Friday 19 June 2015

Weekly Update #87: Can You Hang On Just A Second?


Dave Sim's Weekly Update:
Organizing the Off-White House Archives continues with a meticulous invoicing of all extant material. Plus, "Talk To The Hand!". The beginning of a hilarious new sit-com starring Dave Sim and his wrist-brace? You decide! Also, Charles M. Schulz, world-famous creator of Li'l Folks. Stay tuned until the very end to see The Hand of Dave Sim Doing Something.

Bonus Item:
A copy of this Cerebus Art Dragnet certificate could be yours! Just send Agent Sean and Agent Mara a scan of any Cerebus original art in your possession.

8 comments:

Jeff Seiler said...

This is funny for me. Every time Dave calls me, I answer "Hello?" even though I already know it's him. Then he says, "Uh, hello Jeff. It's Dave." And then I say, "Hi, Dave, can you hold on just a second?"
"Yup."

Because he knows I have to plug my earbuds into my phone.

And then, it's off to the races.

Funny.

Jake said...

Drooling over those posters.

Tony Dunlop said...

So here's a question that I don't think we've seen addressed. WHY is Dave so dead-set against just getting a g-dd-mn physician's referral? How hard can it be?

Anonymous said...

@ Tony Dunlop

I believe the answer that was given in an earlier post was something along the lines of "doctors look out for each and can't be trusted".

This answer lacks cogency for a number of reasons. First, as I recall, about three months ago, doctors saved Dave's life; so it seems like doctors can't be all that untrustworthy. In fact, I recall that Dave expressed admiration for the doctors and their knowledge shortly after his surgery. It seems Dave quickly lost his appreciation.

Second, even if doctors look out for each other, it seems like they are still able to perform quality medical work on non-doctors despite their pro-doctor bias.

Third, if you don't trust doctors, how does it solve the problem to avoid only the doctor's referral, but still get the doctor to perform tests and treatments and provide advice? The answer is that it doesn't solve the problem because Dave will have to place a great deal of reliance on doctors to solve this problem no matter what. This is a gaping inconsistency in Dave's reasoning.

Dave is simply denying himself access to a potential solution to his problems for no good reason.

- Reginald P.


Steve said...

So hey, do my two contributions to the Cerebus Covers book count towards getting a Dragnet certificate - or is this solely for published pages / covers?

Just checking ...

Steve

Sean R said...

Hey Steve!

Let me check if you were included. If not, I'll have Mara add you to the next batch. Apologies to anyone who might have been left out of the first round! I hope we got everyone :)

Steve said...

Sean -

I certainly understand if the 'ephemera' like what I've contributed isn't part of the Dragnet; trying to keep track of everything, all the contributions and individuals - at some point it's OK to say 'This gets a certificate and that doesn't'.

As a fan I mostly feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to buy several pieces used to produce the comic and some great sketches Dave did 'back in the day.'

Steve

Travis Pelkie said...

See, I drool over all that poster stuff, but then I realize, that if I were to somehow acquire copies of everything, I'd...just have copies of everything around the house. And I've got enough stuff already...

Neat look at SDoAR. I assume that bit with the pasted in Overstreet listings is indicating that there is no comic book adaptation of Gone With the Wind. The devil's advocate in me suggests that perhaps it would be listed under either Four Color Comics or Classics Illustrated ;)

As to Dave, Doctors, and Charles Schulz, it sounds like Dave's saying that one reason he doesn't trust doctors is that when Charles Schulz had his heart surgery, they "did something" to him to affect his line work.

Looking at Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt, of course), Charles Schulz had a condition called "essential tremor", aggravated by the beta blockers that (presumably) he took to avoid having a second heart "event" (he had bypass surgery, but I'm not sure if he had a heart attack prior to that. Beta blockers are apparently used to prevent a second heart attack). Essential tremor is "commonly described as an action tremor (it intensifies when one tries to use the affected muscles" (again, according to Wikipedia). In other words, just signing his name probably wasn't going to cause his line work to get shaky, but when he was using those muscles to draw, the shaking got worse.

Now, personally, I quite like the later line work from Schulz, as it lends a bit of kinetic energy, if you will, to the art. Obviously, if that wasn't Schulz's intent and merely doing the artwork hurt, it wasn't good for him, but I like the end result. (And anyone who says that his later work wasn't as funny is wrong. He may have focused more on other characters, Rerun in particular, than originally, but the humor was definitely still there.)

For Dave's photorealism, yes, he needs more control over his fine line work to achieve what he wants to achieve. If the wrist won't heal on its own, he'll need something done.

At this point, though, I think he's better off just getting the referral and going from there. He seems to forget or not realize that he doesn't HAVE to do as the doctor says. (And again, whoever suggested to Dave that he needs an MRI -- the physiotherapist? -- why can't they give a referral?) Also, I think last week or the week before, Dave mentioned wanting to exhaust (Western) medical means before trying acupuncture -- why? If you're wary of "medical science", why not try something else first, then?