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Two Years

34 Comments

Today I celebrate the 2nd anniversary of “doing it full-time.” On Monday, September 20th of 2004 I resigned from my position at Novell, came home to my home office, and wondered how I was going to be able to make it work.

I didn’t really figure it out until May of 2006. There were some really rough patches in there – particularly July of 2005, when Ad revenues were in the toilet, commission work had dried up, and we had to pay bills using a home improvement loan. And then there was the $100 Christmas.

Sandra was there for me (and I was there for her) throughout all of it, and I could not have done it without her. Of course, without her it would not have been worth doing at all.

It wouldn’t have been possible without you readers and fans, either. Thank you, everybody.

–Howard

ps. I’m celebrating by scripting, pencilling, and inking an entire week. I’d probably better get started.

34 thoughts on “Two Years”

  1. Thank you, everybody

    You’re welcome Howard. Now get back to work! 🙂

    Looking forward to many more years of Schlock!

    (BTW, I still have one of those Novell swag squeeze lights you gave out at Penguicon sitting on my nightstand.)

  3. Congrats, sir. 🙂 It’s nice to know that some people CAN make this sort of thing work… and having read your comic now for three years, it’s a great feeling to know that it’ll definitely be continuing for years to come.

    … Even if I don’t like the current plotline. *shakes fist* DON’T YOU KILL HIM OFF!!! AUGH!!!

    >Matt

    1. I think that that Kevyn is done for.

      Howard isn’t the kind of hack who pulls “it was all a dream”, or reinforcements from nowhere. (Tagon usually has the sense to organise reinforcements from somewhere. They’re more reliable.)

      However, that Kevyn might be a gateclone. It would explain why the Toughs are all equipmentless. Quite how gates, gatekeepers, or jungle-y environments (zoojack?) get involved in this mission is another matter.

      I’m not sure how Schlock would get through a filtering gate. Maybe he still looks more like “portable hard drive” than “dangerous chemical factory/shapeshifting hydrolic press hybrid” to dumb, automated systems. He seems to have lost his ominous hum again, though.

      But, hey, the guessing, hypothesising, and general uncertainty is half the fun, right? 😉

      1. Re: I think that that Kevyn is done for.

        Right now, I’m holding out for the future-clone, Captain Andreyasn. He’s glasses-less, isn’t he? Plus, as far as I know, our Kevyn is unattached, and this Kevyn seems to have a rather attractive woman mourning over him. Ah well, I guess we’ll figure it all out in the flashback.

        1. Didn’t he explode violently?

          Somehow, it’s easier to lose track of Kevyns than Gavs. Possibly becuase Gav didn’t also travel through time. Or wear an antimatter bomb next to his jugular.

          1. Re: Didn’t he explode violently?

            I don’t think he exploded. To my recollection, he made it big on stock-trading based on his future knowledge and retired somewhere. I seem to recall a friendship with General Tagon, as well. It’s been a while, I may need to take another dip in the archives soon…

            Y’know what Schlock needs? A wiki! Something like hrwiki.com would be nice. I’ve heard the creators of H*R actually reference it to help themselves keep up continuity!

          4. Re: Didn’t he explode violently?

            Besides, I thought there was only ONE Gateclone Kevyn, which is actually the Kevyn we currently have enlisted in Tagon’s Toughs. The original got splatted. I forget, though, where did the Anti-Matter-Bomb Kevyn come from…?

          5. This is the kind of confusion I’m having.

            Were we to graph Kevyns, I’ve got a gap in my memory, where the non-time-traveller Kevyn apparently forks again. (Promiscuous devil.)

            Original ---> Original  ---> Deceased (improvised gravy gun)
          `-> Gateclone ---> Alternate timeline ---> Retired (stocks)
                         `-> Non-time-traveller ---> ?
                                ? ---> Deceased (anti-matter epaulet)
                                ? ---> Currently with the Toughs

(? ---> Bleeding to death somewhere/somewhen)

            They were going to decorpitate and save anti-matter Kevyn, but he kind of provided a distraction what with his groans of “tsaarhmmd” (future Kevyn even asked how it well the epaulet worked). Looking at this strip, however, it would appear that Elf or Pranger must have snarfed the head (Tagon legged it the moment he realised what was going on, and that looks like a still-whole Kevyn on the ground in this strip). How they did this quickly without the benefit of a Dorothy wire I’m not sure, but it was probably quite messy.

            To cut a long post short, it would seem that current Kevyn == non-time travelling, antimatter-epaulet-using-but-surviving Kevyn. And that having multiple instances of your main characters combined with long plotlines and back-from-the-virtually-dead technology can be damn confusing to your readers. 😉

          6. I really should have remembered that.

            ‘Cause this strip, of AT and AM Kevyn together, contains one of my favourite Schlock quotes. (And the following one is the retirement next to General Tagon.)

            It also wasn’t the stock market which made alternate-timetime Kevyn rich—it was lottery tickets. D’oh!

          2. Re: I think that that Kevyn is done for.

            heh. I hadn’t even noticed that. Definitely lends more weight to the “gateclone” theory… but doesn’t explain the flashback sequence. Hrm…

      2. Re: I think that that Kevyn is done for.

        gateclone. *Slaps forehead* DUH! It’s been so long since that was discussed, that particular aspect dropped offline completely in my head. I’d forgotten all about that. Heh.

        But yes, the guessing and whatnot is half the fun.

  4. Congratulations.

    Your kids will talk about $100 Christmas for the rest of their lives. I know my mother and I talked about “Chicken for a week” until the day she died.

    (Shortly after my parents divorced, my mother fed herself and two teenage boys for an entire week on one chicken.)

  7. Congrats on making it to your 2 year anniversary! I’m sure it hasn’t flown by for you, but I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already.

    I’ve loved the cartoon since late 2000, and I’m looking forward to may more years of it.

    Yay Schlocky goodness!

  10. I’m glad you’ve been able to do this and had the support to help. I love the strip, and am glad that you’re able to do it full-time. Happy anniversary.

  13. Happy full-time Schlockiversary! Man. It’s an amazing thing you’ve done, both of you! Someday, you’ll be making another chunk of cash selling the book you’ll write about it. Congratulations on your brave choice, your huge talent, your wonderful family, and your hard work!

  14. Two years, that’s a lot of hard work, but it’s fantastic that you pulled it off. Congradulations!

    BTW: Would you ever be intesreted in working together some time?

  16. Thank you for writing one of the best webcomics out there. Your comic is one of the few comics that makes me laugh nearly every day, and at the same time, I care way more about your characters than those of almost any other webcomic out there.

    I hope you keep it up for a long time to come 🙂

  17. I’m more than happy to contribute to your financial security through purchases of merchandise, and the odd Amazon contribution. Thank YOU for keeping up with the Schlock. Here’s hoping you continue Schlocking along for another couple of years. 😀

  18. Being there…

    Thanks for being there. My friends and family have gotten me thru dealing with the death of my wife. Reading your comic as part of the daily routine of putting one foot forward and then putting the next one forward was one part of moving on…

    Still putting one foot in front of the other but it is easiler now.

    1. Re: Being there…

      As a man who lost both parents, I know a little bit about how important routine is. And humor.

      That’s probably why I’m so enamored of both 20 years later.

  19. Paypal link?

    I use your anniversary announcement as a reminder to contribute something in return for this fine comic. I don’t see a Paypal link anywhere though.

    Can someone direct me to the link?

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