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.
We interrupt the usual look at Dave Sim's notebooks for something even older. A look at an essay by a still teenage Dave Sim in a fanzine called Direct Currents. Published in June of 1974 by Alan Orr out of Kitchener, Direct Currents #2, contains a two page essay by Dave.
The checklist on my website states the cover is by Sim as well. The picture on my site stinks, because I never had a copy of the fanzine until now:
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| Direct Currents #2 cover |
Hard to make out, but if you zoom in on the bottom left corner you can see the Sim '74 text. Besides that, it does look like Dave's earlier work.
The essay by Dave is in response to something that I haven't read - tracking down issue #2 was hard enough. If you click on the pages, you'll get a bigger size to make it easier to read.
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| Direct Currents #2, page 10 |
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| Direct Currents #2, page 11 |
6 comments:
I love the idea of a teenagers' little amateur fanzine like this having a "staff writer". Or maybe several?
Hmmm. 🤔 The level of erudition herein makes me want to say that, perhaps, Dave's Mom or Dad, or some slightly older colleague helped him with this.
Thanks, Matt, for pulling *this* out of your nether regions. Just out of curiosity, from which side did you retrieve it?
Jeff - I guess you missed my byline? I had to look long and hard for a copy of this fanzine and just wanted to share it once I did find it.
Totally my bad, M. I thought that Mr. Dow (non-toxious chemicals) had been the one who crossed out your standard intro.
Mea culpa, Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa!
Whenever I think that I have a pretty damn good Cerebus collection, all I have to do is to remember Ronald Reagan's famous (infamous?) line from his televised debate with ... Mondale(?) ... "There you go again 😎."
But, let's remember: "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins." is an outdated 80s/90s axiom that has faded into obscurity.
Instead, "Whoever dies with the most *friends*, wins." I am very proud to call you my friend.
Vigilantism is a complex discussion. On the Frank Miller Facebook page we’ve had talks about whether Frank Miller is a fascist as Groth claims, or only the Batman of Dark Knight Returns is.
Interesting how the ideas in this essay by Teenage Dave show up in "High Society" when Sgt. Preston Roach roughs up the nest of Anarcho-Romantics & gets signed confessions out of them. (Oops, forgot to say "Spoiler Alert.")
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