HARDtalk: The Dave Sim Interview (16)

Your appearance in Eddie Campbell's BACCHUS.  What you were doing in CEREBUS: GUYS with other creators at the time?  Apposite.  Did you find it funny and/or clever?

Cerebus: Guys (backcover detail, 1997)
Art by Dave SIm & Gerhard

Regarding Eddie Campbell and me mining the same territory, it was just one of those interesting coincidences.  There were subtle differences -- his storyline (as I recall) was really about a pub housing the English Comic Book Nation seceding from Great Britain and mine was about a pub inhabited by self-publishers and their creations all labouring under the Cirinist tyranny...or "tyranny": I still think it was an artful political construct.  All single and divorced men have to live in pubs where "Alcohol is Free and There's No Last Call".  If you want to get rid of all of the troublesome gents in your society, I think that's a good way to do it.  The worst of them will drink themselves to death in short order and the rest will be appropriately docile.  My favourite gag of Eddie's in his storyline was Neil Gaiman writing pretty much everything with much of his time taken up writing blurbs.

Working on "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (later used in BACCHUS #1) with Eddie in Australia was certainly a memorable experience.  We were both drinking too much at the time, but at the time, that's all part of the fun.

After The Snooter (Bacchus #44, April 1999)
by Eddie Campbell

Okay, for a cliffhanger we've got a comment from one of our reader/viewers:

I'd be curious to hear Dave Sim talk about his choice to end glamourpuss; whether the satire portion had become a creative straight-jacket or artistic dead-end (Speaking for myself, it was incredibly frustrating that half or the book was some of the best comics I've read, and the other half often a tedious slog), if he considered continuing the series and expanding the Raymond material, or relaunching with it as the book's sole focus, and if there was a concern that the decision may alienate the audience.

Yes, it's absolutely the artist's right to distribute his work as he sees fit, but as someone who supported the book from the beginning the abrupt cancellation left a bad taste in my mouth. I presume the 7 or so issues worth of Raymond material from glamourpuss will be reprinted in the The Strange Death of Alex Raymond; as a fan who invested nearly a hundred dollars in those 7 or so issues worth over the past few years, the presumption that I'll be willing to buy those comics again (Great though they may be) to get to the resolution rankles.

Hope that didn't come over as too gripey, I've really enjoyed these questions and answers.

Hey, have you guessed right yet about ANY answer I've given? What do you think Dave Sim will say to this? You have 24 hours, Moment of Cerebus fans, to come up with your definitive answer. How WELL do you know Dave Sim? What WILL he say? Tune in tomorrow, Same Moment of Cerebus Time! Same Moment of Cerebus Channel!