Today I scripted, pencilled, inked, and then colored a full nine-row week of Schlock Mercenary. Theoretically this has always been possible, since the average amount of time spent on any given row only adds up to about 10 hours of work for 36 of them. I’ve never actually cranked a complete week in one day, though.

But today I did. Now I’ll be the first to concede the possibility that it’s not my best work, and that it’s not the hardest-hitting Schlock week out there, but it’s far, far, far from my worst work — even my worst RECENT work, and the Sunday strip’s coloring is some of my best.

So, the score… 79 rows to go, and 6 days to go ’em in.

Unfortunately 4 of those six days are looking like they’ll be half-days at best (Daddy-daughter campout this Friday evening through Saturday Morning, and then a church BBQ Saturday evening, and then church work next Tuesday, and departure next Wednesday), so from a count-the-actual-hours perspective, I’m probably only looking at 4 days for those 79 rows.

26 of the rows remaining are Bonus Story Coloring, which is the shortened form of “difficult and time consuming work spent with my kiester nailed to the chair in front of my computer.” I’ll be starting those tomorrow. Theoretically, that’s about 14 hours of solid work. Let’s see how long 14 hours takes.