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.[3]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,[3] 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.[4] 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[1] for the LDS market. Tayler also worked for Novell as a project manager,[5] he co-authored a guide to administering GroupWise.[1]
In 2000, he began publishing his webcomic, Schlock Mercenary. Four years later, Tayler left his job as product line manager at Novell to work full-time on the webcomic.[1] By 2009, he was able to earn enough from the sales of the compilation books and other merchandise to make ends meet and reduce his weekly workload from 80–100 hours to 40–50.[3]
Schlock Mercenary volume 20 finished in July 2020, and since then Tayler's career has been slowed by health challenges. In May 2024 he attributed his chronic fatigue to long COVID.[6]
Works
In March 2000, Tayler, with co-authors Ross Phillips and Tay Kratzer, composed the guidebook Administering GroupWise 5.5 to assist system administrators in managing Novell's GroupWise.
Tayler's most well-known work is his webcomic, Schlock Mercenary, a comedic webcomic following the tribulations of a star-travelling mercenary company in a satiric, mildly dystopian 31st-century space opera setting. From its debut on June 12, 2000 to its conclusion on 25 July, 2020, the comic was updated daily, began to support its author,[5] and was nominated for three Hugo Awards.[7][8]
Administering GroupWise 5.5 (with Ross Phillips and Tay Kratzer), ISBN0-07-212329-X, 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.[10] He won WCCA Outstanding Science Fiction Comic in 2004,[11] and was nominated for the same award in 2005[12] and 2007.[13]
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