Howard V. Tayler is the award-winning creator of the webcomicSchlock Mercenary. He worked as a volunteer missionary for the LDS Church, then graduated from Brigham Young University. Using his degree in music composition, he started an independent record label. While working at Novell, Tayler began online publication of Schlock Mercenary. He quit his job at Novell several years later in order to work on the webcomic full-time. Schlock Mercenary has been nominated multiple times and won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards in two different categories, and the webcomic has been nominated four times for a Hugo Award. Tayler spends time regularly during the week drawing at a local comic book and gaming store, as well as producing a weekly writing tips podcast called Writing Excuses with fellow authors Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and producer Jordan Sanderson. The podcast has been nominated for a Hugo Award in 2011, 2012 and has won in 2013.
Tayler co-founded an independent record label called Sanctus Records, which was aimed primarily at an LDS market. Tayler also worked for Novell as a project manager, where he co-authored a guide to administering GroupWise. In 2000, he began publishing his webcomic, Schlock Mercenary. Four years later, Tayler left his job as product line manager at Novell in order to work full-time on the webcomic. By 2009, he was able to make enough from the sales of the compilation books and other merchandise to make ends meet and reduce his weekly workload from 80–100 hours down to 40-50. He has been a guest of honor at many genre conventions, including Balticon, CONduit, LepreCon, and Life, the Universe, & Everything. His wife, Sandra, is also a published author.
Works
In March 2000, Tayler coauthored with Ross Phillips and Tay Kratzer the guidebook Administering GroupWise 5.5, written to assist system administrators in managing Novell's GroupWise. Tayler's most well-known work is his webcomic, Schlock Mercenary, a comedic webcomic which follows the tribulations of a star-travelling mercenary company in a satiric, mildly dystopian 31st-century space opera setting. Since its debut on June 12, 2000, the comic has updated daily, begun to support its author, and been nominated for three Hugo Awards. Tayler also produces Writing Excuses, along with novelist Mary Robinette Kowal, best-selling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson and horror author Dan Wells. Running weekly since February 10, 2008, this 15-minute writing tips podcast has featured a number of notable guests including Steve Jackson, Phil Foglio, Brandon Mull, Tracy Hickman, and Patrick Rothfuss. Along with best-selling fantasy author Tracy Hickman and his son, Curtis, he illustrated and published .
Administering GroupWise 5.5,, March 20, 2000, McGraw-Hill
Awards
Tayler won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards Best Cameo Award in 2001, and was also nominated for Best Comic, Best Writing, Best Other Character, and Best Science-Fiction Comic the same year. He won WCCA Outstanding Science Fiction Comic in 2004, and was nominated for the same award in 2005 and 2007. He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story for Schlock Mercenary four times: The Body Politic ; The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse ; Massively Parallel, and Force Multiplication. Tayler, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, producer Jordan Sanderson, and Mary Robinette Kowal were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for the fourth, sixth and seventh seasons of Writing Excuses, a podcast for aspiring authors. They won in 2013.
