Thanks for this, Dave. I can't believe it has been 4 years since Craig's passing. I've never met anyone with such passion for comics. Craig just seemed to know *everything* about the medium. We often discussed, debated and dissected Cerebus (just as we did with other great works of art--be they comics, TV or film). Craig opened my mind to many new ideas and I will always be grateful.
The world is a smaller place without him.
-- John Thorne (Co-editor, with Craig Miller, of Wrapped in Plastic Magazine)
Well done, Dave. I will reiterate--whenever I spoke with Craig on the phone or exchanged emails, I always found him to be one of the nicest and most polite people with whom I ever conversed.
A "heads up" to Menachem Luchins: I spoke to Howard Miller on the phone yesterday and gave him the address of ESCAPE POD COMICS, so he'll be sending you the inventory of FOLLOWING CEREBUS that Craig had at the time of his passing (all 12 issues except for #4) except for the 50 copies of each I'm having him ship me for the Cerebus Archive. I'm paying Howard for the books (the money to be added to Jennifer's trust fund) and for the shipping. What I'm HOPING you'll do is to give complementary copies to anyone who shops in the store: that is, put them in the bag with anything that they've purchased. As well as sending copies to anyone who purchases a CEREBUS trade from you by mail. Giveaways at NYC conventions? It was a darned good magazine and the best way to honour Craig's memory is to make sure it isn't completely forgotten so soon.
I really just wanted to get FOLLOWING CEREBUS off Howard's "desk" as he's already spent four years -- as retiree -- sometimes ten hours a day dealing with the monumental Craig Miller Collection, turning it into cash for Jennifer, selling the house and he's still wending his way through the probate process.
Any "excess" -- i.e. beyond what you can handle, personally -- feel free to recycle them.
Any CEREBUS-friendly retailers in the U.S. -- and I know there's a few of you -- I hope you'll agree to take a few copies of each issue from Menachem by paying him for the shipping and doing the same thing: getting copies into people's hands.
Any CEREBUS fans who want to help Menachem by buying some copies, I'm sure he'd appreciate any help with this new headache.
John - Thanks for posting here. I'll always be grateful to both you and Craig for your going out on a limb and doing a magazine ABOUT Cerebus at a time when everyone else was definitely in "Dave who?" mode. It definitely helped the transition from CEREBUS creator to CEREBUS curator for me.
I think we're probably on the same page that FOLLOWING CEREBUS should be viewed as a unit, that we waive any proprietary interest in in favour of Jennifer and whomever her successors might prove to be. Hope all is well with you and that you'll plug your TWIN PEAKS book here for interested fans.
hal - Yes, that's something else that Howard is having to deal with: the interest in the WRAPPED IN PLASTIC material that Craig and John did which is definitely "heating up" as the new show is getting closer. If it's even a modest hit, that's only going to be "later and more so".
I think it would be a great idea to incorporate what Howard's working on with Craig's original video submission. Howard sent me his number when he wrote to me by regular mail of Craig's passing. He didn't seem to be answering at the time, but since he was successfully contacted for the back issues initiative, an attempt will be made again.
In the spirit of Dave's own "reading into the record", I must correct his mistake above. There never was a "Dave who?" period. Indeed, at the time of Following Cerebus's debut there was an uptick of interest in Dave and Cerebus owing to the conclusion of the project.
Hi Damian! - You can "ret-con" that onto the record if you want -- and clearly you WANT to, and, I would add, as a member of the Feminist Theocracy, would HAVE to -- but the plain fact of the matter is that the Feminist Theocracy determined that there would be one (1) daily newspaper article (Mississippi I think?) one (1) magazine article: the SATURDAY NIGHT smear piece that painted me as a drug-ravaged lunatic (rather appropriately written by a journalist who was himself a drug-ravaged lunatic as per his later autobiographical book) one (1) online review -- by THE ONION just to make sure everyone knew that CEREBUS wasn't being treated seriously -- and that was it. Time for Dave Sim, thoroughly denounced and utterly rejected by the Feminist Theocracy, to Go. Away. And, Die. Somewhere.
But, keep pitching that line. You and the Feminist Theocracy might be able to get some more traction out of it. :)
I mean, seriously, Damian, we'll see which way you folks choose to go. One WASHINGTON POST article doth not a 30-year miscarriage of Literary Injustice amend.
Dave: For an individual who once claimed (but seems to no longer do so -- your words) to be interested in apprehending reality as accurately as possible, your ongoing campaign to rewrite history does you poor credit.
Dave, you were never the "Pariah King of Comics", you were the "Recluse King of Comics"; you weren't kicked out, you quit. And there was never a time when you or Cerebus was ignored in the comics press; what's got you confused is that people aren't agreeing with you when you're so obviously right. Indeed, both you and Cerebus punched above your weight in terms of influence and attention -- with creators and with comics fans, if not with the larger public.
Oh, that's what's got your goat (heh). You resent that 30 years ago, when every mainstream article about comics began "Bang! Pow! Splat!" and may have proceeded to "Comics aren't just for kids any more," Cerebus wasn't reviewed glowingly in The New York Review of Books as a Serious Work of Literature (tm). You resent that you finished your comic book -- a minor title (3,500 copies) in a minor field (the comics industry between the 1990s speculator boom and the influx of Hollywood money) -- and didn't get the widespread mainstream coverage that three or four other comics ever have got. You conveniently gloss over the fact that you got lots of coverage in the comics world -- y'know, the only place your work is available -- and claim you were ignored. This is you rewriting history to be other than it was so that you can manufacture a sense of injustice and persecution.
Your periodic paranoia is coming on again. Commenting on Sunday's post, you wonder that a positive mention of Cerebus was allowed to be published. Dave, there is no conspiracy against you or against Cerebus that keeps your deserved acclaim from being heard. There is no "Literary Injustice" in Cerebus not being universally acclaimed. The marketplace of ideas has assessed Cerebus, and most individuals have said some variation of, "Hm. Some good bits there." Maybe you feel Cerebus deserves more than that, but feeling that very strongly doesn't prove there's a conspiracy against you.
The thing about reality is that you have to accept it even if you don't like it. Your words suggest that you have a different philosophy there.
12 comments:
Thanks for this, Dave. I can't believe it has been 4 years since Craig's passing. I've never met anyone with such passion for comics. Craig just seemed to know *everything* about the medium. We often discussed, debated and dissected Cerebus (just as we did with other great works of art--be they comics, TV or film). Craig opened my mind to many new ideas and I will always be grateful.
The world is a smaller place without him.
-- John Thorne (Co-editor, with Craig Miller, of Wrapped in Plastic Magazine)
Well done, Dave. I will reiterate--whenever I spoke with Craig on the phone or exchanged emails, I always found him to be one of the nicest and most polite people with whom I ever conversed.
Still need to put into edited form Craig's last submission, mere days before his passing, a video segment he did for Cerebustv.com ... R.I.P Craig...
So sad that Craig will not be around to see the new TWIN PEAKS in 2017 - WRAPPED IN PLASTIC was also "very good work"
A "heads up" to Menachem Luchins: I spoke to Howard Miller on the phone yesterday and gave him the address of ESCAPE POD COMICS, so he'll be sending you the inventory of FOLLOWING CEREBUS that Craig had at the time of his passing (all 12 issues except for #4) except for the 50 copies of each I'm having him ship me for the Cerebus Archive. I'm paying Howard for the books (the money to be added to Jennifer's trust fund) and for the shipping. What I'm HOPING you'll do is to give complementary copies to anyone who shops in the store: that is, put them in the bag with anything that they've purchased. As well as sending copies to anyone who purchases a CEREBUS trade from you by mail. Giveaways at NYC conventions? It was a darned good magazine and the best way to honour Craig's memory is to make sure it isn't completely forgotten so soon.
I really just wanted to get FOLLOWING CEREBUS off Howard's "desk" as he's already spent four years -- as retiree -- sometimes ten hours a day dealing with the monumental Craig Miller Collection, turning it into cash for Jennifer, selling the house and he's still wending his way through the probate process.
Any "excess" -- i.e. beyond what you can handle, personally -- feel free to recycle them.
Any CEREBUS-friendly retailers in the U.S. -- and I know there's a few of you -- I hope you'll agree to take a few copies of each issue from Menachem by paying him for the shipping and doing the same thing: getting copies into people's hands.
Any CEREBUS fans who want to help Menachem by buying some copies, I'm sure he'd appreciate any help with this new headache.
John - Thanks for posting here. I'll always be grateful to both you and Craig for your going out on a limb and doing a magazine ABOUT Cerebus at a time when everyone else was definitely in "Dave who?" mode. It definitely helped the transition from CEREBUS creator to CEREBUS curator for me.
I think we're probably on the same page that FOLLOWING CEREBUS should be viewed as a unit, that we waive any proprietary interest in in favour of Jennifer and whomever her successors might prove to be. Hope all is well with you and that you'll plug your TWIN PEAKS book here for interested fans.
CEREBUS TV - That would be a good idea, with a link to AMOC, hopefully.
Howard is still hoping to put together a video history of Craig for Jennifer and that would make a nice addition.
hal - Yes, that's something else that Howard is having to deal with: the interest in the WRAPPED IN PLASTIC material that Craig and John did which is definitely "heating up" as the new show is getting closer. If it's even a modest hit, that's only going to be "later and more so".
I think it would be a great idea to incorporate what Howard's working on with Craig's original video submission. Howard sent me his number when he wrote to me by regular mail of Craig's passing. He didn't seem to be answering at the time, but since he was successfully contacted for the back issues initiative, an attempt will be made again.
In the spirit of Dave's own "reading into the record", I must correct his mistake above. There never was a "Dave who?" period. Indeed, at the time of Following Cerebus's debut there was an uptick of interest in Dave and Cerebus owing to the conclusion of the project.
-- Damian
Hi Damian! - You can "ret-con" that onto the record if you want -- and clearly you WANT to, and, I would add, as a member of the Feminist Theocracy, would HAVE to -- but the plain fact of the matter is that the Feminist Theocracy determined that there would be one (1) daily newspaper article (Mississippi I think?) one (1) magazine article: the SATURDAY NIGHT smear piece that painted me as a drug-ravaged lunatic (rather appropriately written by a journalist who was himself a drug-ravaged lunatic as per his later autobiographical book) one (1) online review -- by THE ONION just to make sure everyone knew that CEREBUS wasn't being treated seriously -- and that was it. Time for Dave Sim, thoroughly denounced and utterly rejected by the Feminist Theocracy, to Go. Away. And, Die. Somewhere.
But, keep pitching that line. You and the Feminist Theocracy might be able to get some more traction out of it. :)
I mean, seriously, Damian, we'll see which way you folks choose to go. One WASHINGTON POST article doth not a 30-year miscarriage of Literary Injustice amend.
Dave: For an individual who once claimed (but seems to no longer do so -- your words) to be interested in apprehending reality as accurately as possible, your ongoing campaign to rewrite history does you poor credit.
Dave, you were never the "Pariah King of Comics", you were the "Recluse King of Comics"; you weren't kicked out, you quit. And there was never a time when you or Cerebus was ignored in the comics press; what's got you confused is that people aren't agreeing with you when you're so obviously right. Indeed, both you and Cerebus punched above your weight in terms of influence and attention -- with creators and with comics fans, if not with the larger public.
Oh, that's what's got your goat (heh). You resent that 30 years ago, when every mainstream article about comics began "Bang! Pow! Splat!" and may have proceeded to "Comics aren't just for kids any more," Cerebus wasn't reviewed glowingly in The New York Review of Books as a Serious Work of Literature (tm). You resent that you finished your comic book -- a minor title (3,500 copies) in a minor field (the comics industry between the 1990s speculator boom and the influx of Hollywood money) -- and didn't get the widespread mainstream coverage that three or four other comics ever have got. You conveniently gloss over the fact that you got lots of coverage in the comics world -- y'know, the only place your work is available -- and claim you were ignored. This is you rewriting history to be other than it was so that you can manufacture a sense of injustice and persecution.
Your periodic paranoia is coming on again. Commenting on Sunday's post, you wonder that a positive mention of Cerebus was allowed to be published. Dave, there is no conspiracy against you or against Cerebus that keeps your deserved acclaim from being heard. There is no "Literary Injustice" in Cerebus not being universally acclaimed. The marketplace of ideas has assessed Cerebus, and most individuals have said some variation of, "Hm. Some good bits there." Maybe you feel Cerebus deserves more than that, but feeling that very strongly doesn't prove there's a conspiracy against you.
The thing about reality is that you have to accept it even if you don't like it. Your words suggest that you have a different philosophy there.
-- Damian
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