Thursday, 31 August 2017
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
To an Iestan Boy?
MARGARET LISS:
We've seen Dave Sim's notebook #18 three times already and most recently this past February in Dino's Cafe. Notebook #18 covers Cerebus #136 to 141 and had 64 pages scanned.
Dave wrote down the dialogue between the two maids in issue #138 starting on page 38 of the notebook. It matches up word for word for page for their first page in the issue with the exception of the word 'birthday':
The dialogue continues for a few more pages in the notebook, and then on page 42 there are some sketches of the maids:
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 seen Dave Sim's notebook #18 three times already and most recently this past February in Dino's Cafe. Notebook #18 covers Cerebus #136 to 141 and had 64 pages scanned.
Dave wrote down the dialogue between the two maids in issue #138 starting on page 38 of the notebook. It matches up word for word for page for their first page in the issue with the exception of the word 'birthday':
 |
| Notebook 18, page 38 |
 |
Notebook 18, page 42 |
Tuesday, 29 August 2017
Barvark #1 In Stores Now, and Behind the Scenes of A Year of Hell?
Sean Michael Robinson:
Hello all!
Paper to Pixel to Paper Again is on hold this week so I can note a few note-able events in Cerebusland, going on as I type this...
First off, at long last, Batvark #1 (of 1!) is in stores and on sale now!
Caution: Sausage Making Discussion Ahead
Caution: Sausage Making Discussion Ahead
For those of you out of the loop, Aardvark/Vanaheim has been following up this past year's Cerebus in Hell? mini-series with a series of one-shots, each featuring a parody cover and interior gags related to that parody, as well as reprinting, in sequential order, the entirety of the Cerebus in Hell? online strip, written by Dave Sim and Sandeep Atwal. Batvark is just the first of these one-shots, each of which will be available at your favorite local comic store on the last Wednesday of every month.
So, the last Wednesday of September, you can expect to see Aardvark Comics #1...
...followed by Strange Cerebus #1 the last Wednesday of October...
Order at your Local Comics Shop now! Diamond Order Code: AUG171057
...and on into the foreseeable future, for as long as sales hold steady.
My job on these first few one-shots was limited mostly to prepping the visuals, taking Sandeep Atwal's lettering files and image mockups and turning them into finished, print-ready files. Cartoonist Benjamin Hobbs joined me a few issues in, at first doing the digital prepress for the strips he had lettered during the initial online strip, and later pitching Dave covers for future one-shots.
Now that Sandeep has left Aardvark/Vanaheim, the work flow has changed considerably. Each week Dave mocks up a minimum of seven new strips, using the Mighty Power of his Photocopier/Fax machine all-in-one enlarge and reduce functions to, ah, enlarge and/or reduce the necessary figures and backgrounds, and then adding mockup lettering and hand-drawn or cut balloons. He then faxes these mockups to me, and I forward them to Benjamin, who puts together the finished (or almost-finished) files from the faxes, adding the lettering later, which arrives at his house via jump drive (relayed by Dave Fisher. Thanks Dave!) From Benjamin's files, I put together the layout of the issue, Benjamin and I write the rear incidental text for the issue (previously written by Sandeep and Dave) and check everything over before sending it to the printer.
A Year of Hell?
A Year of Hell?
This new arrangement means a lot less redundant work, as the strip goes straight from photocopier mockup to lettered and adjusted. Other changes—Benjamin has pitched a bunch of covers/concepts for new one-shots, one for me as well, and both of us have written some new strips as well. Most selfishly, though, my favorite part of the new workflow is getting to read the new Cerebus in Hell? strips a year or so in advance of their publication.
We'd settled into a good rhythm with this work until, two weeks ago, something surprising happened. A certain American-via-West Africa folk instrument appeared in not one, but five, strips that week.
But—what was Sim saying by this sudden surely significant appearance? Was it relevant to the underlying current of the strip, as it slowly slips from gag-a-day comic to second-in-a-lifetime 26-year continuity epic? Was it a commentary on the characters, on their borrowed and transformed nature? An obscure metaphor?
A week later, the mockups for the new strips were in. The instrument was gone, nowhere to be found.
From Sean to Dave, via fax. Note I start with an ingratiating tone, so as to catch him unawares when I hit the actual critical issue:
Great strips this week—excepting the lack of banjo. Is this a banjo ban? Do I need to start a banjo ban boycott?
From Dave to Sean, via fax:
I will leave it for greater minds than my own to determine if I'm a flat-out banjophobe or merely exhibiting latent banjoism of banjoism tendencies characteristic of my age, race and identity politics. Clearly I "present" as banjoist but that may be a culturalist idiosyncracy (Canada never having benefited from the richness of a nativist banjocentric traditiona comparable to that of the U.S.)
If you want to "call me out" on this I'll let the above stand as my ONLY official response.
Unless #SimBanjophobe starts trending on Twitter in which case I shall endeavour to re-engage on a more abject and craven level a day or so hence.You heard the man, banjophiles. We know what he is: the words are from his own mouth this time. Go forth and shame.
In Other, Real-er News
I was happy to see this comment yesterday from long-time Cerebus reader Michael Grabowski, who had this to say about the newly restored Cerebus Volume One, which came out this January 2017, and is in a comic store near you right now:
Seems like a good spot to comment that I finally picked up the newest printing of volume 1, and sweet heaven I am in love with how good this looks and reads compared to my ancient 2nd printing. Beautiful work making Dave's original text shine so, Sean! This edition should go a long way to getting old & newer comics readers to get into Cerebus, and from volume 1 after all.
Thanks so much for the kind words and the support, Michael. It's very gratifying to hear people have been enjoying their copies. It was so satisfying to finally get that volume in print in a way that it deserves. I've been saying for several years now that I think a big chunk of the negative reputation of the first book rests on the reproduction: it's nice to finally have a printing that makes my point. Take them out side by side if you really want to blow some minds.
And Also...
...the Art Dragnet continues its glacially-paced work! We got a new page this week, and the story of that page is quite the doozy, so it'll have to wait until after Paper to Pixel to Paper Again is done. But in the meanwhile...do you own a Cerebus page? Does a friend have a Cerebus page? Does an enemy with an inadequately-secure house have a Cerebus page? Well, how about sending us a scan? Contact me at Cerebusarthunt at gmail dot com for more details...
next week: Paper to Pixel to Paper Again gets really close to the finish line...
Monday, 28 August 2017
The 'Silent James' Reviews
(from a review of Cerebus Vol 1, 20 August 2016)
I started reading Cerebus for the 1st time
ever recently. I know I’m tremendously late, but I have the fortune of
it being freshly remastered. I picked up book 1 & 2, and just
finished reading book 1 this morning.
My good friend Menachem, owner the incredible Escape Pod Comics, was very interested in my thoughts on the books & gave me the idea to draw up some sketch notes… thus the above image.
I can’t say it enough: I really love the artwork by Dave Sim. The progression happened pretty swiftly (around page 150), when he began drawing his character so incredibly animated in his movements. What I love about Darkstalkers, is the exaggerated animation sprites the characters have when they move & that’s all here in this book.
My favorite part about the entire book, is the breaking up of a scene into panels that the characters may walk through the environment. It’s a concept that never occurred to me before, I think it’s absolutely brilliant. He pushes it further throughout the story, including an abstract landscape in “Mind Game”. It’s a great way to get a lot out of a page, and it’s fun!
I always loved screen tones in manga & independent comics. It’s a simple, effective way to cover an area in a gray when your book is in B&W. I’ve cut my own screens before in the past, it’s a painstaking process but looks so cool. Zen the Intergalactic Ninja sticks out in my mind when I think of this stuff.
I won’t go into to much detail into my history w/ Cerebus, but basically, I saw it on comic shelves my whole life & was drawn to the pen & ink style, but was kind of overwhelmed with the size & number of books. I never had enough money to buy even one of those books. Over the years, many friends told me about the series & it gave me a bizarre impression of it. Many even told me to skip book 1, but I was pleasantly surprised when I sat down to read it.
I was expecting something drawn poorly that was a goofy, silly parody of Conan. Basically, “Not Another” Conan Story, if that makes sense. I never liked those “Not Another” movies. The first few chapters were like that but it quickly became it’s own world. That’s another part of what I love about it: it is it’s own world. It’s like a video game RPG, he goes to towns, finds out info, frequents taverns, gets into battles, travels around, looks for gold etc.
I’m not keen on the characters that are just parodies of someone else, except for “Sump-Thing” which is just too funny of a pun! I feel like it’s unnecessary and overused throughout. Also not a fan of any of the female characters, I wish he had put the same amount of work he put into Cerebus as he did the women.
Story-wise, I like most of it though there are a few gaps. “Black Magiking” to the end of “Mind Game” are my favorites in this one.
I really enjoyed reading book 1 and will start “High Society” soon. I know in later books Gerhard joins him to do the backgrounds, but for now I’m loving Dave Sim’s artwork on it’s own. Lookout for my review of Cerebus book 2: High Society in... however long it takes to read it!
My good friend Menachem, owner the incredible Escape Pod Comics, was very interested in my thoughts on the books & gave me the idea to draw up some sketch notes… thus the above image.
I can’t say it enough: I really love the artwork by Dave Sim. The progression happened pretty swiftly (around page 150), when he began drawing his character so incredibly animated in his movements. What I love about Darkstalkers, is the exaggerated animation sprites the characters have when they move & that’s all here in this book.
My favorite part about the entire book, is the breaking up of a scene into panels that the characters may walk through the environment. It’s a concept that never occurred to me before, I think it’s absolutely brilliant. He pushes it further throughout the story, including an abstract landscape in “Mind Game”. It’s a great way to get a lot out of a page, and it’s fun!
I always loved screen tones in manga & independent comics. It’s a simple, effective way to cover an area in a gray when your book is in B&W. I’ve cut my own screens before in the past, it’s a painstaking process but looks so cool. Zen the Intergalactic Ninja sticks out in my mind when I think of this stuff.
I won’t go into to much detail into my history w/ Cerebus, but basically, I saw it on comic shelves my whole life & was drawn to the pen & ink style, but was kind of overwhelmed with the size & number of books. I never had enough money to buy even one of those books. Over the years, many friends told me about the series & it gave me a bizarre impression of it. Many even told me to skip book 1, but I was pleasantly surprised when I sat down to read it.
I was expecting something drawn poorly that was a goofy, silly parody of Conan. Basically, “Not Another” Conan Story, if that makes sense. I never liked those “Not Another” movies. The first few chapters were like that but it quickly became it’s own world. That’s another part of what I love about it: it is it’s own world. It’s like a video game RPG, he goes to towns, finds out info, frequents taverns, gets into battles, travels around, looks for gold etc.
I’m not keen on the characters that are just parodies of someone else, except for “Sump-Thing” which is just too funny of a pun! I feel like it’s unnecessary and overused throughout. Also not a fan of any of the female characters, I wish he had put the same amount of work he put into Cerebus as he did the women.
Story-wise, I like most of it though there are a few gaps. “Black Magiking” to the end of “Mind Game” are my favorites in this one.
I really enjoyed reading book 1 and will start “High Society” soon. I know in later books Gerhard joins him to do the backgrounds, but for now I’m loving Dave Sim’s artwork on it’s own. Lookout for my review of Cerebus book 2: High Society in... however long it takes to read it!
SILENT JAMES:
(from a review of Cerebus Vol 2: High Society, 25 September 2016)
I started reading Cerebus for the first time ever recently. I just
finished reading book 2 High Society last night. I’m happy to say, the
art continues to surprise & delight me. My favorite new items are
Dave Sim’s use of sound effects as motion blurs, that idea never
occurred to me. I love the use of framing & borders throughout: when
Jaka shows up the first time, all the decorative borders, the scene
with the guy under the floorboards that you think is in his own panels
till he climbs up, and the effect of disorientation when Cerebus is
drunk and the page orientation keeps flipping.
The page with
Cerebus seen through all the bottles is another favorite. A completely
new take on illustrating his character in many different ways. Mind Game
in this book is pretty cool visually. The device he used to show echoes
was brilliant & I really got a lot out of the vast simple images in
some of the chapters.
The way he draws women is very poor,
that hasn’t improved since book 1. I was hoping for more chopped up
frames like in book 1 but there was less of that, a few scenes just had
multiple Cerebus figures going through a single frame, which I didn’t
like.
The story: Would it shock you if I said I preferred reading book 1?
Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading High Society & am excited to
start book 3 (when I save up my pennies), but I feel like he could have
told the same story in less than half the pages. I know this is his
style & it does speak volumes about how convoluted politics are, but
as a reader I found it hard to get through sections. The visual
storytelling was more interesting to me than the script, which is fine.
Silent James is a live illustrator for events and studio projects. Cerebus Vol 1 & 2 are currently available as an official FREE(!) download.
Sunday, 27 August 2017
The Four Seasons Of The Aardvark
The Four Seasons Of The Aardvark (2010)
Sketches by Dave Sim
(Click image to enlarge)
BRIAN COPPOLA:
When Dave was doing head sketches during the
"Cerebus TV" phase, I would request multiple sketches and ask for them
to be themed. Dave is a champ at taking a suggestion like this and
running with it. This request was for 4 drawings, done as the four
seasons. Here is what came back.
Saturday, 26 August 2017
The Craig Miller "Renegade Rabbit" Art Auctions
Ebay Original Art Auctions
(ending early September)
FROM THE EBAY AUCTION DESCRIPTION:
Craig Miller was a publisher, writer, artist, magazine editor, father, husband, son, employee of Lone Star Comics, friends to many people in the comic book publishing and comic book collecting world and so much more. He also published, co-created and wrote many of the articles in the 75 issues of "Wrapped In Plastic", a Twin Peaks and David Lynch fanzine. He published 35 regular issues of Spectrum magazine, a movie, TV and comic book fan magazine, as well as the Spectrum Special, and Spectrum Special Edition issues that came with it. He passed away about 4 + years ago. This original art is some of the very last items from his estate, which is being sold to benefit his 13 year old daughter. His Father, Howard, has been working tirelessly for 3 1/2 to 4 years to maximize the amount of money that his estate can leave to Craig's now 13 year old daughter, for which he has not only taken $00.00 for all his labor, but put anywhere from $250.00 to $300.00 per month in gas, road tolls, and so many more unaccountable expenses.
More info at WrappedInPlasticMag.com
IN MEMORIAM: CRAIG MILLERMore info at WrappedInPlasticMag.com
(Dave Sim's Weekly Update #155, originally posted 4 November 2016)
Related Article:
Dave Sim's Tribute To Craig Miller (12 November 2012)
Friday, 25 August 2017
Dave Sim: A Thorough Examination of 6,000 Pages
14 August 04
Dear Tim [Gagne]:
Thanks for the letter. Sorry to hear your team fell short. Actually, I have no real objection to co-ed ball. Same as if two teams agreed to play with ten-pound weights tied around their ankles or two teams decided to have an equal number of players in their 20s, 30s and 40s. As long as it’s both teams, then it’s fair. I mean, there is the problem with feeding the feminist delusion that we’re all equal, but co-ed softball is really the least of our problems in that area. If Western civilization is going to wake up, it isn’t going to be out on a ball diamond, I don’t think.
We’ll be taking an ad or two in TCJ if I can talk Ger into it (I think I’ve got a really good idea), but I don’t think they realize what they’re walking into. "A good, thorough examination from a variety of perspectives"? How many pages do you think it would take to examine a 6,000 page story thoroughly from a variety of perspectives? How many pages do you think the Journal will devote to it? Yes, exactly.
Here’s your autographed funny book. If you get it personalized or a letter with it, you only get me. Ger's out on his boat. A little under 500 responses in the last week. Just waiting to see if we’ve crested or if there’s a snail mail tsunami on the way. We’ve got about 9,000 Sandman parody issues at the warehouse (excluding 166’s knee-slapping “Look, my sister” two-panel laugh fest), so we should be able to take whatever the Internet can dish out. I’m really surprised. I didn’t know that many people still knew what a stamp was (although it must be said that three of them have put it in the wrong corner of the envelope).
Assuming your “tomatoes” isn’t a euphemism for something else, I’m sorry to hear that they aren’t growing like they should. It’s been a cool, cruel summer all across North America from what I understand. I’ve been out in the sun every time it shows its face and have the best non-salon tan I’ve ever had in my life, not to mention taking in the local Blues festival, the vintage cars “Cruising” display and just wandering the streets. Not having to draw a monthly comic book for the first summer since I was twenty-two, I’m pretty easy to please. Plus, I was over in Italy (Portorecanati on the Adriatic coast) for a week and it never got below 34C (98F) the whole time I was there in a house with no air-conditioning. Funny how you get used to no air-conditioning, though, when it isn’t there. Same way your body can absorb -5C in the winter no problem and 20C in the summer feels chilly.
Best,
Dave
From "Dave Sim's Collected Letters Vol 3", a Cerebus Archive Kickstarter reward.
Wednesday, 23 August 2017
Front and Back
MARGARET LISS:
Dave Sim's notebook #17 has only been seen here on the pages of A Moment of Cerebus three times in the past, most recently in La Danseuse Marvellieux in May 2017. The notebook covers Cerebus #127 to 135 and had 72 pages scanned.
One of the things I've mentioned in the past is if what was drawn on a page bleed through to the other side, I would scan in the other side as well. I've found a case of that in notebook #17. On page 13 there is a full page sketch for the cover to Cerebus #128:
And on the back of page 14, we see what bleed through to the other side:
You should be able to zoom in on both images. On page 13 there are faint pencil marks around the lettering for the title block and for Oscar as well. And the finished cover:
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.
Dave Sim's notebook #17 has only been seen here on the pages of A Moment of Cerebus three times in the past, most recently in La Danseuse Marvellieux in May 2017. The notebook covers Cerebus #127 to 135 and had 72 pages scanned.
One of the things I've mentioned in the past is if what was drawn on a page bleed through to the other side, I would scan in the other side as well. I've found a case of that in notebook #17. On page 13 there is a full page sketch for the cover to Cerebus #128:
 |
| Notebook #17, page 13 |
 |
Notebook #17, page 14 |
Monday, 21 August 2017
Sunday, 20 August 2017
On Sale 30 Years Ago: Cerebus #101
Cerebus #101 (August 1987)
Art by Gerhard
DAVE SIM:
(from Cerebus Cover Art Treasury, IDW, 2016)
"Ave Avid" - Dave and David without the 'd's. The deathly silence that met me being the first Indie creator to get to issue 100 was the first time I realised I was pretty universally hated. 'Don't get 'avid' about 'ave's' because I don't think you're going to be getting many.' Beautiful miniature painting by Gerhard.
Diamond Order Code: OCT140536
Saturday, 19 August 2017
Pressed Aardvark #1: 1980 to 1983
PAUL SLADE:
I love researching bizarre stores from America's past, so a few years ago I treated myself to a subscription to newspapers.com. This gives me access to a huge searchable database of old American newspapers – the oldest dating back to the 1700s. On a whim the other night, I plugged the word "Cerebus" into the site’s excellent search engine, selected the years 1978-2017, and started rootling through everything that came up.
Many of the stories I found simply reported that Dave was about to attend a convention in that particular paper's home city, and then ran through all the basic facts about Cerebus for its baffled readers. Others turned out to have nothing to do with our Cerebus at all, but instead referred to some company or other which, in all probability, had simply mis-spelt the word "Cerberus" on its original charter and never got round to correcting it.
Among all this detritus, though, I did find some real gems. Some contributed just a single tiny extra detail to my Cerebus knowledge, while others opened up a whole new world. You'll find examples of both extremes here, in what I hope will be the first of a new AMOC series.
*****
Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester NY), November 5, 1980
The earliest genuine Cerebus reference produced by my search was this announcement of the Rochester convention Dave went on to recall so vividly in his Swords of Cerebus introductions for issues 23-25 and The Morning After. He’s one of three convention guests who get a mention in the story, the other two being Mark Gruenwald and Keith Pollard. Dave’s book, we’re told, is called Fantastic Cerebus the Aardvark, which reminds me of Scorz repeatedly calling him “Famous the aardvark” in May 1981’s Cerebus 26. It was also Scorz, you’ll recall, who encouraged Cerebus to “talk at Lord Julius sewage, sewage, sewage” and to “drive it right through his brain”.
*****
The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 9, 1981
Steven Rosen, one of this paper’s reporters, met an exhibitor called Ro-z (Jeff) Mendelson selling underground comics at a convention in Cincinnati Towers, and decided to interview him. Mendelson’s pictured in his shop, Columbus Monkey’s Retreat Space Age Variety Store, where he’s shown with a copy of Cerebus 23 on a display rack behind him. You’ll see it there sandwiched between Captain Canuck and The Cartoon History of the Universe.
Rosen canters through a few of the titles Mendelson had on display at the convention – Commie From Mars, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Mr Natural, that sort of thing – and then adds: “Mendelson can give an eloquent defence of such comics’ reason for existence. ‘They gave a freedom to express without being censored,’ he says. ‘You could be as weird as you want, as political. They represented every aspect that people didn’t want controlled.’
“Sex was certainly one of those aspects, especially in the works of the underground’s most famous cartoonist, R. Crumb. His titles are reliable sellers. But, Mendelson explained, some of the other stuff is just ‘off the wall’ humor.
“For instance, there’s Cerebus, about an aardvark who participates in sword-wielding and sorcery. And there is a series Honkytonk Sue the Queen of Country Swing. In her latest adventure, Sue gets The Beatles to reunite and convert to country and western. ‘It’s for people who want to read something totally off-the-wall,’ Mendelson said. ‘They don’t have to judge or think about it’.”
*****
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls SD), May 2, 1982
The paper gives no indication what the local angle is here, but takes its copy from a wire service called Gannett. We get a brief run-down of what Cerebus is, and then a quote each from Dave himself and Diana Schutz. Both of them say the kind of thing we’ve all read about the book a million times before, but that’s not to say their comments wouldn’t have been useful to newcomers, of course.
For me, the story’s most interesting nugget comes in its penultimate paragraph, which tells us “the New York State Jaycees [have] adopted Cerebus as a mascot”. This organisation turns out to be the state’s Junior Chamber of Commerce, whose motto reads: “Service to humanity is the best work of life”. Hard to imagine anyone more opposed to that philosophy than our little grey friend, isn’t it?
*****
Quad-City Times (Davenport IA), July 12, 1982
Notable mainly for its photographs, this is another human interest piece. The subjects are Steven Lackey and his two sons Christopher and Patrick, who were on their way to a Chicago convention’s costume competition. “Patrick in a hot and hairy get-up, complete with long snout and tail, is Cerebus the Aardvark, a figure gaining quite a cult following,” the story explains.
“[Steven’s] wife Diana, made the boys’ costumes, with Lackey’s technical help. For the aardvark ensemble, they followed a basic Halloween costume pattern and added the tail, head and snout. ‘We got the material from a fabric shop. It’s the kind of stuff they use for carpeting in vans’, Lackey says. Dave Sim, the creator of ‘Cerebus the Aardvark’, will attend the convention and the Lackeys are anxiously awaiting his reaction to Patrick’s costume.”
Dave ran the Q-CT’s photograph of Patrick in costume on the letters page of Cerebus 41, together with one of Rose Hille at the same convention.
*****
The Orlando Sentinel, November 12, 1982
It’s not the paper’s editorial content that interests us here, but an advertisement for a store called Apogee Books. Among its promise to supply “Dungeons & Dragons, Star Fleet Battles, SF and Fantasy Books”, it adds a box saying “We have Elfquest and Cerebus”. These are the only comics mentioned in the ad, and Apogee clearly thought that drawing attention to them would help to bring in extra customers.
*****
The Courier-Journal (Lexington KY), January 21, 1983
This rather enigmatic small ad also caught my eye. I thought I’d better redact the full phone number but, if you ask me, Patrick would have been a fool to risk calling it anyway.
*****
Lansing State Journal, August 9, 1983 & Muncie Evening Press, August 19, 1983
Smaller newspapers have never been able to resist the temptation to profile a young comics geek in their town. Here the subject is Douglas Wolk, who went on to become one of today’s most respected comics critics.
“Comic books are a medium that has been ignored too long by people,” young Douglas tells the LSJ’s Yolanda Alvarado. “They are just grand entertainment. The story-telling techniques can frequently not be used anywhere else.” Later in the piece, he names Elfquest, Cerebus and 2000 AD as his favourite books, and says his ambition is to become a comedic actor as skilled as the sitcom star Bea Arthur.
In more recent years, Wolk has published a couple of books (including 2007’s Reading Comics) and written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Believer and many other titles. It was his 2005 Believer piece on Cerebus which coined the best advice on navigating the book’s peaks and troughs I’ve ever seen: “At the very least, Cerebus is worth reading for the same reason a grand, half-ruined cathedral of a religion not your own is worth spending time in: it's a cathedral,” he wrote. “Take what you can from it.”
*****
Muncie Evening Press of August 19, 1983
I thought I’d found another youthful adventure by one of today’s top comics journalists in the Muncie Evening Press of August 19, 1983, but no such luck. The comics article there is by-lined to 18-year-old Whitney Spurgeon. Describing a trip to the Indianpolis store Comic Emporium, he singles out Elfquest and Cerebus as the two most interesting books there. “Businessmen would particularly enjoy this book, since Cerebus is the ultimate capitalist,” Whitney writes. “Although he shows compassion, greed is the overwhelming force of his life.”
Whitney’s surname immediately made me think of The Comic Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon, so I contacted him asking if he could shed any light. “Did you go by Whitney in those days?” I asked. “Or maybe this is a relative who shared your interest in comics?” Tom replied: “It's my older brother Whit, who still accompanies me to conventions and takes photos for the site. He also attended the London signing and afterparty for which Dave did the UK tour t-shirts.” That’ll be the 1993 Aardvarks Over UK tour pictured on the Page 45 website.
Unlike Wolk, Whitney did actually go on to become an actor, with credits including a role on ABC’s sitcom Cougar Town. What we have here, then, are two August 1983 articles featuring families from the pantheon of modern comics journalism, covering one teenage critic who hoped to become a sitcom actor and another who would actually achieve that ambition. If that’s not an example of Dave’s comic book metaphysics in action, I don’t know what is!
*****
The Guardian (London, UK), December 14, 1983
Britain held a general election in June 1983, and this story comes from The Guardian’s coverage of its aftermath. Its final paragraph reads: “A further 21 candidates have been reported for failing to return their expenses within the statutory 35 days. They include two of the Prime Minister’s opponents at Finchley, three candidates of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, and a Cerebus the Aardvark candidate from Oxford West.”
I should explain at this point that there’s a long tradition in British elections of fringe candidates standing in one seat or another simply to raise publicity for their single-issue cause or have a bit of a laugh. This often results in the enjoyable spectacle of a solemn Cabinet minister trying to behave with due gravitas on the stage at their local count while a rival candidate gurns away behind them in fancy dress. Have a look at the photographs here and you’ll see what I mean.
Sadly, I’ve been unable to find any pictures of Oxford West’s 1983 count, but I can tell you that the Cerebus candidate there was a final-year student called Peter Doubleday, and that he scored 86 votes against 23,778 for Chris Patten, the winning Conservative candidate. He was saved from finishing dead last only by Ms R. Pinder of the Peace, Health, Freedom of Information Telecommunications Party, who attracted just 26 supporters.
You can read Mr Doubleday’s own account of his boozy, cantankerous campaign here – and jolly entertaining it is too. Much of what he says has a distinctly Cerebite ring about it, not least his occasional habit of referring to himself in the third person.
“Finally, I [find] myself at the count, having not been able to vote for myself because I wasn’t even registered, where I learn that I am left with four hours of mind-boggling tedium because no alcohol is allowed within fifty yards of the building,” he writes.
After the result was announced, each candidate gave a short speech from the stage, with Doubleday’s turn coming just after the Rights of the Unemployed candidate. “Cerebus thanked all who had aided his pathetic, feeble campaign and acknowledged the last speaker, since (as a Finalist) he was due to join the unemployed in four weeks,” Doubleday says. “Finally, he noted that, if the two main opposition parties had sacrificed their candidates, he would have cleaned up the anti- Thatcher vote as the only credible alternative.”
That last bit strikes me as a very Cerebus thing to say: “You may have vastly more supporters than me, but you’re still the one who should quit”.
I’ve also managed to unearth a sample of Doubleday’s campaign literature, which you’ll find below, plus a Google Groups message board where someone called Iain Bowen outs himself as the party’s treasurer and electoral strategy manager. Scroll a bit further down that same thread, and we come to Aston University’s Jon Ward declaring: “Vote for Cerebus or Cerebus will carve you into Albino nuggets!”. Cutlets, Jon: it’s “Albino cutlets”.
Last word goes to Doubleday himself, and is again taken from his own account of the campaign. “What did I get out of it?” he asks. “Well, it kept me sane during Finals and things in general. I got to be hailed as ‘Cerebus’ by people I’d never even seen before. I don’t know. Just count it as the nearest to the pointlessly aesthetic that I’ll ever manage.”
For more of Paul Slade’s writing – including a history of Reg Smythe’s Andy Capp strip and a look back at some notable comic book lawsuits – visit PlanetSlade.com.
Friday, 18 August 2017
Apologies To Bill Sienkiewicz
Art by Dave Sim
DAVE SIM:
(from Note From The President, Cerebus #74, May 1985)
Sincerest apologies to Bill Sienkiewicz whom I forgot to mention anywhere in Cerebus Jam #1...
My admiration for this man's work prompted me to render the cover of #39 in the Neal Adams style he was doing to perfection at that time in Moon Knight. I used a reverse Neal Adams signature parody on that cover.
The irony of doing a parody of Neal's signature as a tribute to Bill Sienkiewicz escaped me at the time. This issue I stole Bill's own very distinctive signature for the cover as a tribute, not to his ability to do a faithful and spontaneous variation on a seminal influence (it makes sense, I think, read it again) but rather for his own role as a seminal influence for a new generation of comics professionals (and aspiring professionals). As probably the single greatest influence on my thinking at this juncture of our storyline (page fourteen of this issue is page 1,500, by the way) such a tribute was long overdue. A brilliant, brilliant individual and my closet friend in the field (after Gerhard)...
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard
Diamond Order Code: OCT140536
Thursday, 17 August 2017
Wednesday, 16 August 2017
Refuge of the Shallow
MARGARET LISS:
We haven't seen much of Dave Sim's notebook #14, which covers Cerebus #113 through 117. We've only seen it four other times, most recently this past April in Thunder the Wonder Pony.
While Oscar doesn't show up until Cerebus #120, Dave drew some sketches of him in this notebook.
A few sketches of a long haired Oscar along with a couple different haircuts.
On the next page we get a more completed sketch of Oscar, along with some quotes. The quote " The public is wonderfully tolerant, it forgives everything except of course genius" is an Oscar Wilde quote from his book The Artist as Critic.
The name Lillie Langtree I think is a reference to Lillie Langtry, a close friend of Oscar Wilde. Looks like Dave was doing some research for the Oscar character that would show up in a couple issues.
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 haven't seen much of Dave Sim's notebook #14, which covers Cerebus #113 through 117. We've only seen it four other times, most recently this past April in Thunder the Wonder Pony.
While Oscar doesn't show up until Cerebus #120, Dave drew some sketches of him in this notebook.
 |
| Notebook #14, page 55 |
 |
Notebook #14, page 56 |
The name Lillie Langtree I think is a reference to Lillie Langtry, a close friend of Oscar Wilde. Looks like Dave was doing some research for the Oscar character that would show up in a couple issues.
Monday, 14 August 2017
Sunday, 13 August 2017
Saturday, 12 August 2017
A Glamourpuss Fan Writes & (Again) Dave Sim Interrupts
A (very occasional) word from Dave Sim now that he's working full-time on
Dear Mr. S(l)im,
I must apologize for my tardiness in writing to you. When glamourpuss was coming out, I was writing regularly; afterwards around the New Year; last year, it was the Chinese New Year; this year, well, I could say the solstice but it's a little late for that. Unless there's some Canadian holiday I don't know about around this time, I'll just call it my Solstice greeting.
Actually, you were writing six days before Canada's 150th Birthday. 500,000 people were supposed to descend on the nation's capital and 25,000 actually did. Couldn't have put it better myself.
The last time I wrote, I had no idea of your mystery wrist ailment, otherwise I wouldn't have sent you that tiny notebook from Florence. If you couldn't do anything with it, I hope you were able to find it a good home. Maybe your friend Sand(w)eep could us it.
Oddly enough, it's still sitting comfortably on my office desk about two feet away from where I am right now. If I'm not mistaken, it's been there pretty much since it arrived. Thanks again!
Given your vastly superior health system…
Vastly superior to what? Havana? Sorry, go ahead.
…I'm sure you've investigated all sorts of remedies.
Mm. No. My view of the Canadian Health Care System is that it's mostly "three million hypochondriacs can't be wrong" (U.S. equivalent: "thirty million hypochondriacs can't be wrong"). That is, 10% of any human population is going to be made up of hypochondriacs who spend their lives getting overmedicated by Big Pharma and mutilated by surgeons. I tried physiotherapy for a while and I tried getting an MRI (in the U.S.) and I tried a cortisone shot. That's as "hypochondriac" as I go, I'm afraid. I wear a wrist-brace to keep the wrist stable. I have to occasionally draw word balloons when mocking up CEREBUS IN HELL? strips. Last week in particular because it's the SIN CITY parody so it's mostly white backgrounds so all the word balloons needed to be drawn. Out of a week's worth of strips, there were one or two word balloons that had a wobble to them, but most of them were passable. Which is the reverse of the situation, say, eight months ago. I infer from that that keeping the wrist stable is what's needed.
It does sound like something to be cured by acupuncture, but maybe you've tried that to no effect.
They HAD acupuncture at the physiotherapy place I went to, but no one suggested it for me. I think they could tell by looking at me that I wasn't an "acupuncture-friendly" sort of individual.
Maybe your wrist is like an ant, meaning that ants seem to have a certain built-in energy limit like a battery; once the battery runs out they're done. Maybe the battery in your wrist just ran out.
Maybe. Or maybe the wrist just needs to be stabilized in a wrist brace until whatever-it-is sorts itself out.
More plausibly though, there's some curse attached to Alex Raymond and, by investigating his death, you dug in too far, like in a horror novel (or Tales from the Crypt) and some ghost socked it to you where you hurt the most.
It doesn't hurt -- it's just "glitchy". I can do x number of lines using my fingers and thumb as I always did and then it's as if the wrist wants to draw instead and it overrides the fingers and thumb. Which makes me go, "What is up with my wrist?" and causes me to lose all line control. The only drawing I did in the last two-and-a-half years was a sketch of the back steps Mark S. is going to be building on the Off-White House. Fewer glitches, but still glitches.
It also doesn't hurt me not to draw. You mean "emotionally" right? No, I did a lot more drawing than most guys. I have no complaints.
There is a persuasive argument that I've "dug in too far" with the Alex Raymond research and that's what the wrist is "about".
It did stop publication of your researches…
Delayed it, actually. Possibly until after my own death. And forced me to be WAY more exact in what I have to say. I think I have a much clearer idea of WHY Alex Raymond died. And a much clearer idea of how to explain it without boring the pants off of everyone. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of my RIP KIRBY Commentaries now exist that will probably be cut down to a few dozen captions over a dozen or so pages of THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND. If you want to read the actual research/speculations, here they are. If you just want to read SDOAR here IT is.
Very suspicious, very Lovecraftian. Maybe you could have an Elder Sign tattooed on your wrist.
On the contrary, being on the monotheistic side of Reality probably saved my life. I'm hardly about to "switch teams" at this point!
I've quite enjoyed your Cerebus in Hell? quintology, although I was immensely disappointed that you had no guest appearances by any of the glamourpuss cast. Maybe you'll have them appear in your forthcoming Batvark series.
Actually, there's only one issue of Batvark. "Aardvark-Vanaheim! Your #1 publisher! All we publish are #1's".
Maybe you can have a Cosplay Lass backup story in one of those books, or Zootanapuss or, even better, have Bunny X show up. I think Bunny X would be a great villain for the Batvark, on the level of Mr. Mind and his Monster Society of Evil against Captain Marvel. You just need to attach a little radio around his neck, or better maybe some antennae on top of his ears.
Her neck and her ears, don't you mean? I appreciate your remembering the League of Extraordinary Hosebags. I had to pause for a minute to remember who Bunny X was.
Like the Big Two, don't you need to have the glamourpuss cast show up, in one panel even, in order to reset the copyright clock?
I think the names and descriptions of the LEHB are a sufficient defence against anyone misappropriating them for any purpose even in our morally-degraded society. Anyone willing to sink that low is more than welcome to his -- or her -- ill-gotten gains as far as I'm concerned.
Much the same could be said with Wolverroach -- another fantastic villain for the Batvark. Also you are missing out on special lines and increased prices in the Overstreet Price Guide: "First appearance of Cosplay Lass in a CEREBUS comic", "First Modern Age Appearance of Wolverroach" (as opposed to Bronze or Copper) or even "Bunny X revealed as Cirinist god(dess) of Cerebus-Earth", "Red Sonja revealed as Feline Woman" in Batvarkverse…now that I'm thinking about it, Aardvark-Vanaheim needs to jump on the EVENT bandwagon, where glamourpuss and her crew fight Batvark and his Justice League (What would be a good name for the Batvark League? JLA -- Just Lager and Ale?).
The Aardvarkian League of Justice. Which was mentioned for the first time in the CEREBUS IN HELL? promo strip for Chuck Rozanski's Mile High Comics. And, yes, I did have to look that up.
Oh, boy! The ideas are flowin' -- you need to Photoshop a Deadroach into your upcoming comics. Or maybe Harley Roach (in drag? Or his daughter?), although the latter may be hard to Photoshop. Sand(w)eep maybe should develop something for that.
An immunity, maybe?
[Legal notice: All of these ideas contained herein have no copyright and are free to use by Mr. S(l)im and Aardvark-Vanaheim and related associates without any compensation, material or otherwise. The author of this letter makes no claim etc. etc. I tried to be legalese there!]
[Your secret is safe with me, Tom!]
Anyway, I should let you get back to your computer or what-not, and your Canadian saneland as opposed to the Realityshow-Twitter-verse the USA has fallen into. (Thanks, Anti-Monitor!). I hope your ailment is healed. You must really must feel cursed.
Blessed. Everyone in North America is blessed. We're the "furthest folks from the door" here in "Hell's antechamber".
Here in Nebraska, the world kind of leaves us alone and passes us by, although if there's a nuclear war, we're the state that'll be struck first, given the military base here (Stratcom, which is, like numero uno on the target list). Thanks to our "isolation" though, there are no decent back-issues of comics that show up in the sole (decent) store here in town, unless one, of course, is into Dells or Westerns which I am not, although a Howdy Doody #1 would be nice. All of the old Marvels or ECs or Fawcetts (non-Western ones) must have just been flown over on their way to California. Old decent DCs are just hard to come by, period, anywhere. My alternative theory is that those comics did make it here, but were all burned during the Wertham-frenzy of the 1950s. THAT's the kind of state Nebraska is. Sigh.
Please find enclosed clippings I thought you'd find interesting, perhaps inspiring.
Best wishes, and best of luck and success for the rest of the year!
Tom K.
Founder and President of The Cosplay Lass/Bunny X/Zootanapuss Fan Clubs
(Registered Trademark Patent Pending)
Founder and President of The Cosplay Lass/Bunny X/Zootanapuss Fan Clubs
(Registered Trademark Patent Pending)
DAVE SIM AND TOM K. REVIEW
[Tom sent tear-sheets from the April 2017 OTAKU USA magazine
with a
review by Che Gilson of "TODAY'S CERBERUS" a new manga comic.
Tom
writes at the top "Clever concept appropriation? Lawsuit!" ]
"Chaki Mikado was bitten by a three-headed dog as a child and that incident has shadowed his whole life."
Dave: a) it should be a radioactive three-headed dog and b) why didn't I think of that? D'OH!
"Even as a teenager years later he just can't seem to enjoy anything and doesn't take much interest in life or friendship. Then one day, twist: his father mails him a package from Greece and out pops Kuro, a cute girl who looks like a cheap knock-off of Hatsune Miku, right down to the headphones (though the headphones have a clever explanation). Kuro informs him she is his guard dog and will stick within a two-meter radius of the hapless Mikado protecting him from harm!"
Dave: Judging by the size of Kuro's "headphones" a two-meter radius seems optimistic to me.
"Turns out that the dog who bit Mikado was Cerberus, guardian of the underworld (who else would it be?)…"
Dave: Ms. or Mr. Gilson has a point. There are a limited number of three-headed-dog "usual suspects".
" …and it took part of his soul. Kuro wants to make it up to him, but she's not alone. Extra twist: it turns out the mythical three-headed dog is the combined form of three girls, Kuro, Roze and Shirogane! They share the same body and can be changed by 'pushing a button,' aka pulling their tails."
Tom: Cerebus was an hermaphrodite -- two vs. three girls -- coincidence or theft?
Dave: I couldn't say. But that "pushing a button aka pulling their tails" bit suggests that Ato samurai has his or her finger on a public pulse I could only dream about in 1977. Or 2017 for that matter.
"TODAY'S CERBERUS is a harem manga with a clever twist. Cleverer than most, anyway."
Tom: Wasn't CEREBUS a harem comic?
Dave: My age 21- to age 40-self certainly wished that it was.
"Kuro instantly moves in with Mikado [because of course] and whacky supernatural hijinks ensue [because of course] . Each of the three girls who make up Cerberus -- Roze, Kuro and Shirogane -- is different. Kuro is effervescent and eager to please, Roze is quiet, loyal, and possibly deeply in love, and tough tsundere Shirogane doesn't get what the other two see in Mikado. (There really isn't much to see, honestly. Mikado is the average luckless manga boy generic enough to have come from a character generator.)"
Tom: Kind of like FATMAN THE HUMAN FLYING SAUCER.
"But, back to Cerberus, remember those headphones? Well the three Cerberuses use them to talk to each other while one of them is in 'control'".
Dave: Oh, wait. Kuro actually DOES have headphones! Your honour, I withdraw those suggestive quotation marks I used earlier.
"In a cute touch there are even scenes of Roze and Shirogane talking to each other inside Cerberus's soul, which looks a little like a Victorian parlour. Due to Kuro's dog-like attributes, Mikado starts to treat her like one, tossing her bones in the hope she'll run after them, calling her 'mine' and patting her on the head. This combination comes off as creepy and possessive, implying Kuro is more pet than person. The heavy fan service reinforces the sexism."
Tom: We need more fan service in A-V books.
Dave: Heavy fan service that gets you a "13+" rating in Japan will get you a five-to-ten-year stretch in North America, I reckon.
"Yet somehow, even while falling into the worst pits of harem manga, the story has a certain charm. The art is appealing even if the character designs are boring! and the humour decent, with some amusing sitcom-style double entendres. TODAY'S CERBERUS isn't going to blow your mind but it's a cute book
with cute characters."[underlining by Tom]
Tom: Exactly like CHURCH & STATE!
Dave: But with more "pushing the button/pulling their tails" and treating girls like dogs! The kind of manga girls like!!
[Tom also sent comments on Brittany Vincent's review (RECOMMENDED.) of MY GIRLFRIEND IS A T-REX. But, discretion being the better part of valour, we'll leave that one for Bissette to deal with if he so chooses.]
[And belated -- and on-going -- thanks to Tom K and the taxpayers of the United States of America for providing Canada with ALL of its military security. We couldn't come anywhere close to defending this "Retarded Northern Giant" since World War II without your nearly unimaginable generosity!)
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