The Way to Sannozay

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 last saw Dave Sim's first notebook used in the creation of Cerebus this past March in Hold On There Y'Long-Eared Galoot. It covers Cerebus #20 to 28 and had 194 pages scanned.

The self portrait by Dave on page 118 had me stop and take a closer look at the page. He had written Cerebus No. 25 along the top, and what appears to be notes for the issue show up on it. Dave's notes make it clear that the artist chap who is never named was originally named Wrightson, "the guy inside the castle -- draws pictures of guys with big swords and girls with big tits."

Notebook 1, page 118

It also seems that Chico was going to appear to buy Wrightson's paintings for his commander. Dave then gives "Berni" some dialogue.

Then on page 124 we see some sketches of the artist chap. Doing a two minute google search, I couldn't find any pictures of Wrightson with hair that looked like that.

Notebook 1, page 124