The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart of The World by Harlan Ellison

Hi, Everybody!

I know I promised Cerebus, but Friend to the Blog, MJ Sewall shared something on Facebook that sent me down a Dave-related rabbit hole, so you get that.

Especially, since, to quote the late Johnny Carson: "I did not know that."

What he shared was a post of Harlan Ellison's Author bios from a number of his books that are increasingly unhinged. But ONE of them caught my eye:

"Title logo by Dave Sim"? What the fuq?!?

A simple google search turned up this. (Don't worry, I scraped the images from the link, you don't have to click if you're feeling lazy...)

Click for bigger

That's Dave's lettering alright...

It's from this edition of the book:

When I shared the initial image to the Cerebus Facebook group, Margaret commented: "It was only used on a limited edition hardcover. One that is so hard to find and when you do it is priced out of my range for such a thing that I don't own a copy of it. . .makes me hope Dave has a copy for the archive"

Well, I found three copies.

Bezos suck machine (#411 of 500), which showed the actual cover of the hardback

Abebooks (#404 of 500) has the dustjacket. And is cheaper then Bezos...

Pangobooks (#453 of 500) has the dustjacket, and is even cheaper than Abe...

They're still $75 at the cheapest. But now I have a new rare book to look for when I'm out and about. If you see a copy, I'd snag it if you can afford it...

There's my rabbit hole for the day. (No idea if Dave ever mentioned doing this in the front/back of the comic. Margaret would know... HEY! Maybe there's a sketch in a Notebook! You should ask her 'bout that...)

Next Time: Mondays!

Aardvark Flashback: Deni and Dave @ Marvel comics October, 5th 1982

Hi, Everybody!

My kid needed some pictures printed, so I decided to get two sets of Birdsong's color corrected versions of Deni and Dave's photos of their visit to the Marvel/EPIC offices on October 5th, 1982:

So, here they are with Dave's '82 Tour notes on the visit (from the Waverly Press version of the tour book):

Dave Sim, Mary Jo Duffy, Archie Goodwin

Mary Jo Duffy

The Marvel "Bullpen" (more on this directly)

Louise "Weezy" Simonsen (nee Jones) (More on this pic in a bit)

Denny O'Neil and Dave

Archie Goodwin, Dave Sim, Mary Jo Duffy, and (possibly) Michael Hobson.

Deni Sim and Chris Claremont

____________

Now, I said we'd get back to this pic:

See that art on the wall by the blue dictionary?

It's either the original art, or a photocopy of the original art to the cover of New Mutants #1

Neat, huh?

There was one other photo from the Marvel visit:

It's a comic strip of some kind.

I did a Google Image search which yielded:

Folks, it's not.

It's this strip:

From FOOM #14, 1976

_______________

Now, if you cut out the bad photo of the comic strip, there are SEVEN photos from Deni & Dave's Marvel '82 visit.

By an odd coincidence, I was hit with a targeted ad for custom ViewMaster-style photo  reels. They hold seven photos per reel...

So I ordered three reels (it was buy two get one free)

I'm keeping one (hey! I PAID for the damn things...), I'm sending one up to Dave, and the third one goes to Margaret (if you make Cerebus stuff and don't make a copy for her, the Angels cry...)

BUT, I can always order more. The pricing gets a little cheaper as you order more reels:

They don't really run the numbers well in this one,

So, if you've gotten this far and "WANT!", lemme know. If we hit high enough numbers, the price will get real cheap, but I'll still have to pay to ship them. I'll find out how expensive that is when I mail Margaret hers (domestic), and Dave his (international).

If the Waverly Press version had hit Kickstarter, I feel like this would have been something they would have done.

SPEAKING of my friends at the Waverly Press, they're moving their office, and to lighten the loads, they're temporarily cutting prices on their remaining Cerebus inventory on their eBay store starting this weekend. They're gonna be gradually listing more things in the coming days and any orders placed next week will receive new ‘82 Tour promo cards. They may go ahead and offer the remaining prototypes of the big book and comic versions next week. MAYBE. So if you're interested, maybe stalk their eBay page like a crazy person...

Next Time: Cerebus.

QEII and the Presidents, Pt.2 (Dave's weekly update #646)

Hi, Everybody!

Like it says on the Logo:

That little bit on the bottom there...

It's Friday, so that means:

Dave's Weekly Update:

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

To quote the eminent sage and philosopher Crocodile Dundee:

Please Hold VS '82 Tour book. As of Wednesday, and Eddie says he's triple checked the numbers, so "this time for REAL!"...

One might imply that the yenta with "more brains than money" must have finally run out of the one, or gotten some of the other, but the listener infers, the speaker implies. Also, there's still eighteen more days for the '82 brigade to search the couch cushions for loose change...

As Dave's CONTINUING the Please PAY For Dave Sim format, if YOU want more '82 Tour Book discussion, go HERE, and pay for "Dave Sim 82 Tour Book". But if YOU'd rather hear more stereotypical Please Hold (*shudder*) "content", go HERE and pay for "Please Hold For Dave Sim". Either way, I have to amuse myself in the Editing Suite assembling these things... (wanna find out how many of these I already own? Then you're gonna wanna pay for more '82...) More on this below in the weekly rangle...

_______

The surveys for the Kickstarter were sent out. And SIX people haven't filled them out yet.

Birdsong sent recipts:

Oooooh I AM going to RAG on some of these guys SO hard...

Come on guys, get your shit together... And the money was supposed to be deposited yesterday, so printing and shipping should be starting sooner rather than later...

Okay, back to "bizness as usual"...

___________________________

A Moment of Cerebus runs Saturday through Friday. 

The past Week in AMOC:

• Saturday: Dave send more '82 tour notes. I added my notes on his notes. Anyway, Dave's CONTINUING the Please PAY For Dave Sim format. If you want more '82 Tour Book discussion, go HERE, and pay for "Dave Sim 82 Tour Book". But if you'd rather hear more stereotypical Please Hold (*shudder*) "content", go HERE and pay for "Please Hold For Dave Sim". Either way, I have to amuse myself in the Editing Suite assembling these things... (wanna find out how many of these I already own? Then you're gonna wanna pay for more '82...)
• Sunday: In working on the X-Men digression in the '82 Tour Book, I continue my  decades long (thirty years and counting!) campaign to point out that I think John Byrne sucks and is supremely overrated. (Google images of Aliens: Earth Angel, but only if you have a barf bag handy...) I DO understand that mine is a minority opinion, but to put it in the language of the "youth" here in the beginning of the second quarter of the twenty-first century (namely "the Meme"):

"PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE GOOP SLINGIN' HACK BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"

• Monday: The Monday Report, and THE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-THREE PLEASE HOLD FOR DAVE SIM CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR! Transcript.
• Tuesday: Jen turned up FOUR WEEKS IN A ROW(!) to post to help raise funds on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe, $100 until page 133 of Dave's POST-Carson SDOAR mock-up pages unlocks. AND GoFundMe has a MONTHLY option now, so you can schedule a reoccurring donation. 
• Wednesday: MORE Weekly Cerebus in Hell? Strips. I think this one is written by Dave. Follow along on Instagram. And https://www.ebay.com/itm/236664955396 (Somebody was looking for the Vardalorian...) And get your surveys in if you're Tundis, Peters, Smith (Banderas?), or Carl & Mikael...
• Thursday: Margaret has also posted ALL of Albatross One. (If you click that link, you can see all the pages of the notebook, OR, you can get a PHYSICAL copy here.) And all of The Last Notebook. Now she's gonna burn through all of Notebook #21. So sit back and get ready for pages and pages and pages of walls of handwritten text... This week, More Viktor Davis monologue, with a hint of Minds!
• Friday: that's this post. You're reading the Friday post right now. This is STILL like that bit in Spaceballs. (Should I link to LAST WEEK'S Update in these things?)

Okay, so that was the last week on AMOC. (I mean, if Earth Angel hasn't convinced you of Byrne's awfulness, may I introduce you to Spider-Man: Chapter One, wherein The Goop King attempts to do a "better job" of Spider-Man than Steve Ditko. He fails. Miserably. Not only does Spider-Man get his origin entwined with Doctor Octopus, meaning Peter Parker  gets his powers in an explosion (fuckin' retarded...), but Byrne was quoted at the time saying that if he could have had the Sandman get his powers at the same time he would have (the mind boggles at just how asinine a concept that is...). AND Norman Osborn and the Sandman are cousins because they have the same distinctive Ditko hairstyle... Just awful fuckin' garbage. I'm glad Marvel has parted ways with that hack. It brings me a joy I can barely put into words...) (More on this when somebody pops in to defend the Goop King and I have to bring up the abysmal crapfest that was Bryne's run on Amazing Spider-Man with Howard Mackie...)

__________________________

I've decided that the FULL Rigamarole is only running on Fridays now...

______________

I had these made:

Twenty bucks USD gets you a set. momentofcerebus@gmail.com.

______________

The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. OR(!) you could buy Bill's book with the Dave backcover. I have discovered links:
Wanderland (Paperback)
Wanderland (Hardcover for the guys who get "hard" for hardcovers...)
Wanderland (Paperback but slightly more expensive...I dunno why...)
The site offers UK shipping, so PRESUMEABLY it's printed and shipped there(?).
And Journey Complete:
Hardcover
Paperback
And if you wanna see how the book looks in Real Time...
____________
Larry Shell could use a hand to keep his house.
____________
Dave also wanted me to post this:

Lots of little words, click for bigger.

http://www.dougcomicworld.com/

______________

The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 35% off June 13-22.*

*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.

______________

You can get all 16 volumes of Cerebus, many of them Remastered (but probably NOT Guys) for $99 CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)

On sale for $25 on the XXth (details closer to the sale date, but it's before the end of the month. I've actually let slip when in previous posts, so you'll know if you've been paying attention...):

Next $25 day is later in the month.

_______________

Heritage has: 

• Cerebus #169 page 18
• An unreadable copy of glamourpuss #10
• Six Deadly Sins page: Pride (coming soon) (After my birthday, but I won't hold it against you if that's what you wanna get me...)
• And the Last Six Deadly Sins page: Sloth (also Coming Soon)

And ComicLink (remember ComicLink? Seiler brought us ComicLink. R.I.P Jeff.) has:

• And a list of ALL the issues they got (including a slabbed fake #1)

Thanks to Steve for sending the link. 

_______________

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: Hopefully I can go back to forgetting John Byrne exists, but that's up to you guys. Don't mention the Goop King, and I'll be able to move on...

Notebook 21: Minds or Viktor Davis

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’re continuing our look at Dave Sim’s 21st notebook used during the creation of Cerebus #164 to 187. We’ll be looking at this notebook, which there were 260 out of 300 pages scanned, until we’ve seen every single page of it. Well, the pages scanned. If you want to see all of the notebook #21 posts to date, just use the Notebook 21 tag. 

~*~~~*~

Well, what do we have here? A Minds logo? An issue box number for Cerebus #187? Are we finally done with Viktor Davis? 

Notebook #21, page 192

The text below the issue number box seems to be tilted towards the content of Minds, the "only gradual absorption into a powerful orbit of mindless decay.” The text above Minds also seems geared towards Minds, “The best a creator can do is to try and understand his own creator.”

The next page has what appears to be some thoughts and connections being made. Though, “Men are furnaces”? Umm. 

Notebook #21, page 193

And since only two pages of barely any content. . .I know you’re all clamoring for more walls of text. So without further ado, more Viktor Davis – “what are you thinking”, well, Viktor won’t stop talking about what he is thinking about:

Notebook #21, page 194

That is an interesting quote on the above page, “You’ve known instinctively that there is nothing certain in these pages for some time now. . .You don’t know where I’m taking you. . .Cerebus is an hermaphrodite. Elrod never existed. Cerebus just had his ear cut off. Cerebus be all right, right? His name’s on the cover, right? A hundred and eighteen issues to go, right?” 

Right? 

Notebook #21, page 195

“This is Cerebus. Sixteen years of being alone complete isolation. Deathly quiet. Just the sound of your thought, which is no sound at all. Does it bother you? When I first came out in here in 1970. July. All the way out in here. I ended up spending a couple of days in the Psych Ward at K-W Hospital. Couldn’t sleep. Speaking in strange voices. One word at a time. One word at a time. Can you stop? Stop reading I mean.”

“Maybe the question isn’t what sort of person would do this. Maybe the question is what sort of person follows a person like this around for years on end.”

Notebook #21, page 196

“What if I was lying?”

The text of the above three pages gets turned into the text for Cerebus #183. 

 CEREBUS IN HELL? WEEKLY STRIP #45

next: Margaret

"This. Then That," Say Manly. "That, Then This," Responds Jen.

"Jen?"

"Yes?"

"Where's today's update?"

"At the bottom of the page."

"Ah," mused Manly Matt. "Always causing trouble, that one. Oh well, this. Then ..."

Next Time: A Strip.

$60 donated in the past week, meaning The Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe stands at ...

• $21,5000.00 raised to date from 407 donations
• 132 pages released so far as mocked up and/or drawn by Dave Sim through 7 March 2022
  
• $100.00 away from unlocking page 133
• If you have not donated, a $5+ donation gets you access to all 132 pages and all future unlocked pages
• Donate once or automated monthly donations here >> https://www.gofundme.com/f/sdoar-2023

How is Jen doing on her hit list? Not well. Hence hiding here all the way at the bottom of the update!

• But this week is a new week and hopefully I'll get further down the raffle winners' list!

And then...

• Do a giant mail run.
• Update the GoFundMe main page.
• Follow up with Dave on all SDOAR progress.
• Review open questions for Giant-Size Ashcans and see if I can get answers, and get us rolling on our next proof!

🤞

SDOAR GoFundMe -->> https://www.gofundme.com/f/sdoar-2023

Jen x