Couple weeks back I was on Aural Text with hosts alicia sometimes and Lorin Clarke, gabbing about Dave Kellet’s Sheldon webcomic, specifically the Literature – Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953 collection, which collects all of the words-and-books-themed strips into one volume.
As Kurt Vonnegut has so eloquently said in the past, Listen:
I was a little unsure about blogging this one. On listening back I have to admit I think I flubbed my answer to alicia’s question about where Sheldon sits within the world of comics. If I had my druthers I’d go back and have another go at answering that by simply pointing out the prevalance of webcomics and maybe delineating between webcomics that fit more into the comic book mold, and those that fit more into the comic strip mold, of which Sheldon is an excellent example.
I’d probably go on to mention the most significant difference between the comic strips native to newspapers (which have migrated to the web over time) and those native to the web, which is that the creativity and diversity and intelligence of the latter far outshines the former, another quality of which Sheldon is an excellent example.
And if I’d had any more time or druthers left over after that I might’ve gone on to precis some of my favourite strips from the collection like:
- The mashup of “that line” from Carl Sagan’s Contact and the work of Emily Dickinson
- Kellet’s response to Goodnight Moon, which echoes my own cynical sentiments on first encountering this children’s classic:
- The strip that considers the proper punctuation when using emoticons within parentheses (pictured above)
But you only get one go when you’re reviewing a comic live on the radio via telephone, and not a very long go at that. So suck it up, I says to myself, and move on. I’m pretty sure I made my main point, anyway, which is that Sheldon is a smart, funny and fun strip that’s well worth getting hooked on.
The Other Adam Ford 