HARDtalk: The Dave Sim Interview (4)

Most of CEREBUS remains in print in the phone books, but will there ever be a CEREBUS MISCELLANY volume, as has been suggested before, gathering up other uncollected materials?

Sandeep was over the other day just as I was getting inundated with boxes of comics that needed to be signed for the Kickstarter campaign and I said, "You know, I'm starting to think that a 6,000-page comic book is an inherently bad idea."  He laughed, of course, but I was only partly joking.  The logistics of keeping that much material in print is pretty much overwhelming particularly in a massive economic downturn when you're in your late fifties and fading fast.  On one level, it would be great to do a CEREBUS MISCELLANY volume, a book of the covers, a colour volume.  But I also have to keep 16 volumes in print at a cost of roughly $6K to $8K a book.  I'm just a regular guy, you know.  A self-publisher.

I'm still waiting to see what I turn into now that CEREBUS ARCHIVE, CEREBUS TV and glamourpuss are all done.  The Kickstarter thing and getting HIGH SOCIETY audio-digital prepped is pretty much an all-summer project.  I've been drawing full figure Cerebus sketches on A-V stationery since 10 this morning and it's now 6 pm and I've got about 12 out of 32 done.  So you're talking two full days just to get the $175 pledge level sketches done.  I've been signing and sketching non-stop since the campaign ended June 30th and I'm making some real progress.  I'm probably halfway through.  But when it takes you three weeks to be halfway through something, you tend not to be sitting there going, "Hmm -- what OTHER massive, time-consuming, expensive-to-print project with no indication it would be remotely successful can I start planning right here, right now?"

Kickstarter worked, which made HIGH SOCIETY audio-digital possible.  So, I tend to think in terms of doing the same thing with the first CEREBUS volume.  Stick close to home.  THIS worked. So, let's do something AS CLOSE TO THIS as we can think of and let's not think past that point.

Okay, let's go back to Tim for the next question and our next cliffhanger:

Are you now converted to the idea of "crowd-funding" and the Kickstarter concept?  Has this changed your views on the possibilities of the Internet or do you still equate it to CB radio?

Don't Miss All the Action Tomorrow... or the next day or the Day After That. Same Moment of Cerebus Time! Same Moment of Cerebus Channel!