The Body Politic

Schlock Mercenary #9

by Howard Tayler, Sandra Tayler (Editor)

"But...we hate that guy!" Captain Tagon has a difficult mission ahead of him. He must convince his own company that the contract to rescue former General Xinchub is worth taking, in spite of the fact that every man, woman, and carbosilicate amorph in the company would rather see Xinchub dead. It would be ever so much easier if they could arrive just a little bit too late and instead of rescuing King Xinchub the Prandial, Tagon's Toughs could get paid to steal his body...

Genres: Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Space Opera, Humor, Webcomic

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2013

About the author

Howard spent most of his happy childhood in Florida where he was on the swim team in grade school, and in a rock band in high school. He graduated in 1985 and moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University.

After two years there, he served two years as a missionary for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), after which he returned to school at BYU and decided to move to Provo permanently after graduating and getting married.

He currently works full-time as a cartoonist, writing, drawing, and coloring Schlock Mercenary , as well as doing comics for assorted corporate clients.

He is married to author and editor Sandra Tayler.

See the author page on Schlock Mercenary website

Reviews

[Jesse Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Body Politic is a master class in how things can go terribly wrong even when they are going even better than planned. Captain Tagon and his group of mercenaries attempt to play several entities against each other in order to get paid twice for the same job. Then it moves to three times, and then to four. Serendipity seems to be on their side when his schemes work out over and over.

However there are puppet masters pulling the strings behind the curtains and maybe it would be better if things didn’t just fall in your lap.

I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand the story is much tighter than some of the other Schlock Mercenary stories — this is an artifact of Howard Tayler learning form experience how to tell a story — on the other hand it ties up too tidy and nice at the end. Just when things start to feel like the story is about to explode into violence and action it gets resolved much more neatly than I would have expected.

I still had fun reading it. The humor is great. The artwork is passable — I don’t read comics for the art — I read them for the entertainment. I didn’t enjoy the story as much as I have others but I would still recommend it. Or if you don’t want to read this one then jump in wherever.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we go again! At least we retain continuity and up the ante with even more epic implications. What could destroy a multi-species galactic community more than hoisting immortality upon them?

I really liked the good old doctor aboard the battleplate. He was a nasty a piece of work. At least Schlock got a chance to shower some of that filth off of him.

[Yashima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of spoilers in the preface of the book. Beware! But still even with that it's full of laughs and drama and Schlock!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Triple crosses and big plot lines revealed, hinting at more mysteries to come. Delightful.

[SpruceAlmighty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious closer before the series' soft reboot.

[Shannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story makes a lot more sense when you remember who Xinchub is. Heh heh.


4/7/17 Review

Well, I can safely say I didn't see any of that coming. The plot was clever and nice and twisty and, as always, it actually had me laughing out loud at parts. You know, when I wasn't in shock at something that just happened. Or grossed out. There was some grossness in it too, but it was tastefully gross. Heh heh.

Anyway, I can see why this book won an award. Its really awesome!