Handin' Out Free Samples... Monday September 17, 2007

No wonder this book took so long to put together. I sat down Wednesday night and counted up the pages of bonus material. There are nine pages of bonus story, and then over a hundred more pages in the book that have new content on them. So I started adding… Read more

About Saturday January 14, 2006

Howard Tayler is the award-winning cartoonist responsible for Schlock Mercenary and the inventor of the chupaqueso. He's married, and lives in Orem, UT with his wife Sandra (who posts here from time to time) and his four children (who do not.) This site is where you'll find Howard's movie and… Read more

DVD Review: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Saturday March 11, 2006

We rented Tim Burton's Corpse Bride a while back, and loved it. I'd already seen it in the theaters, but it was worth seeing again... this time with the kids. Burton's work is always hard to categorize, but it always has elements to it that say "Tim Burton did this."… Read more

Death by Cliché at 99 Cents Wednesday September 7, 2016

I’ve talked about Death by Cliché before. I really like the book, and I’m a beta-reader for the sequels. It’s a game-genre dark comedy in which an RPG designer gets shot in the head and wakes up in the terribly-designed role playing game that is being run by the young man who… Read more

Live-Tweeting an Unwatchable Movie Wednesday September 28, 2016

Technically Raiders of the Lost Shark isn’t actually unwatchable. K.B. Spangler and I did watch it, after all. We shouldn’t have. It’s not “so bad it’s funny” or “so bad it’s good.” It’s “so bad I can’t imagine how it happened.” Anyway, we live-tweeted our viewing, and then K.B. posted… Read more

Movie Review: BloodRayne Friday January 6, 2006

Okay, let's start with my instructions to you: no matter how enticing I may make this film sound, do NOT spend money on it. Don't see it in the theater, and don't rent it. Buying the DVD would be a crime against humanity. For that matter, don't bother seeing it… Read more

Friday June 17, 2011

Pacific Rim: Uprising Wednesday March 28, 2018

The last fifteen years have spoiled us. Back in MY day when we heard that a movie had a sequel we were mildly enthusiastic because we knew it wouldn’t be as good as the first one. Smokey and the Bandit II, and Sister Act: Back in the Habit present themselves as… Read more

Three Movies in Twenty-Four Hours Friday December 21, 2018

I saw three movies in twenty-four hours. It’s possible I’m on vacation. Of course, I just spent an hour reviewing all three of them, so it’s also possible I’m actually working. My job is weird. In the interest of not pushing anybody below the fold, here are links to all three.… Read more

DVD Review: Dungeons and Dragons Gets a Sequel Thursday February 23, 2006

It used to be that a successful film would get optioned for a sequel, and that "two" movies (sequels) were ALWAYS worse than what came before. There have been exceptions. Spider Man 2, X-Men 2, and Toy Story 2 were all roundly decreed by critics and audiences alike to have… Read more

Sunday February 14, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Saturday December 17, 2016

I saw Rogue One. The odds are pretty good that if you’re reading this, you’ve already decided whether or not to see it, and if you haven’t yet seen it you’d rather I not spoil anything. I’ll make this quick: It is a fine film beyond simply being a Star… Read more

Passengers Wednesday December 21, 2016

I saw Passengers on Tuesday night. Here are some words I used on Twitter: Beautiful. Powerful. Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Awesome. Chris Pratt did a fine job, and Michael Sheen was spot on, but Jennifer Lawrence absolutely owned her role, all the way to the bone. She was astounding, and without her performance the… Read more

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Friday December 15, 2017

There has been quite a bit of noise on social media regarding the spoiler content in reviews of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so I’ll be even less specific than I usually am when reviewing things that might easily be spoiled. I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Yay! Good Star Wars… Read more

Kubo and the Two Strings Tuesday September 6, 2016

See Kubo and the Two Strings before it leaves theaters. Please? I don’t have any skin in the game here, but I feel like this film deserves more attention than it is getting. I loved it. The artistry involved is absolutely stunning. Aside from being a really good story, told… Read more

It IS Cool Monday February 6, 2012

Schlock Mercenary got nominated for the “Favorite Comic Book Team” @$$ie Award over at Ain’t It Cool News. This post is exactly as long as the text mentioning Schlock Mercenary. I will cheerfully take every word of positive review I can get. Here’s to all fifty-one of them. Read more

Arrival Wednesday November 16, 2016

Arrival is brilliant, beautiful, touching, and quite thought-provoking. It clears my Threshold of Awesome, and invites me to say very little about it lest I rob my readers of the voyage of discovery the film offers. The film is adapted from Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” which can be… Read more

Commemorating Schlock 2k Thursday December 1, 2005

Tomorrow, December 2nd, the 2000th consecutive daily Schlock Mercenary strip airs. I didn't do anything commemorative in the strip itself so I decided to celebrate the milestone in another way. I'll be hanging out at Dragon's Keep all afternoon Friday (from 2pm 'till 7pm, when they close), and then helping… Read more

Tuesday July 6, 2010

The Blógünder is Back Thursday August 10, 2006

Big thanks to Daniel Meyer for his help getting php to work on the home page at schlockmercenary.com. You can again read what I've been writing about. As an added bonus, this is a live-updating script, rather than a polling solution. What does that mean to you? It means that… Read more