{"id":703,"date":"2011-05-11T14:39:51","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T20:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/?p=703"},"modified":"2019-02-12T19:14:18","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T19:14:18","slug":"schlock-mercenary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/schlock-mercenary\/","title":{"rendered":"Schlock Mercenary"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know Howard Tayler, the creator, author, and artist of the web comic “Schlock Mercenary<\/a>.” He’s a great guy, smart and fun to talk to. A few years ago a mutual friend recommended that I read the comic as I’d probably get a kick out of it, I being in the military and the strip being about mercenaries and all.<\/p>\n

I looked up the site, went to the beginning of the strip, and did not read it. Aside from being an arrogant typer of words I fancy myself an artist. Strictly part-time and amateur, but I do draw. The art in Schlock Mercenary was terrible. So terrible that I didn’t like looking at it. I feel guilty saying this now because, for heavens sake, here was a guy drawing a comic strip day-in-day-out and making money at it and all I’d ever done with my drawing was sketch in my little sketch books that I never show to anyone. But it was bad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
First Strip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, jump to March of last year. I’d finally met Howard and we got on famously. I decided to try again on the strip, just jump into the middle as it were and start with the current strip and keep reading every day until I had a handle on the story line. Joy of joys the art was no longer bad. It was, in fact, fantastic. And the story, which I hadn’t really given a chance on my first attempt, was fun and smart too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Strip I Read Last Year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which brings us to today. I still read the current strip everyday. Howard is apparently famous, and rightly so, for posting a new strip everyday without fail since day one (12 June 2000).<\/p>\n

Now, however, I’ve started over at strip one and kept going.\u00a0 I’m watching his art evolve as I do. I’m talking both story and line art here. It just gets better and better.<\/p>\n

Nicely done Howard. Nicely done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know Howard Tayler, the creator, author, and artist of the web comic “Schlock Mercenary.” He’s a great guy, smart and fun to talk to. A few years ago a mutual friend recommended that I read the comic as I’d probably get a kick out of it, I being in the military and the strip … Continue reading Schlock Mercenary<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,15,19,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","category-funny","category-humor","category-scientifiction","category-storytelling","category-web-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethanskar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}