A Bit O'Swank

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.

With the exception of last week's entry, we've been looking at Dave Sim's notebook #9 lately to see the Mick and Keef entries at the request of Jimmy Gownley. We've seen some items from Cerebus #85 and 86, but what about the genesis of Mick and Keef?

The first instance of the princely brothers that I can see in the notebook is on page 58:

Notebook #9, page 58

The thumbnail appears to be for the first page of Cerebus #85, but wasn't used and some of the dialogue between Mick and Keef when Cerebus introduces himself. And below that we see some sketches of two guys whom I can only assume are the first sketches of Mick and Keef.

Skip ahead two pages and we sketches of a 'Prince Michael':

Notebook #9, page 61

Yeah, that looks more like the Prince Mick that we all know. Then on page 62 a couple more sketches of Mick along with some dialogue:

Notebook #9, page 62

The next page is a couple more sketches, and finally the sunglasses appear:

Notebook #9, page 63