Pig's Ear

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.

So after last week's notebook entry, I realized that there were a couple notebooks that we've only looked at once before. One of those is notebook 26 (it was previously called notebook 23) in Cool's Right. It covers Cerebus issues #224 to #230.

Here is the cover, just another Hilroy notebook:

Notebook #26, front cover

I don't usually show the back cover, but this one make me scratch my head. It looks like Dave might have had it by his desk, and used it to get his pens / brush started.

Notebook #26, back cover

"Pig's Ear"? I'm not sure, but it doesn't look like Dave's handing writing. However, we know how good he is at changing his for whatever task he has at hand. I wonder who wrote it and what they were referring to - what was messed up?

And here is page one of the notebook, starting with issue 224.

Notebook #26, page 1

A sketch of Rick and some Cerebus dialogue.