Monday, 19 May 2025

SDoAR 3.19: Page Unlocked and Light at the End of the Tunnel!?!

Lots more to get through today!

1) Another page unlocked, this time by Philip Berkheimer who writes, "Unlocking pages and gathering raffle tix! There are worse ways to spend time & $$." I could not agree more!

2) Not only is Dave is still unreachable due to phone, but now he seems to be enjoying it. Meaning I'm going to have to bite the bullet and send correspondence to be printed by Alfonso once a week and see if I can keep to a schedule. HA!

3) What that also means is that I am definitely closing this raffle midnight on May 26 and announcing a winner on May 27.

4) I scanned four more pages from Hermitage Awesome to include a list of awards Dave Sim has won, and show off some original Cerebus and Strange Death of Alex Raymond/Rip Kirby art.

5) 27 raffle tickets have been sold so far, encompassing six donors. Anyone else want to join the fun in the final final week? Hermitage Awesomes Silicon Session, a parody book by Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh is a really rare book and up for grabs in the raffle. 



Raffle VII Continues ...

Also included in the raffle is a set of four Cerebus bookplates, signed by Dave Sim.

As a reminder, David Birdsong generously donated Carson Grubaugh's painting from an early version of The Strange Death of Alex Raymond. Note that the frame was damaged and there was no glass in it so he removed the art. The marks made by the frame can be seen below. 16 x 20 inches, acrylic on board.


Rules to win the Carson Grubaugh SDOAR Painting

Entries (or our equivalent of raffle tickets) cost $25 each and can be donated via lump sum to the Strange Death of Alex Raymond 2024 GoFundMe campaign through Monday, April 27, 2025 May 13 at some point May 26. I will then randomly assign numbers to each entry and have Dave pull another Karnak, and I'll announce the winner on April 28, 2025 May 14, 2025. Eventually? May 27.Cool? Cool.

Just the GoFundMe Facts, Ma'am

  • $17,825.00 raised to date from 308 donations
  • 113 pages released so far as mocked up and/or drawn by Dave Sim through 15 Jan 2022.
  • $175.00 away from unlocking page 113

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond New Mockups Preview 

If you haven't read The Strange Death of Alex Raymond before, we have an eight-page trailer that Dave did back in 2018: Part One | Part Two

Then the Dave Sim portion of the hardcover, presented four pages at a time:

This
Thisthis
Thisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
Thisthisthis
And this.

If you want to see how Carson Grubaugh finished the hardcover, well, you're going to need to purchase a copy of your own. HOWEVER, if you want to see how Dave Sim continued the story in the blue pages -- bring me the blue pages -- mockups that appeared in blue ink in final section of the hardcover can be found here...

This, 
This, and this.

Then in June 2021, Dave picked up the story again and it continues herehereherehere, and here.

If you enjoy the journey, you can join us for all the new pages on Dropbox by donating $5 or more. 

Jen x 

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Proto Version #9 (AKA the photorealist bits from glamourpuss #22)

Hi, Everybody!

Mondays!

Anyway...

Tomorrow, as she does MOST weeks, Jen DiGiacomo is gonna solicit everybody into giving a li'l something-something to The Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe she set up to get Dave money to keep working on pages (Dave's drawing pages in the 650s...). And as a part of that, she posted all of the pages from the Living The Line version of The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (up to page 205), and now she's posting Dave's mocked-up pages.

Fun fact: GoFundMe has changed their setup so you can contribute on a monthly basis (like the Patreon...).

So, to "tee her up", I'ma run the Proto-Strange Death of Alex Raymond that Dave ran in glamourpuss.

Because I can...
First this, then:













Rigamarole:
THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER: It seems like EVERYBODY has a crowd funding campaign type thing going on:
Friend to the Blog, Steve Peters has launched his latest campaign: Comicverse #6. He's got all sorts of neat stuff on offer, some of it from previous campaigns, meaning "there's Dave Art in them there add-ons!" I dunno, click around and see what he's offering. The campaign has met it's goal, but he followed KickStarter's advice and lowballed that. So more money would mean he doesn't lose money on the deal.

Don Simpson has one.

I'm selling bootleg Cerebus trading cards featuring my art, coloring by Hobbs, and unused art of MY characters by Dave. $10 a set for 11 cards plus TWO HANDDRAWN cards (by me). Email momentofcerebus@gmail.com and I'll explain how to pay.


The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. More on this as I'm allowed to post stuff...

Our very own Jen DiGiacomo is part of a film production titled The Day Elvis Died. She'll never ask anybody here, but they're crowdfunding to finish the post production on the movie. (It's set in 1977, will a certain obscure Canadian cartoon aardvark make a cameo? (No. Elvis died in August. Cerebus wasn't published until December. Any appearance in the flick would be an anachronism that would ruin the movie for everybody. EVERYBODY!).) 

The current thinking is that CAN12/The Varkdalorian will launch in June. Dave has ideas, more on this as I figure out what the hell Sim is planning...
______________
Up to 35% off May 21-26.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
One of those is the Mother's Day Sale. Show Mom you care with a T-Shirt of the comic she doesn't understand why you like so much...
______________
You can get all 16 volumes of Cerebus, many of them Remastered for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
_______________
Heritage has:
  • Nothing. But there are THREE pages of original art coming soon...
_______________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques 
_______________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
_______________
Next Time: Jen and REAL Strange Death of Alex Raymond...

Sunday, 18 May 2025

INCOMING! Catching up on the not Faxes... (New Dave Art!)

Hi, Everybody!

Even though his phone and fax aren't working, that doesn't stop Dave from making me post stuff on his behalf...

INCOMING!

Dave said Monday that he didn't care about this, and things keep happening with Diamond (I've decided until I hear from Dave what HE hears is happening, I'm not reading anything anybody posts on the Internet about any of this...) I don't think Diamond was in arrears to Aardvark-Vanaheim for any money, so Dave really doesn't care until it is "Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss" time. But he sent it, so if maybe you're a creator who needs their ka-ching from Geppi & Co.:











Which leads to the "Back-up Plan" (one of my favorite gags from the Flying Kkaramazov Brothers was when they were doing a flaming juggling trick and they said, "Don't worry, we have a Back-up Plan. Everybody BACK UP!") and Dave's notes/thoughts:







Enough business, let's talk Art:










In a follow up to the last Please Hold:

And since the next CAN (#12 for those of you playing at home...) is a'comin':
OFF-WHITE HOUSE BULLETIN. 8 May 25
519-576-0610 LAND LINE and FAX LINE are FRIED.  PERMANENTLY?  Stay tuned.
AMOC
BIRDSONG
c/o Rolly
CAN 12/VARKDALORIAN (projected June launch)
subject line:  From Dave Sim re: CAN 12
 
1)  Hello, CAN 11 Backers!  We’re going to be trying something different this time to accomodate those of you who are in some form of financial distress (only a handful in February but this is May which is, like, a thousand years later in 2025 terms):
 
Everyone who participated in the last Kickstarter is going to get everything on CAN 12/Varkdalorian ahead of time in digital form for free.  The Digital Package will be offered for $20 on the Kickstarter to everyone else 
 
2) Varkdalorian [CAN 12] and Possum-At-Large vs. Super-Cerebus [CAN 13] are both written by Chad Lambert.  Rather than trying to explain Chad Lambert I got Rolly to scan his Kill Me & Other Curiosities and this will be e-mailed to you as soon as I make sure that this isn’t a Tragic Luddite Mistake that’s going to make anyone go ballistic. Always a danger with we Tragic Luddites (:
 
Chad won two Harvey Awards in 2015 for “Breaking Out” (Best Single Issue or Short Story) and “Kill Me” (Promising New Talent), both of which appear here. 
 
So him doing two Cerebus in Hell? comics is kind of a big deal.  And this seemed like the easiest way to explain it.
 
3)  I’m hoping Chad has a deal with Dark Horse where he can buy copies of Kill Me at a discount so he can offer them autographed on the Kickstarter.  Basically wait and see how many Backers want them and then order that many, get Chad to sign them and ship them to Rolly to include in your packages or ship them directly from Chad’s home Somewhere In Ohio if that makes more sense
 
4). As I said, Chad is the writer which means if all of the artists also sign
 
- Tom Williams
- Christine Larsen
- K CZAP
- Apri Kusbiantoro
 
that would be a) really cool b) possibly a logistical nightmare (depending on where they all are).
 
Fallback position:  KILL ME THE BACKING BOARD with space for everyone to sign
 
Which is why this is the first thing you’re hearing about CAN 12 VARKDALORIAN because this is the one that has logistic nightmare written all over it. 
 
5). Please
a) don’t share your digital KILL ME with others since it’s just a personal FYI for you and definitely borderline illegal even if it’s copyright Chad Lambert and Chad is (hopefully) cool with this. 
b) do buy a copy from your local comic shop if they have a DIA order code for it and autographs aren’t really your thing.  It just came out in December 2024 which is i) a thousand years ago and ii) recent enough it should theoretically work. 
 
NEXT:  The CAN 12 side of this which should be easy-peasy (famous last words)
I haven't heard if that phase of the project is "GO!" If I hear anything, I'll let y'all know...

Dave continued a few days later (my philosophy now is: wait until somebody questions if  I posted it/they do something first. That way it is never possibly my fault when things go wrong. As I frequently say, "I didn't do it, unless it had to get done, in which case I did it twice.")
Would have been nice if Dave had had that page sent to me...

Ya know...I have a short box FULL of Vark Wars and Walt's Empire Strikes Back that my wife has stopped acknowledging as existing, that has some of them lower #ed Walt's Empire issues (I'd have to look which ones.) (Vark Wars was BEFORE they started numbering the print run on the covers.) I COULD grab a bunch and sign them and send them to Dave to sign so you could get a copy with two of the...eight(?) creators signatures on there. I also have a couple of the hardcover Swords of Cerebus in Hell? collections (volumes 8 & 10 that have the Vark Wars issues in them) I could sign and sketch in and send to Dave to use as add-ons or Postcard prizes. I guess I have to find a box...

Anyway if you made it this far, Original Dave Art time (click for bigger): 

Sans notes:

I THINK that's everything from the past 8 days...

Rigamarole:
THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER: It seems like EVERYBODY has a crowd funding campaign type thing going on:
Friend to the Blog, Steve Peters has launched his latest campaign: Comicverse #6. He's got all sorts of neat stuff on offer, some of it from previous campaigns, meaning "there's Dave Art in them there add-ons!" I dunno, click around and see what he's offering. The campaign has met it's goal, but he followed KickStarter's advice and lowballed that. So more money would mean he doesn't lose money on the deal.

I'm selling bootleg Cerebus trading cards featuring my art, coloring by Hobbs, and unused art of MY characters by Dave. $10 a set for 11 cards plus TWO HANDDRAWN cards (by me). Email momentofcerebus@gmail.com and I'll explain how to pay.


The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. More on this as I'm allowed to post stuff...

Our very own Jen DiGiacomo is part of a film production titled The Day Elvis Died. She'll never ask anybody here, but they're crowdfunding to finish the post production on the movie. (It's set in 1977, will a certain obscure Canadian cartoon aardvark make a cameo? (No. Elvis died in August. Cerebus wasn't published until December. Any appearance in the flick would be an anachronism that would ruin the movie for everybody. EVERYBODY!).) 

The current thinking is that CAN12/The Varkdalorian will launch in June. Dave has ideas, more on this as I figure out what the hell Sim is planning...
______________
Up to 35% off May 21-26.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
One of those is the Mother's Day Sale. Show Mom you care with a T-Shirt of the comic she doesn't understand why you like so much...
______________
You can get all 16 volumes of Cerebus, many of them Remastered for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
_______________
Heritage has:
  • Nothing. But there are THREE pages of original art coming soon...
_______________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques 
_______________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
_______________
Next Time: Well that WAS everything except the Monday Report, but I'm saving that for tomorrow...