Schlock MercenSchlock Mercenary - The Body Politicary - The Body Politic (2008)

8/9/2019 Schlock MercenSchlock Mercenary - The Body Politicary - The Body Politic (2008)

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Schlock Mercenary:The Body Politic2009 Hugo reader Copy


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This PDF of Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politichas been compiled forthe convenience of people who are reading for 2009 Hugo nominationsand voting. The Body Politicwas published electronically beginningin 2007 and wrapping up on February 28th of 2008. It is eligible forBest Graphic Story, a one-time Hugo category for Anticipation, the67th Annual World Science Fiction Convention, to be held August 6ththrough 10th in Montreal.

This PDF is also a rough cut of the eventual print book, much like anARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for a novel. It contains the completestoryline and all footnotes, but lacks the marginalia or bonus strips thatwill appear in print. All those white spaces you see? Thats what theyrefor.

Schlock Mercenaryis an ongoing serial, an epic space opera beingtold four panels at a time. Rejected by newspaper syndicates almostnine years ago, it fashioned itself a permanent home on the web whereniche-specic humor, hard science, high concepts, and long storylineswork well. The Body Politic is the ninth volume in this serial, and theentire daily archives can be found at www.schlockmercenary.com.

Whether or not you are reading this for Hugo voting purposes, wehope you enjoy it. Laugh loud, laugh hard, laugh often.

Introduction:


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTI: KINGFORA DAY


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTI: KINGFORADAY


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SCHLOCKMERCENARY




Note: The Strohl MunitionsPlasma Cannon SafetyActivity Book is included atthe end of this le.

The book is 22 pages long,and is quite silly. Aside fromthe simple, seditious, non-canonical story, it includesa maze, a matching game,and a word-search suitablefor grown-ups with twistedminds.


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTII: ROYALFLUSH


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTIII: SCHLOCKTOBERFEST




*Note: Disease aint the right wordbut nanotechnology blurredmore than just denition:it gave blurry visionto the students of Louis Pasteur.



THEBODYPOLITICPARTIV: WEKEPTTHEPARTYHATS


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Note: Eight hundred and thirty years (and hundreds of mergers and aquisitions) after theDungeons & Dragons property was aquired by Wizards of the Coast, Nectaris Nanotechacquired Crystal Coveyou, and the two companies ushered in the Third Age of FantasyRole-Playing Games.

Dungeons & Dragons 16th Edition was made so simple and accessible that anybodycould play it without source books, pencils or paper, character sheets, or even muchimagination. All that was required was a set of dice.

They were, of course, very expensive dice.


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTV: COLLECTING

Authors Commentary: The illustration techniques in todays comic serve to... umm..

illustrate one of the challenges of portraying gravitic combat. Consider -- unieldshields protect against all kinds of weaponry by leveraging projected elds, includingelectromagnetic and gravitic.

These shields would have to be effective against weapons whose energy appears in thespectra of visible light. This in turn means that a shielded ship should not be visible, or shouldat the very least be highly distorted. While this would be quite easy to draw (just scribblesomething here, son. Ill blur it in Photoshop, and the comic will be done!) it would notserve to tell the reader much about what is going on.

By the same token, the shadow cast by the Touch-And-Go on the Morkweng is threekinds of impossible. TAGs shields should distort starlight preventing the penumbra, Kwengstractor eld should distort whatever starlight goes around TAG, and Kwengs shields reallyshouldnt be allowing light to fall on the battleplate. In short, there should be no shadow for

us to see, even if we could see through the shields to the Morokweng.

I suppose someday when Im in a hurry Ill just drop a stareld into panels like this, blacksome bits out, slap some distortion lters on the whole mess, and then ramble about howuninteresting space combat is to look at.




Note: Obviously, Pis comic book collection includes a very late edition of Shortpacked!as any complete comic book collection should.

The student of modern comics will be interested to know that in 2426 Damyu-Willis GmbH

(perpetual rights-holders to the Shortpacked! franchise) acquired the last of the mothballedDC Comics properties in the settlement of a positively byzantine copyright and trademarkcase, and they were nally able to merge some of their more esoteric comic and video-game properties.


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Note: Emms parents were indeed Orthodox Las Veganists, First Church of The King,Thankyouverymuch.


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THEBODYPOLITICPARTVI: THANKSFORTHEMEMORIES


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Thus ends Book 9, The Body Politic.


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Thanks for reading!

If you want more Schlock Mercenary, you can nd it atwww.schlockmercenary.com

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Schlock MercenSchlock Mercenary - The Body Politicary - The Body Politic (2008)