Category: Blog

Hey hey hey! In good news: Copies of the third DRIVE book, “Such A Lovely Species,” are now available for gettin’!

You can either get the regular ol’ awesome book, or get the limited-number Artist Edition, which includes a signed sketch!

Lots going on, this Monday! Here’s the summary: 1.) There’s a new Pug book, 2.) A new Drive book, 3.) Sheldon original art is $50-off today, 4.) The Sheldon “Still Got It” book is just $1 dollar, today. ONE DOLLAR.

Now let’s tackle them in detail.

1.) The first pug book collection may have sold out, but I have good news: We got the new printing in of “Pugs: God’s Little Weirdos” aaaaaand there’s an entirely new pug book available, called Pugs: They Think They’re People (…Old, Retired People)

2.) For readers of my strip Drive, the third book collection is out!

3.) Today only, Sheldon original art is $50-off the normal price. If you’ve had your eye on a piece, today is your day. You can search for the strip you want by entering keywords or parts of the punchline, here. Then click “Buy Today’s Original Art” under that strip.

4.) Also today: The Sheldon book Still Got IT is JUST ONE DOLLAR. A.) Because it’s fun to have one ridiculously good deal in the store, and B.) Because I put a lot of love into these books, and I really want more of you to see how high-quality they are. They’re super classy! And I’m hoping — if you like this book — that you’ll consider supporting the strip with another book down the road. The kind folks who pick up a book or piece of artwork keep the website running — and I hope you’ll join ’em!

To celebrate the launch of both new books in the store, we’re having a Black Friday Caption contest!

Enter your *single* funniest caption in the blog comments, below (don’t e-mail or tweet it to me), and I’ll pick a winner by next Friday. You’ll get a signed copy of the new Pugs 2 book, and the third Drive book!

Good luck!

We’re starting in on another storyline — sillier, really, than the Undeveloped storyline — that we’ll call “The Play’s The Thing.”

Theater, alas, is one of my unchased dreams in life. I love acting, love being onstage, love that unique, two-way communication that you only get with a live audience. And every once in a while, I’ll walk the boards here in LA…and every time it makes me wistful for the road not taken. In a different life, with different choices, I would’ve loved the acting life.

*But not the auditioning life. That part is miserable.

I know statehood is still only a possibility, at this point, for Puerto Rico…and many years off, at best. And I know that the ballot itself had flaws in the way the two-part question for status quo, statehood, independence, or sovereign free association was presented. And I know the idea of joining the union as a state is a far more complicated issue than my mind wants it to be. But I’ll just say it: I was really excited to see the outcome of Puerto Rico’s vote.

I remember my first time reading through the history of 1800’s America: And seeing the constantly, constantly, constantly evolving US flag…as state after state got added, and the stars had to be reconfigured in all sorts of ways. But even as a schoolkid, I thought those days of an expanding union were behind us. That, after Hawaii’s addition in 1959, that was that.

So maybe it’s the schoolkid in me, getting excited at this. A bit of youthful idealism in the idea of America. But I can’t help but be excited at the possibility of Puerto Rico as the 51st state.

We’re going to have a little storyline, this week, called “Undeveloped”. It’s been a good while since we’ve had a storyline of length around here! Time to correct that. 🙂

Guys, I want to talk to you about my new standing drafting table. It’s my favoritest thing in the world. Here’s a pic:

But first, let me give you some back-story on it.

In the world of cartooning, I’m sort of a hold-out: A cartoonist who still uses ink-on-paper to create a comic strip. And what that’s meant, for the last decade, is that I sit down at a big ol’ Mayline drafting table to draw. Here’s an old picture of that much-loved desk:

But a few years ago, I started to have repetitive posture problems (I’m sure increasing age and weight didn’t help). My back and right shoulder start to hurt, and I had to go through physical therapy for two years to take care of Costoclavicular Syndrome. My drawing hand would go ice cold, numb, and lose it’s grip…as a result of circulatory and nervous-system pinching near my shoulder.

Anyway: My thoughts started to turn toward drawing at a stand-up desk. I had read article after article on the health benefits of standing (Short version: we ain’t built to sit for endless hours). And at the same time, my memory kept bringing up one of my favorite cartoonists: David Low, who always drew standing up, and raved about it to anyone who’d ask.

So I set out to build myself the ideal standing drafting table: One designed just for cartooning. Or, more specifically, one designed just for my cartooning. One that I would use for the rest of my career. Here’s what I sketched out:

You can see from the sketch that the desk has a split level surface, with the left section inclining at various heights, and the right section staying flat for inks, drinks, spillable stuff, stackable stuff, etc. I designed the drawing surface with a clip for paper references, and a “bar” to keep things from rolling down on me. Overhead, I designed a bookshelf hutch for easy-reach books and reference materials. Underneath, I put a storage shelf for larger items; three drawers for art supply storage; three lights for direct, indirect, and lightbox lighting; and a “step” bar like you’d see at a, well, bar — to shift weight off my hips from time to time. It was gonna be great. I was super excited to build it.

But I realized pretty quickly into it that, while I’m an OK amateur carpenter at building a basic deck or a fence, I was no where near good enough to build this the way I wanted it to look. So I called my brother Thom.

Thom’s a master carpenter who’s been building homes in San Diego for decades. He’s fantastic. And when I showed him the plans, he totally ran with it. He and his associate Kent McGarry built an absolutely stunning desk — far, far better than I ever could have dreamed, with touches and details that are fantastic for a cartoonist. I don’t exaggerate. It’s gorgeous.

Here are some pics during construction:

And here’s the completed desk:

So allow me to publicly thank Thom and Kent for bringing my sketches to life: This is a desk I will use for the rest of my cartooning life. I could not be more impressed by the craftsmanship with which it was built.

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Post-script: I’ve had a few cartoonists ask if Thom would be willing to build another one…and he says he is. So! Iff you’re a cartoonist in North America, feel free to drop him a line to inquire. Obviously, it’d be preferable if you’re within delivery distance of San Diego, but I’m sure heavy-freight shipping can be worked out to points in the US and Canada. Just a friendly forewarning, though: This isn’t a mass-produced desk at IKEA prices. This is as custom-made as custom gets, being built by two master craftsmen. So even though my brother wouldn’t say it, I’ll say it for him: Serious inquiries
only, please.

We’re back into it! Back into the guts of Slaughter’s marketplace, back with the Machito crew as they look for pilots. I, for one, have missed this tremendously.

My project schedule is finally — finally — starting to lighten back up, and it looks like I can slowwwwly start returning to DRIVE. This means the world to me…as this story is one I’m very much writing as a gift to myself. And I’ve missed it.

The big detour, these past five months, has been the documentary film I’m making, STRIPPED. Turns out, feature-length films are immensely complex undertakings that require tons of time. Who could’ve guessed. WHO COULD’VE GUESSED. 🙂

Fred Schroeder and I have been pouring all our spare time into it, trying to get it ready for all our Kickstarter backers, and in time for the film festival season. Thankfully, we’re nearing the promised land, and I’m proud of how the film is turning out.

Anyway! Over the next 2-3 months, as the post-production work on STRIPPED winds down, I should be able to slowwwly increase the number of DRIVEs I can produce, until we return to our once-a-week schedule.

As I have in the past, I’d recommend adding DRIVE to your RSS feed, or signing up for e-mail delivery, as that’ll save you from having to check the site. The updates will be irregular for a few more months, so that’s the least stressful option.

Thank you for your kindness and patience during these past few months! Even though DRIVE is a strip I’m drawing as a gift to myself, I know a lotta-lotta folks are getting into it, and have missed it as much as I have. So thankfully our long national nightmare is drawing to a close.

My apologies for the site-wide slow-down, lately. The company that serves up the ads for the Sheldon site has been repeatedly tripping on crucial power cords strewn about its office (or so I surmise)…so everything’s breaking over there.

The downside for you and me is that the ads get served up r e a l l y s l o w l y, almost to the point of ridiculous.

So! For now, I’ve put the ads into iframes, so they’ll get served up last. But! Being the half-smart guy that I am, I only kinda-sorta remember how to use iframes, so they’re positioned down ten pixels and over ten pixels and regardless it is what it is. 🙂

My heart broke, today, to read that Richard Thompson is retiring his sublimely delightful strip Cul De Sac, due to Parkinson’s. And I wanted to take a moment to celebrate Richard.

More than anything else, because Richard is a good man, an insightful man, a funny man — and because his art makes the world a better place.

I particularly loved the hour or two we got to sit down in Ohio and chat solely about comics for the documentary I’m making. His philosophy of comics, the joys and the heartbreaks of it, and his own path into the art form — all of it was so wonderful to hear. The documentary is all the better for his presence in it.

Even more so, I’m glad for his gift of Cul De Sac to the world. It was and is a fantastic, fantastic strip — perhaps one of the best we’ll ever see. It made the small moments of life seem big and meaningful, and made the big, overwhelming moments of life seem manageable and relatable. It did what a comic strip should do: Reduce life to its essence, in joy-filled ways that told you you weren’t alone.

So thank you, Richard, for your gifts to the world…and your gifts to me. I am a better person because of your art: And that is the highest compliment I know how to give an artist.