CORRESPONDENCE SCANNING UPDATE

Just spent my first Saturday morning out in Camp David at Dave Fisher's desk going through the first pile of letters from the first -- sample, chosen at random for trial-and-error (2005: a year before Jeff's letter seen here today) -- emptied Tupperware tub of Correspondence.

The actual pile of 8.5x11 sheets of paper was about five inches high (with manuscripts and comic books sent to me at about seven inches high).  Took exactly an hour for me to go through them, primarily to mark with yellow post-it notes (Fisher's using green post-it notes for questions he has for me about specific documents) CPA or Cartoonist  Professional Autograph letters:  letters to me from professional cartoonists that are signed by them.  Seth and Joe Matt (cover letters returning the transcripts of their FOLLOWING CEREBUS interviews with corrections) this time out.  Also Jim Rugg of STREET ANGEL.  Two faxes from Erik Larsen of SAVAGE DRAGON discussing Image publishing the Covers book (so not a technical autograph).

There's also a pre-publication copy of Neil Gaiman's ANANSI BOYS which he had sent to me and a five-page letter commenting on the parts that "jumped out" me.

Best surprise:  letter from Jean Shuster Peavy, the younger sister of SUPERMAN artist/co-creator Joe Shuster accompanied both by a photocopy of a Shuster Superman drawing from 1938 (with a nice dedication to me from Mrs. Peavy on it) and a copy of a photo of Mrs. Peavy with Joe Shuster and Christopher Reeve at the 1978 premiere of the SUPERMAN Movie.  All three of those are definitely getting put in a single frame and added to the Off-White House entryway wall!

Talk about feeling old:  next year is the 40th anniversary of CEREBUS.  1978 was the 40th anniversary of SUPERMAN.

MY letters will be made available and letters TO ME will be "hidden" when they are stored online. You can't publish letters TO YOU without permission.  I don't think that legalism will survive too long in the Internet Age but we will observe it until it falls to ruins somewhere up ahead.  :)

New category:  TUTORIALS.  I would, from time-to-time, do quick sketches making suggestions for improving work that was sent to me.  These will be kept in a separate file and -- if there are enough of them (there probably are) -- made into an e-book of some kind.

Prayer time coming up!

Take it away, Jeff Seiler!