I stand by my disappointed groan

Yeah been a good long time since my last post so I will go ahead and throw this on here for no good reason at all.

Boom!


Dave Kellet has been running his online comic strip titled “Sheldon” since 1998 and since then has become arguably one of the most popular cartoonists on the web.

A humor strip about a young nerdy boy who develops a new software program and becomes a billionaire overnight. Sheldon lives with his Grandfather “Gramp” his talking duck Arthur and a ridiculous pug named Oso. Mired in pop culture riffs and clever humor you never know what “Sheldon” is going to offer you from day to day. And day to day is important to note because Dave manages to have a new strip every single day. A feat most web comic creators are just not able to do. With his cast of lovable and relatable characters, his quick and sometimes off the wall humor, and the fact that we get a new strip every single day, its no wonder Dave has literally millions of devoted fans. There is another reason for his success however. Dave is unfailingly upbeat, positive, and nice. Whether giving a talk at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) or drawing countless sketches at any number of conventions around the country, Dave will be grinning from ear to ear the whole time. You may even get a hug. He loves his fans and they reciprocate. Sheldonistas ,as Dave likes to call them, send in photos, letters, fan art, and even music based on his strip. Dave was even kind enough to take some time and answer a few questions of mine.



Q:Almost every cartoonist I've met has said that their characters are small bits of their own personalities. Your characters in Sheldon seem to fit the bill as well. Dante being your artist side, Sheldon your inner child or perhaps inner nerd, Gramp could be seen as your...I want to put this politely, your outlet to comment on aging. But I have always been curious as to where the talking duck Arthur fits in. What part, if any, of your self do you see in him?

Arthur represents the sarcastic, self-confident, self-important side that we all have. Or, at least, that I have. The part that truly believes you're special, you're unique, you're something people should know about. But on the flip side: You're very right about the other characters. Gramp is very much my inner curmudgeon, Sheldon's my inner nerd, Dante's my inner sensitive artist, and Flaco's my courageous adventurer side. Add them all up, and you get a pale cartoonist who works inside all day.

Q: Any plans for a plush of your lovable duck?

Some day. Some day. But I want it done right when I do it, and so I'm in no rush to market with it.

Q: For some time now there has been a debate going on between syndicated print cartoonists and web-cartoonists about making a living online. For the most part I've heard the print guys saying there is no way of doing it, and Web-cartoonist such as yourself, Scott Kurtz and others basically saying "Helloooo!". What I have not heard much about though are the people doing this strictly as a hobby. With only a finite number of readers seeking out comics to follow, do you worry about losing some of your market share to people who are not dependent on their work to make a living?

Unlike previous systems of print distribution, web distribution isn't a zero-sum game. Limited spots on a printed page are no longer the limiting factor…readers' allotment of time they can give daily to entertainment is.

Success used to be a binary state: You were anonymous, you were anonymous, then BAM: An editor, publisher, syndicate or taste-maker gave you a spot on a printed page, and then you were a pro. Now, we have a sliding scale of "success", which almost resembles an exponential curve. On one end are hobbyists, then progressing along the curve you get "pro-am's", part-timers, full-timers, and then the rarefied web successes that actually hire staffs of ten, etc. It's a sliding scale of increasing levels of "success", which in many ways is a more natural state of affairs than the previous binary state in print of "success"/"failure".

Q: Hollywood has been pillaging ideas from comics much more than usual in the last few years and not just Marvel and DC's super hero movies either. Some people might not even know that movies like "Surrogates", "30 Days of Night", or AMC's recent series "The Walking Dead" are all from comic books. Do you think this trend is going to start crossing over into Webcomics soon? Could you see "Sheldon" as an animated series or movie? Would you even want to?

It's already started happening, actually. I know of a few folks who've had their stuff optioned, and many, many others who've been approached. Hollywood is an all-consuming content engine, which gobbles up anything and everything it thinks it can make money on.

As to Sheldon: I've been approached in the past by the Jim Henson Company and by Nickelodeon, but told them both politely that I had no interest in seeing Sheldon on TV or in other's hands. Because make no mistake: Unless you've got Jim Brooks kind of TV power, it ends up in someone else's hands, and they invariably mess it up. Look at Dilbert, look at Baby Blues, look at For Better or For Worse: Anytime comics move to the small screen, they kinda get ruined. And the reason is: The comic strip is this wonderful outlet for a singular artistic voice, a singular artistic vision. It's one of the few artforms where a single artist can talk to a mass audience without getting network notes, getting unique ideas watered down or getting revised by co-writers, etc. Cartooning is to animation what photography is to film-making. And I'm more than happy to stick to the singular vision. Thankfully, I make a good enough living, online, where I can pass on those offers without worrying about the future.

Q: You have talked about it before but could you tell us a little bit about your second comic "Drive"? Was a SciFi something you've always wanted to tackle or did the idea for the story come first?

It really started with a sci-fi "something", yeah, but about three or four years ago a very specific idea started to percolate in my mind. It started with the idea of a single royal family running a non-English-speaking Empire by virtue of stolen alien technology that they'd kept to themselves…and kind of blossomed out from that. When it's fully realized, the story should be far more complex, and take about five to seven years to tell.

Q: Currently "Drive" is posted on the weekends on your "Sheldon" website.Will you be putting "Drive" on its own independent site, or separating the archives from "Sheldon"?

It will, yes, within the next few weeks at drivecomic.com.

Q: I've been reading your strip for several years and as memory serves I don't recall ever seeing a guest strip or even a missed post. How do you find time to run your business, be a family man, and find time to be funny every day? Any tips for aspiring creators out there?

"Don't sleep" is the short answer. And maybe the long answer, too.

The trick, with any tricky career path that's really worth having, is that you have to want it more than any other thing you could waste time on. You have to want it more than playing video games, more than watching TV, more than socializing, even. You have to want to be a cartoonist more than most other things in life, if you're to make it work. Having said that, family is the one area where you have to make time, and it's something my wife (who is also an artist) and I constantly struggle with…as it's so important.

Q: Any chance of more Webcomic Weekly Podcasts?

There are four of us that do the podcast, and it's incredibly popular, and incredibly fun to do. But somehwere in the past year, Brad Guigar and my family schedules (see above answer!) just ran entirely opposite of each other, and we can never find time to get a quorum together. We're trying, though, we're trying.

Q: Thinking long term, where do you see yourself and Sheldon in years to come? Is there a retirement plan in comics?

There's no retirement plan, no: You have to save 'n save…like any entrepreneur or independent businessperson. My SEP-IRA and I have become good friends.

But as for what I see myself doing long term: My hope is to grow my studio from just myself and my current assistant to maybe a staff of three or four: An office manager/book-keeper, a shipping assistant, and a catch-all graphic artist (for books, websites, etc.) I could see that state lasting me to my grave. It's a happy life, cartooning, so I have no trouble imagining me doing this until my days are done. That would be a blessed life, indeed.



Dave thank you so much for your time. Keep up the great work.

Nothing dangerous lives on Madagascar. That just seems really unfair.

I have to go to the Dentist tomorrow :(

A small piece of my upper left wisdom tooth has broken off and I assume a nerve has been exposed. I know I'm not an expert on these types of things, so I'm going to differ to the professionals diagnoses, but at random times with no apparent cause I feel a sharp intense pain in my jaw for about a second and then it goes away. When I say intense I mean I imagine getting struck in the face with lighting might hurt slightly less.

I have netflix now.

It has already taken my brain hostage.

I have to force myself away from it so I can get some video games played. >.> <.<

Netflix and redbox have all but driven the last nail into video rental stores. I'm kinda ok with that really.

I don't think we are losing anything to important if blockbuster goes out of business. It may actually free up room for local private video stores to make a bit of a come back.

NetFlix doesn't have the newest movies on its streaming service, but I also find I don't really care. There are tons of movies and shows on there that I never got a chance to see. The new movies will be there eventually and if I had really wanted to see them that badly I would have seen them in theaters.

Speaking of I have seen a number of movies this summer and there are still a few to go. It has been a pretty awesome summer for SciFi fans. "Super 8" I thought was really really great. It had the same kinda of feel that movies like ET or Close Encounters had. That feeling of small town comfort being challenged by something more substantial than our small lives.

I don't know, its kinda hard to explain. Basically that the unknown does not always need to be feared.

I like that.

Also Transformers was not completely terrible, Harry Potter was really good although it felt a little rushed towards the end. X-Men was just awesome, I don't know why some people didn't seem to think much of it I thought it was brilliant. I loved Charles Xavier being portrayed as a confident cocky play boy. I also like that Magneto felt totally justified in everything he does and that maybe Prof X is wrong after all.

Its funny after writing that I thought about a bit in Transformers that puts me in the same kind of devils advocate type thoughts. At the end of the movie the main Baddie (spoilers) Sentinel Prime uses the line "the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few" which is an obvious reference to Star Trek and more specifically Spock. Sentinel Prime is voiced by Lenard Nimoy (aka spock) and this line comes directly from the Moive "The Wrath of Kahn". Spock says this famous line just before he sacrifices himself to save the crew of the Enterprise. The meaning of this line is really self explanitory, that sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. But whose greater good?

In Transformers Sentinel is trying to open a portal to bring the entire ruined planet of.......Transformia? I don't remember, its a pretty stupid movie. But anyway he is going to bring this giant robot planet into our solar system and use the humans as slaves to help rebuild their ruined world. He just wants to save his people. As he is dramatically reaching for the button on the doohicky to pull the thing through he says that line. "The need of the many (many being the billions of other robots) out weigh the needs of the few (the few being us tiny stupid little flesh-lings). So its interesting that something so obviously true, and right, and noble in one movie, can be turned on its ear in another.

Just makes you stop and think about how powerful justifications can be.

Makes me stop and think about it anyway.

Still have Capt America, Cowboys and Aliens, and Planet of the Apes to go. Exciting.

Also I had no real reason to be writing this. Sorry if its not very good, I'm just bored and felt like writing something.

"I can call any girl in my phone right now, have a pillow in her mouth watch her bite down"
Childish Gambino

Taking two steps forward and one step back is harder than it sounds. Also you look silly.

So I was thinking about how not a lot of girls play video games and why that might be.While its true that there are a lot more female gamers today then there were twenty or even ten years ago, its no stretch to say they probably only make up less than 20% of total gamers. (and unless there are parrots or dolphins out there playing its pretty easy math to figure out the rest are guys.) So I started to think that maybe there was a sociological reason behind it. I mean women and men share lots of common interests. I know girls who are way more into sports than I am. Music and movies for the most part transcend genders. Hell gender itself is starting to get a little fuzzy. So why the stark difference when it comes to video games?

I think it may come down to marketing. Think about all of the great classics of the NES era. There were a few games that I feel were pretty unisex. As in they had not much to do with machismo or violence or babes. Tetris, Pac Man, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Zelda etc. Those few were the ones probably responsible most of the girls my age who play video games. But take a look at all the other titles from that time. Contra, Battle Toads, Castlevania, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Metal Gear, and on and on. These are all very guy centric games, boy centric really even. Big guns, big tits, evil bosses, and monsters. Its no wonder not to many girls got into them. So what happens is the market sees that more boys play games then girls and the cycle continues. Mortal Combat where ninjas ripped each others spines out. Heavy Metal, a demolition derby with missals. Duke Nukem where you could actually give strippers money, and kill alien pig cops with a B.M.F.G. (big mother fucking gun)How about Dead or Alive which introduced the oh so inventive boob jiggle physics. And of course as guys we ate it up. Yes I liked Dead or Alive, I was fifteen and there were jiggling ninja boobs in my video game. How could I not.

But Where in all this were the girls? Who was representing them? I can't even think of a good game on the NES that was more aimed towards girls than guys. Maybe a terrible Barbie game here and there. The occasional Disney game that were always a controller smashing, hair ripping nightmare. Echo the Dolphin for the Sega Genesis wasn't bad, but not much else comes to mind.

There has never really been a competent game directed at girls until recently. Even then how far can things like Nintendogs or Dance Central go as far as bridging that gap.

Now that I'm writing all this though I'm thinking about what really may be the core problem. What kind of womens interests would translate well into a game? I'm not being sexist as much as just uncreative. What would a game that women like, but guys don't care for, even be about with out being pandering or outright misogynistic? A Sex in the City action adventure? A first person Fashion Designer game? How about a Twilight RPG. (that ones actually not a bad idea really)

Again I'm not trying to be sexist about this. Its just hard to think of things that girls like that would make a good game. Maybe the real problem is that women are unique and complex complex creatures with widely varying tastes and interests. Men on the other hand I guess are just easily amused lizard brained trolls, so its easy to create compelling games for them.

I mean big guns, big tits, evil bosses and monsters? Sounds fun to me.


"I mean just cause I don't wanna war with you, it don't mean go warm up the barbecue. It's like "pardon you" a Sawed off limit, my high noon is a quick little minute. I don't want to spend it sitting with a critic, who simply isn't ever really gonna get it."
-Aesop Rock

I keep getting the urge to break my ankle. Is that a thing? Do I have a thing I'm unaware of.

Sometimes when I read an article on a website that I thought was interesting I,against my better judgment, read the comments at the bottom. For the life of me I can't figure out why I put myself through this torture. Endless forum wars where no one proves any point well enough to have the opposition concede and so it just continues on and on until its a complete farce. Where are these people and what do they do? I do not have time to argue with strangers on the internet and I don't do anything. ( no really I did almost nothing today, read a book, listened to a podcast, pet my cat. That was really my whole day.) Still though I would not consider it a prudent use of my time to look up Wiki facts and spell check my poorly written rebuttals on why Pikachu is a racist stereotype.

These people are seriously sad. Make broad sweeping generalizations about people they have never met and accusing them of everything from being a liberal commie fascist dolphin rapist, to a neocon socialist butt sucking Indian giver. Sitting on their highest of horses shielding themselves with esoteric factoids and misremembered wives tales. Get back to work! The offices of Gabin, Stienstienson, and Bob don't pay you to sit at your cubicle and have a flame war over the finer points of Transformer mating rituals.

Yes Mr. Smarty pants I realize the irony of saying these people are sad for making generalizations of other people. But at least I admit that I to am petty and sad, but at least I don't do it very often. Right? ...Guys?

This is the part where I get bitter about it all though. Ready?...I KEEP READING!!

Why? WHY? would I sit there and tell myself "I hate this, this is completely detracting from the thoughtful and informative article I just read" and still just keep plugging away? Ten pages in and I have officially spent more time reading the dumb ass comment war than I did the original article! Its like a disease. What is the point of reading the thoughts and opinions of the professional writer that you came for, only to drown it in the ass water of the everyday trolls and troglodytes that roam the internet spewing said ass water? What is ass water? No idea! Find out and then figure out how to make it and then try and market it. It will have been a more practical use of your time than reading an internet argument.

Its like a car wreck or a reality TV show that involves judges, you don't like what you see but you are going to watch any damn way. We have to be drawn to stupidity and drama naturally, it must be in our blood. If anyone is at all interested in the article and subsequent comments that started me down this line of thought, then here.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/28/racists-batman-muslim-paris/1#comments

Also as this is my first "note" on facebook I would like to take this opportunity to say that I don't like the way its set up and will not be posting any more on here.( if you are reading this on my blog and not on facebook you can probably ignore that last sentence, although you are perfectly free to not ignore it and get all confused as well. No pressure, the choice is yours) There is a link to my blog on my profile somewhere if you are interested. I am going to be writing in it more since I am trying to loose one bad habit and replace it for a good one. I am trying to stop smoking, doing good so far only two per day the last two days, going to see if I can make it all day with out one tomorrow. The good habit want to replace with it is writing though. So every time I feel the need to smoke I will write something either on my twitter, or in my notebook, or on my blog depending on where I am.

Word to warning coworkers if I am sitting somewhere scribbling in my note book furiously, it might be best to not disturb me.

Just Kidding.


"What I don't recall is when I said, I simply can't sleep in this tiny bed, with you anymore"
-Ingrid Michaelson