Face To Face With The Writer

Cerebus #130 (January 1990)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

DAVE SIM:
(from Amazing Heroes #201, May 1992)

...I surprised myself with Jaka's Story. When I conceived the novel, I had it structured around the incarceration, beginning with the Cirinists breaking down the door. I worked back from there, thinking I had to get people to care about these characters. I wanted to show them a certain amount of what Jaka is like. I wanted to create a sympathetic husband. I wanted to create a realistic marriage. I wanted Oscar Wilde to be in there. I wanted a homosexual love interest along with the heterosexual love interests in the story.

A year and three months later, when it came time to break down the door I didn't want to do it.

I was sitting there and thinking "maybe Cerebus breaks in and saves them all." Come on, Dave, I thought, you've had this story written all of this time and you want to bring in the biggest cliche going... At the same time, I wanted to do that scene, because I wanted the story to keep going. I wanted to see how all these people worked out their problems... It was very funny coming face to face with myself as a writer going, "Please don't."