'82 Tour Book notes (round 3)

Hi, Everybody!

As you all should know by now (if you check A Moment of Cerebus more than once a month "to see if it's gotten good again..." (SPOLIER WARNING: it hasn't.).), 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...)

I presume I'm getting audio soon-ish, but until then:

Dave Sim's continuing Notes on the 1982 Tour Book. (Part, the third)

’82 TOUR BOOK III

Okay, if you want an example of being able to change the nature of reality single-handedly, “N” donated $80 at the last minute and ’82 TOUR BOOK WINS again! One man CAN make a difference.

Matt sez: Actually, "N"  paid at the beginning of May, and Eddie "lost" the payment in his records. But, whatever. '82 it is!

Giving me whiplash because I had Matt’s Faux telling me that PLEASE HOLD was 50-to-1 ahead, so I was already reading Matt’s cover letter prepping for PLEASE HOLD JUNE. Which is handy because I can explain that “No, I don’t need more PLEASE HOLD questions: I still have PLEASE HOLD questions from April The Month.”

Matt sez: Yeah, but more questions came in, including two "where the hell are my answers?" from long time Please Holders. And one that IF Dave ever gets to it will possibly be awesome (if he knows the answer...). Of course, that presumes that one of these days the schmuck with more money than brains who keeps throwing money at '82 Tour Book will lose to Please Hold. Dave (and I) did WAY TOO MANY months for free, we spoiled you kids, and now you're not ready for the Real World... 

So I took the new questions and put them on the coffee table pile that holds both the ’82 TOUR BOOK PROTOTYPE and PLEASE HOLD so I always know where both of them are when the print-out from Eddie comes in shortly after the 1st.

Got as far as Matt requesting — again — page 700 of SDOAR. This is the first chance I’ve had to say “No, unfortunately page 700 doesn’t make a lot of sense in and of itself: it’s the capstone (and a very odd graphic capstone) to the pages 692 to 700.

Matt sez: le sigh... The point was that irregardless of what's on page 700, page 700 is enough of a milestone that sharing it is reward for the long suffering (and long paying) Strange Death of Alex Raymond patreons/gofunders, and if it's intriguing enough, might even be used to help the fundraising. Ah, but what do I know, I'm just the volunteer hype-man... 

So, ’82 TOUR BOOK and this time we’re doubling back to the page-by-page method I always use and this ties in with

a) the X-MEN MOVIES movie posters and intel you sent along

b) my HOWARD THE DUCK frontispiece from way back when

a) I. HAD. NO. IDEA. there were that many X-MEN movies.

I’m a complete civilian when it comes to Marvel Movies which is why this is turning into such a great Category 3 — civilian — thing. The Average Person registers the latest Marvel Movie. At this point, just “Did it make a billion dollars or how far short of a billion dollars has it made?” It’s a Monday entertainment sidebar in the newspapers. This is how it did on its opening weekend. But (speaking for myself as a Marvel Movie civilian) there’s no institutional memory. Knowing how many X-MEN movies there are is Inside Baseball to the max. If I had had to guess? Two X-MEN movies? Maybe three?

Matt sez:  Fourteen. There are fourteen X-Men (and X-Men related) movies. (If you include the three Deadpool ones (which I do).) I wonder if Dave understands there are fifteen Spider-Man (and related character) movies? And thirty-seven movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I wonder who's gonna tell 'im, because it won't be me (I'ma NOT "multiply my sorrows", and add to the list of duties assigned me...) (more on that in a bit...)

So I just keep flipping through the intel with my mouth hanging open.

Point of intersection A: I still opt for the NEW MUTANTS movie poster with the girl’s face in the foreground. Now we have a revenue total to put next to it: $49,169,594. August 2020, it was a Lockdown Casualty wasn’t it? People going to theatres but sitting six feet apart? This will contrast well with the X-MEN PER SE revenue totals. Which are mind-boggling.

Matt sez: A combination of COVID and Disney buying Fox. That's what cost New Mutants revenue.

Point of intersection B: the picture of Chris Claremont with his arms wrapped around Deni needs to be much much bigger. Full page full bleed and then “micro-publishing $1 a page” how many pages do we devote to the inset X-MEN movie posters with their worldwide gross $$$?…

Suggested phrasing: “Comic-book movies were a pipe dream in 1982.  SUPERMAN in 1978, SUPERMAN II in ???? but there was only one SUPERMAN.  Chris Claremont’s X-MEN comics made Indy comics viable for the average comic-book store. We had no idea what was up ahead.” Dave Sim 2026

Matt sez: Superman II? 1980. 

[digression:  is the “domestic gross/worldwide gross” split-level revenues a necessity?  We can make the type larger if there’s a single total GROSS REVENUES.  Obviously the U.S. is our target market so if that would just pose a needless question mark for American Category 3 buyers — “why isn’t there a domestic/worldwide split?” — then we don’t want to be pulling the average reader out of the content with a question the average reader is just going to find irritating]

Matt sez:  I included Domestic, International, and Total grosses. It's Dave's book, he can use whatever numbers he wants. I just gave him options.

 …and for our purposes, for each movie poster there’s an inset scan of a page of original artwork matching one of the scenes from the movie with its 1:23:01 time-stamp location.

Matt sez: I'm not really an X-Men comic guy. Whatever issues I owned were sold off years ago when I needed cash. So if anybody out there IS a big X-Men fan, and wants to try to find panels that match scenes from the movies for Dave and his book, that'd be awesome. (I doubt it, but I've been wrong before...)

I'm sure "it sounds like fun to SOMEBODY"...

A good subliminal I think will be that the size of the movie posters will vary depending on the gross revenues DAYS OF FUTURE PAST being the largest.
 
I’m counting 8 Chris Claremont movies, so a page per movie (outside extreme) you’re talking about $8 of the cover price.  Which is a lot (the difference between a $50 book and a $60 book but as I say — CATEGORY 1, 2 and 3 —  this, I think will attract attention. These stories were happening in comics in 1982. With literally billions $$ at stake 2 decades away. 
 
I don’t think we want to Deep Dive speculate.  What’s it like to BE Chris Claremont, to watch DAYS OF FUTURE PAST in the theatre, it’s all your ideas up on the screen, and then see that it grossed 3/4 of a BILLION dollars? 
 
That ties in WAY up ahead in the DAVE SECTION, where in a couple of the interviews in the PROTOTYPE I talk about the Marvel serpent-in-the-garden phone call (at that point two years past): was I interested in writing HOWARD THE DUCK?  my frontispiece see attached photo. The green wash that I used looks really good.  

Click for bigger...

What If? I had chosen to write Howard the Duck and whatever I came up with three decades later turned into a billion dollar movie?  Put another way, when Chris was writing DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, guaranteed he wasn’t thinking “Some day this story will make 3/4 of a billion dollars, but, oh well…”. Nor Steve Ditko when he was designing Spider-Man’s costume.  

 
Matt, you’re going to have to write the captions next to each movie poster being specific but not exhaustive. i.e. this is SPECIFICALLY what Chris Claremont came up with that was a raw material in THIS movie.  X-MEN #s ??? to ???.  Exhaustive you can save for the appendix. In the body of the book “CC was the source for — estimated — ??% of the content, including [scene] [scene] and [scene]”.  across CATEGORIES 2 and 3 I think it will attract attention. 

Matt sez:

"Cerebus needs YOU! Mainly because Matt's not gonna do this... IF you ARE an X-Men fan who can distill what scenes from what X-Men film are based on which issues Chris Claremont wrote, now's your chance. Fortune & Glory could be yours!"

“Yes, this guy, with his arms wrapped around DENI SIM our female lead” he created several billions of dollars worth of Marvel Movie content. 
 
It’s an arresting concept to distill and consolidate in a book and a Cultural Touchstone for which most civilians have no frame of reference although EVERYONE knows what a Marvel Movie is. EVERYONE knows the X-MEN. “I thought Stan Lee created the X-MEN.”  You know, the way Charles Schulz created PEANUTS. 
 
POTENTIAL PROBLEM:  How much dispute is there about what Chris came up with?  On a scale of 1 to 10, with the collaboration between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko being a Toxic 10, and me and Gerhard being say a 3 — I leave Gerhard alone and Gerhard leaves me alone — where are Chris Claremont and John Byrne?  There are disputes that aren’t toxic — Will Eisner and Jules Feiffer.  They had completely different memories of who came up with what, but it was collegial.  Of course, there was no billion-dollar movie in THE SPIRIT mix. 
 
[tooting my own horn: one of the things that I’m proud of on NINJA HIGH SCHOOL/CEREBUS is that we did the thing I had been touting since the early days of Kevin’s Tundra:  the entire collaboration took place on paper —actually word documents — no phone calls after the early going.  Phone call collaborations or in person collaborations unless you record and keep each phone call you’re never going to remember who came up with what. With the next Kickstarter, God willing, part of the promotion will be showing the entire sequence of how NHS/C “went down”]
 
It’s the legendary Marvel Method and a lot of Intellectual Property Things (and THINGS) get created by the penciller that compels the writer to say “I came up with that”.  No, you wrote that, but the penciller actually came up with it.  Which was fine under work-made-for-hire:  it didn’t matter who came up with that OR wrote that OR designed that. Marvel owned it all lock, stock and two smoking barrels. Once Marvel moved to a royalty system who came up with what became arguably more important.  And in the Indy World even more important.  Reciprocal ownership — i.e. TURTLES 8 and SPAWN 10 — is the easiest solution.  We both own it. I can do what I want with it without notifying you and you can do what you want with it without notifying me. 
 
Unfortunately a Snooze for virtually all CATEGORY 2 and 3. people which is why — at $1 a page — we’re just going to be leaving it aside. 
 
Everything in DENI AND DAVE SIM TOUR ’82 needs to be Grabby. 
 
Like Birdsong’s modified cover with the much larger photo of me and Deni with color restoration.  If the cover copy is about a Cute Couple you need to show the Cute Couple. 

Actually, it was my idea, but as long as Dave understands that it's a better Idea, credit goes to whomever he feels like giving it to...

Thank you “N” for the $80 which works out to about $20 an hour. 
 
And thank you Christon for the $50 USD.  PLEASE HOLD will “get ‘em next time”.

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Next Time: back to even earlier in the 1980s...

The Magisterial Presidency (Dave's weekly update #645)

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...

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The surveys for the Kickstarter were sent out. Maybe fill them out so I can get my stuff, huh?

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

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A Moment of Cerebus runs Saturday through Friday. 

The past Week in AMOC:

• Saturday: Dave sends an update on the NEXT Kickstarter, and more '82 tour notes. 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: Mind Games (part 2)
• Monday: The Monday Report, and I got ma tattoo...
• Tuesday: Jen turned up THREE WEEKS IN A ROW(!) to post to help raise funds on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe, $160 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...) 
• 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!
• 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.

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

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I had these made:

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

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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...
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Larry Shell could use a hand to keep his house.
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Dave also wanted me to post this:

Lots of little words, click for bigger.

http://www.dougcomicworld.com/

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The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 35% off June 13-22.*

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

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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 $49 on the 12th:

Next $25 day is later in the month.

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Heritage has: 

• Cerebus #169 page 8
• 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. 

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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".

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Next Time: Dave sent stuff including more '82 Tour notes...

Notebook 21: Viktor Davis With Gerhard

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. 

~*~~~*~

Lots of walls of text. It is interesting if you can read Dave’s handwriting. Always makes me chuckle that the best letter in comics has handing writing that while better than a doctor’s is to the point that some folk could have trouble parsing it. 

But I digress (RIP Peter David). 

Notice on this next page in the notebook in the second paragraph Dave crossed out Reid and wrote Davis. Viktor takes the audience down a concealed flight of stairs and we see ‘Gerhard’:

Notebook #21, page 189

In case you can’t read it:

At the bottom of the stairs he had paused and was looking to his right. 

‘Gerhard’ he said in a whisper, pointing across a darkened living room studio in the direction of the dining room area. There was a squeaking sound of someone shifting his weight on a chair that badly needed oiling. Discernable on the wall were four rows of pages. The seventh, and the fifteenth through the twentieth were blank. ‘He’s doing the background on page seven of the part you just read.’ Pointing to the bottom row he added. ‘That’s us down there.’

He flashed another grin. ‘Weird, eh?!’

Down the bottom of the page – the crossed out material – is Viktor talking about how he thinks it was Neil Gaiman who said that all writers are liars. Or all stories are lies. The crossed out material continues onto the next page of the notebook:

Notebook #21, page 190

Down the bottom of the above page, the material that isn’t crossed out is Alan Moore’s thoughts on stories. This continues onto the next page:

Notebook #21, page 191

And that is all for this week’s post. Just three pages. Why you ask? Because I think I saw some material for Minds on page 192. Did I? We’ll see next week. 

 CEREBUS IN HELL? WEEKLY STRIP #44

next: Margaret, who else?

Strange Death of Alex Raymond Page Unlocked, More Glamourpuss

Well done, SDOAR GoFundMe supporters! 

You all have donated $230 in the past week -- allowing us to unlock page 132, which is now live on Dropbox for all GoFundMe donors!

Meaning that as of today, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe stands at ...

• $21,440.00 raised to date from 405 donations
• 132 pages released so far as mocked up and/or drawn by Dave Sim through 7 March 2022
  
• $160.00 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 hitlist?

• A Super Secret Cerebus scanning project is now complete! Shhhhh!!!!
• All Silverspoon pages have been boarded and packed up for a trip to the post office!
• Our first raffle winner has selected a page. meaning there are four pages still to be awarded! Who knows, maybe you'll be receiving an email from me in the morning!

So what's up next? 

• Finalize the raffle winners!
• 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!

What's that you say, Manly?

"So, This. Then ..."

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

Jen x

I went and did it and it can't never be undone...

Hi, Everybody!

NEXT week Friday (June 12th): $49 sale:

Go nuts! (It's not gonna be $25CAD until ten days later...)
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As we do:

Mondays! 

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Well, I THOUGHT I'd be working on Please Hold For Dave Sim, based on the numbers I was given by Eddie, but no dice:

As Eddie said to me:

'82 Tour Diary won.
Ps I missed a $80 donation for '82 earlier in the month, so there was "Wrong Amount" on the "Wrong Math" correction posted last week. Please schedule me for the make-up exam. Thanks

No worries Eddie, as Barbie so famously observed, "Math IS hard!"

So, I guess I'm working in '82. Speaking off, Birdsong found a "better" version of the Sienkiewicz pages Dave wants to use:

Click for biggers.

And eluding to Please Hold, I done it:

I went and got my Dave Sim Form & Void lettering tattoo. (I "frankensteined" the letters from ALL the Swahili Dave did in Form & Void:

Click for bigger.

which I will gladly share a big ol' copy of to any other maniac who wants a "Dave's Swahili lettering" tattoo...)

The artist, Nick, who did it, asked if I wanted solid black or not, I chose just hatched. Steve Peters said it gives the design a Gerhard-y vibe. I concur.

Speaking of Steve, Friend to the Blog, James Banderas-Smith has started a Jam Sketchbook for Dave. He went first, then Steve got second, and I got third:

I did "Pink" Floyd...

I chose to add to James inside piece instead of starting a new page:

Gosh I'm funny...

And here's Steve doing his piece:

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

Next it's of to April C. aka @Creative_Fey.

Next Time: Jen shows off her sketches of Bill Sienkiewicz's tattoos... wait a minute...

"'Whining and begging for mercy.' I see."

Hi, Everybody!

The laughably named "2019 ReRead":

Issue #1: First, then, then, then. Issue #2: Then, then, then, then. Issue #3: Then, then, then. Passage: Then (in part. I REALLY need to get a decent version of Passage up here one of these days...). Issue #4: Then. Issue #5: Then, then, then. Demonhorn: Then. Issue #6: Then, then, then. Issue #7: Then, then, then. Issue #8: Then, then, then. Issue #9: Then, then, then. Issue 10: Then, then, then. Issue #11: Then, then, then, then. Issue 12: Then, then, then. Magiking: Then. Issue 13: Then, then, then. Silverspoon: Then. Issue 14: Then, then. Issue 15: Then, then.  Issue 16: Then, then. Issue 17: Then, then. Issue 18: Then, then. Issue 19: Then, then. Issue 20: Then.

And then:

Bonus: The assembled image

BONUS Bonus: then.

Next Time: Mondays!

Off-White House Bulletin 5/28/2026

Hi, Everybody!

Well, it turns out this WASN'T an 82 Tour Book note update...

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

But there was a WRITTEN '82 Tour Book note:

1982 TOUR BOOK II

28 May 26

Waverly's cover.

Birdsong's mock-up of Dave's cover

I suggested moving the photo over the tour dates since they're cut off anyway, to make a more aesthetically pleasing cover... so, Birdsong's mock-up of my version of Dave's cover.

Dave Sim:

As happens a lot lately, I finished last week's 1982 TOUR BOOK entry and wondered if I was over-reacting to the women’s photos thing. And the following Monday, Tammy Burns had an article in the TORONTO STAR (see attached) where I went, No, this is exactly what I’m talking about.  It should probably be a general societal rule and it will be the rule with the 1982 TOUR BOOK that you never print a picture of a woman anywhere unless she’s 100% happy with it.  

Or, at the very least, you are guaranteeing that anytime she sees the book anywhere it will give her as Burns puts it the ick.  There is no masculine equivalent of the ick so it needs to be deferred to. Do not intentionally give a woman the ick.  

So having assured myself that I’m not over-reacting, I started building mentally from there.  So, before I get to Louise Jones let’s go back to Maggie Thompson.  What photos are onside?  That’s her decision to make.  We aren’t going to spring for full hair and make-up and a multi-hour shoot with a professional photographer, but we are willing to defer to the woman in question.  Maggie’s section will be 2 or 3 pages (I need to separate her comments on Dave and Deni into 1) Dave and Deni, 2) Dave, and 3) Deni and put them in the right spots.  She was the first interviewer to ask the are there any female aardvarks floating around? So that fits, but I’m not sure where. Me trying to answer and not answer at the same time: the groundwork having been laid for the Cirin Big Reveal two years before that wasn’t going to be Revealed for another five years.  Poses a bit of a problem because Category 1 people will know and Category 2 and 3 people won’t. 

So it makes for a best 2-out-of-3 SPOILER ALERT.

Picturing her credentials page, that goes all the way back to NEWFANGLES, the mimeo zine she did with her husband Don.  John (COMIC ART NEWS & REVIEWS) Balge was a subscriber and had a small stack of them which I ended up buying from him and (false memory?) I started subscribing myself over the last two years or so (1971? 1972?).  

That was when I thought, if you’re going to Do Maggie Thompson, you really need to Do Don Thompson (may his memory be a blessing to us) or you’re misrepresenting who she is, even though she\'92s outlived him by decades at this point and, thus, has had a decades-long solo career. And that was when I thought, Wedding photo.  

Potential problems:  

1) I’m sure there are women who consider their wedding photos private property and don’t want one of them used in a book referencing their career. 

2) I’m sure there are a lot of wedding. photos that give women the ick for whatever personal reason (outfit and hair seemed like a good idea at the time. Now? not so much). Hopefully Maggie isn’t in either of those categories. 

Offsetting that? Wedding photos are a great Category 3 thing.  Women, particularly, like wedding photos. So, if they’re flipping through a book in a bookstore, that’s going to stop most of them or slow most of them down. 

Having been aware of Don and Maggie Thompson for over half a century now, it’s also a great Category 2 thing general comics market.  What do Don and Maggie look like on their wedding day? What day was that?  You don’t make a big deal about it, you just make it part of your presentation.  Approved photo of the subject; credentials; wedding photo. 

Is it a TMI bridge too far in Maggie’s case to add Til death us do part and add Don’s birth and death dates?  It isn’t if we say it isn’t.  If it was S.O.P. in publishing it would make most non-fiction books more interesting for women, I think.  The same as the formal structure for obituaries always concludes with survived by and probably tells you more about the person than the obituary does.  Were they married?  Were they married for life? How many kids did they have?  You can almost feel the exasperation in the New York Times Service when they hit the multiple marriage guy.  

Which brings us to Louise Jones Simonson and the attached scans from the WARREN COMPANION and page 46 prototype photo of her in her office in 1982. I picture it as a weird digression in between the Deni Section and the Dave Section. She bought my only Warren story, Shadow of the Axe in 1975, so this is 7 years later. 

 

Birdsong "cleaned" up the photo.

One of the big disappointments with my tour diary is how little I documented actual conversations. It’s understandable because at the end of a tour day you really just want to vedge and watch TV and then crash. There are these pictures of me with Denny O’Neil and Louise in her office. What did we talk about? Did I remind her that she bought my script?  It would have been better to jot down scraps of conversation with attribution and write The Tour Diary when we got home. One of the few scraps of conversation I do remember vividly was Howard Chaykin at dinner talking about AMERICAN FLAGG in its initial 12-issue run and distilling it to The future is the same as the present only later and more so.  The quote and one of the photos of me with Howard and a quote from me remarking on the fact that it’s the most vivid quotable quote from the Tour that has stuck with me for 44 years.  AMERICAN FLAGG if nothing else anticipated video streaming and the Internet long before either existed.

Anyway, Louise in her office was 7 years after Shadow of the Axe and 3 years before the NEW MUTANTS No.21  story Slumber Party drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz where she’s a character in the book.  It’s a brilliant two-page spread Bill signed to someone in 2013 so it still exists, but the reproduction is just grisly. Everything darkened down so you can see that Bill whited out Louise’s hair multiple times trying to capture her hairstyle and had a couple of tries at her teeth and lips before he nailed it.  Make that Nailed It. If it was reproduced properly in would be a jaw-dropper. Can it be found online in non-murky form? 

That’s Diana Schutz I believe in the background on page 3 next to the Michael Jackson poster. Which is a very good likeness for the size.  And another link to the 82 TOUR BOOK as a contributor.  

What was interesting was when I applied my new Wedding Photo Rule to Louise, my first response was that this was another til Death Us Do Part couple: Louise and Walt Simonson.  They’ve been together since 1974 so we have to assume that Til Death....applies.  Actually, I don’t know how long they’ve been married 

but it is part of the mythos that Louise started dating Simonson and working at Warren the same month that Nixon resigned.  

So the marriage anniversary is unknown by me but is, presumably, available online somewhere.  But that was Louise’s second marriage. Her first marriage had taken place in 1966 to Jeff Jones and was (like mine and Deni’s) the opposite of til Death Us Do Part, lasting only a few years. 

But, on the potential plus side x 2 of our Ven diagram a definite Category 2: two wedding photos each with a very high profile comics personality (Jeff Jones and Walt Simonson) in each, the first with an end date and the second a presumptive Til Death which (I would suggest) also gives Louise Jones Category 3 Cred. A woman browsing DENI & DAVE SIM in a bookstore, if they landed on the two wedding photos page would be intrigued.  Again, we’re not making a big deal about the wedding photo angle to the book, just presenting it as lived experience.  If you’re documenting a woman this is a visual fact which is of particular interest to women.  Was/is she married? Who did she marry? When did she marry? How long did the marriage last?

Re-reading Jon B. Cooke’s interview with Louise in the WARREN COMPANION I had completely forgotten the professional metaphorical High Drama traffic accident involving Jim Warren, Louise, Walt and Archie Goodwin and centering on Walt’s napkin sketch of the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND Mother Ship and how that ran afoul of Hollywood Non-Disclosure, causing Louise to temporarily quit Warren in protest.  Linking it to the Comics/Hollywood axis which I’m making my theme of the rebranded/restructured 1982 TOUR BOOK.  Although I’m picturing a pretty even balance of words and images for DENI & DAVE SIM, it’s worth seeing if Jon B. Cooke, Louise and Walt would be willing to sign off on us printing the entire transcript of Walt’s recounting of it on pages 170 to 172.  

Which I’m getting Rolly to scan and e-mail to AMOC for discussion purposes illustrated with original art scans of the relevant CE3K pages from Walt’s adaptation for Marvel Comics.  An example of my thesis Here There Be Monsters on the Comics/Hollywood map.   

Okay, that may be the last that you hear from me on the \'9282 TOUR BOOK until JULY depending on how this month\'92s PLEASE HOLD vs. \'9282 TOUR fundraiser turns out.

 Next Time: Cerebus.