January 25, 2001

It's come to my attention that a whole raft of you are here at Schlock Mercenary for the first time. Maybe it's the "toasted snake" banner ad, or maybe you have cool friends slipping you my URL... either way, I feel honored to have so many new eyeballs scoping out my schlock. My commitment to you... something fun every day, forever. Or until I die, whichever comes first.

I'd like to take just a moment to point out three cartoonists whose artistic talents surpass mine, but who seem to have dodged the old fame bullet (at least for the time being). I realize by doing this I may end up getting flamed by hundreds of cartoonists whose talents surpass mine, and whom I did not mention, but for now these three float to mind.

The first is Lee Adam Herold, whose daily, single-panel strip Chopping Block is an artistic masterpiece, and is funny every day. I don't know how he does it. Be warned, though. The subject matter may be a little disturbing... he's making fun of the life of a Wes-Cravenesque serial killer in a hockey mask.

The second is Adam Burke, whose film-noirish Diabolica frustrates me every Tuesday and Thursday when I want a new episode, but have to wait a day. Definitely start with the first strip on this one. It's witty, funny, and quite serial.

Finally, I wanna plug Albert Temple and his excellent strip Gene Catlow. I don't know what hooked me on this strip, but it might be the mystic deification of caffeine in a hyperactive telepathic rabbit. That sounds so trite. Start here. You're in for a treat.