) in Sussex. What’s going on in Sussex that Sheldon’s such a huge success there? And how do we get Essex in on the fun?)

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a wonderful extended weekend, and I am thoroughly stuffed with all the usuals, including jellied cranberry sauce. It’s an odd food, isn’t it? Never, ever in my life do I find myself going “MAN, I am ready to eat me some cranberry sauce.” Just never pops into my head. Never. But if I don’t have jellied cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving…Lord, there’s gonna be trouble.

…I wonder if the cranberry industry makes the majority of their sales this week?

– Dave

PS: One quick note: after one more test, Sheldon daily e-mail deliveries should be starting by Tuesday. I’ll keep you posted.

A lot of folks have e-mailed me in the last few days, asking why they can’t get an Artist’s Edition for “Pure Ducky Goodness”. I hadn’t planned on adding it to the Sheldon store until January, but they seem to really want one in time for Christmas…so I added it to the store.

And for the folks who asked about an Artist’s Edition for “A Well Balanced Meal”…I’m sorry to say there won’t be one. After three printings of the book, there are only about 80 copies left…so there’s rarity enough there, already.

Pre-orders for “The Good, The Bad & The Pugly” are now open! Head to the Sheldon Store immediately! Combo sale prices are available, as are the limited “Artist’s Editions” of Pugly. Treat yourself and support the strip!

In the past, I’ve worked hard to put a sketch in every single book sold to every single reader. It’s been great to get e-mails from folks saying how cool their sketch was, and how cherished it is in their house. But the number of sold Sheldon books is starting to exceed my abilitiy to keep up with that extra workload of sketches. And I hate the idea that, as this workload increases, some folks would randomly GET a sketch, and some folks randomly WOULDN’T. So going forward, I’m going to handle sketched-in books a different way. Starting with “The Good, The Bad and The Pugly”, I’m going to limit the number of sketched-in books to a very select group of “Artist’s Editions”.

For “The Good, The Bad, & The Pugly”, there will only be 250 of these special editions. They will be stamped, hand-numbered, autographed, and will feature a unique-to-your-book, original sketch. And once they’re sold out, that’s it. You won’t be able to get a sketch in your Pugly book when you buy online.

Sheldon Newsletter Subscribers got first crack at ordering these 250 books, starting late Monday night. But on Thursday night, Artist’s Editions will be opened up for sale to everyone else. I have no idea how fast these 250 copies will go, but I do know this: if you were sent the special link via the Sheldon newsletter…don’t wait. Order your copy today.

And remember: these pre-ordered Artist’s Editions will be the first shipped out when the books arrive Dec. 1st!

———————————-

Just in case you have questions, here are a few I’ve tried to anticipate:

1.) Will Artist’s Editions be worth more over time?

That’s the hope. In limiting the amount of books with sketches in them, I hope to increase the value of the Artist’s Edition that you own.

2.) Will Artist’s Editions cost more?

Yes: they’ll cost an additional $10 for the additional time, effort, and value. Also keep in mind: you’re helping to keep the lights on at Sheldon with your support!

3.) If the 250 copies run out before I can get mine, is there really no chance of getting an Artist’s Edition from the Sheldon Store later?

Not from the Sheldon store. You may be able to pick one up from an online auction site down the line, of course.

4.) C’mon…please?? It’s my cousin’s birthday/wedding/Bar Mitzvah/graduation! You really won’t put a sketch in my copy of “The Good, The Bad and The Pugly”?

Nope. You’ll never again have the opportunity to get a sketch in your online order. Your only chance for a sketch, once these are sold out, is to catch me in person at a future appearance, where I’ll put un-numbered sketches in books.

5.) Will you still be *signing* books sold online?

I’ll happily continue to sign every single book sold in the Sheldon store. It’s the least I can do to say thank you for supporting Sheldon! But sketches will only be available online in the limited Artist’s Editions.

6.) Can I pick what will be sketched in my Artist’s Edition? Can you sign it to so-and-so?

Due to the logistics of 250 sketches mailing out to 250 people, I’m afraid not.

7.) With these Artist’s Editions, does this mean you’re no longer putting sketches in copies of Pure Ducky Goodness that are bought online?

Yes. But there will be one more window of opportunity in January for Pure Ducky Goodness buyers. For folks that haven’t yet bought a copy, there’ll be a limited opportunity to get an Artist’s Edition PDG.

To summarize: I really want to make these limited Artist’s Editions something you’ll treasure, and something that’s of increased value. So if you were aching for a sketch in your book, order your signed and sketched “Artist’s Edition” now!

Have more questions? Ask them HERE. Thanks!

Join me in congratulating our Grammarians™:
Michelle Alford, Douglas Lane, Toby Chernoff, and Jennie McStotts!

Remember: everyone who volunteered will get a sketch from me…so make sure you send me your address.

(I originally was shooting for three, but when Jennie sent in her e-mail, I couldn’t say ‘no’ to the former editor for the Journal of International and Comparative Law and the current editor for the International Journal of Heritage Studies.)

Between now and the new year, these folks will be helping me plow through the transcription process. Go, go mighty morphin’ power ninja turtle Grammarians!

I promised you that the book-launch party would be awesome…and now I can reveal the details!

On Monday, Dec. 4th, from 7-11 PM, the very cool Crescent Hotel in Beverly Hills will be hosting the launch party for “The Good, The Bad & the Pugly”! Drink sponsors Hpnotiq and Vitamin Water will be on hand, giving out free mixed cocktails and drinks in an absolutely awesome indoor/outdoor lounge setting. It really is one of LA’s coolest spots (check out the Flash tour for yourself)! Copies of “The Good, The Bad & The Pugly” will of course be available, and I’ll be putting personalized sketches into books all night long.

Here is your map, which can be modified with your starting point. There is valet parking out front, and free street parking on the surrounding streets.

The featured Hpnotiq
cocktails for the night (I’m thinking of calling them “The Pugly” and “The Lucky Duck”) and Vitamin Water are free…and there’ll also be a cash bar and kitchen for anything your tastebuds might crave.

I’m telling you now: don’t miss this night. The music will be jumpin’, the free drinks will be flowin’, the Pugly sketches will be flyin’, and there may even be a Sheldon Original Art raffle giveaway.

So I’ll see you there on Dec. 4th!

Thanks,

Dave

PS: The attire is probably in the “LA classy/club” range. What does that mean? Lord if I know…I’m a guy, after all. Like every good husband everywhere, my wife will probably end up dressing me. 🙂