Sunday 4 December 2016

The Cerebus #201 Ashcan Edition


DAMIAN T. LLOYD:
(via email 22 November 2016)
I don't (yet) have a complete collection of Cerebus's original issues. I'm doing pretty well, though, and I fill in the odd gap here and there as I'm able. A couple of years ago, I found myself in a different city and wandered into their local comics shop. They had Cerebus 201 -- one of the issues mysteriously missing from my shelves -- sealed in a nice plastic bag for less than cover price.

It wasn't until I returned home and opened the bag that I found the bonus, tucked into the centre-spread of the comic. I hadn't seen one of these before: a digest-sized mock-up of the issue, sent to retailers as a promotional item. It's interesting to Cerebus scholar-squirrels and to cartoonists for showing the pages as they progress through Dave's and then Ger's hands (in reverse-chronological order). Cool!


(Click the following images to enlarge!)





10 comments:

Travis Pelkie said...

Oh man, cool!

Ashcans! Ah, comics collecting in the 90s!

Thanks for sharing, Damian!

Psst, I would pay decent money if Dave still has some available!

Steve said...


I've got my copy ... somewhere, not sure what box it's in!

There's at least two on eBay currently.

Steve

Jeff Seiler said...

Thanks much, Damian. Nice to know all those things that people say about you or will resume saying as soon as you go away aren't true.

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

Aw, Jeff, you know that half the lies they tell about me aren't true!

-- Damian

Unknown said...

The DIAMOND ashcan was actually "back in the day" when Diamond would send reps to Toronto to host a retailer open house. Which was part Diamond diplomacy since the Exclusives Wars that Diamond won eliminated all of the Canadian distributors. You WERE an Andromeda customer. You ARE now a Diamond customer.

I rented a limo to cut down on the transportation time and gave Harry (NOW & THEN BOOKS) Kremer a lift. Hey, we were going to the same place! It meant that I got to give him his copy personally and see his reaction as he read it (You want me to read it? Right now?).

There were about a dozen (?) copies at the Leamington warehouse all these years and now they're -- as Steve says -- "somewhere" out back in Camp David.

Thanks, Damian!

Unknown said...

You can see that Gerhard was as far along as outlining the background elements on page 6. We both went one page at a time, having discovered that if you do multiple pages at the same time, it's hard to tell if you're making any progress. This way, you either GOT a page done that day or you DIDN"T get a page done that day.

Slumbering Agartha said...

Dave -- I had the exact same sense of progress when I was cartooning (either I got a page done that day or I didn't), but I arrived at that 'rate of progress' under entirely different circumstances (which ranged from 'dire' to 'lucky', with the latter end of the spectrum being more of a rare respite from the former than anything else).

Unknown said...

Hi Mike! It's definitely an interesting experience to discover how many pages I can "do" in a day with printed-out photographs, Joe Kubert type, a pair of scissors and double-sided tape. An average of two by the looks of it.

Lots to mull over now that the STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND bridging material is "off my desk" and winging its way to Carson via Sandeep. As soon as I'm back at the Off-White House, I'll be putting together the bridging material and the latest print-out of the five "issues" and reading the whole thing through for the first time!

Slumbering Agartha said...

That is great news, Dave! Finally something to be excited about! New Dave Sim content approacheth!

Unknown said...

Mike - Maybe "great news/bad news" since it means more pricey Artists Editions Portfolios for Dave Sim fans to buy. I'm hoping we can do a Kickstarter of the first 20 pages and find a way to steal Carson from the academic world and make him into a permanent comic-art photorealist, starting with SDOAR.