Chapter 16 | Page 2b: Advance notice

Catnip is miffed that she’s going to lose her commission due to Cassie Cruz’s new policy. To make matters worse, the superheroes seem to have had advance notice on a number of Evil Inc schemes. Evil Inc has a mole. But who…?

Transcript

Evil Inc – January 30, 2025
by Brad J. Guigar

Panel 1:
(Setting: The Evil Inc breakroom where several villains are gathered. Catnip, a blonde woman in a blue catsuit, stands with her hands on her hips. Miss Match, a red-haired woman in red and orange, is making coffee; Lightning Lady, a blonde in a blue costume; Desdemona, a red-skinned woman in a black and red outfit; Giant Tess, a woman in a green and orange suit; and Count Spurlock, a green-skinned man in a vest.)

Catnip: "Think about it! To be inside the building, Captain Heroic had to know about the Mime’s plans in advance!"

Lightning Lady: "That’s odd. When Dreadshade cracked the safe at Fairmount Bank, he got glitter-bombed!"

Count Spurlock: "I saw. The guy looked like he went down on Shirley Eaton.*"

Caption (bottom): "*You’ve got Google. Look it up."

Panel 2:
Catnip: "And don’t forget what happened when Dr. Patchwork heisted that shipment of arms…"

(Dr. Patchwork stands in front of a group of zombie henchmen with no arms. He opens a crate of weapons.)

Dr. Patchwork: "Damn it! These are just guns!"

Panel 3:
(Catnip raises a finger, looking serious.)

Catnip: "Face it. Someone is leaking information about our clients’ schemes to the superheroes."

Panel 4:
(A flashback scene shows Cassie Cruz, a brunette in glasses and a white blouse, packing up her office at the “Silver Agency,” a superhero placement agency that is now closed.)

Narration box: "And it’s been happening ever since 'Little Miss Silver Agency' took over."

Panel 5:
(Catnip clenches her fist, her expression determined.)

Catnip: "The answer is clear… WE NEED TO GET RID OF CASSIE CRUZ."

Oh... and this is Shirley Eaton.

The New Schlock Storefront

The New Schlock Storefront

Howard has set up a new storefront for Schlock books.

Before they can open pre-orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between they need to run several more transactions through it — not just to test the basic store functionality and merchant account stuff (they know that works), but to test and refine processes on their end. You know, taking the receipts handed to them by the store and turning out shipping labels.

So… here’s the deal. For a limited time (call it “from now until sometime Monday�) they will be selling signed copies of Schlock Mercenary: Under New Management (the FIRST book, not the new one) for just $10 + shipping. They would love for you to help them test the store by buying a book (or two!). Maybe you could even apply some of your savings towards a more expensive shipping method, in order to further help them.

Assuming things go well, pre-orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between will open on Tuesday, October 10th. Sketch editions will be pre-orderable as well, from 10am Eastern Time on the 10th until 10am Eastern Time on the 11th.

If things DON’T go well with our testing, they’ll postpone pre-orders for a week or so while they iron out the wrinkles, straighten the kinks, flatten the speed-bumps, and un-hitch the hitches. Watch his site for details.