Don't Swear at a Lady You Slug

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 saw one of the 158 pages of Dave Sim’s sixth notebook just last week in The Countess’ House. This week, more pages from the same notebook.

Page #106 is in the Cerebus Cover Art Treasury book as it has a thumbnail for the cover of Cerebus #57.

Notebook #6, page 105 close up

While it is close to the final cover, there was one more thumbnail of the cover in the notebook a few pages later. The same layout, just more detail. And the title has changed:

Notebook #6, page 109

The final cover removes the background detail of the second thumbnail, but does keep the change of title.

Cerebus #57 cover

Page 109 of the notebook also some of Grandma Giles Mrs Henrot-Gutch having at it with Cerebus. Looking through the notebook, this appears to be her first appearance.