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 of Notre Dame with a bachelors in English and Spanish. While there, he produced the daily comic strip Four Groups of the Apocalypse for the student newspaper The Observer. He earned a master's degree from University of California, San Diego in Literature with his thesis, "To draw in the crowd : the cartoon and the 'public sphere' of eighteenth-century England." He received the Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, to attend the University of Kent at Canterbury in England (within the Centre for Cartooning and Caricature Studies). There, he earned a master's degree in History of cartoon art propaganda with his thesis, "Philip Zec: Cartoonist in a Propaganda War."

Career

Dave Kellett is the creator behind the successful web comics: Sheldon about a 10-year-old computer genius billionaire, and the sci-fi strip Drive. The author of twelve comic books, and the co-author of the Harvey-Award-nominated book How To Make Webcomics, Kellett regularly speaks around the country on the subject of cartooning in new media. His Ohio State lecture can be found here: Freeing of the Comics (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Currently, he is working on a comics documentary with twice-Sundance-nominated cinematographer, Fred Schroeder. He has been an invited speaker at Savannah College of Art & Design, the Society of Illustrators, Ohio State’s triennial Festival of Cartoon Art, the Charles M. Schulz Museum, the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, Loyola Marymount University, South by Southwest Festival (SxSW), San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon and more. His cartoons have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and dozens of others.

Kellett holds two master's degrees in the art and history of cartooning: First, at the University of California San Diego; and then at the University of Kent, UK, at its Centre for Cartoon and Caricature Studies, on a full academic scholarship from the Rotary Foundation. After working for Mattel Toys as the head writer and a senior toy designer for 8 years, Dave pursued cartooning full-time in 2007. Dave started Sheldon in 1998 and Drive in 2009.

Awards

• Winner, 2015 National Cartoonists' Society On-line comics - Short Form Silver Reuben Award for Sheldon.
• Nominated for an Eisner Award in 2011
• Nominated for a Harvey Award in 2009
• Finalist, Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award (College Cartooning)
• Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar

• "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-11. Retrieved 2011-06-11. 
• Publishers Weekly on Harvey Award
• Comix Talk
• Kellett Biography
• Article on Kellett by Rotary Foundation

Authored books

Kellett has authored the following books:

• Still Got It: The Seventh Sheldon Collection ISBN 978-0-9655060-9-0
• Living Dangerously With Saturated Fats: The Sixth Sheldon Collection ISBN 978-0-9655060-8-3
• Nerds On Parade: The Fifth Sheldon Collection ISBN 978-0-9655060-7-6
• Pugs: God's Little Weirdos ISBN 978-0-9655060-6-9
• A Blizzard of Lizards: The Fourth Sheldon Collection ISBN 978-0-9655060-5-2
• 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

He also co-authored the book How to Make Webcomics.

Press & interviews

• Freeing of the Comics (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
• Catalist Magazine (via Google Translate)
• Forbes Magazine "My Turn, Your Turn" by Helaine Olen
• Syracuse Post-Standard
• Syracuse Post-Standard
• Notre Dame Magazine
• Fleen.com
• Websnark.com
• Wired Magazine
• Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio by Andertoons
• London Daily Telegraph
• Houston Chronicle
• Wizard
• Tell Tale Features
• Fleen, part 1, part 2, and part 3.
• The Costco Connection
• UCSD Guardian
• Andertoons.com
• Phi Kappa Phi Forum
• University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism Student Website

• Wired Magazine: Underwire
• ‘’A Pioneer in Web Comics’’ by Stephanie Guzman

Acting and other projects

Kellett was a part of the sketch comedy group And Donkey Makes Five from Los Angeles, California. He also performed in Comedy Central's South Beach Comedy Festival in Miami in 2009. Kellett has performed on stage in Skirts and Flirts in New York and in Los Angeles. He also performed in Der Inka von Peru at the George Wood Theatre in London.

Kellett was a co-host of the comics-focused podcast, Webcomics Weekly.