SNORT

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.

In last week's column, When Your Life Flashes Behind Your Back, we started looking at Dave Sim's 9th notebook pages for Mick and Keef from Cerebus #85. Skipping forward a few pages - that had very little to no Mick and Keef, we get to page 90 of the notebook.

Notebook #9, page 90

The entire  thumbnail doesn't appear to be a page from Cerebus #86, but the bottom panel looks like page one of Cerebus #86. The dialogue on the top of the page is from page 2 of issue #86.  The text along the bottom half of the page is Bunky Roach, Elrod that is, but isn't part of the issue. For instead of going from 'audio visual that is...' to 'well barbecue mah kneecaps an call me gimpy', Bunky roach goes into the Secret Sacred Wars.

On page 91 of the notebook, we see a couple scenes from issue #86: Keef inhaling the stash and also Mick with Cerebus on one leg and Keef being dragged by Mick on the other side.

Notebook #9, page 91

Cerebus #86, page 5 panel

Along the right of the page Dave wrote a quick synopsis of some points he wanted to touch upon in the issue. There is more Bunky Roach dialogue along the bottom of the page.