Wednesday 8 November 2017

FLIGHT In the Wild


Sean Michael Robinson:

Greetings F.O.C.!

As you may have noticed, Cerebus Archive Number Seven, the Kickstarter for FLIGHT featuring the first ten pages from Flight that the Cerebus Archive still owns along with a 10,000 word illustrated essay by Dave, is live right now!

With that in mind, I thought I'd take a look at some of the original art for FLIGHT that I've seen up close and personal. Although neither Dave nor Gerhard have scanned their pages yet for the restoration effort, as A/V and Diamond still have copies of previous printings, we have received a few pages of original art from "In the Wild", not surprising considering Dave and Gerhard went on tour during the production of the book.

And despite the dour and blood-soaked tone of the first few issues of FLIGHT, the book seems to be a fan-favorite, perhaps owing to the parody elements and the return of several fan-favorite characters.

The Roach and Elrod both show up, contributing some of the same "everything but the kitchen sink" vibe as the early parts of Church and State II. Here's a look at a page from the collection of Michael Ragiel, a long-time Cerebus (and Cerebus Kickstarter!) supporter. You can see from the inscription at the bottom that he purchased it on the '92 tour in New York City.



And here's one of the most infamous (and eminently quotable) pages from FLIGHT, from the same sequence. 


Also from the same sequence, and possibly sold at the same tour stop-- a page from the collection of Dagon James. 


I don't know why this sequence cracks me up so much. Part of it is undoubtedly the lovingly-rendered postcards. The front card and Elrod's descriptions are hilarious, but the feet poking out from the back card push the gag over the edge for me.


Here's a page that's changed hands a few times. Thanks to both owners who've sent it in!


Interesting to see the consistencies and differences in the rendering from the cover we looked at last week.



Lastly, here's a page that was scanned by IDW during their Cerebus cover hunt for the "Cover Treasury" book, and kindly sent to me by Justin Eisinger.


Most of the pages we've looked at so far are in pretty good shape, as they make pretty minimal use of mechanical tone, and thus will require a lot less cleanup. But this page is suffering some from an aged PMT--photo mechanical transfer--which was stuck to the page by a generous heaping of rubber cement, which is now eating away at the page.



Hope to see you all soon on the Kickstarter page, where Dave has been conducting a Q + A with backers, via relayed faxes. Make your pledge and post your question now!


7 comments:

Michael R. said...

Hi Sean!
Thank you for displaying my only original page from Cerebus.

If anyone does has a page that's framed and is afraid that the page will be ruined by taking it out ... fear not! I was super nervous just thinking about taking it out, but through few e-mails by Sean explaining all the possible ways of removing artwork from frame was pretty easy. For some reason I thought it had been glued to the borders. It wasn't.

Once out, I went to a Staples and had them copy it to the specifications Sean told me. I did not have printer that big. They copied it and put it on flash drive. Once I got home I emailed it to Sean and the rest is history.

If my memory is correct, I believe all original art work that is personalized and signed by Dave and Gerhard will appear in the remastered copies. Right, Sean?

Plus you get an autographed document by Dave, Sean and Mara! ...but wait there's more. On the document you get a tiny reprint of the page you contributed. Way cool.

Steve said...


And hopefully they spell your name correctly on the contribution document ...

Oh! Hey there, Sean...

Steve

Sean R said...

Hey Steve! I'm happy to inform you that you're the sole owner of a rare, one-of-a-kind misprinted certificate!!!

...

Did that work? Hmm?

:)

Jeff said...

Well, I have yet to receive my Cerebus Dragnet certificate, for my role in getting Jeremy S. of Titn Comics to scan his page of the fop who goes into a reads store: "Some of our more...discerning...customers particularly enjoy this passage, sir." (Or something close to that--too lazy to go look it up.)

He did scan it, right, Sean?

Sean R said...

Hey Jeff! And anyone else who hasn't gotten something from me!

Please write me/remind me/let me know/ at cerebusarthunt at gmail and I'll make it happen as soon as I'm able!

Jeff, your certificate will go out with the next batch!

Jeff said...

Mooch-ass grassy-ass, Sean!

Steve said...


Sir Sean, if miss-spelling my name means I get some more press sheets from the remastered books, then spell away as wrong as you want!

I actually thought it was pretty funny, no big deal at all - and if I remember correctly, I initially spotted the certificates in one of Dave's Weekly Updates as he was thumbing thru them for the camera -- called the kids over, "Hey, I'm famous! I'm on a Dave Sim video!"

Kids: "Who?"

*sigh*

Steve