Schlock Mercenary
Overview
 
Schlock Mercenary is a comedic webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....

 written and drawn by Howard Tayler
Howard Tayler
Howard V. Tayler is the award-winning creator of the hugely successful webcomic Schlock Mercenary. He worked as a volunteer missionary for the LDS Church, then graduated from Brigham Young University...

. It follows the tribulations of a star-travelling mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

 company in a satiric, mildly dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...

n 31st-century space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...

 setting. Since its debut on June 12, 2000 the comic has updated daily, begun to support its author, and been nominated for three Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

s.
Over time, Tayler's art improved from, in his words, bad to "marginally less bad." Jean Elmore served as colorist for the strip from February 9, 2003 to the spring of 2004 when she developed a repetitive strain injury
Repetitive strain injury
Repetitive strain injury is an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems that may be caused by...

 from her work.

On March 3, 2003, the comic reached its 1001st strip.
Quotations

Rule 1. Pillage, then burn.

Rule 3. An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.

Rule 4. Close air support coverth a multitude of sins.

Rule 6. If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it.

Rule 8. Mockery and derision have their place. Usually, it's on the far side of the airlock.

Rule 9. Never turn your back on an enemy.

Rule 10. Sometimes the only way out is through... through the hull

Rule 11. Everything is air-droppable at least once.

Rule 12. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head.

Rule 13. Do unto others.

 
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