Do You Know Elrod?

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

The past couple of weeks we've been looking at the first couple of notebooks - called Albatross by Dave - and since we've looked at Albatross Five - I thought we'd go back to Albatross Three, the one that was unnamed at the time. All we've seen of that notebook is the cover and page ten, which had an outline for issues #37 to 50, with only 49 & 50 being blank.

Well, on page 11 we see an outline that starts earlier, with issue #26, and while it goes to issue 50, only issues 26 though 41 have a quick summary.

Albatross 3, page 11

One page 58 there is a listing of issues from #1 through #39, and when they take place, and for some, how long they take place. Though there is no year given - just that issue #1 was in the summer and takes one day. For the first 7 issues we're given a time frame of how long it goes. Around issue #3 it looks like Cerebus is turning 26. Going through the month listing, it also looks like since issue #1, that three years have gone by.

Albatross 3, page 58