Dave Kellett, probably my favorite working cartoonist, had a birthday the other day and asked his readers to recommend his strip in honor of the day. I’ve done so in person, but I figured why should the precious few people I talk to in Real Life&#153 get all the good stuff?

Really, truly, if you like comics, if you feel yourself not laughing enough at the sorry state of “funny pages” in your local newspaper (assuming you’re one of the dying breed who still get one of those things), or if you like reading things that range between quite amusing to laugh out loud funny, you need to read Sheldon.

Kellett describes the comic thusly:

Sheldon is a sarcastic, nerdy family strip filled with pop-culture references and fun, random storylines. At its center is this weird, wonderful little family: a boy, his duck, and the grandfather that raises them both. It’s a strip of geeks, for geeks, drawn by a geek. You’ll dig it: trust us.

He forgot the lizard being raised by the duck–who talks, by the way. And even if you’re not that much of a geek, the frequent food/beverage (esp. coffee) strips will be enough to keep you coming back for more.

The four members of this household who read comics (Arnold’s not quite old enough, but he will) love this strip, we have the computer/phone wallpapers, Tshirts, books, and daily emails that demonstrate it. Better yet, we have the laughs. Heck, Frodo and Samwise are known to re-enact certain strips/storylines, like this one (click for enlargement)

Incidentally, I should add that I found Sheldon a few years ago when listening to the commentary tracks from season 1 of How I Met Your Mother–one of the many reasons to be obsessive about such tracks is that you get to find little gems like this.