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.
Maybe instead of rewriting this opener every week, I’ll be a bit more efficient with my use of time and have this standard opening . . .though Boss Man saying I'm giving the notebook away for free, I see it as a way of advertising all the good stuff in the notebook, and wouldn't it be easier to have a hard copy to flip through and read at your own leisure?
Have you got your copy of Albatross One? That is Dave Sim’s name for his first notebook used in the creation of Cerebus. If you want a copy of the notebook – and trust me, as someone who has held the actual Albatross One, it is a pretty close duplicate and looks great – you can check out this post right here. Well not this post. The one at this link. Go check it out, this post will still be here.
Please buy one so boss man stops yelling at me for "giving the store away for free". Perhaps if he sells one or two or all that he has left, he'll finally give me some PTO. Wait, why am I pushing this, boss man is on vacation. . .I should just take off. . .
And if you don’t want to buy one, you can wait as I release a couple of pages a week and check them out using the Notebook One tag. But trust me, the notebook is much much nicer then my silly little posts.
Okay, now that is done, on with this week’s Notebook One post.
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Last week we saw pages 158 and 159 from Dave Sim’s first notebook used during the production of Cerebus. Those pages covered material from Cerebus #27. Page 158 was a list of plot points for Cerebus #27 and on page 160 we have a similar list, but it is more fleshed out.
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| Notebook #1, page 160 |
There is another sketch of one of the kidnappers at the bottom left of the page. There is also more of a quick list down there as well of some familiar plot points: “2. Beats them up 3. Ransom note 4. Cerebus picks them up and dusts them off. 5. A really quick let’s get out of here from Cerebus. He's got the plan down pat by page four as well as the location – off over the rooves to demand – plays diamondback to win all of their squares and that’s when they doublecross him”.
After that and some more crossed out material, Dave starts writing down about how the squares work – Cerebus explaining it to his “kidnappers”. This continues on the next page when Dave switches back to the more fleshed out writing:
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| Notebook #1, page 161 |
Halfway down the page we get a description of the “kidnappers”: “both have hair trigger tempers. Reed haired Yosemite Sam type and black-haired Yosemite Sam type.”. And again we see more sketches of the “kidnappers”.
We get a tidbit of what is to come in Cerebus #28 down the bottom left of the page: “#28 Cerebus is going to have to hire a secretary to”. To? To do what? Will we find out on page 162? Will page 161 be the last page with Cerebus #27 material? Well, you don’t need to wait to find out, we already saw pages #162 and 163 in March of 2019 in Hold On There Y'Long-Eared Galoot. And as you can see, those two pages finalized the McGrew Brothers and still had material for Cerebus #27. We ain’t done yet folks.
