It Was Twenty Years Ago Today
That Howard Tayler¹, mild mannered software product manager and former music producer, launched a comic onto the internet. Every day since then has been graced with an update to the continuous story, with pathos and loss, heartstring-tugging, one of the two most loathesome antagonists in all of comics, and uses of duct tape that violate the laws of war.
The art was a bit clunkier, but the Ommmmminous Hummmmmmmm and the casual sociopathy on the part of the title character were there from the very beginning. Unlike some past anniversaries, there’s no oblique reference to the number in the strip today. There was a newspost for yesterday’s strip marking the end of year 20, but still nothing in the strip. He’s got a story to tell and he’s not done telling it, so it’s heads down and all ahead on the work.
If you’re in the mood to support him, there is some 20th anniversary swag, but might I suggest something a little more timeless? Tayler pretty much invented the now-commonplace intersection of webcomics and coin-type medallions, and there are some doozies available². Oh, yeah, and the first 5400 or so strips (comprising fifteen story arcs, or just shy of fifteen years) are available in print, individually, or in the biggest book bundle³ you’ll see this year. And there’s some surprising wisdom to be found in the 70 Maxims Of Maximally Effective Mercenaries.
The strip’s going nowhere, but there will be a break in the story pretty soon, a definite conclusion to What Happened after a carbosilicate amorph decided to enlist with a group of casually-violent-for-pay types. Hopefully, Tayler will take a few weeks, catch his breath, then show us what he’s got cooking next. I suspect that years 21 through infinity are gonna be just as interesting as the 20 we’ve seen so far.
SM20 Countdown for 12 June 2020:
Did … did you miss all that up there?
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¹ Obligatory disclaimer: my evil twin.
² I’m probably up to about 10 of the Circus/Monkeys coin, as I give them to people who are able to cash in favors with me.
³ At 5403 days worth of strip, plus various bonus stories, you’re paying about 4.5 cents a page for full color. That’s a friggin’ bargin.
Re: footnote 1
Your even more evil twin since admitting this
By Don Koch on 06.13.20 1:14 pm
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