If You Want It By Christmas… Friday, November 21st, 2008 This is a friendly reminder to Schlockers outside of the United States: the free shipping deal is running through the end of the year, but if you want to have your stuff in hand before Christmas, you need to act now. The latest we can ship stuff and be sure that it’ll get to you before Christmas is Monday the 24th of November. Tuesday might be okay. Wednesday less so. After that the Thanksgiving holiday hits, and shipping from the US slows to a deluged crawl. I’m happy to see lots of first-time buyers from overseas picking up Schlock books. Shipping overseas costs about $40, which is pretty steep. By offering free shipping for purchases of $100 or more we’re taking a pretty steep hit on profits, and you’re getting a great deal. I wish we could afford to run this deal all the time, but it ends on the 31st of December. Head on over to the store and take advantage of us before we come to our senses. Filed under Merchandise | No Comments »

The OFU Coloring Project Monday, November 17th, 2008 As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m recoloring all 234 rows of comics that go into Schlock Mercenary: Out From Under so that the book looks better. From time to time I question the wisdom of this. I don’t know that it will result in extra sales, and even if it does I suspect that they fall beyond the point of diminishing returns. The bean-counter in me says the strips are good enough as-is, and I should get over it. Then I come across a row like the one below. My “touch-ups” make it look more like this. And I feel justified in my work. I’m not changing the line art (well… not much. A few lines, here and there, but only the very worst offenders) but the depth that I’m getting from simple gradient fills and cel-shading is adding a lot to the project. I hope you all like it. I only have 152 rows left out of 234. I’m 35% done! Filed under Cartooning, Merchandise | 53 Comments »

Assorted Reminders Sunday, November 16th, 2008 I haven’t mentioned it in weeks, but that doesn’t mean the Schlock Mercenary RSS feed has gone away. Au contraire! It is alive, well, and being fed some 2,300 times per day. There is also a separate feed for this blog, which is unsurprisingly not nearly so popular. It tops out at around 72. Other RSS-ish things that you don’t need RSS to get: Writing Excuses is now into Season 2, and Episode 6 is up! Join us for a discussion on “Endings” and get a sneak peek into the process I used to tighten up the impending climactic ending for Book 10 — Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse. Finally, don’t forget that we’re running a “free shipping anywhere on the planet” sale at store.schlockmercenary.com. All you have to do is spend $100 or more with us. Forget 700-billion-dollar stimulus packages. I can get stimulated with a C-note and a shipping address. (Note: please do not take that last sentence out of context.) Filed under Site News, Merchandise, Podcasts | 15 Comments »

Schlock Mercenary: Out From Under Thursday, November 13th, 2008 Schlock Mercenary: Out From Under is the title of the next book in the series. For purposes of folder naming, product codes, and the like, that name is reduced to the acronym “OFU.” I’m sure you can think of impolite things to spell with that acronym. Please don’t, though. Just think of it as “UFO” backwards, okay? Progress on OFU is proceeding behind the desired schedule. Here’s the timeline: once we finish laying the book out, it takes about three months to get product into your hands. That doesn’t sound much like a schedule, does it? Here’s some more detail. I need to script, pencil, ink, and color about five pages of Bonus Story. I also need to re-color or touch up all 235 image files for the book’s content. Finally, I need to create about 20 pieces of margin art and maybe half that many new footnotes. Oh. And a cover. I need to create a cover. That’s still not a schedule. That’s a task list. I think I can get all that work done in three months, including the month of November. This means that product should, theoretically, be shipping sometime in late April or early May. Right now I’ve got 61 of the 234 strip images re-colored. I’ve done no work on the Bonus Story, margin art, new footnotes, or the cover. But I’m working on whittling that list down a little bit every day, and I think I can knock everything down by the end of January, provided I stick with it. At that point I’ll need to begin work on Schlock Mercenary: Mad Science Means Never Having To Ask ‘What’s The Worst Thing That Could Happen?’ That book will likely need a shorter, snappier title. But that’s a problem for the dead of winter… Filed under Site News, Merchandise | 28 Comments »

November 11th: You Amaze Me Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 When I consider the sacrifices of the men and women who serve or have served in the United States Armed Forces I question my worthiness. It is to them I speak right now. You fought for me long before I was born. You fight today, that I might not have to. You disciplined yourselves, obeyed orders, and faced your worst fears that I might be an undisciplined, disobedient coward. I hide in my basement and write comic strips. You walk down the middle of the street in clothing that screams “target.” I pay for my mistakes by getting occasional hate-mail. You pay for everybody’s mistakes with your blood. In a world where it is increasingly unpopular to be an American you wear a flag on your shoulder when you go abroad, while I lounge comfortably behind the borders you and your brothers across the generations have secured. I am humbled to find servicemen and women reading and enjoying Schlock Mercenary. Sometimes I am asked whether I have ever served in the military. I never have. I considered it briefly, but I was afraid. You, however, were not afraid. Or if you were, you were also wise enough to know that fear is a thing to be faced, and it is the one thing that MUST be faced before you can face anything else. It has taken me twenty years to learn that lesson. You bought those twenty years for me, affording me the opportunity to learn about courage while comfortable. When I consider your many sacrifices I find myself unworthy of them. But I accept them with gratitude, and applaud you with a sense of awe. Thank you for doing what I cannot. You amaze me. Filed under Uncategorized | 57 Comments »