Howard Tayler's blog
Interviews and Q&A
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 15, 2009 - 11:43
I’ve been interviewed a few times in recent months and I have failed in my responsibility to you, fair reader. I never linked the interviews for you.
The first interview was back in February. Nathan Gibson interviewed me for his “Do A Barrel-Roll” blogspot site as part of a class project. He gathered a couple dozen questions that he didn’t end up using, but which I answered by way of preparation. I’ll post that Q&A below.
The second interview was for a special-interest periodical called “Mormon Artist.” Allison Aston dealt me some of the usual, “being a webcomic guy” questions, but there were also a few stumpers in there about home, family, and faith. My favorite part of the interview was the photo shoot — those shots in the sidebar are nifty.
And now, the Q&A (most of these came from you readers):
Nine Years
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 11, 2009 - 23:00
With the airing of the June 12th, 2009 installment of Schlock Mercenary I celebrate three things:
1) Nine full years of Schlock online.
2) The beginning of the tenth year of Schlock online.
3) The recycling of a nine-year-old punchline. Under the current conditions, that’s the very oldest of my punchlines I can re-use.
It’s been a great nine years. Here’s to nine more, only I want them to be even better.
The Great Office Remodel of 2009 - A Flickr Tour
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 9, 2009 - 23:19
One of the hardest lessons to learn in any business is when to do something yourself, and when to subcontract it, or outsource it, or otherwise partner with someone else in order to finish the job.
There are two object lessons in this blog post. The first and most obvious one is that I am a much better cartoonist than I am a handy-man, so Sandra and I made the wise decision to hire some folks from Three Day Kitchen and Bath to remodel my office for us.
Your Book Is In The Mail
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 9, 2009 - 12:08
Again, the Schlock Shipping Volunteers amazed us. This is the largest number of books we’ve ever shipped, and it was also the largest volume of packages we’ve ever shipped, but that didn’t stop the crew from getting them all shipped out in less than six hours.
Back in the Office, Out to Launch
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 7, 2009 - 21:21
My office is done. This room now feels like a place where I can work, study, concentrate, and focus the arcane energies of line, color, and humor into the gently-compressed JPG files you folks consume each day.
But I haven’t actually done any of that in here yet. I hadn’t moved in until Sunday, and Monday won’t be a scripting or a coloring day. It’s a day for shipping books.
Escaping to the Land of the Lost
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 6, 2009 - 18:47
The remodeling in my office is not done yet. I’ve booted the kids off of their computer for a bit so I can write this. My own computer is still disassembled, and all my furnishings and trappings remain in a heap in the family room. Today I hoped to be moving it all back into its own space, but the contractor was still laying flooring.
So I decided to go see a movie. My brother and I have had good, laugh-out-loud experiences at Will Ferrell comedies in the past, and we like sci-fantasy special-effects pics, so Land of the Lost was the obvious choice.
Out Of The Office
Submitted by Howard Tayler on June 2, 2009 - 11:54
I’m out of the office for the next four or five days.
So is everything else in my office. I’m getting it remodeled, and everything has to be out. Including my computer, which will be unplugged and stuffed in a corner of a different room.
We’ll post before and after pictures when it’s done. In the meantime, think of me when you are comfortably connected to the Internet via your favorite device(s) in your favorite place(s). Me, I’ll be borrowing access from my wife and kids, whose computers are not optimally configured for me.
What’s Up? (Answer: it’s a preposition. Ask a harder question.)
Submitted by Howard Tayler on May 29, 2009 - 10:47
I caught the midnight showing of Up last night, and now I’m conflicted. I loved the film, but I’m not sure my in-theater experience was superior to the one I had with Star Trek. I do know, however, that this is a film that I simply have to own, while I’m content to leave Star Trek as a happy memory of the big screen.
In fairness, that means Star Trek remains at the top of my summer rankings. If I ever decide to start ranking DVD and Blu-Ray purchases we can revisit this discussion.
Schlock Shipping Event June 8 & 9
Submitted by Howard Tayler on May 28, 2009 - 13:41
This is the pair of work days during which a horde of minions volunteers show up to help package and send out 1300 packages full of Schlock books. We always schedule two days, but for the past three shipping events the workers have been so amazing that there was nothing left to do on the second day.
Who: Any Schlock fan who is either local to Utah, or willing to travel at their own expense.
Where: At Dragon’s Keep 260 N University Ave in Provo
I Guess I Don’t Want To Spend Another Night at the Museum
Submitted by Howard Tayler on May 26, 2009 - 23:31
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was sort of fun. At least a little. Sadly, the best part was the Ice Age 3 trailer, and since that only had one good moment in it the whole experience was more of an opportunity to rest my sketching hand for a couple of hours. It would have been nice to rest my hand AND see an awesome movie, but that was not meant to be.
