Howard V. Tayler (born February 29, 1968 in Florida) is the creator of the webcomic Schlock 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. Early life Tayler was born in Florida. In 1985, he moved to Utah (his home as of 2020) to attend Brigham Young University. After studying there for two years, he volunteered to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) before returning to BYU to finish a bachelor's degree in Music Composition. Career Tayler co-founded an independent record label called Sanctus Records for the LDS market. Tayler also worked for Novell as a project manager, 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 to work full-time on the webcomic. 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. He was 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, 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. Since its debut on June 12, 2000,