Thursday 27 September 2012

The Fantagraphics Offer: Update #8

In the final issue of his self-published Glamourpuss, Dave Sim included an essay reflecting on the end of the series, and the possible end of his professional involvement with comics. The reaction online was widespread, and soon turned to a discussion of the future of Sim's earlier work, Cerebus. On a comments thread at TCJ.com, Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson expressed his potential interest in republishing some of Sim's Cerebus material. Sim, arguably the most iconic self-publisher in comics history, responded to that 'open offer' in a lengthy article at TCJ.com, and indicated his willingness to negotiate with Kim on a possible publishing deal for Cerebus, albeit in the public forum of the comments section at the TCJ.com website. Got all that? Now read on for highlights from the latest postings...

JEET HEER:
I think Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman would both be great to have in terms of writing introductions - they know the comic book culture that Sim came out of very well but they’ve also have a large audience outside comic book culture. Actually Chester Brown also comes to mind as someone who could really champion Cerebus in an interesting way... I think the place to start with the reprinting is fairly early in the run or perhaps the beginning. Even though the initial stuff is Sim still learning his craft, it does contribute to the elaborate world-building that really comes to the fore with High Society & Church and State... Read the full post here...

DAVE SIM:
Hi Jeet!... The "world builder" angle is a good one because it’s a point of commonality for comics and literature, something not very many people do and something that tends to get an automatic salute where it comes to light. And obviously I’m need of as many automatic salutes as possible... Well, obviously Neil COULD do an amazing job on “contextualizing” Dave Sim just by expanding and updating his "300 Good Reasons To Resent Dave Sim" essay from 20 years ago, but that seems unlikely... I mean, I understand. It's like the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950s but on the other side of the political fence (and in a much smaller and - generally perceived to be - less consequential environment). Any conservative or liberal COULD have spoken up in favour of Blacklisted individuals in the 1950s, but everyone knew it would be political and socio-economic suicide to do so, so no one did. I’m (at least) 385 people AHEAD of that situation with the "I Don’t Believe Dave Sim is a Misogynist" petition at ipetitions. Read the full post here...

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