Cerebus vs Superman

Drinking Buddies (circa 1982-84)
Art by Dave Sim

CHARLES R. RUTLEDGE:
(from the Singular Points Blog, 16 July 2009)

Okay, I'm not even going to try and remember what Convention I got this one at, though it was probably The Atlanta Fantasy Fair and probably between 1982 and 1984. Anyone who knows what Cons Dave hit in those years, feel free to let me know. Anyway, I do remember the actual circumstances much better.

I was wandering around the dealer's room and I spotted Dave seated at a table among the other artist tables. His hair was shorter and he no longer had a beard, but the voice and the mannerisms were the same. I made my way over and said hi. There were only a couple of other people hanging around and no one seemed to be buying anything so I asked Dave if he was doing sketches. He said yes and that he was charging 50 bucks a pop. I'd been buying a lot of original art at that point so 50 seemed reasonable to me. Dave asked what I wanted and I said, how about Cerebus and Superman.

Dave kind of blinked and said no one had ever asked for Superman before. In fact he couldn't remember having ever sketched Superman. But he was game, so he asked if I wanted then fighting and I said no, just a buddy shot and he said, "Oh, how about drinking buddies?"

Well of course.

So while Dave was roughing the drawing out, he and I and the other couple of fanboys hanging around got into a discussion of "Could Superman get drunk?' because obviously his brain cells would be as invulnerable as the rest of him. Presumably alcohol wouldn't have any effect. Someone suggested that maybe the bar had red sun lamps, because as we know, the Man of Steel loses his powers under a red sun. So there you go.

Anyway, if Dave really had never drawn Superman before I think he did a great job. Somehow, the idea of a sloppy drunk Superman is just the sort of thing you'd expect from Dave Sim. This remains one of my favorite sketches in my collection.