Category Archives: Announcements

Hey, there’s something coming up that I want to tell you about!

Announcements, Crossposted

Yes, You Read That Correctly…

Sergeant In Motion: Schlock Mercenary Book 20, will be the last book in the Schlock Mercenary “mega-arc,” the unbroken¹ string of 7,300-ish² days of daily comics airing here at schlockmercenary.com. At that point the continuity of the Schlock Mercenary universe will include those twenty books, assorted bonus stories (which appear in the volumes in print), the Seventy Maxims book, and the Planet Mercenary RPG materials.

Many of you may be asking (and indeed, many of you have already asked) “what comes next?”

Good question.

The answer requires a bit of cold, calculated business stuff. See, it’s much easier to sell a collection of stories in print when you can tell a potential buyer that the collection is complete. So no matter what comes next, it won’t make the twenty-book story feel incomplete. I’ll be leaving lots of room for readers (and RPG players) to tell their own stories about what comes next for such characters as survive the events of this final book.

That sounded a bit more ominous than I meant it to. But only a bit.

Also, all I’ve done is answer the question “what DOESN’T come next?” and that’s not what anybody is asking.

In the face of a crassly commercial decision about what NOT to make (and let’s be blunt here—between the words “schlock” and “mercenary” there is a broadly telegraphed justification for me to be crassly commercial) I need to give people a reason to keep showing up. So here is a bulleted list of things that will definitely be here after Book 20 wraps.

  • Sense of wonder
  • Witty dialog
  • Punchlines
  • High stakes adventures
  • Interesting characters
  • Schlock
    • and Schlock will still be a mercenary

It’s far too soon to go into much detail about any of this. I have a book to finish, and it would not be overstating things to say that I’m feeling a bit of pressure to brilliantly stick the landing after spending twenty years tumbling through the air pretending I know what I’m doing.

 ¹ Past results are no indication of future performance. I plan to not miss any daily updates during book 20, but blah blah mice men etc. 
² June 12th of 2020 would be day 7,306 of Schlock Mercenary, and that date falls in about the right place for me to be ending a book. Dates aren’t important though. The story says when it’s over, not the calendar.

Announcements, Crossposted, Journal

Nineteen Years

Today, June 12th, 2019, marks the 19th anniversary of Schlock Mercenary on the web. The comic has updated daily, every day, without fail, for nineteen years now. Not because I’m a machine, but because I plan ahead, and have always had smarter people than myself handling the automation.

Still, nineteen years. That window is large enough for there to be people who began reading the comic when they had no children, and who are now grandparents.

I don’t think that’s likely, because the starting audience was not large, but that’s what nineteen years looks like.

Announcements, Crossposted

Watch Me Play D&D Tonight!

Tonight (Tuesday, June 4th, 2019) at 7pm (9pm EDT) I’ll be a guest player at the Typecast RPG table. That link leads to their Twitch stream, so you’ll be able to watch live as I make a half-orc of myself.

The game is run by Dan Wells, and the three core players are Charlie Holmberg, Mari Murdock, and Brian McClellan. The setting is a D&D 5 home-brew featuring magical flying cities and other stuff I still need to read up on.

I really do need to read up, because tonight I’m playing a half-orc bard, a traveling scholar who does bounty hunting on the side. It would be pretty embarrassing if I didn’t know at least some of the lore of the place. Especially if the occasion calls for me to set some of it to song during battle.

Here’s the Typecast RPG home page, and for good measure another link to the Typecast RPG Twitch stream.

Announcements, Crossposted

Originals on eBay! Discounts in the Store!

First, the inciting incident:
We’ve had a few months of unexpected expenses, including one major appliance failure, two dental emergencies, and the urgent replacement of a video card and 32gb of RAM. Add to that the scheduled expenses of a kitchen remodel and two kids heading to college in the fall, and finances here at Chez Tayler are currently rather tight.
To the auction block! 
We’ve listed a few my originals on eBay. All of these are one-of-a-kind items, and some of them are unusual, like this  rare bit of fan art I did for Warmachine,  or the hand-painted ABS plastic Game Chief screens I did as prototypes.
We’re listing seven sheets of original card art for Munchkin: Starfinder, and four of those sheets are uncut (like the page to the left), so they have TWO originals on them. Each sheet comes with the card(s) that Steve Jackson Games made out of what I drew.
We also have several things discounted in our store. including XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery (I illustrated it ) which is out of print, so if you want it, probably don’t wait.
Looking for Schlock Mercenary coinage?
All of our commemorative and challenge coins are back in stock, including the the Maxim 70 coin, and the new key fob version of that coin, which has a hole for a key ring.
Other Ways You Can Support Us

If you register with Schlock Mercenary via the right-hand sidebar, you can pledge monthly support via either Patreon or Stripe. Supporting members get access to high res versions of the strips, week-at-a-time browsing, and can even read Schlock Mercenary ad-free!