Seven Years
Posted June 11th, 2007 by Howard TaylerWow.
Today, June 12th of 2007, marks the seventh anniversary of the first appearance of Schlock Mercenary on the web.
The first three or four weeks of the strip went up in June of 2000 in a long-extinct subdirectory of the tayler.com domain. Then I discovered Keenspace (now ComicGenesis), and their automation made my life much easier.
For the first three months the strip never had more than about 150 readers. When I joined Keenspot in September of 2000 that number immediately grew by more than an order of magnitude. It continued to grow, and four short years later, in September of 2004, I left my day job with Novell. Not long after that I flirted briefly with anti-collectivistic independence, and then wisely joined eight fellow pros here at Blank Label Comics. Server logs lately indicate that somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 people enjoy the strip each day.
And it really has been “each day.” Schlock Mercenary has run daily, without fail, for seven years now. There have been some “late” updates, but for me “late” means the server needed to be reminded that there was a comic to be displayed. And as of this writing the next forty-seven days of the strip have been inked.
Lots of aspiring webtoonists ask me for advice. I have none to offer. I spent four years neglecting my family and working seventy- to ninety-hour weeks between my day job and the comic strip. My strategy was “deliver the goods every day, without fail, forever.” I’m pretty sure that qualifies as “doing it the hard way.” Nobody who asks for advice is looking for the hard way.
I celebrated the day before the anniversary writing a bonus story for the next book. This bonus story will have as its last strip a re-imagining (with the same dialog) of the very first strip on the web, where Schlock enlists with the Toughs. This particular bit of writing drove home just how far I’ve come in the last seven years. I’ve grown almost immeasurably as an artist, significantly as a writer, and quite tangibly as a businessman.
Through it all, however, I have been humbled by you, fair reader. You have graciously allowed me to capture small slices of your imagination, and thousands of you have contributed in recent months and years to allow me to pursue this work full-time. Sandra and I (and our four kids, two of whom are younger than Schlock) stand gratefully in your debt. We remain committed to delivering this strip right here, every day, for free, forever (or until I die.)
Every so often someone will email me and say “I feel guilty for spending a mere 20 seconds reading an update that must have taken you hours to create.” My response: Please don’t feel guilty. First, it didn’t take hours. Art for art’s sake can take its time, but art for money has to go fast. Second, you should know that there is a psychic energy generated by tens of thousands of people laughing at the same time, and I’m working on getting it to power my giant robot.
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June 11th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Yeah.. about the giant robot. i’m afraid we’ve had a few setbacks. And the grease elf with the wrench said they were having problems with the psy collectors.
i’ve personnaly only been reading for just over a year myself and have greatly enjoyed the ride. i look forward to it going a lot longer, and giving you even more of my money. you’ve only managed $150 so far, i’m sure you can do better ;)
June 11th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Congratulations. As a college cartoonist thinking of becoming more professional, you are currently my hero.
My only concern is this: after you die, will the comic just end mid-arc? Or do you have an “everybody dies” scenario that can be posted posthumously?
Unless of course you manage to do it forever. In which case congratulations in advance.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Oh, quit reminding us. ;) If Schlock is 7 then, I’ve been reading for over half the lifetime of the strip. (Still a newbie by the standards of many here I know.) So, in the last 4 years, you’ve created this cool universe and done all this amazing writing and coloring and yadda yadda yadda, and I’m forced to look at myself and say, “So, rbliss, what have YOU created in the last 4 years?” My self esteem isn’t taking it well.
Seriously, congratulations on 7 great years, and best wishes for many, many more. A fair amount of green has transferred from the Bliss household to the Tayler house, but I figure I’ve still come out WAY ahead.
It’s hard to put a value on a laugh. :)
June 11th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
LilSpriteX: The details of my posthumous plans shall remain a secret for now. This seems to be an effective provision for additional suspense…
June 12th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Rock on, Howard!
I already put my unofficial preorder in for the next book :)
June 12th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Congratulations! Hard work pays off, in the end. May I suggest something else to sell? Anyone with a 3D printer ought to be able to run off BH-209s for you…
June 12th, 2007 at 4:24 am
At breakfast this morning my son, all of 20 months, points to Schlock’s plasgun on my t-shirt, and says “MMMMMMMMMMM”.
There you have it, folks, he’s a fan already! (I’ll just brush the fact that anything even vaguely resembling a hairdryer goes “MMMMMMM” according to him conveniently under the carpet.)
I still remember the very first Schlock Mercenary strip I ever read – where the smart bombs are discussing when they should blow up the Kitesfear. (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20010207.html)
June 12th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Thanks for seven great years Howard.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:53 am
woo! 7 years, who’d'a thunk it?
You have my unstinting admiration. I wasn’t in at the beginning, but I was there when you quit from Novell and “went for it” and I know what sort of decision that must have been – and I’m delighted for you that it seems to be working. Roll on the next book to add to the collection!
By a concidence it’s now almost 8 years I’ve been doing the main contract I do which TPTB are about to pull the plug on. However, your fanatical (in a good way) devotion to delivering the goods puts the rest of us self-employed bums to shame. I’m more like the Whiteboard guy – projects stacked up awaiting finishing…
June 12th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Congrats on the continued success. I have about a dozen bookmarks in my webcomics folder, and it’s always good to know that when I hit the “open all” button, I can be confident that at least one of them will be new each and every day, no matter what time of the day I read them. The fact that it’s always entertaining and leaves me wanting more is icing on the cake.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Congrats Howard and the Tayler Corp. Thank you for your devotion and hard work in putting out a quality strip for the last 7 years. I’m glad you shared with us those stories in your head.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Congratulations! You definitely did it the hard way and you deserve all your success.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Congratulations and thanks for seven years of daily strips! I’ve only been reading for three of those years, but when I did start reading it was a lot of fun going through the archives.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Congratulations, man – you deserved it. :D
June 12th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Yo, HoTay!
Congrats man! Who would’ve thought a talking turd with a blaster with an “Ominous hummmmm” could steal so many hearts. I know how much work it takes to do this kind of stuff, and how much it takes to do it well for so long. Good job buddy! Thanks for giving some of us smaller dudes a little nudge in the right direction.
Congrats from MonsterhedZ!
Ronnie.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Thanks, Howard. I’m proud and pleased as punch to be a part of the “HoTay-HoTay devotee” relationship. All best.
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