At long last, the first five-hundred and seven days of Schlock Mercenary are coming to a dead-tree near you.
Pre-orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Tub of Happiness are now open. This 240-page volume features every strip and footnote from June 12th of 2000 through November 11th of 2001, and includes a never-before-published “prequel” bonus story covering Schlock’s last twenty-four hours before enlisting with Tagon’s Toughs.
These full-color pages also include over fifty pages’ worth of concept sketches, marker art, new commentary, and excellent guest art from the likes of Cas Allen, Jeff Darlington, Brad Guigar, David Kellett, Alina Pete, Tiffany Ross, Krishna Sadasivam, Paul Taylor, Kevin Wasden, and Jim Zubkavich (and those are just the artists with URLs!) There are deck-plans for the Kitesfear in there, photos of a 40mm-scale Sergeant Schlock miniature, and some very special commentary from the Cartoonist’s Wife.
For a limited time, you can order your Tub of Happiness as a Customer-Choice Numbered Sketch Edition. That’s right, for just $10 more, your book is not just signed on the front, but drawn in, and you get to pick which character Howard draws.
All customers will recieve immediate access to a page full of desktop backgrounds based on the cover art, and all pre-orders are automatically discounted $5.00 off the cover-price of $25.00.
Layout and design for this beautiful volume is the work of Steve Troop. If you want to have a look inside, here is a 17-page screen-resolution PDF preview (6MB download), which includes the front and back covers, inside and out, the first page of the bonus, the end of the “Big Haunted Battleship” storyline, and an unsketched sketch page.
The book is currently in production overseas. We anticipate shipping all orders by the end of November.
