Sim's Legacy

Sim's Legacy: An Appreciation by Gary Spencer Millidge
Strangehaven #16 (June 2004)

DAVE SIM:
(from a letter to Gary Spencer Millidge dated 18 June 2004, reprinted in Dave Sim's Collected Letters Vol 2)
Dear Gary,

Well, I got the latest issue of Strangehaven and I have to tell you that one of the entertainments I most look forward to is your annual "how this year slipped out from under me, this time" editorial and text pieces. Your description and illustrations of the Simpson's contribution you provided for Bart Simpson's Treehouse Of Horror was particularly engaging in this regard: Now, he not only spends a lot of space telling us why he's late, he even shows us examples of it. I mean, that was one of the things that always kept me on the monthly straight and narrow. Any sign that I did anything else if I was late and I'd think the backlash is going to kill me and the book. Of course, you're a lot closer to reality than I am, I think. People just take it for granted that comic books are late in the same way that no one expects a rock band to come on stage remotely close to 8pm because that's what it says on the ticket.

So imagine my surprise as I start from the back of the book and then come across your full-page tribute to Cerebus. Absolutely amazing and, of course, Ger and I are both very, very grateful for your kind and extravagant words on our behalf and on behalf of our work.

My first thought was I only hope there isn't a backlash against you for breaking so dramatically from the prescribed comic-book party line which allows only for reactions on a narrow spectrum between outright shunning on the one side and damning us with faint praise on the other. My second thought was, "Oh, well, even if there is, I won't find out about it until next year at this time."

All kidding aside, I am very pleased with what you wrote and look forward to bagging and boarding it for the Publications section of the Cerebus Archive.

Thanks again.

Strangehaven Vol 1-3 by Gary Spencer Millidge is available to buy from Top Shelf Productions.