Odd Transformations . . .3

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.

The last time we looked at Dave Sim's tenth Cerebus notebook was back in May 2016 in Odd Transformations. . .4 part 2. Notebook #10 had 115 pages scanned and covers Cerebus #87 through 95.

For issue #89 Dave did a bunch of thumbnails showing the page lay-out. On page 30 of the notebook is the thumbnail for page 17, or page 771 of Church & State II:

Notebook #10, page 30

It looks like he was thinking of Cerebus holding the coin between his thumb and finger, looking at it while it grows larger, the text Terim appearing. Instead, what makes the finished book is the thumbnail below that, with the coin turning more into an sphere.

Church & State II, page 771

There is also a small glimpse of the next page, with Cerebus waking up. Instead of his look in the first panel, the quick sketch above the thumbnail is the expression we see on Cerebus' face in the finished issue.