Thursday 12 September 2024

Notebook One: Cerebus #26 Part One

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.

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.

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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dave Sim’s first notebook, which he entitled Albatross One, covers Cerebus #20 through 28 and has 194 pages out of 200 scanned in. Since we’ve started our chronological look at this notebook back in December of 2023, we’ve seen quite a few pages. We’re up to page 134 today, and material for Cerebus #26. Yes, we finally made it to material for High Society. We really haven’t seen anything for High Society yet. 

Notebook #1, page 134

At the top of the page Dave starts with how Cerebus #26 starts, Cerebus with a sack of stuff from the Artist. Though the Regency is called the “Aardvarkian Age ‘Holiday Inn’”. Which in the digital version of High Society – the one that came with selected pages from Notebook #1 – Dave said this about the page: “Original idea was to do an “Aardvarkian Age” Holiday Inn, a middle class hotel. Then I thought that having a bath in your room would be a distinctly “upper class” thing at the time.

Well, the Regency is a bit more than ‘middle class’, the sketch of the bed with the tub next to it does show up – kind of – in the finished issue as the desk clerk has a fresh bath drawn for Cerebus in his room, the tub just a curtain away from the bed.

The  little chair in the bottom left corner of the page with a barely noticeable Cerebus sitting on it is something I wished was used.

The next page shows us Dave working through some potential dialogue for Cerebus #26:

Notebook #1, page 135

On the next page of the notebook, Dave had this to say about the text near the bottom of the page: “Manservant in the original plotline (“smart ass kid but he knows what’s going down”) who later become the desk clerk of the “Holiday Inn” in issue 27. Plot problem: “businessmen, merchants, bankers, traders” would stay there, but not “politicians and bureaucrats” which were needed to drive the plot forward.

We also get a taste for the Desk Clerk’s reaction to hearing Cerebus’ name: “You’re that Cerebus?!” Though the desk clerk at that point doesn’t mention knowing that Cerebus was the Kitchen Staff Supervisor.

At the top of the next page is some dialogue which Dave had this to say: “Sample exchange of dialogue on WHY Cerebus is seen as a key figure. I decided to skip that and leave it a bit of mystery. There was no reason anyone would discuss it with him except in terms of their personal experience (Skorz of Skorz, Skorz & Sons).

Notebook #1, page 136

There are a couple of sketches of the private dining table Cerebus would be sitting, that didn’t end up being so private as everyone came by to try and make a deal with him. At the bottom of the page is the plot for pages 1 through 8: “Mostly, the young manservant is trying to get across to Cerebus how much money can buy. Cerebus explains that he just gets money when he needs it. . .what about banks. . .banks take your money and give you pieces of”.

Next week will be more – yes, you’ve probably guessed it – notebook 1 pages.


Wednesday 11 September 2024

Cerebus in AI Hell?

Benjamin Hobbs:

This is the first mock-up of Cerebus In AI Hell? The fourth panel will be a Dore image. 


 Next Week: Something in Ink, hopefully.

Tuesday 10 September 2024

SDoAR 2.37: Jen Ups the Ante! Diamondback! Buttons!

Remember last week when I reported that the black back covers of the Giant-Size SDOAR Ashcans were rubbing off onto the front covers underneath? Well, the StudioComix Press solution is too pricey, so Philip R. Frey will be redoing the back cover. Stay tuned!

Also, no donations since August 18 when the last raffle ended. You all are going to give this gal a complex.

So...

Let's see if I can't up the ante on the September SDOAR raffle with...

  • Cerebus the Aardvark button set #23 of 99 (7 of 10 buttons)
  • Diamondback deck (swindle your friends!)
  • Petunia Con 1984 program (do y'all know how cool this is?)
  • (2) Cerebus bookplates signed by Dave Sim (signed!)
  • Cerebus #11 through #15 in pretty good damn shape (Five issues!)


What are you waiting for? Make a donation! $25 gets you a raffle ticket!

Rules to win the September Raffle and Help Out SDoAR

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, September 23, 2024 at midnight, PST.

I will then randomly assign numbers to each entry and have Dave pull one more Karnak, and I'll announce the winner on September 24, 2024. 

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

Just the GoFundMe Facts, Ma'am

  • $14,627.00 raised to date from 249 donations
  • 77 new pages released as mocked up by Dave Sim from 11 June to 20 December 2021
  • 98 total pages available on Dropbox, including Dave's 2019 mocked-up pages
  • $173.00 away from unlocking page 99
  • If you have not donated > $5+ donation grants access to all 98 pages and all pages moving forward
  • If you have donated, thank you, but if you want to donate monthly, GoFundMe does not offer that option, so please do so as we are in the middle of month #9 of Year 2.

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Preview, Part Thirty-Six

This
Thisthis
Thisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
This, this,
Then... 
Ciao!

xx

Jen


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

Monday 9 September 2024

As pretty much always, Dave does his business in the streets...

Hi, Everybody!

_________________________
Well, it concerns me maybe getting money, so:

Eddie Khanna emailed me:
Hey Matt sending you the final version of the spreadsheet with the calculations for the Aug Diamond purchase order. Let me know if you have problems accessing it or formatting issues, understanding it, etc.

The 2 sheets I think Dave wants posted are
DIA 8-24 SOCIH? royals and DIA 8-24 GER royals

which show the breakdown for contributors share from this PO on AV books using a) 4% vs b) an equal split with AV. Dave probably faxed you the sheets already, but here they are in electronic format.
 


Click for bigger

And here's my fax to Dave
---------------------------
08 SEP 2024

Hi Dave (and Matt Dow)

I’m sending the full spreadsheet to Matt Dow to post on AMOC (I take it as a sign that UPS sent a bill to Diamond for $113.82, which Dia will be charging back to AV, as part of the answer to your question about AV’s storage fees) (hopefully you got the info about this UPS bill when I sent it on Thurs, but I just heard that the AV fax was having glitches on PLEASE HOLD) .

So, Basically we have $11,400 cdn - $1361.82 cdn PT’s cost - $225 cdn (approx) Rolly’s cost - $153 cdn UPS scam charge to Dia = about $9,660 cdn (about $7100 USD)

Using the calculations with the gross DIA PO
Total SOCIH? 4% payout = $80.04 USD vs
Total SOCIH? equal split = $704.80 USD

Total Ger 4% payout = $216.72 USD vs
Total Ger equal split = $2,709.00 USD

I don’t think there’s any way to do the percentages of which trade is taking up how much space at how much cost/month. Just part of the AV overhead.

(It would be NICE if AV could clear at least $5000 USD on a $8400 DIA Po that only came once after God knows how many years) ( and who knows when it will again; I’m not holding my breath).

Any update on the HumbleBundle payout? Or did we need to, like prompt them or something?
-Eddie
 And Dave responds:

I mean, I DID send Dave a letter the LAST time this came up, stating that I'm waving my "cut" of any royalties. 

'course, that's when my share was under a hundred bucks...

(No, no. Stay strong Matt. It's taking cat food money out of Dave mouth.)

Which I'ma stickin' with. No royalties demanded. (If AV wants to send me a check, I'ma not THAT stupid...I'll take it.)

Anyway, Dave sent:

Okay. 




Ha! Classic.

Rigamarole:
Friend to the Blog, James Windsor Banderas Habanero Smith has a new Kickstarter. And other Friend to the Blog, Steve Peters has a new Kickstarter as well, but it doesn't start until next week. (More on this tomorrow.
________________________
September 11-15, and 25-29.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
_________________________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
__________________________
Heritage has FIVE pages of original Cerebus art. Cerebus #28 page 3 (Mind Game II), Cerebus #70 page 6, Cerebus #80 page 15 (death of Bran Mak Muffin), Cerebus #82 page 1, and Cerebus #87 page 1. Any of them would be amazing gifts for the Cerebus Interim Editor on you Christmas list...
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
___________________________
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? Ya hear that? Granpaw's up to page 620-621!

Sunday 8 September 2024

Please Hold For Dave Sim 9/2024, Part 2!

Hi, Everybody!

We continue:

Part 8: Dave and I discuss a Chester Brown's Mary Wept Over The Feet of Jesus, a book we didn't even know existed until Greg asked

Part 9: James Windsor Banderas "Habenaro" ('cause he's a spicy!) Smith has a new Kickstarter
Part 10: And Steve Peters has a new Kickstarter starting Tuesday (no link, yet). WITH a new cover and 8 page collaboration with Dave
Next Time: Probably the After Party along with the Monday Report...

Saturday 7 September 2024

Please Hold For Dave Sim 9/2024, part 1

Hi, Everybody!

It's that time:

Audio:

Video:

Part 1: Dave remembers Jeff Seiler
Part 2: Dakota Gilliland has a question: "Is it possible to build a rich, dense lore in the comic strip format?"
Part 3: “Dave Sim’s 3 Minute Guide to Understanding Steve Ditko”:
Part 4: We don't REALLY discuss Neil Gaiman's ongoing headaches...
Part 5: MJ Sewall has a question about Albatross #1:
Part 6: From the Home Office in Easton PA, Zipper has questions about...furniture?
Part 7: Almost twenty minutes on My Way?

Friday 6 September 2024

Letraset part 2 (Dave's weekly update #555)

Hi, Everybody!

Like it says on the Logo:
The little bit on the bottom there...

It's Friday, so that means:
Dave's Weekly Update:

The page in question:
Click for bigger

_________________________
A Moment of Cerebus runs Saturday through Friday.
The Week in AMOC:
  • Saturday: Cerebus #1, because why not...
  • Sunday: seriously, why not? Cerebus #1 continues. 
  • MondayThe Monday Report, and couple of faxes from Dave, and the last of Cerebus #1.
  • Tuesday: Jen's update for us on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Go Fund Me.  Speaking of SDOARGFM, $173 until the next page is unlocked. She's got *NEW* Auction items.
  • Wednesday: Hobbs continues looking AI versions of AV characters. This week:  Thrunk! Who's supposed to look a little like:
    Thanks as always Steve!
  • Thursday: Margaret continues looking at pages from the first Notebook AKA Albatross 1, YOU can get a your very own BETTER-THAN-MARGARET'S-POSTS-O.-M.-G.-YOU-GUYS-SERIOUSLY copy. See here
  • 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 past week in AMOC. You're welcome.

And now, back to Bizness as unusual:
Rigamarole:
Friend to the Blog, James Windsor Banderas Habanero Smith has a new Kickstarter. And other Friend to the Blog, Steve Peters has a new Kickstarter as well, but it doesn't start until next week. (More on this tomorrow.
________________________
September 11-15, and 25-29.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
_________________________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
__________________________
Heritage has FIVE pages of original Cerebus art. Cerebus #28 page 3 (Mind Game II), Cerebus #70 page 6, Cerebus #80 page 15 (death of Bran Mak Muffin), Cerebus #82 page 1, and Cerebus #87 page 1. Any of them would be amazing gifts for the Cerebus Interim Editor on you Christmas list...
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
___________________________
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: 

Thursday 5 September 2024

Notebook One: Cerebus #25 Part Five

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.

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.

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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

We’ve been looking at Dave Sim’s first phonebook for so long I can’t remember the last time we saw a different notebook. The last couple of weeks we’ve seen material for Cerebus #25. Only one mention of Cerebus #26, which was a title of ‘X-Women” and the couple of times that Cerebus #26 has shown up in a schedule. Last week we saw the schedule which Dave has put in his notebooks, which changes and gets more refined as he approaches those dates. Well, we get another look at his schedule, and Cerebus #26 makes another appearance in a page or so.

The last page we just saw, page 130, just had a bunch of sketches on it, which you can see on the back side of page 131:

Notebook 1, page 131

The material on the page says it is page five and then page four, but it doesn’t look like any of it made the final cut. We’ve moved on from the Artist Chap’s “theme” that he was looking for in the last couple of notebook pages, to Claremont controlling Cerebus. 

The next page shows us Dave’s planned schedule for January of 1981 and forward:

Notebook 1, page 132

Dave plans on drawing a page and a half per day, and the cover for Cerebus #25 taking the full day. The content he is doing from Jan 26 to Jan 30 is the Captain Canuck story. I’m not sure what “Chasing the Swamp Kids” is for – is it a potential title for Cerebus #25 or Cerebus #26? 

The material down the bottom of the page is for Cerebus #25. That material continues on the next page of the notebook.

Notebook 1, page 133

You might need to click on the image to get a bigger view of it so you can see what is below the black pen: some material done in pencil. Some page thumbnails for pages #13 – 17, and then some plot points for pages 16 through 30.

The thumbnail for page 13 is kind of close. It looks like a bunch of flying round objects – which could be Cerebus fighting the Sump Thing and the rocks flying  around as Cerebus tries to knock them down. Dave’s thumbnail for page 14 just say “smash” and some other word I can’t make out. Page 15’s thumbnail just says ‘sump thing’, and on page 15 of the final comic, we get a full page of Sump Thing.

And that is the last we’ll see of Cerebus #25 material. The next page of the notebook starts with Cerebus #26 and High Society material. Finally. 

Wednesday 4 September 2024

The Men of Cerebus: AI edition: Part Five: THRUNK!

Benjamin Hobbs:

David Birdsong and The AI team-up yet again to make MORE Cerebus inspired images! This time it's THRUNK!




Next Week: I'm out of AI images! Unless Birdsong sends me more...

Tuesday 3 September 2024

SDoAR 2.36: September SDOAR Raffle Includes...

There is much excitement surrounding the unofficial SDOAR offices because Philip R. Frey and I have deemed the current set of proofs for the Giant-Size SDOAR "Ashcans" to be good enough, with two provisos, for me to ask Dave if he would like to review them now or after another set of proofs. I think there's a Daffy Duck/Bugs Bunny joke around here somewhere.

That is until Dave responded that he would like everything (meaning the two provisos) to be perfect perfect before he reviews. That means I'll be ordering another set of proofs tomorrow to fix the black on the cover coming off and adding the color back in for two rainbows.

But wait! There's more! 

It's time for the September SDOAR raffle which currently includes...

  • (1) near perfect Petunia Con 1984 program
  • (2) Cerebus bookplates signed by Dave Sim
  • (5) issues of Cerebus #11 through #15 in pretty good damn shape

Rules to win the September Raffle and Help Out SDoAR

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, September 23, 2024 at midnight, PST.

I will then randomly assign numbers to each entry and have Dave pull one more Karnak, and I'll announce the winner on September 24, 2024. 

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

Just the GoFundMe Facts, Ma'am

  • $14,627.00 raised to date from 249 donations
  • 77 new pages released as mocked up by Dave Sim from 11 June to 20 December 2021
  • 98 total pages available on Dropbox, including Dave's 2019 mocked-up pages
  • $173.00 away from unlocking page 99
  • If you have not donated > $5+ donation grants access to all 98 pages and all pages moving forward
  • If you have donated, thank you, but if you want to donate monthly, GoFundMe does not offer that option, so please do so as we are at the beginning of month #9 of Year 2.

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Preview, Part Thirty-Five

This
Thisthis
Thisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
This, then... 
Ciao!

xx

Jen


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

Monday 2 September 2024

"...but Cerebus has no cause for complaint."

Hi, Everybody!

_____________________
Since Dave was on the Fax:
Click for bigger

I already (months ago) stated  that I waive any and all monies AV "owes" me for my work on any of the issues I worked on.

Anyway, Eddie asked us, and we clarified any changes/corrections to the list. (Despite what it says on the cover, I had nothing to do with Spider-Whore.) And faxed Dave.


Thoughts?
____________________

Then:



________________________
Rigamarole:
Dave and I are recording the next Please Hold For Dave Sim on Thursday. If you have a question you want me to ask: momentofcerebus@gmail.com. Preferably by Wednesday night when I send up the Fax.
________________________
The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe, which is on sale until Monday. Up to 35% off:

September 2, 11-15, and 25-29.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
__________________________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
__________________________
Heritage has FIVE pages of original Cerebus art. Cerebus #28 page 3 (Mind Game II), Cerebus #70 page 6, Cerebus #80 page 15 (death of Bran Mak Muffin), Cerebus #82 page 1, and Cerebus #87 page 1. Any of them would be amazing gifts for the Cerebus Interim Editor on you Christmas list...
___________________________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
___________________________
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 tells everybody about the money SHE'S sending Dave...