Wednesday 10 August 2016

Albatross, Too

MARGARET LISS:
A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

Albatross, Too. Dave Sim's second notebook. Another Hilroy notebook which had 198 pages scanned out of 200 pages. It covers Cerebus #28 to 37. The cover is the same as Albatross, One, but just red instead of green.

Albatross, Too cover
Page one picks up with notes for Cerebus #28, Mind Game II.

Albatross, Too, page one
It isn't the dialogue that opens issue #28, Cerebus' line "How did Cerebus get from Togith to Beduin' occurs on page 4 (or page 52 of the phonebook High Society). Po's responds on the notebook isn't the response he gives on the finished page.

Further along in the notebook, we see a some sketches of Elrod The Albino in his "want to be Lord Julius' son" look (i.e. Silverspoon's duds). This includes a thumbnail for the cover for Cerebus #34 which wasn't used:

Albatross, Too, page 138



3 comments:

Unknown said...

You know, I have to say that a LOT of the time, I have no memory of WHAT I wrote in the Notebooks pages Margaret is talking about or WHY I wrote it. It's particularly weird in those passages that just stop in mid-sentence. Or the lists. "What is this a list OF (if you don't mind my asking)?" Oh, wait. I'm the theoretical authority on that.

Where was I going with it? Or why did I reject a line of dialogue in favour of a different one? What was I seeing there?

That's why I was so jazzed about the "chestnuts" narrative last week (?). Hey! I know what THAT'S about! and why I would have rejected it.

She's also better at reading my handwriting than I am. Is THAT what it says? You GO, Margaret!!

Unknown said...

IDW has used a lot of the Notebooks cover sketches in the long-awaited COVERS TREASURY book. And not always the covers, a few times it was a sketch of a girl (like Elaine who was a waitress at the Athenian, the restaurant attached to Peter's Place which was the model for Dino's Place in MELMOTH). Which was funny. Like: "Dave, who's SHE?"

Umm. This is SUPPOSED to be a COVERS book.

Well, okay: READER'S DIGEST version....

Margaret said...

Aww, shucks. Thanks Dave. Though it makes me laugh, as sometimes my hand writing at work is so bad, I have to go back and double check myself (was that a 5 or a 9?).

The notebook entry you're referring to with the "chestnuts" narrative was in "Cerebus Feels So Good".