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.
We've only looked at Albatross One, aka notebook one, once before. This past August we looked at page one in Albatross One, page one.
Since it is now Tuesday morning as I write this, and I won't have the proper time to sit down and write more this week, we get a quick look at Albatross One again. This time some sketches of Captain Cockroach:
This page also features Captain Cockroach's sidekick, Bunky.
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| Albatross One, page 37 |
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| Albatross One, page 47 |
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| Albatross One, page 49 |
4 comments:
Two takeaways from these images: 1) What else could Dave have accomplished if he hadn't spent so much time drawing finished (gorgeous) images like the first image here, *in his notebook*!!!?
2) Does President Weishaupt's "Message" ring a bell with anyone else here? Really creepy (er, CREEPY) prescience on Dave's part, eh?
Nice cherry-picking, M. You consistently amaze me with your clever ability to make your mark while flying deeply under the radar. High on my list of favorite people.
First half of that quote (which I knew sounded familiar, then I looked it up) is from Barry Goldwater:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater
second half could sorta kinda be something he said.
So not quite Dave being prescient. But good use of a quote.
And great stuff as usual, Margaret.
Yes, Margaret! Thanks as always.
Jeff - I'm not sure how prescient it is either (although I'll take any compliment I can get :)) There's very little that's New in the way of political commentary, particularly of the soundbyte variety. It IS interesting charting the historical course of who actually said what first. For me, in a cosmetic way: I bought a used copy of BARTLETT'S BOOK OF FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS a while back strictly to help with CEREBUS IN HELL? and there are lots of cross-referenced footnotes. It can be very addictive for someone with a curious mind who has WAY too much actual work to do. Same thing with THE BIBLE. I'm in the middle of the Book of Jeremiah right now and it's amazing how often a narrative will jump out at me and remind me of a Christian scripture or a Koranic Sura.
Travis - Can't remember which book of Vidal's essays it's in. HOMAGE TO DANIEL PATRICK SHAYS? But, one of my favourite Gore Vidal essays is about him visiting Barry Goldwater in his Senate office in the 1960s.
Jeff 1) Actually, I wish I had done more of this. Bill Sienkiewicz decided to do finished work that was more like his sketchbook and sketchbooks that were more like his finished work. Of course, he hadn't announced that he was going to do two decades plus of monthly issues. But, it really worked for him. Kept him loose when he might have gone too tight and kept him tight when he might have gone too loose. But, then, I'm a HUGE Sienkiewicz fan.
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