In fun news, looks like “Blizzards of Lizards” got some airtime Monday night on “How I Met Your Mother”. A high five to Cobie for holding the book in such a wonderfully unnatural way to show off the cover… you are awesome. 🙂
And thanks to everyone on the east coast who sent in screen shots! I didn’t even know it was going to be on Monday’s episode, then 50 ho-jillion e-mails hit my inbox around 5:40 PM.
Friends, Romans, Sheldonistas: Lend me your ears! One of the best conventions in the U.S. is upon us once more: Seattle’s very own Emerald City Comic Con!
Last year I had just ridiculous amounts of fun at this convention: As it turns out, Seattle has the highest per-capita number of Sheldon readers of ANY city in the U.S., and it showed. Last year, we sold out of all Sheldon books super quick. But people still kept comin’ by for their complimentary high-fives and free sketches. The convention was so much was so much fun…and the people of Seattle could not have been more welcoming.
This year, I’ll be exhibiting once again with my “How To Make Webcomics” co-authors at the Halfpixel booth (#202). I’ll be there both days, and will be signing books, giving out free sketches, high-fivin’, and just generally being goofy. I’ll be bringing along Sheldon Original Art for sale at $25-off the normal price…so if there’s a specific one you want to get, make sure you e-mail me).
Also, here’s a rough ‘n ready map showing where I’ll be: Booth #202, right inside the front door. You can’t miss it: Just look for the two giganto-red “Halfpixel” signs. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, make plans to be there!
On May 2nd, I’ll be signing, sketching, chattin’ and high-fivin’ at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower, CA, along with my good friend David Malki of Wondermark fame. May 2nd is “Free Comic Book Day”, so it should be a fun madhouse.
In fun news, it looks like “Sheldon” and I are one of the featured interviews in Scott Kirsner’s new book, Fans, Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Happily, I’m in pretty good company: The book also interviews the Brothers Chaps of “Homestar Runner”, the folks behind “JibJab” and “Red v. Blue”, and two dozen other independent filmmakers and musicians.
Scott asked insightful, well-thought-out questions: It’s always nice to see a journalist and author really grok how creative work is being carved out by independent artists online. There is life after the “mass” has been taken out of “mass media”. 🙂
And, having just seen the final book, I’m happy to say it’s going to be a great read.
A++ would recommend read again.
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be appearing April 25th & 26th at the Los Angeles Festival of Books at the Image Comics booth.
If you’re in the greater SoCal area, I’d really encourage you to come out. It’s a huuuuuge event on the UCLA campus with gobs of your favorite authors. More info to come, but mark your calendars!
Also: I’ll have a bigger blog post about this on Monday…but this coming weekend I’ll be appearing as a special guest of Emerald City Comicon! I’ll be there both days! As will you, I’m sure — as this is pretty much my favorite convention in the U.S! Make plans to come on out and receive your official Emerald City Comicon 2009 High Five. Limited Quantity of 48.
This past weekend, I had the absolute time of my life at the New England Webcomics Weekend in Easthampton, MA. I want to give a huge, group high-five to everyone who came out, from points as far as the west coast, the south, northern Canada, and even Europe. It’s an exciting time for independent, creator-owned Webcomics.
The whole event was organized and run by Webcomics creators — spearheaded by the very talented Meredith Gran. There’s an ever-increasing group of photos from the weekend at the Flickr photo pool which paint a fuller picture of the weekend, but I’ll share a few of my favorites here…
On Saturday, I was amazed to see just how packed the place could get. For a solid 3-4 hours that morning, I was talking *non-stop* to Sheldon fans and new readers. This never happens at conventions: It literally was non-stop. Usually there are ebbs and flows that allow for breaks, but this was different: The energy and excitement was palpable. Check out this one shot, and you’ll see what I mean. You can’t even see ONE of the webcomic creators lining the walls…it’s just a madhouse of folks:
I was happy to give out sketches to readers new and old. One Sheldonista asked for a self-portrait (which I’m always loathe to draw), but in this case I was happy with the final result. It was a pretty accurate portrayal:
But what made this show so singularly wonderful was the sheer critical mass of talent in one room of the world’s best webcartoonists. In dozens of informal talks over the weekend, I was able to talk shop with every artist I’ve ever admired online. Here’s a shot that represents what I mean: 8 of us just sitting at a Starbucks tradin’ tips & tricks.
(In the shot: David Malki, Kris Straub, Brad Guigar, Bill and Gene, Scott Kurtz, & Jorge Cham)
Overall, the weekend was just an amazing gathering of readers and creators….one I hope and expect will continue in the years ahead. But all that is for another day. For now, let me just give a huge “thank you” to everyone who made the trek from points near and far. You guys made it an extraordinary weekend.
If you’re coming to Webcomics Weekend this weekend in Easthampton, MA…and were hoping to snag a Sheldon Original Art at the convention price of $25 off, please e-mail me to make sure I bring the one you were interested in! Thanks!
Since this is “Pug Week”, there’s probably no better time to offer up some Original Art from the book “Pugs: God’s Little Weirdos”. Specifically, two separate pieces that are perfect for framing side-by-side, with a third piece of bonus art thrown in for good measure! You can check them out, here.
To see a larger version of the image below, just click **HERE**. Then, if you’re interested, head on over to throw your hat in the ring! (We’ve started the bidding at 10 cents.)
– We still haven’t nailed down the hard-and-fast date of when Sheldon first went online, but thanks to the efforst of many in the comments of this post, we’ve reached the theoretical limit of *how far back we can look* using archive.org.
– The problem, as these Sheldonistas soon found, was that I didn’t *date* the strips when they first went up. They were titled “Sheld1.gif”, “Sheld2.gif”, etc.
– Compounding that problem, I was literally learning how the internet worked in 1998, using Microsoft Word (Ha!) to update my site. What that means is, even though the first strip might’ve been first put up in, say, November, that entire page was probably updated 5-10 ten times over the school year, as I learned how to make link graphics, or changed my background, or tinkered with fonts, etc, etc. And if archive.org first captured pages in Spring/Summer of ’09, it would’ve captured only the most recent update.
– As our capable researchers discovered, it looks like that most recent update was done in June, 1999. (But tellingly, other random pages in the site were last modified in May, 1999.)
– On other fronts: The University of Kent has written back with apologies, saying they deleted the data from those student accounts almost a decade ago. So no luck on that front. Additionally, no reader from ’98-’99 has presented themselves, nor do my I own paper records show anything.
– What does this all mean? It means we probably will never know, exactly, when that first Sheldon strip went online. I have a memory of it being in Fall, 1998…but there’s no way to prove or disprove that.
– My final thought on it? In my own mind, I’ll continue thinking the strip first went online in Fall, 1998, with the knowledge that the first provable, actually *archived* pages of the site weren’t captured until May and June 1999.
– And, as is always true of Wikipedia, the Sheldon page over there will probably randomly list May 9, 1974 or Novembruary 33, 1864 as the launch date. Ah, Wikipedia, how I love you.
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– I want to thank the Sheldonistas who added to our search. You guys found archive.org pages in minutes that I’ve been looking for for years! And for those who really aided in the search, I’d like to mail a little humble “thank you”. Drop me an e-mail if your username is zoster_i, carolcapp, asrailight, appleseed, Schandlich, sheepster, lee_oades, Ghlitch, Erimore, Sullosar, Maestro, tovias, argon, dooby, IanNeufeld, aussiesteve, frzndaqiri…or if you were one of the two-dozen Sheldonistas who e-mailed in their thoughts. I can’t thank all of you with the personalized high-five I’d like, but a little mailed “thank you” will have to do.
You remember our Sheldon intern from last summer, of course: Stephanie was a fantastic presence at conventions, book launches, in the studio, and in her blog entries for the site.
Well, we couldn’t be happier for Steph, today…’cause she just got into USC’s prestigious Annenberg grad school! She’ll be studying broadcast and new-media journalism, which has been her long-held goal. Congratulations, Steph, on a placement well-earned, and best of luck in the years ahead!
