Cerebus original-art super-collector, and saintly patron of all kinds of great Gerhard work, including the World Without Cerebus series, Brian Coppola, reached out to me recently to commission a very interesting piece.
Brian's initial idea was:
"What I am thinking is a meta-perspective. It seems from what
I can see that there is a lot of activity around a comics
shop venue in which SDOAR figures as a comic book; one of
my favorite set of pages in the entire Cerebus story is
just at the end of Minds, issue 200, where Dave and Ger
are drawing at their boards, and that really truly
incredible sense of the story progressing in one
dimension and being captured by the artists.
I can see that there is a lot of activity around a comics
shop venue in which SDOAR figures as a comic book; one of
my favorite set of pages in the entire Cerebus story is
just at the end of Minds, issue 200, where Dave and Ger
are drawing at their boards, and that really truly
incredible sense of the story progressing in one
dimension and being captured by the artists.
It's really the most damned clever thing I think I have
ever seen depicted.
Think about 2 pp where these pages are being drawn and
the decision to not end Cerebus with #200, and some
connection to the sale/storage of the comic in a shop,
and/or the creation or imagining of SDOAR... I'm pretty
keen on seeing your interpretation of the Cerebus character,
and Dave, and Ger, even if in passing."
ever seen depicted.
Think about 2 pp where these pages are being drawn and
the decision to not end Cerebus with #200, and some
connection to the sale/storage of the comic in a shop,
and/or the creation or imagining of SDOAR... I'm pretty
keen on seeing your interpretation of the Cerebus character,
and Dave, and Ger, even if in passing."
"Okay, have Jack reading those two pages and uhh, we will see...," was about all I knew I was going to do prior to cutting and pasting the images together in Photoshop for a mock-up. The way the overarching themes from all three projects fell into a seamless narrative with all kinds of symbolic resonances was wild. It all suggested itself as I went. The" CARunch" lining up right over the only place I could put the SDOAR logo literally sent a chill down my spine.
22" x 17" ink on Bristol board over blue-line print.
The real technical killer was recreating the look of the Letratone dot-pattern on Cerebus and the splatter effect on the cover by hand. Yowza!
Much thanks to Brian for the patronage and the absolutely killer inspiration. Hope you all enjoy.
More here: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1448220
More here: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1448220
8 comments:
Holy Sh*t. I'm now REALLY looking forward to both YDKJ and SDOAR, even more than I already was...
I have, from its inception, wondered why Jack would agree to all of this. I just thought she was one of those "I like spending time with guys way more than spending time with women" kind of women. But, I wondered...
Brian has hit the nail on the head.
I also posted a comment, way back when, when lovely Mara (who was assisting Sean on the digital remastering) was putting up her reviews of Cerebus, after she was reading each volume for the first time, that I wondered whether she would stick around after #186.
Apparently, life circumstances took her elsewhere.
I also really enjoyed the barely legible line in the last panel, "WOMEN WITHOUT BREAST IMPLANTS". They're *so* fake.
Nice job, Brian and Carson!
Jeff,
I am curious how this answered your question?
Well, Carson, my take from Brian's commission is that, perhaps, Jack didn't know with whom she was dealing. So, I thought this was a pretty clever approach to that idea. In much the same way, I suspect (but can't prove) that Mara left when, on her first read-through, she got to tougher sledding. Cerebus was no longer the cute little guy in a bunny suit.
Jeff doesn't realize that "jokes" on a "page" may not necessarily be "true", "True", or True.
There is absolutely no possible way that Dr. Mara had other things going on her life, of course.
I assume that Sean is leaving the CIH? one shots because the material has become so offensive to him too.
/eyeroll
(And I'll admit, I'm kinda being a dick here. Mea culpa, Matt!)
(BTW, great looking piece, Carson)
Thanks Travis.
Jeff,
Jack has not read Cerebus, as far as I know. She is aware of who Dave is and was a fan of Glamourpuss. She has read both issues of YDKJ and signed off on them being published. No real mystery. Not everyone finds everything offensive or is unable to work with people they disagree with.
I wrote all the dialouge on this and was just trying to pile up the in-jokes.
Okay, Carson. Sorry. My misunderstanding. I guess that sometimes Comics Metaphysical aren't all that metaphysical after all...
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