Thursday 28 March 2024

Notebook One: Cerebus #22 Material

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.

For the last couple of months we’ve been looking at Dave Sim’s Albatross One, which is the first notebook he used during the production of Cerebus. The notebook has 194 scanned pages out of the two hundred pages that the notebook cover says it came with. What happened to those six other pages? Either blank so not scanned in or ripped out so “missing”. At this point when I was scanning them in back in April of 2005 I didn’t make a note.  If you want to see all of the previous posts for Notebook One, use the Notebook One tag to see them all.

In last week’s entry, Notebook One: Cerebus #21 Material Part Seven, we looked at pages 50, 52, 53, & 54. And pages 55 and 56 were already covered in the post The Death of Elrod. So this week we’re on to page 57. Which makes it look like we’re finally done with Cerebus #21 material and fully onto Cerebus #22. We shall see.

Notebook #1, page 57

Pretty much all of the material on this page wasn’t used. The idea of Bunky dying and coming back to “life” as a parody of Deadman was used, but that was it. Even when Elrod was killed by the Sopai assassin, he fell face forward onto the ground, not face up with the Roach looking at him like the sketch shows.

Though the bit down the bottom labeled 4 for page 4 does show up in Cerebus #22. Cerebus does wake up in the “oval hideout” and complaining that he has had enough of this, and he has a war he needs to get back to, etc.

The next page of the notebook continues on with preliminary plot ideas for Cerebus #22 page 4 and goes on for page 5:

Notebook #1, page 58

Some of this material made it into Cerebus #22. Cerebus does go on a rant, a rather long one, about how he rather be fighting down sound with the T’Gitans. Down at the bottom of the page there is a bit of dialogue "I have a military report from Palnu if you like to hear it. . . .everyone obliterated.” President Weisshaupt does pull out a military report and goes over how the T’Gitans loss in Palnu. Though this explanation doesn’t happen on page four nor on page five but a few pages later.

The next page of the notebook switches from Cerebus #22 material to. . .well, take a look:

Notebook #1, page 59

Yup, Howard the Duck drawn by Dave. Dave’s story for Howard the Duck #8 makes an appearance on A Moment of Cerebus before in Howard the Duck and The Cerebus Oversize Project #5: The Duck, which I don’t recall ever coming out. And it looks like Blogmaster Bossman asked Dave about it recently and the answer is in A Refreshing Dip Into the ol’AMoC Mailbag.

Next week: Yes, more of Dave Sim’s notebook pages for Howard the Duck. Finally we’re done with Cerebus #21. Hopefully.

And you, yes YOU!, can get your own facsimile edition of Albatross 1, details here.


Wednesday 27 March 2024

Cryptic Faxes

Benjamin Hobbs:

So Dave sent this fax:


My first thought was "Oh, it's good to see Peter David is writing again!"  Last I had heard he was in the hospital.   But no, this is a  2011 column from the Comic Buyer's Guide.

So why did Dave send this? I have no idea.  Does Dave know Peter David is in the hospital? Again, no idea.

If you hadn't heard, Peter David is having ongoing medical issues.  If you have a spare dime or two, you can throw it toward his GoFundMe HERE

Next Week: More Comic Pros need YOUR money!

Tuesday 26 March 2024

SDoAR 2.13: Jen Calls In Sick

Mouse Skull Entertainment said...

"Return to the states"? Quick somebody get Interpol on the line, I smell a Heist! --Manly

Jen responds...

Sadly, the "Heist" involved me catching some sleep-inducing illness on the flight back from London. 

More next week when I wake up from my nap. Now where did I put the Nyquil? -- Jen 

Just the GoFundMe Facts, Ma'am

  • $11,110.00 raised to date from 188 donations
  • 59 new pages released as mocked up by Dave Sim from 11 June to 17 November 2021
  • 80 total pages available on Dropbox, including Dave's 2019 mocked-up pages
  • $90.00 away from unlocking page 81
  • If you have not donated > $5+ donation grants access to all 80 pages and all pages moving forward
  • If you have donated, thank you, but if you want to donate monthly, GoFundMe does not offer that option, so please do so as we at the end of month #3 of Year 2.
SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe -->> https://www.gofundme.com/f/sdoar-2023

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Preview, Part Twelve

Thisthisthisthisthisthisthisthisthisthis, this Oxford comma and finally the ellipsis
Night, night!

x

Jen


SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe -->>
 https://www.gofundme.com/f/sdoar-2023 <<-- SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe

Monday 25 March 2024

"What are you talking about?"

Hi, Everybody!

Geez you guys make a simple plan go pear shaped REAL quick...

I posted the Albatross 1 deal.

And now I have to ask Dave all you questions.

Stop that!

Anyway, this.

Then (click for bigger):





__________________________
Friend to the Blog, James Windsor Banderas-Smith's new Papa Balloon & Cactus Kickstarter has a Dave Sim variant cover (limited to 50 copies). 12 days and 214 dollars to go!

And Pal to the Blog, Lee Thacker is the artist on a new Kickstarter for a book Dave REALLY liked, fully funded with a five days to go.

And Sean and Living The Line have another new book on Kickstarter: Moonray: Ascension

Okay, back to Bizness as unusual:
Rigamarole:
__________________________
The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe: up to 35% off:

Your store will be up to 35% off
March 25.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
___________________________
Heritage has stuff.
__________________________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill.
___________________________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
___________________________
Next Time: Jen. I's on break until Friday.

Sunday 24 March 2024

Albatross 1 (Dave's first Cerebus Notebook). How YOU can get one!

Hi, Everybody!

I'm making this so I can just link to it in the future.

For those who don't wanna watch, Rob asked:
Is there any plan to publish the NOTEBOOKS? I’d rather have that than any remastered variant cover anything, but I may be the minority.
And (if you watched the video, you'll see) Dave sent Rob a facsimile edition of Albatross 1, Dave's first notebook.

Rob's response upon receiving the book was:
The Albatross has landed! It’s real and it’s spectacular.
My wife thought Dave shipped me the real Albatross notebook it looks so real, (and I was so excited). I may have squealed.
The world building here is SO cool to watch in real time, issue by issue, especially this run of issues which is very important to me.
I’m really more of an art person, and seeing all the layouts, and sketches, and backgrounds is eye-opening.
I also like the glimpse into his scheduling — when to draw issue x, pages 1-20, when to write the next issue, etc
After I was a comics retailer, I used to own THE COPY COW, a copy shop, (and I can be cheap) so I wonder if the whole thing has to be in full color?
These days 4-color is probably as cheap as 1-color on a nice paper? Most of the notebook in blue or black ink, and it makes you feel like you’re holding the actual notebook, but I’m more interested in the content than it being the exact same as the work papers.
There’s a bit more text than art, and I think anyone interested in the process AND / or the Cerebus Super Fans would love these.
I love love love the behind the scenes content in the various original art portfolios. Would love to have Dave’s commentary on THESE pages. That would add a lot of work, and not be workable in the same as notebook format, but maybe just a companion youtube video of someone flipping through it and Dave telling stories about what was going on and also showing the finished pages.
I would easily pay $67-100 USD for this content in this format. Maybe a bit more if it was signed. Or maybe collect ALL notebooks into a limited boxed set? The more old behind the scenes stuff, the better! I still buy old retailer Cerebus promo packs to relive the good old days.
Really appreciate the nice note and Cerebus sketch. I’m over the moon! — ROB SNELL
And Dave decided to sell facsimiles:
So, the deal is you can get one of these:

Uh, the one in his RIGHT hand (our left) for One Hundred AMERICAN dollars.


Check or money order,

(If you're sending a money order, MAKE SURE it's an INTERNATIONAL one so Dave can get paid.)

(And make sure your check says $100 AMERICAN, these aren't a $100 Canadian, Dave ACTUALLY wants to make some money on the deal.)


Or, you COULD just send a hundred dollar bill, no trouble using THAT...


Anyway, get your $100 AMERICAN (in whatever form) to Dave Sim at 
Aardvark-Vanaheim
Box 1674, Station "C"
Kitchener, Ontario
Canada N2G 4R2


"But is this offer available internationally?"


Fogo Fino (say it outload real fast...).

Sure?

Just add in more money to cover shipping to Pago Pago or wherever you live... And add that to the Hundred American Dollars.


"Can I pay through CerebusDownloads.com?"


I mean, I guess.

But ya gotta pay $140 CANADIAN dollars. Since CerebusDownload.com is a Canadian site and takes their money in Canadian dollars (ya know the weird metal ones with waterfowl on them...) (Plus adding in EXTRA if you're shipping to Abu Dhabi. Gotta remember the extra for international shipping...)


AND, if you're paying through CerebusDownloads.com, email momentofcerebus@gmail.com, or Eddie Khanna, or call Dave (519 576-0610) and let one (or all) of us know what's going on. Otherwise, you might never see your facsimile.


And if there's enough "action" on number one, who knows, maybe Dave will sell Number two...


Thanks to Rob Snell for posting the images I stole off his Facebook post.

AND, if you wanna see more pages from the Albatross, but NOT spend a hundred bucks, Margaret has been posting them weekly since December and tagging them with the Notebook One label. (So click the blue text and feast your eyes on pages for free.)

Next Time: Mondays and the return of the Rigamarole...

Saturday 23 March 2024

Matt cleans the deck from the Incoming...

Hi, Everybody!

Remember when Dave said he doesn't have some of the phonebook negatives? Well Sean checked in:



Here's the "positive":

Anyway, Dave sent me:

Click for bigger

And here's an AKIMBO Update:

Click for bigger

And here's the Diamond Edition:


And then Dave has a request:

And Christon had another cover commission:
Click for bigger:
__________________________
Friend to the Blog, James Windsor Banderas-Smith's new Papa Balloon & Cactus Kickstarter has a Dave Sim variant cover (limited to 50 copies). 14 days and 239 dollars to go!

And Pal to the Blog, Lee Thacker is the artist on a new Kickstarter for a book Dave REALLY liked, fully funded with a week to go.

And Sean and Living The Line have another new book on Kickstarter: Moonray: Ascension

Okay, back to Bizness as unusual:
Rigamarole:
__________________________
The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe: up to 35% off:

Your store will be up to 35% off
March 23-24.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
___________________________
Heritage has stuff.
__________________________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill.
___________________________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
___________________________
Next Time: The Albatross Deal.

Friday 22 March 2024

Drunk at Twickers to Knighthood (Dave's weekly update #531)

 Hi, Everybody!

Like it says on the Logo:

It's Friday, so that means:
Dave's Weekly Update:
_________________________
A Moment of Cerebus runs Saturday through Friday.

The Week in AMOC:
  • Saturday: Dave was on a podcast. (I never said it was THIS past Saturday...)
  • Sunday: I received faxes! Including Dave's variant cover for Friend to the Blog, James Windsor Banderas-Smith's new Papa Balloon & Cactus Kickstarter.
  • Monday: Dave's computer died two weeks ago. The new one isn't set up and given to him. So, no Monday Report,  but I asked a question and Dave answered. 
  • Tuesday: Jen's post about The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Go Fund Me.  Speaking of which, $90 until the next page is unlocked. 
  • Wednesday: Hobbs posts how to vote for Cerebus in the H.ER.O.I.C. Awards. Aardvarkian Splendor made week 3: Go here. Aardvark Splendor is Bracket 14. Vote Early, vote Often!
  • Thursday: Margaret continued looking at the first Notebook AKA Albatross 1. $100 American will get YOU your own copy so she can move on to a different notebook. How that works: Send One hundred American dollars to Dave Sim, P.O. Box 1674, Station C, Kitchener, Ontario N2G 4R2, Canada. It can be a check, a money order, or just a Ben Franklin. (Make sure that your Money Order is international. Otherwise Dave can't get paid (It's why I'm just sending him a hundred dollar bill...).)
  • Friday: that's this post. You're reading the Friday post right now. This is like that bit in Spaceballs
Okay, so that was the past week in AMOC. You're welcome.
_______________
And Pal to the Blog, Lee Thacker is the artist on a new Kickstarter for a book Dave REALLY liked.

And Sean and Living The Line have another new book on Kickstarter: Moonray: Ascension

Okay, back to Bizness as unusual:
Rigamarole:
__________________________
The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe: up to 35% off:

Your store will be up to 35% off
March 20-24.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
___________________________
Heritage has stuff.
__________________________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill.
___________________________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
___________________________
Next Time: I got stuff from Canada.

Thursday 21 March 2024

Notebook One: Cerebus #21 Material Part Seven

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.

Last week we looked at pages 45, 46, and 48 of Dave Sim’s first notebook used in the production of Cerebus, which he called Albatross One. Why didn’t we look at page 47 last week? For the same reason we won’t look at page 49 this week: we already saw it in a previous post, which for pages 47 and 49 was entitled Captain Cockroach and Bunky.  That post featured those pages and also page 37 of Albatross One as they have some really nice sketches of Captain Cockroach and yes, Bunky.

So we’ll be continuing with the page by page look at Albatross One, so if you want to get caught up, just use the Notebook One tag to find all past blog entries with pages from Notebook One. This week we begin with page 50. Last week the question arose if we’d see even more pages that have material for Cerebus #21 or if we’d finally go full into Cerebus #22 material. 

Well, page 50 of the notebook looks to be a time line of Weisshaupt coming to power, what appears to be a sketch of Cerebus sleeping on a couch or perhaps chair that is too small for him to lie down on and a head sketch of Captain Cockroach.

Notebook #1, page 50

Page 51 was previously seen in June of 2022 in the post New Inside Front Cover Design. So we’ll “skip” that page in this post and move on to page 52. 

Notebook #1, page 52

On the left side of page 52 we see the marking ‘Pg10’ as to signify this list of items is to appear on page 10 of some issue. Comparing the material here to pages in Cerebus #21 and Cerebus #22, this material on notebook page 52 appears in Cerebus #21, though not on page 10. And not all of it appears. 

For example, the page 11 item #4: “produced leaflets “message from the President” most Beduinites don’t know who their leaders are. Literacy rate is very high in Beduin. Inside of a week fully 75% of the population accepted me as their leader-in-exile.” The only part of that which made it to the finished page was the ‘leaflet’ that Weisshaupt was using to send his propaganda out to the population at large. It was never named, and neither did he make those remarks about the literacy rate nor the population accepting him as their leader-in-exile.

Most of what else is on the page does end up in the origin story of Captain Cockroach as seen in Cerebus #21. The next page of the notebook continues this style of Dave writing down plot points and some dialogue of what he wants to get on each page:

Notebook #1, page 53

After seeing page 10 and 11 on the previous notebook page, now we see the items for page 12. Very similar to the previous notebook page, there are items on this page that don’t make the finished issued. Like the crossed out dialogue intended for Weisshaupt: “It is our destiny as the most civilized country in the all-merciful Tarim’s world to be on guard at all times.” Dave didn’t even finish the word times, just put tim.

I only include the next page of the notebook here because it appears to have been write at the same time as the pervious page. 

Notebook #1, page 54

Plus, the next pages – page 54 & 56 – were shown in the post The Death of Elrod. Yes, that has content for Cerebus #22. Maybe next week we’ll have an all Cerebus #22 post and not this mix-mash of both issues. How he keeps track of what goes where is beyond me at this point.