Category Archives: Announcements

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

Announcements, Crossposted, Journal

Four Weeks of Travel…

On Wednesday, July 26th, I fly out of Salt Lake City for a series of events. On Monday, August 21st, I fly back into Salt Lake City and then hook a ride back to my house.

My house, my bed, my 4-monitor PC, my lit-from-four-sides drawing table, my kitchen, my food, okay yeah my kids, my couch, my TV…

Four weeks.

FOUR WEEKS.

I’m not looking forward to this. Sure, I’m totally looking forward to the events themselves, but concatenating them in this way is throttling the joyful anticipation a bit.

The events in question? WXR 2017 on a cruise ship near something called “Europe,” WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, and GenCon Indy in Indianapolis. I get a few days of rest between each event, and that rest is theoretically enhanced by me being not on airplanes to and from my house. Also, it’s more cost-effective.

During this time it is possible that I’ll drop off the internet and forget to do things like review movies (which I won’t be seeing anyway, I guess) and participate in social media stuff.

Fortunately, the thing most people expect from me—a steady, daily supply of Schlock Mercenary—will continue for the duration of my trip. As of this writing I’m 42 days ahead, and the server’s queue of comics has been populated to the point that it can (and will!) automatically deliver comics each day without any help from me.

If you’re coming to WXR 2017, WorldCon 75, or GenCon Indy, and you happen to meet me, you now know why I look like a piece of lost meat-luggage that is three weeks past its sell-by date.

Announcements, Crossposted

Planet Mercenary is Shipping!

If you backed the Planet Mercenary role playing game on Kickstarter, your rewards (books, cards, dice, tokens, etc) are on their way. Many of you have already gotten packages, but many more of you are waiting on things that are still stacked at the Hypernode Media shipping center awaiting their turn in the “shipping and handling” portion of this process.

It’s a complex process, and Sandra is running it brilliantly. A decade ago we ran things like this with the help of an ad-hoc team of volunteers.

Not pictured: 75% of the team, and 95% of the contents of the warehouse…

These days we have a warehouse¹ and a press-ganged team of minors². The biggest limiting factor is that we’re shipping in the summer, and the warehouse is not air-conditioned. Shipping days begin at 8am, and end by noon, just before the team begins dripping sweat onto the merchandise.

My role in this is pretty simple: stay out of the way, and make comics. I’m leaving for four weeks of travel on July 26th, and must fill the buffer with at least five weeks of comics by that time, so while Sandra and her crew endure the heat and heavy lifting, I’m enjoying the A/C and my collection of art supplies³.

It is not fair, and I do feel a bit guilty about it, but it’s the only way through.

On that note, today is Friday, and I need to create an entire week of comics between now and late Saturday night, so it’s time for me to go to work…

¹ The warehouse costs almost twice as much per month as our first house did. Running a business is expensive.
² It’s not entirely comprised of minors, and everybody is paid at least minimum wage, with all of the accompanying paperwork. Again, running a business is expensive. 
³ Sometimes I draw on the couch in front of the TV, enhancing that air-conditioned, seated feeling of guilt. 

Announcements, Crossposted

Schlock Mercenary Turns Seventeen

On Monday, June 12th of the year 2000 the very first Schlock Mercenary strip appeared on the web.

Yesterday, Monday, June 12th of the year 2017 marked the seventeenth anniversary of that start date—seventeen years of uninterrupted¹ daily² updates here at schlockmercenary.com.

That I am now in my eighteenth year of doing this stands as evidence of ongoing good fortune. I’ve enjoyed seventeen full years without any sort of debilitating injury or crisis preventing me from working for more than a couple of weeks at a time. I’ve gotten sick and been injured, of course, but I keep getting better with sufficient time to spare.

At some point this streak will end. That point lies in the mists of a hopefully-distant future, and is not today.

Today I am making comics.

(Just as soon as I finish this blog post.)

If you would like to celebrate the beginning of Schlock Mercenary’s eighteenth year, you might consider sharing the strip with a friend. But whatever you do, don’t send them back to the very beginning. That would be cruel. Start here, with Book 12.  Which, by serendipitous convenience³, is the most recent of the Schlock Mercenary stories to appear in print.

How long will Schlock Mercenary continue to run? The over-arching story is in its final act, and will draw to a close soon, probably  in Book 19. But on the day following that big finish there will be another update, and another one the day after that. Those will launch a new story, featuring some characters you know, and a universe you think you know, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There is a satisfactory conclusion coming up, and you can enjoy it secure in the knowledge that it won’t end the delivery of daily strips here at schlockmercenary.com.

¹ There have been service interruptions, of course. Like that time the data center’s UPS failed, and a fire destroyed part of the facility. But Schlock Mercenary has updated every day, and with a bit of back-up hosting has never been unavailable for more than a few hours at a time.

² That’s 6,210 strips. Yes, the image files are backed up in more than one place. 

³ A friend who also happens to be flush with the good fortune of a spot of discretionary income, might purchase that book as a gift. Shared links are lovely, but a thing made out of colorful paper is a thing that will be remembered. 

Announcements, Crossposted

Last Chance!

Today is the last day you can back this project.

Our Game Chief Screen Kickstarter has funded, and manufacturing will begin sometime early next week. We will make more than we need to fulfill orders, but we might not have the opportunity to make more of these. Running the molding machinery costs around $12k regardless of the size of the run¹, and these are a niche product. We cannot promise that they’ll always be in inventory.

We will ship what’s left of our inventory to GenCon Indy in August, where a great many of the shoppers in this particular niche hang out. It is entirely possible that by the end of that show these quirky, silly, incredibly useful² tools will be forever sold out.

Act now! Like, RIGHT NOW.

¹ Financial note: In 2015 and 2016 we invested roughly $22k in R&D and mold-making. This project isn’t actually paying any of that money back yet. That’s okay, because you’ll be getting your stuff, and we’re happy to have made a cool thing, but the financial prospects for making more of these are stark. Like, Ned Stark.

² Also, incredibly customizable.