Two seconds of soap-boxin':

1.) Perhaps take a few moments to learn about how SOPA and PIPA work. Here is a good start.

2.) Print and mail letters to your state’s senators and representatives, urging them not to support this. Physical mail is harder to ignore than email. It piles up. It has to be put into those 1930's-looking satchels labelled "MAIL". You can find representatives’ addresses here and senators’ addresses here.

3.) Call your senators and representatives on the phone and urge them not to support the bills. See above links for phone numbers or click here to get a quick list of representatives based on where you live.

Heads up for Sheldon art lovers! I'm putting a nifty piece of Sheldon Original Art up for grabs, called "Readin' the Funnies." It's Sheldon, Flaco, and Arthur reading comics in the paper, on their phone, and on their laptop.

It's drawn in lightfast, archival inks on acid-free, vellum Bristol stock. The cardstock measures 14" x 5.5" inches, while the drawn image is roughly 13" x 3" inches. I'm starting the bidding at one penny, as I'd rather leave it up to you to decide what it's worth. And shipping is free within the US! So if you're interested, head over and throw your hat into the ring!

Yesterday, the National Cartoonist Society announced the creation of a new division award: For best online comic strip. Essentially, a division award for webcomics.

Let's start with the positives: It's a great first step, in acknowledging a whole fleet of talented, professional cartoonists who are making their living in a non-traditional way. It's an acknowledgement that things are changing…and that great, great work is being done online. And it's to NCS President Tom Richmond's huge credit that he's taking the bull by the horns and trying to institute change, as there remains a very strong institutional bias in the NCS towards the newspaper world. I'm sure he's getting grief for instituting the change. Cartoonists, like all human beings, are pretty good at complainin'.

But it should be remembered that awards don't really matter. They don't. No award is life-changing, and no award makes you a better artist. You don't wake up the next day, after an award, and find that all your artistic insecurities or over-confidences have disappeared. You're the same artist, doing the same work, the next morning. But they are nice to get, and they are nice to give out. It's a kind thing to acknowledge hard work and late nights and the artistic drive to get better and better. That's a good thing. And in that vein, I'm happy to see this first step taken.

But it's just a first step. It's not perfect. And there will be complaints and bumps in the road along the way. Even I had complaints!

Tom kindly called me a few weeks back, to get my input on the award, and I was happy to chime in. My one big suggestion was (and is) to make it format-focused, and completely ignore distribution systems or business models. Have Penny Arcade compete with Cul de Sac for best comic strip. Put Achewood up against Pearls Before Swine. In my mind, this is the better path…both because:
A.) Distribution models shouldn't matter, at the end of the day. HBO *should* compete with NBC for awards, even though one is paid content and the other ad-supported, and
B.) Distribution models themselves are changing almost year-over-year at this point, so why constantly chase those delineations? And
C.) It just seems a better way to go, to compare apples-to-apples by format. Have all comics strips compete against all comic strips, the editorial cartoons against the editorial cartoons, and the single-panels against single-panels. Otherwise, we separate comics into two parallel worlds, one online, and one in print. It's like setting up separate music awards for "Best Album (on Vinyl)" and "Best Album (on CD).

But ultimately, the NCS took this as a first step, and I can accept it. Support it, in fact. I've worked in enough big organizations to know it's hard to turn a large ship. Things like this don't change overnight, and this will be a good dip of the toe into new waters. I imagine subsequent years will find more changes in how it's structured, especially as the NCS experiences a generational change. Ultimately, I think we'll have awards based on format and genre, like I suggested above…and in the meantime I'll just accept that it'll take a few years to get there.

So! To summarize: A good first step. Imperfect, and there'll be complainin' from all sides…but a good first step. And I support it.

- Dave

PS: I won't be submitting Sheldon or Drive for nomination, by the way. Having given the NCS board my input on the new division award, I think it's only best I sit this one out. There are far more worthy strips, anyway. So it's not like I'm falling on my sword over here.

Guys, I'm gettin' old. It's official. Friday's my birthday. Ain't a youngin' no mores. I realized over Christmas that my metabolism has slowed down big time in the last two years....so in a very cliched fashion I'm back in the gym. Feels good, though. A week in and I'm already feelin' better. So maybe the birthday is a good reminder to take better care of myself.

Anyway, in lieu of birthday gifts, maybe treat yourself to a Sheldon book. Not only do you get a great book...it's also a nice way of helping an artist make a living doin' what they're doin'....and hot diggety that's the nicest birthday gift of all.

As you probably noticed during the "Night Without Coffee" storyline, I've started playing around with a taller, vertically oriented format for the strip.

I'll be honest: I'm really enjoying it. Who's to say whether I'll be using it permanently, going forward, but for now I'm enjoying the change of pace. It allows for a little more stretch in the writing, and a bit more room to play with the art.

With today's strip, we start back in on our daily Sheldon installment. So here's to another year! Happy 2012, my friends!

And thank you, one and all, for the gift of reading Sheldon!

Oh snap! Big-time sales for big-time gift-givin'!

1.) Sheldon book one, "Pure Ducky Goodness," is 50% off.
2.) The 11-pack with all the Sheldon books is $40 off.
3.) In the lowest price they've ever been, all original art has been reduced $35 in the store. To snag your favorite, just click the blue type, right under the strip, that says "Buy Today's Original Art."

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4.) Plus! The new "Wine" poster is in the store, along with a handful of Arthur statues...

Do you guys remember those awesome, hand-made Arthur sculptures created by my talented friend, LA puppet and special effects artist Nikki Rice Malki? Well in good news, we have 31 available in the store, just in time for gift-givin!!

Keep in mind, these cute little duck butts are hand-crafted, and only 200 of 'em total will ever grace this world!

Here's a digital turnaround of her amazing work, to show you what we were looking at:

Untitled from Sheldon Comics on Vimeo.

Nikki's artistry can only work so fast, so there are just 31 available before the end of the year! Get 'em while the gettin's gettable!

Friday's strip. Dangerous, oversimplified stereotype? Yes.

Nonetheless true? Yes.