Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

What made you want to start a web comic?

I was going to grad school in England in 1998, and putting
together a packet of comic strips to submit to newspaper
syndicates. But at the same time, I wanted to share them with family and friends back home....so I put them up online. Lo and behold, within a month or two I had a few hundred readers, and then it grew and grew from there. Around 2002, it had grown to the point where I realized "to heck with chasing the dream of getting into a dying newspaper career, webcomics are where my future's headed."

Are you a big fan of web comics yourself?

You'd think I read like 50, based on what a cheerleader I am for the medium. But the busier I become in my own work, the less time I have to just sit and trawl a bajillion sites. I read only read three strips, daily: Starslip, Evil Inc and PvP regularly (starslip.com, evil-comic.com, pvponline.com)...and then there's a dozen or so I check in on every few weeks.

 When you first started Sheldon, did you ever think he would become as big as he has done?

I always hoped so, yes, and honestly have been working my *** off for the past decade to get it there. Which I think is an important point for young artists to hear: Yes, lightning does strike for a handful of artists, but for most, it's a matter of working very hard, every day, until 2 or 3 in the morning, for the better part of a decade. During illnesses, deaths in the family, and any other troubling time...continuing to work.
Even still, Sheldon's not nearly as big as I want it to be. My next five-year plan has it growing substantially.

Sheldon is a billionaire but we rarely see him spending his money, do you do this intentionally to give the comic a moral backbone?

I like that aspect of it. It's like the Kung Fu master who rarely, rarely raises a fist, and when he does, it's the most elegant deflection of an attack. There's a strength in not succumbing to money, I think.

Where did the name of the strip come from?

Sheldon, as a character, originally appeared in my undergrad comic strip that I produced at Notre Dame. When I started working on a new project, he was the only character I brought forward into the next strip. But as to how my brain originally landed on "Sheldon" back in college, I honestly can't remember. It's a bit lost in the fog of time.

When was it you realised your comic would be able to support you financially?

Around 2004 I realized that I was coming close to matching my corporate income as a senior creative at Mattel. But I'm very conservative when it comes to finances, so I intentionally gave it another few years -- until Jan 2007 -- before I made the leap to *just* relying on Sheldon as my sole income. Thankfully, the income has continued to grow, even during the recessionary years, so I'm feeling good about the strip's long-term financial future.

Sheldon has been going for a long time; do you ever get bored of it?

I don't get bored of it, per se, but I do need other outlets. So occasionally I'll do some sketch comedy in LA, or (in recent years) do theatre in
LA, Miami, or NYC. It's a nice way to.....