Beth the Patio Goddess

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.

Dave Sim’s 19th notebook used in the production of Cerebus covers Cerebus issues #141 through 149, the Melmoth notebook. The notebook’s cover says it had 80 pages, but only 47 pages were scanned. There were 14 pages missing from the notebook, and 19 blank pages.

Many of the first pages had sketches of Dino, the tavern owner, and some of which we’ve seen before. Later in the notebook there is a sketch or two of the waitresses in Melmoth:

Notebook 19, page 32

Notebook 19, page 51