I have a treat for you.

So you're reading Schlock Mercenary, and thinking to yourself that you really wish you could get more of your favorite amorph, because by now you're addicted and that means it takes two to three times what it used to before you've got your fix.

You peruse the forums, consider (briefly) buying a t-shirt, and wonder for a moment what schlockerrific goodness may await you in the Schlock Premium Gallery (but you only wonder long enough to realize that you're really not in the mood to spend any money. That's okay. I like my entertainment cheap and free, too. I'm not passing judgement.)

I have a treat for you. Click right here to start loading it up in a new window. You see, Ralph Hayes, a Schlock fan, and a cartoonist of no mean talent in his own right, has been running a crossover of sorts since June 21st. I haven't plugged it until now because, frankly, I wanted to see whether or not he could follow through on it. I mean, it's not as if I actually DOUBTED him, but I didn't want to point my readers at stuff I'm sure they'll love, only to have them get all disappointed in it and then take out their frustrations on ME.

Ralph and I collaborated a bit on what he could and couldn't use in the Schlockiverse (I denied him access to Ob'enn warlords, but let him use Loxies freely and liberally, for example), and although this adventure cannot be canonized, it's much truer to the spirit of the characters I've got living in my head than most fan-fic can hope to be.

Here's the best plug I can give it: I wish *I* had come up with this story. I've enjoyed reading it so far, and while it's not done yet, it's come as close to having a satisfactory conclusion as anything I've ever written. (Note: This may lend credence to my theory that there are other cartoonists out there whose work gets less attention than mine, but that may be every bit as good. I'll keep you posted...)

Go read it. You know you want to. And if I don't hear from Ralph that you've absolutely clobbered his site with page-views, I'll be sorely disappointed.

In less exciting news, the boys playing 'lookit the shiny thing' with the Hubble Telescope found a new planet in our Kuiper belt (which, apparently, is a lot like finding a $20 bill in a couch crack in a college dormitory). Here's the scoop.