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 last saw pages from Dave Sim's sixth Cerebus notebook way back in November of 2017 in Bureaucrat Pudding. Covering Cerebus #52 through 59 it had 158 pages scanned.
On page 47 of the notebook we see some of Dave's first Wolveroach sketches. We even get some potential Wolveroach dialogue.
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| Notebook #6, page 47 |
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| Notebook #6, page 48 |
4 comments:
Has anyone ever inquired about buying Dave's notebooks?
This is just an educated guess, but I assume they are not for sale; Dave probably wants them stored in the Cerebus Archive in perpetuity.
But as I say, that's just a guess. Too bad Matt just had his monthly conversation; maybe this can be asked in the July "Please Hold."
I seem to recall a digital version of one of the notebooks was available back during one of the Cerebus Archive kickstarters. I know the High Society Audio Digital included a ton of notebook pages in each issue's PDFs.
I was sitting with Margaret, Larry, and (I think) Lenny (Tunny-Bunny may have been there, too), in the lobby of the Columbus, Ohio, Holiday Inn, in (I think) 2005. We were there for the S.P.A.C.E convention, and both Dave and Ger were going to be at the con, as guests of honor.
It was the first time that all of us Cerebites had convened at the same time. We chatted amiably, getting to know each other, but we were all anxious to see the man.
IIRC, and maybe I don't, I went to the front desk and asked them to ring Dave's room so that I could ask him when he was coming down. (He had previously breezed by us when he arrived, saying that he needed a shower.) "I'll be right down," he replied.
Sure enough, minutes later, he was there, in the lobby, with us. Greetings, all around.
And, then, he did the thing that made us all gasp: Dave handed (IIRC) three of his earliest notebooks to Margaret. There, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn.
You don't get very many seminal moments in your life. I've been blessed to have more than a few (like driving Dave from his home to Toronto), but seeing Margaret's eyes get as wide as saucers, while she held those notebooks flat on her hands, was a moment I will never forget.
Thank you, forever, Mags.
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