The international space station is having problems with a device designed to convert sweat and urine into drinkable water. Advice to the personnel on board the space station: if someone offers you a glass of lemonade, you should decline.

I may yet reach my goal of four finished comic-book pages by the end of the month, because as of today I have a lot more time to draw. This morning, my employer eliminated my entire division. More than 100 of my colleagues today joined me in adding to the swelling ranks of the nation’s unemployed. It would have made the TV news, had some kid not brought a gun to one of our local schools. Damn scene-stealer.

It could be worse. Federal regulations require employers to provide 60 days notice in the event of a plant closing or mass layoff. Therefore I will receieve my full salary and benefits through January 19. I will receive an additional four weeks of severance, and will be paid for seven days of unused vacation.

On my way home, my girlfriend suggested to me that if ever there was a time to devote myself to illustration, it’s now. While I doubt that in the next three months I can achieve professional-level proficiency, I can make some significant strides. I may even take advantage of the the extra time on my hands by taking an art class or two.

I was going to cancel the contest but then I thought, “Why?” Yes, I need to devote some time to searching for a new daytime gig. But there’s no way I can devote every waking minute to it. So it’s still on, baby. It’s SO on.

By the way, I hope everyone is approaching in this in the spirit I’d intended. It’s not a win-or-lose proposition. If you’re falling behind, don’t be afraid to say so. There’s no shame in that, y’know. If the contest spurs you to do more than you were doing before, I’d say it served its purpose well.

I hope to you will report your progress in this thread. I also hope you will share what’s worked for you, and what hasn’t. I think we can all benefit by learning from each other.

Huh. The Dow plunged below 8,000 today. Consumer prices and home starts are tanking. And Congress is refusing to bail out the big three automakers, which may be defensible on philosophical grounds but I shudder to think of what will happen to our economy if one of those corporate behemoths actually fails.

Perhaps I should slow down with the drawing. I may need to hold back some pencils so I can put them in a tin cup, and sell them on a busy street corner.

It’s Star Trek: The Next Generation like you’ve never seen it before. Just don’t play this at the office, or with little kids within earshot.

Prepare to bust a gut laughing.

Yesterday I posted an update about where I stand with respect to the “Contest for Creative Types,” only most of you probably didn’t see it because I removed it. Why? It was overly lengthy navel-gazing drivel. Frankly, where I stand can be summed up very succinctly: I’m crapping the bed.

See, I started by trying to re-write the script for the first issue of a comic-book entitled The Victory Streak. But I kept falling prey to the temptation to re-write as I went along. So I began losing ground in a big hurry.

Then I found a copy of the first draft of the script, and decided to draw the first four pages. Then I dug up the pencils for page one — which I did about a year or two ago — and inked them with a brush. Badly. Very badly. An untrained monkey could’ve done better.

So when I said I’d finished one page, that was factually correct but functionally incomplete. The complete picture: we’re 19 days into this contest and I have little to show for it.

So last night I taped a piece of artboard to my art table and said, “OK, in two hours I should be able to lay out this page.” But I couldn’t, because I kept erasing, and redrawing, and erasing, and redrawing… oh, and also, swearing and breaking pencils and pissing off my girlfriend who was sitting about five feet away using her PC.

Then I had an epiphany: I realized whatever I drew was going to suck… and that’s OK. Unless you’re a f—ing prodigy, you don’t get good until you get your bad drawings out of the way. May as well do that sooner rather than later.

I don’t know if I’m going to make the Nov. 30 deadline but I am going to complete four pages of this comic, like I said I would. I’m even going to post them in this blog and discuss them a bit for anyone who is interested.

And, hey, if I study and practice hard enough and consistently enough, after a few years people may look back at these drawings and say, “Man, that Bill Myers used to suck.” As in, y’know, past tense.

It’s time for our second contest update! You can check out the contest rules here if you missed them.

Here’s where we stand as of last week’s update:

Jeremy_A: Project = Novel (Forum Everyone); goal = 10,000 words per week; word count as of last week = ?

Colleen Doran: Project = Novel; goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month; word count as of last week = approx. 14,988

Sarah Beach: Project = Novel (Godiva); goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month; word count as of last week = approx. 6,654

Bill Mulligan: Project = Screenplay; goal = ?; word count as of last week = ?

Sean Scullion: Project = Screenplay (Triangle); goal = ?; word count as of last week = ?

Laurie Sutton: Project = Short Stories; goal = five 10,000-word stories by end-of-month; word count as of last week = ?

Me: Project = Comic-Book; goal = four finished pages by end-of-month; page count as of last week = 1

It looks like Colleen Doran is owning us, hands down. Also, we’re missing some updates! That’s right, I’m talkin’ to you, Laurie Sutton, Sean Scullion, and Jeremy_A. (I’m not picking on Bill Mulligan because he told me he has walking pneumonia and I don’t want to be responsible for driving him into an early grave. He’d never let me hear the end of it.)

My update will be forthcoming in a separate post on Saturday or Sunday. Why? First, I’d like to post some of what I’ve completed, and as I write this I’m at work (on my lunch break, before anyone asks!) and don’t have access to my artwork or my personal scanner. Second, Laurie Sutton convinced me that some of my thoughts around what I’m doing, the obstacles in my way and how I’m overcoming them would be of value to others. It didn’t take a lot of convincing, mind you. Getting me to talk is easy. Getting me to shut up is the tough part.

I look forward to updates from my fellow contestants.

Edited to remove a lot of unnecessary blather on my part.

It’s time for our first contest update! For those of you who missed it, last week I announced an unofficial Contest for Creative Types to coincide with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The rules are pretty simple: at the beginning of the month, I asked the ”contestants” to commit to a creative project and work toward a quantifiable goal.

Our contestants:

Jeremy_A: Project = Novel (Forum Everyone), goal = 10,000 words per week

Colleen Doran: Project = Novel, goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month

Sarah Beach: Project = Novel (Godiva), goal = 50,000 words by end-of-month

Bill Mulligan: Project = Screenplay, goal = ?

Sean Scullion: Project = Screenplay (Triangle), goal = ?

Laurie Sutton: Project = Short Stories, goal = five 10,000-word stories by end-of-month

Me: Project = Comic-Book, goal = four finished pages by end-of-month

(By the way, Sean and Bill Mulligan, I believe you’ll get the most out of this contest if you select a quantifiable goal to work toward and announce it here.)

OK, now that we know who’s playing, it’s time for everyone to report their progress. Since I’m the “ringleader,” I guess I’ll start. I’ve got one page penciled and inked. I’m going to do the lettering digitally and I’ll probably post it over the weekend.

I look forward to updates from the rest of the contestants.

David Tennant is quitting Doctor Who. Jerry Chandler forwarded to me the link with the news earlier tonight, ruining what otherwise would have been a fine evening. I realize everyone has their favorite Doctor Who; Tennant was mine.

Bummer.