Sheldon (webcomic)

Infobox webcomic|
title = Sheldon

http://www.sheldoncomics.com]
caption =
author = Dave Kellett
url = [http://www.sheldoncomics.com/ SheldonComics.com]
status = Daily; 7 days per week
began = June 21, 1999
ended =
genre =
ratings =

Sheldon is a daily webcomic created by Dave Kellett. The comedic strip centers on 10-year old software billionaire Sheldon, his dim-witted grandfather and his talking duck, Arthur. The strip follows a traditional newspaper format of black and white Monday-Saturday with a larger color strip on Sundays.

Characters

The strip centres on the unconventional family unit of Sheldon, Gramp and Arthur. Much humour is character-based, often joking at traits such as Sheldon's geekiness, Gramp's old age or Arthur's over inflated ego.

Sheldon: is a ten-year-old kid who earned billions with his own software company: Sheldonsoft. Though his huge riches occasionally tempt him into buying something frivolous like, say, Panama, Sheldon remains pretty much a normal kid. A running joke in the strip is the boy genius often forgets about his company, preferring to concern himself with more everyday affairs.

Gramp: Sheldon is raised by his grandfather, Gramp, a warm-hearted guy who's not quite sure what to make of his grandson's billions. Now retired, Gramp tries to keep up with the modern world, only to find that the main challenge of his golden years is fitting into his slacks.

Arthur: the Wonder Duck learned to talk when Sheldon downloaded an encyclopedia and some speech-recognition software into his head. He's been trouble ever since. Sarcastic and cocky, Arthur's constantly getting into trouble at home and at the Sheldonsoft offices. Unlike Sheldon, he's captivated with the Sheldonsoft billions, and constantly has visions of shopping sprees at The Sharper Image. Some of Arthur's alter-egos include "The Duck", a superhero, and "Rex Chestington", a pug-riding cowboy. In daily life, Arthur is often found sitting on lampshades for no other reason than to keep his ducky behind warm. It is known throughout the strip that Arthur, for some reason, has a deep hatred for chickens, and a strong desire for pancakes, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Flaco: Thinking he was hatching an abandoned duck egg, Arthur became father to Flaco, a common North American lizard. Most storylines have him playing second-fiddle to his duck "father", but in one extended plotline, he became a Hollywood producer for "CSI". Flaco is anthropomorhic but doesn't speak, aside from his characteristic "squee" sound.

Oso: is Sheldon's pet pug, a whirlwind of energy. Oso was given to Sheldon as a Christmas present in 2005. Oso is mostly shown running around in circles, constantly barking (or, as it's termed in the strip, "hyping"), and acting as "Rex Chestington's" horse.

Dante: is one of Sheldon's human friends, an aspiring artist. Seen extensively in the earlier days of the strip, Dante now only makes occasional appearances. Enjoys hanging out with Sheldon and doing regular-10 year-old-kid stuff. (as much as that's possible when your best friend is one of the biggest, most successful nerds on the planet) The two have done everything from making sandcastles to playing superheroes and villains to re-enacting the British battle with the Spanish Armada.Dante's the friend every 10-year-old supergenius needs.

Books / Book Reviews

;Cartoon compilations published to date:
*"A Blizzard of Lizards: The Fourth Sheldon Collection"
*"62% More Awesome: The Third Sheldon Collection"
*"The Good, The Bad & The Pugly: The Second Sheldon Collection" ISBN 978-0-9655060-3-8
*"Pure Ducky Goodness: The First Sheldon Collection" ISBN 0-9655060-1-0
*"A Well Balanced Meal: The Very Best of: Four Food Groups of the Apocalypse" ISBN 0-9655060-0-2

;Book Reviews:
* [http://www.sheldoncomics.com/images/blogimages/blog_080112b.jpgSyracuse Post-Standard]
* [http://www.sheldoncomics.com/images/Newspaper_Syracuse.jpgSyracuse Post-Standard]
* [http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/pick2005/p05-1016.html Notre Dame Magazine]
* [http://www.fleen.com/archives/2006/03/01/fleen-book-corner-pdg/ Fleen.com]
* [http://www.websnark.com/archives/2005/09/duck_v_top_hat.html Websnark.com]

Media Appearances

;Articles / Interviews

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/09/29/dlcomic29.xml&page=2 London Daily Telegraph]
* [http://blogs.chron.com/sxsw/archives/2006/03/a_bunch_of_stuf.html Houston Chronicle]
* [http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001868185.cfm Wizard]
* Fleen, [http://www.fleen.com/archives/2006/03/06/on-syndication-an-interview-with-dave-kellett-part-one/ part 1] , [http://www.fleen.com/archives/2006/03/09/on-syndication-an-interview-with-dave-kellett-part-two/ part 2] , and [http://www.fleen.com/archives/2006/04/17/you-wont-have-dave-kellett-to-kick-around-anymore/#more-202 part 3] .
* [http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/200608/?pg=84 The Costco Connection]
* [http://www.ucsdguardian.org/cgi-bin/features?art=2004_01_12_01 UCSD Guardian]
* [http://andertoons.typepad.com/cartoon_blog/2004/09/dave_kellett_in.html Andertoons.com]
* [http://www.dynomind.com/p/articles/mi_qa4026/is_200407/ai_n9458252 Phi Kappa Phi Forum]

;TV Appearances:
* [http://www.blanklabelcomics.com/?p=65 CBS' "How I Met Your Mother"]

trip History

The character Sheldon first appeared in a minor role in Kellett's comic strip "Four Food Groups of the Apocalypse", which ran in the University of Notre Dame's student newspaper "The Observer" from 1993 to 1996. Kellett later gave him his own strip in 1998 as a webcomic, which ran on djk3.ac.uk first, then davekellett.com, and then moved to the Keenspot-hosted sheldoncomics.com in 2000. In 2001, United Features Syndicate picked the strip up for online syndication and the strip moved to comics.com on December 17, 2001. Since this move meant having all-new readers, the strip was retconned with revised versions of Keenspot comics.

The strip originally ran Monday through Friday. After the move from Keenspot to comics.com, the strip ran Monday to Saturday, until late 2004, when a Sunday feature was added.

In June 22, 2005, Sheldon also joined Blank Label Comics, an online co-op of nine cartoonists.

On November 6, 2006, Kellett moved the strip from comics.com to the independently hosted sheldoncomics.com where it runs seven days a week. According to blog entry from Nov. 11, 2006, the new site logged 2.5 million pageviews in the first five days of operation.

On November 1, 2007, Kellett left Blank Label Comics and joined with Scott Kurtz of PvP, Kris Straub of Starslip Crisis, and Brad Guigar of Evil Inc. to form a new webcomics collective, Halfpixel.com.

External links

* [http://www.sheldoncomics.com Official "Sheldon" site]
* [http://www.davekellett.com Creator's website]
* [http://www.sheldoncomics.com/forums/sheldontalk/ "Sheldon" forum]