Thats the truth. I still have the emails going back and forth with that POD printer and Tim at the Comics College trying to make it work to get these in the store. That said, glad I ordered all of mine direct ultimately, while they were still available. Believe it or not, buying Cerebus Archive #1 off the shelf is what got me into Cerebus (I was already reading Glamourpuss).
Thanks, Jeff. This was the issue where I reprinted David Mowry's "Starsmith Jones" which I had inked over Mowry's layouts. Basically practicing my Al Williamson riffs WAY WAY BACK (1976 I think?) "Come ON, Dave, it's almost 40 years later. Can't you do a better Williamson than that?" Alas, no. Exactly the opposite of most comics guys: I can do a reasonable approximation of Real World narrative stuff, but as soon as I start doing genre stuff I just (pun intended) draw a blank. Actually, I'm being a little hard on myself. This looks a lot better than I remember it.
Jp - I appreciate you letting me know that, Jp. I don't think I've ever heard of that happening so it's nice to have an anecdotal exception to stick in my CEREBUS ARCHIVE 1.0 mental file.
We were all blindsided by ComiXpress going out of business. There were a few issues where I had given copies away and thought, "Well, no problem -- they're always in print. I'll just get some more when I need them!" Now, they're definitely the rarest Aardvark-Vanaheim publications -- with the FDC copies (where it says POD on this one) First Day Covers the absolute rarest.
Okay, this is the point where someone says "Actually they've got them all on eBay for $1 each and no takers!"
I remember planning on buying a stack of them from Comixpress, just waiting to make the high postage worthwhile, and when I went to their website, found that they went bust the week before.
In Dave's defence, he spent a quarter-century drawing a page a day in a style that was not Al Williamson. If he'd spent that time practicing his Williamson he'd probably be pretty good at it by now.
Damian - I appreciate the compliment but that's a VERY tough call (no control group).
Al was pretty far gone (Alzheimer's) by the time I sent him the first issue of glamourpuss, but his wife, Cori relayed word through Yoram M. (major Williamson art buyer) that he had said that what he liked about my work was that it didn't look like him or like Alex Raymond, it was its own "Dave Sim thing".
Obviously, I'm really glad that he actually got to see it and liked it. But, really, I think there's only one Al Williamson and nothing compares to his run on SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN and STAR WARS.
Coincidentally, I just got a COMICS REVUE from Rick Norwood where he's offering a copy of CR vol.1 #4 with Williamson STAR WARS cover and STAR WARS strips for a minimum donation of $10 to help him keep COMICS REVUE going. I'm definitely sending him a donation.
Boy, howdy, that STAR WARS stuff was great! I'm just sorry you never got around to reproducing that, Dave. Another reason for us all to emit a collective, "...sigh...".
9 comments:
Man, I'd like to get one of that! Cerebus Archive 1.0 was *very* hard to get.
Thats the truth. I still have the emails going back and forth with that POD printer and Tim at the Comics College trying to make it work to get these in the store. That said, glad I ordered all of mine direct ultimately, while they were still available. Believe it or not, buying Cerebus Archive #1 off the shelf is what got me into Cerebus (I was already reading Glamourpuss).
Thanks, Jeff. This was the issue where I reprinted David Mowry's "Starsmith Jones" which I had inked over Mowry's layouts. Basically practicing my Al Williamson riffs WAY WAY BACK (1976 I think?) "Come ON, Dave, it's almost 40 years later. Can't you do a better Williamson than that?" Alas, no. Exactly the opposite of most comics guys: I can do a reasonable approximation of Real World narrative stuff, but as soon as I start doing genre stuff I just (pun intended) draw a blank. Actually, I'm being a little hard on myself. This looks a lot better than I remember it.
Jp - I appreciate you letting me know that, Jp. I don't think I've ever heard of that happening so it's nice to have an anecdotal exception to stick in my CEREBUS ARCHIVE 1.0 mental file.
We were all blindsided by ComiXpress going out of business. There were a few issues where I had given copies away and thought, "Well, no problem -- they're always in print. I'll just get some more when I need them!" Now, they're definitely the rarest Aardvark-Vanaheim publications -- with the FDC copies (where it says POD on this one) First Day Covers the absolute rarest.
Okay, this is the point where someone says "Actually they've got them all on eBay for $1 each and no takers!"
I remember planning on buying a stack of them from Comixpress, just waiting to make the high postage worthwhile, and when I went to their website, found that they went bust the week before.
In Dave's defence, he spent a quarter-century drawing a page a day in a style that was not Al Williamson. If he'd spent that time practicing his Williamson he'd probably be pretty good at it by now.
-- Damian
Damian - I appreciate the compliment but that's a VERY tough call (no control group).
Al was pretty far gone (Alzheimer's) by the time I sent him the first issue of glamourpuss, but his wife, Cori relayed word through Yoram M. (major Williamson art buyer) that he had said that what he liked about my work was that it didn't look like him or like Alex Raymond, it was its own "Dave Sim thing".
Obviously, I'm really glad that he actually got to see it and liked it. But, really, I think there's only one Al Williamson and nothing compares to his run on SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN and STAR WARS.
Coincidentally, I just got a COMICS REVUE from Rick Norwood where he's offering a copy of CR vol.1 #4 with Williamson STAR WARS cover and STAR WARS strips for a minimum donation of $10 to help him keep COMICS REVUE going. I'm definitely sending him a donation.
Boy, howdy, that STAR WARS stuff was great! I'm just sorry you never got around to reproducing that, Dave. Another reason for us all to emit a collective, "...sigh...".
Definitely up to snuff, measuring by Giordano's tenure at late sixties Charlton.
As far as I know George Lucas still has ALL of Williamson's STAR WARS originals -- that was the deal: he got the original artwork.
I wish I could say that.
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