Tuesday 20 February 2018

Cerebus In Matt's Life: Part the Fourth

Hi, Everybody!

First up, the Cerebus in Hell? Auctions continue:
Those two are NEW!!!
The Un-Bedable Vark #1.
And The Undateable Cerebus #1.
So open your checkbooks and bid, Bid, BID!!! (Or not, I don't care what you do. What do I look like, your mother?)

So, GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!

I finally bought a copy of the first Cerebus trade.

"Wait, what?!? How can you even BE the Interim-Editor of A Moment Of Cerebus if you didn't even OWN the First Trade?!? Somebody call Tim! Somebody call Dave!! Somebody think of the children!!!"

Calm down, calm down...

I said I just bought the first volume, not that I didn't own the first volume. Which brings us to:

Cerebus In Matt's Life: Part the Fourth

When last we left Interim-Editor Matt Dow, he had started to buy the monthly Cerebus book. And ordering the Phone Books through his local comic book store (Powerhouse Comics had begat The Mystic Cellar had begat Ann's Mystic Cellar had begat My Parent's Basement. (Basically the store kept changing names, owners, and locations.)) And when Matt went in to empty his file (and pay the store's rent. Seriously. This was back in my "more-money-than-brains" days...), there was the copy of... (I wanna say Guys, but it could have been Rick's Story, anyway, ) there were THREE phone books in Matt's file: (whichever one I had ordered), Cerebus, and Flight. And a note from the former owner of the shop (and current store manager) Ann saying that if I was getting into Cerebus, I could have these phone books.

And the copy of Flight was a signed and numbered first printing!
See:
Thanks Ann!

Which was pretty sweet!

And then, in the May, 2001 issue was an ad (on the inside front and back covers,) for A SIGNING WITH DAVE AND GER!!

WHHHAAAAAAAATTTTT?!?!?!?!?!?


CHICAGO?!? That was only a three hour drive from Matt's house!

He HAD to go. So he took a vacation day from work. Got in his car. And drove to Sweet Home Chicago.

After finding a parking spot (it's a long involved tale involving the decided LACK of an East Madison Street, and driving in literal circles for thirty minutes, finally parking, going into a bank and talking to a security guard who explained how Chicago worked...) Matt entered 69 East Madison Street and met Dave Sim (and Gerhard)...

This is where a picture would be if I had one, alas, I do not.

Matt waited in line, and got up to Dave and Ger, and proceeded to ask: The. Dumbest. Question. Ever.

"How come when Cerebus tried to leave the Bar after Rick left, he didn't think to grab his sword?"

Ug...

Total boner of a question, or what?

Dave looked at Matt like he was...I don't even know what...

And grabbed a copy of Reads, and flipped to when the sword fell out of the story:

See, there it goes, straight to CerebusDownloads.com
See, Matt had gotten this image: 

From Reads (and CerebusDownloads.com)
 Confused with this image:

From Rick's Story, and CerebusDownloads.com
I say again, Ug...

Even Gerhard was giving Matt the stink eye over that one...

Matt did get a Cerebus head sketch with a Gerhard background, so that was nice...

Next Time: Guys. Matt lives Guys. It. Was. Epic.


3 comments:

Jeff said...

Hey, you're not alone, pal. My first meeting with Dave, I went on and on about how he should parody Ross Perot, who was, of course, at the time running for President (first time, I think). That would have been in the early to mid-90s, I think. That was at Clint's Comics, in Kansas City, the Spirits of Independents Tour, so of course I dragged my new girlfriend to the signing. I have zero recollection of what issue he signed for me. I didn't own any of the phonebooks then.

Dave did his best to ignore me, even when I came back with a six-pack of the local beer, Boulevard, minus one that I kept to drink later. I asked him many years later what he did with the beer and he replied that he didn't remember but that he probably drank one back in the hotel room and gave the rest away.

An inauspicious start to our longtime relationship.

Jeff said...

Any other first-meeting-with-Dave stories out there?

Gary Boyarski said...

Oooh! Teenage Mutant Ninja Cerebi! See what happens when you don't pay attention. As the gag writer / designer for that cover I feel somewhat obligated to bid on the Final Proof auction for that one. Then again... I could use that money to buy multiple copies of the issue when it comes out, so that I can hand them out to my comic loving friends and proudly boast "Look! I helped make this!" I suppose I could do both, right? Kids don't eat THAT much, and they basically live off of Easter candy for most of April anyway...