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.