''Sheldon'' is a daily comedy
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be co ...
created by
Dave Kellett
Dave Kellett is the creator and cartoonist of two webcomic titles, ''Sheldon'' and '' Drive'', and the co-author of ''How To Make Webcomics''.
Early years and education
Kellett is a southern California native. He graduated from the University o ...
. It centers on the odd family unit of 10-year-old software
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
Sheldon, his grandfather guardian and his talking duck, 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. Kellett's other webcomic, ''
Drive
Drive or The Drive may refer to:
Motoring
* Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle
* Road trip, a journey on roads
Roadways
Roadways called "drives" may include:
* Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive"
...
'', had appeared on the ''Sheldon'' site each Saturday, before moving to a site of its own.
Overview
''Sheldon'' is based on light character-based humor. Pop-culture references are frequent. The comic consists of a mixture of short story arcs and stand-alone strips which, although most typically are four-panel strips, vary in size and format. The strip employs
breaking of the fourth wall on occasion with characters speaking "to camera". A narrative voice, delivered through captions and other text, is also frequent.
Characters
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
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
, Sheldon mostly remains 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. Despite his wealth and intelligence, Sheldon is generally depicted as an ordinary (if extremely nerdy) ten-year-old boy.
Gramp: Sheldon is raised by his grandfather, Gramp, an older man who's not sure what to make of his grandson's billions. Now retired, Gramp tries to keep up with the modern world. He also struggles with a coffee addiction. His real first name (revealed in the October 29th, 2012 strip) is
Seamus
Seamus may refer to:
* Séamus, a male first name of Gaelic origin
Film and television
* Seamus (''Family Guy''), a character on the television series ''Family Guy''
* Seamus, a pigeon in '' Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore''
* Seamus Mc ...
.
Arthur: A duck who learned to talk when Sheldon downloaded an encyclopedia and some speech-recognition software into his head. Sarcastic and cocky, Arthur is 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
Sharper Image is an American brand that offers consumers home electronics, air purifiers, gifts, and other high-tech lifestyle products through its website, catalog, and third-party retailers. The brand is owned by ThreeSixty Group, with the U. ...
. 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 has a deep hatred for chickens, and a strong desire for
pancake
A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...
s,
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...
,
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist. After performing in church choirs as a child, Simpson signed with Columbia Records in 1997, aged seventeen. Her debut studio album, '' Swe ...
, and
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Known for her versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed C ...
.
The strip also features a small collection of supporting characters, the principal four which are:
Flaco: Thinking he was hatching an abandoned duck egg, Arthur became father to Flaco, a common North American
lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
. Most storylines have him playing second-fiddle to his duck "father", but in one extended plotline, he became a Hollywood producer for ''
CSI''. He has also won the
Pentathlon
A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...
in the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
, earned a Mexican pilot's license, gone to space as a
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
from
Baikonur, and dated
Betty White
Betty Marion White (January 17, 1922December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of Golden Age of Television, early television, with a television career spanning almost seven decades, White was noted for her vast work i ...
in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
. Flaco speaks in a characteristic "
squee" sound, which only Arthur can understand (other characters have described Flaco's voice as "...a series of high-pitched
helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
balloons
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...
").
Oso: is Sheldon's pet
pug
The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (Fawn (colour) ...
, 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 is 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. He 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. In one comic, it is shown that he is
lactose intolerant
Lactose intolerance is a common condition caused by a decreased ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in dairy products. Those affected vary in the amount of lactose they can tolerate before symptoms develop. Symptoms may include abdominal ...
.
Emily: is Sheldon's newest friend, moving into their neighborhood during 2011. She is obsessed with
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
and often quotes the works of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
throughout several appearances. Though she enjoys stage acting Emily reluctantly admits that stage work is "the worst kind of job to endure." Her pet cat, Li'l Butter, appears in several other comics- frequently in danger due to his sheer stupidity.
Characters and persons from popular culture and real life also feature. Strips will occasionally feature Kellett himself and his real-world exploits as opposed to the fictional ''Sheldon'' universe.
Books / Book reviews
;Cartoon compilations published to date:
*''Still Got It: The Seventh Sheldon Collection''
*''Living Dangerously With Saturated Fats: The Sixth Sheldon Collection''
*''Nerds On Parade: The Fifth Sheldon Collection''
*''Pugs: God's Little Weirdos''
*''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''
*''Pure Ducky Goodness: The First Sheldon Collection''
*''A Well Balanced Meal: The Very Best of: Four Food Groups of the Apocalypse''
;Book reviews:
Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-StandardFleen.com
Awards
In 2016, ''Sheldon'' won a
Reuben Award
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
in the "Online Comics - Short Form" category.
Media appearances
;Articles / interviews
London Daily TelegraphWizard* Fleen
part 1part 2 an
part 3
The Costco ConnectionUCSD GuardianPhi Kappa Phi Forum
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
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
's student newspaper ''The Observer'' from 1993 to 1996. Kellett later gave Sheldon 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
United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...
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
retcon
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
ned 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.
On 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 ran 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
Scott R. Kurtz (born March 15, 1971) is an American webcomic artist. Known for creating the daily online comic-strip '' PvP'', Kurtz is among the first professional webcomic creators.
Career
Kurtz was born to a Catholic household in Watsonville ...
of
PvP,
Kris Straub
The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its dist ...
of
Starslip Crisis, and
Brad Guigar
Brad Guigar (born April 9, 1969) is an American cartoonist who is best known for his daily webcomic ''Greystone Inn'' and its sequel ''Evil Inc.''
Early life
Brad Guigar was the eldest of five children and grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. He atte ...
of
Evil Inc.
Brad Guigar (born April 9, 1969) is an American cartoonist who is best known for his daily webcomic ''Greystone Inn'' and its sequel ''Evil Inc.''
Early life
Brad Guigar was the eldest of five children and grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. He att ...
to form a new webcomics collective,
Halfpixel.com.
In 2009 Kellett started a new, sci-fi motivated comic titled 'Drive' (updated on Thursdays) and since approximately the same time reduced the update schedule of Sheldon to five comics a week, Monday through Friday.
References
{{Reflist, 2
External links
Official ''Sheldon'' siteCreator's website''Sheldon'' forum
1990s webcomics
2000s webcomics
American comedy webcomics
Gag-a-day comics
Comics about ducks
Fictional lizards
Comics about dogs
1999 webcomic debuts
1999 comics debuts
Fictional businesspeople
Comics about animals
1999 establishments in the United States
Webcomics in print