Give Me Strength

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.

We've looked at Dave Sim's notebook #9, which covers Cerebus #80 to 86, 13 times already. Most recently in Noice. Fank You. from this past December.

When I was looking through it for Mick and Keef items, I stumbled upon a scene with the Countess and Cerebus that makes me chuckle. I put it to the side, but figured now would be a good time for it. On page 26 of the notebook is some dialogue:

Notebook #9, page 26

And then two pages later, we see the page that it was used on:

Notebook #9, page 28

The "give me strength" was replaced with the dialogue on the bottom of page 28: "I may have to sweep the floor again someday." Both make me laugh.