Last week’s entry on Dave Sim’s final Cerebus notebook, notebook #36, was three blank pages for Cerebus #294 – 296. And guess what? It is more of the same for Cerebus #297 through #299. I know by this time Dave was using the tracing paper method of working on the original art, perhaps between that and being so close to the end of the story, he had it in his mind and it was just a matter of getting it out onto the art board.
If you want to see all of the other posts for notebook #36, which yes, there are pages with material on them, check out the Notebook 36 tag. Next week will be the last Notebook #36 entry, for as you can tell, there is only Cerebus #300 left.
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| Notebook #36, page 94 |
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| Notebook #36, page 97 |
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| Notebook #36, page 100 |
And if you missed last week’s post: “Yes, Dave would leave three pages per issue for any notes he might have. Which, as you can see, were none for these issues.”
For this week’s tracing paper sketches – I need to make up for showing you three blank pages with something Cerebus related or boss man will can me faster than you could say Boobah – I found a rough and a tighten sketch for Cerebus #255 page four. Well, at least the top two thirds of the page:
This is the rough sketch for the page. Yes, the tracing paper is a bit bigger, but I cropped the picture just to show what was on the tracing paper. The rest of it was empty. On this rough there is nothing on the back side of it. We can see Dave’s vanishing point lines, the outlines of the panels – sometimes just the corner marks, and some of the dialogue. We even get a bit of background – look at that little airship in the upper right corner.
And yes, with all of these pictures, click to enlarge.
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| Tracing paper rough and issue |
With the tightened sketch, the panels are there as is Cerebus’ dialogue. Though that dialogue is still a bit different then the final page. The dialogue for Mary and Jaka is the same. The background that he sketched out in the rough is gone from the tighten sketch. But as close as it is, this tracing paper wasn’t used on the page – there are no pencil marks on the opposite side of the tracing paper.
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| Tracing paper tighten sketch and issue |
And the tracing paper tighten sketch by itself. Yes, this is the condition I received it in straight from the Off White House. The pit of scotch tape along the top of it, the pit of paper from the top right corner torn off, and the bottom left corner cut out. All I did to it was just put it an archival portfolio to protect it from further damage.
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| Tracing paper tighten sketch |
So what will we see next week? Just a blank page for Cerebus #300? Or will there be some actual content on the notebook pages?
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