Hi, Everybody!
Dave sent an update on his wrist:
The funny part (funny to me,) is that Dave sent me a ten page fax of in-process Spawn art, which I guess he doesn't want me to run yet (or to use as "it'll look like this, but ya know, better..." instead.).
There's A LOT to unpack here, and I'll probably end up doing that in the comments, but the top of my list is: Has Dave had the same pair of glasses since High School? Or has he gotten his vision checked out in the past fifty years?
____________________________
Dave also sent pictures of him signing the signature pages for The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Fund Raising Edition:
(There's a part of me that wanted to just make a gif of all these photos and call it a day...)
SPEAKING of the Fund Raising Edition of The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, copies of the book WITHOUT these pages in them are available in the Kickstarter for You Don't Know Jack. Their latest update:
Hello all!
We hope you're having a great Friday!
First off, Carson has conducted an interview with YDKJ star Jack VanDyke, which you can watch right here! We hope that you enjoy the wide-ranging discussion. https://youtu.be/dEI9JGhs4ks
Second off, if you haven't checked out the new tiers, this is a good time to do so! We've added a bunch of stuff, including two biggies--
a PHYSICAL offering of the Hermitage Awesomes catalog (including a limited amount of prototypes/proofs signed and marked up by Dave Sim!)
a entirely new book-- SIX MACRO CONS, the collected comic work of Carson Grubaugh.
We hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks again for your pledges, your eyeballs, your questions, and your encouragement. It is all much appreciated!
Sean and Carson
Cerebus in Hell?:
The NEW one: Vault of Cerebus!For Order still: The "Censored for Grandma" variant: Batvark XXXXX (the original Batvark PENIS has been FOCed.)
Signed copies of Vark Wars: Walt's Empire Strikes Back (Signed by Dave, Signed by Dave and me, Signed by me after I scribble out Dave's name, Signed by my kids, Signed by my mailman, Signed by random strangers I meet on the way to the Post Office, Signed by "Jorge Luiz", however you want...)
In stores now: Attractive Cousins
If you missed the Waverly Press Kickstarter for the Remastered Cerebus #1, limited overflow of the rewards are available at cerebusoverload.com. Including a tease of an upcoming project. (Although Dave DIDN'T mention THIS one above, so it's not coming as soon as you want it...) ANYWAY, you can get 20% off with the code: "1977" until tomorrow night.
Okay, catch ya on the flippity-flop,
Next Time: Oliver and the rest of your Sunday spent on the internet...
33 comments:
I'm just assuming that Dave doesn't believe in opticians.
At 64 years old Dave at least is experiencing presbyopia, simply put loosing the ability to clearly focus on close objects.
The lens in our eyes (not the cornea, but a structure which is just below the iris) becomes harder, less pliable, as we age. This pliability is what allows us to more easily focus from distance to close objects when we're younger.
Less pliability = less focusing ability = time for prescription glasses.
There's also a slight chance he's developing cataracts, which also form within the lens. (We all eventually experience presbyopia and develop cataracts; the surgery center I work act performs 200+ cataract surgeries a week.)
I do hope he will have an eye exam, get a quality prescription, and several pairs of glasses for the variety of needs / uses he's experiencing.
Steve
Nobody wants his post-Cerebus work. He lost his ability to draw. Now he's losing his sight (?). He's not even a self-publisher anymore; the product on which he hangs his economic hopes is published by someone else. I'll say it again: For someone who believes in signs from god as Dave does, he's taking an awfully long time to absorb the lesson that god is done with him.
Does Dave really believe the general comics audience knows him as the writer of Spawn no. 10 or a contributor to TMNT no. 8? Hm.
-- Damian
>>Nobody wants his post-Cerebus work
Except the two thousand people who pay him money for it each month.
>>He lost his ability to draw.>>
Excepting the exceptional drawings he JUST DID. (Are you having reading comprehension problems these days, Damian?)
>>He's not even a self-publisher anymore;>>
Excepting the, ahem, things he's currently publishing.
This obsession of yours, Damian, is a poor waste of your brief time on this earth. Go outside, take a deep breath, hug your cat/girlfriend/mother/father. Be well.
Alas, Sean R., all the points you think you've so cleverly debunked are things Dave himself claims are the case.
-- Damian
Damian....with respect to you, some criticism to you...
There are times you make some astute and thoughtful comments.
Then there are comments of cruelty and pettiness.
I guess to each their own which of the above applies to any given post of yours. It is a bit saddening, when your focus is on breaking down Dave (and by extension his supporters/fans/followers). The above post reads largely mean-spirited...not sure why the inclination to post that out, besides taking an opportunity to be a bit rude.
Bill R.: Thank you for your thoughtful comment, which manages to criticise my comments without simply calling me a hater who wants to destroy Dave out of envy and leaving it at that.
If I apply someone's stated beliefs to their own conduct and that looks cruel, I suggest that their beliefs may need revision.
Dave has said publicly for at least 40 years that he believes he receives signs from god suggesting what he should or should not do. The record suggests that god might be hinting that new work from Dave is surplus to requirements. Judenhass? Failure. Glamourpuss? Failure. Following Cerebus? Failure (though that may not be all Dave's fault). Cerebus Archive? Failure. The Strange Death of Alex Raymond? Failure. Cerebus in Hell? All right, still limping along, although it's not Dave's work. I note that it sells half what Cerebus did at its worst after most of the audience abandoned the title.
If Dave thinks his most attractive projects are Spawn no. 10, TMNT no 8, and Star Wars parodies -- well, that might suggest that the major draw is not Dave Sim.
Finally, I must apologize to Sear R. for some of my sarcastic glibness (or glib sarcasm). Dave has not claimed that he is no longer a self-publisher; I was wrong about that. (All the other points I made in my comment are things Dave has admitted are the case.) I can make a case for the claim being accurate: the work of his that is being published (the covers book, Strange Death, High Society Regency Edition) is not being published by him, and the work that he is publishing (CiH) is not his. I concede that whatever phonebooks are still available count as self-published.
-- Damian
I thought Dave has only professed faith in God since ‘96, Damian. That would be about 24 years not 40 years. Correct me if I’m wrong there. I had thought that Dave had been a card carrying Atheist up until Rick’s Story.
*atheist
Unless you were implying in your previous statement that Dave has stated publicly to have received messages from God BEFORE he even converted. In that case my question is moot.
My statement is moot rather.
Fair enough.
"Fair enough", Brian?
Are we really going to let Damian (a guy who has a hate hard-on for Dave about a mile long), be the arbiter here?
Moving on ... Can anyone find the specific citations for the material I allude to?
-- Damian
I am, Jeff. Can't speak for anybody else here but after having my ass handed to me on a silver platter today by Damian, I welcome his response here.
I bled a little today but I am still in the arena. It's a loss but not a fatal or an unforgivable one. Too, I can't dwell on it for too long. Bigger fights ahead for me personally, professionally, spiritually. So, here I am.
Thank you Jeff though, for asking. Greatly appreciated.
Hi Damian-
Swords of Cerebus #6
Introduction to Cerebus 23, 24 and 25
I'm just going to paraphrase.
Dave was in Rochester for a convention. He got drunk with 2 other artists. "Rick' had a .38 revolver "for protection". Discussion followed about having a gun. Fast forward with Deni back in Kitchener. Dave and Deni heard gun shots from their apartment. Two separate nights. Dave was at his drawing board.
No mention of John Lennon, but if you read between the lines ...
" I think I was humming "Strawberry Fields" to myself when the news came over the radio.
There's a line in the Stones song "symphony for the Devil" y'know? About shouting out "Who Killed the Kennedy's?" Well, now, after all.
After all.
It was you.
And me'.
That was a direct quote at the very end.
Michael
PS--- Damian, what city do you live in?
Whoops! Sorry; deleted my comment above when I realized I had made some impolitic remarks. I apologize.
The gist of it was a reply to Brian W. about Dave's claim of being an atheist until the late 1990s. His definition of "atheist" seems to be someone who is not an Abrahamic monotheist. But he believed that (in his words) "there was something out there" by 1980 at the latest.
I recalled but could not cite an introduction in a Swords volume about Cerebus no. twenty-something where he wrote of how god told him not to buy a handgun and how he was partly responsible for the death of John Lennon. So at this time he seems to have have believed in the existence of supernatural forces. And he already believed in numerology and synchronicity.
Thank you Michael R. for providing the citations.
-- Damian
"And the work that he is publishing (CiH) is not his." (I see Damian deleted his post about calling Dave Jim Davis);
If anyone takes this all this insulting seriously, and decides they don’t want to purchase CIH? because of misapprehensions about Dave’s involvement with the CIH? comics, I’d like to state that Dave’s been relentlessly creating new CIH? strips, in some cases all of the issue.
Hopefully the comics news sites won’t report on this attempt to minimize Dave’s contribution to CIH? and affect his livelihood as ‘truth.’
-Eddie
Eddie K.: I did not delete my comment calling Dave Jim Davis. The comment I deleted contained no mention of Jim Davis, and the comment where I compared Dave to Jim Davis remains on this site. Are you lying, or are you simply wrong?
-- Damian
Damian T.Lloyd you are the one lying. The guys that work with Dave on CIH say all the time that every strip goes through Dave's hands. We have seen examples of how he entirely rewrites some of the strips and my understanding is that he writes and lays out the majority of the pages. All the good old Dave Sim lettering has shown up in the last couple of years as well. Have you even read one issue of CIH? I agree with Eddie that this is a blatant attempt to smear Dave and the claim that he is not working on CIH is a threat to his livelihood.
Consider this my vote that Damian should be banned from this sight.
Of the past year's worth of issues Dave was the sole writer of 9 of then! 3 were collaborative efforts where Dave wrote and edited. Damian, it seems to me your lies are of the most pernicious type-- those that are built upon elements of the truth. Same as all of your above false statements putting words into Dave's mouth. I'm sorry, Damian, I find it very sad. I know you have better use of your time tha lying and tearing down someone whom you've never met.
Damian T. Lloyd: As much as you are. I thought it was in your deleted post about not having access to your relevant Dave Sim related information / files at your City Apartment.
-Eddie
Anon @ 14:43: It was the very reports you mention (especially from "Manly" Matt Dow, Benjamin "No snappy nickname yet" Hobbs, and David "PussPussPuss" Birdsong) that led me to make my comparison (in another thread) to Jim Davis. As an example, see this very blog's description of the BatDick cover: conceived and executed by other hands, and critiqued and signed off on by Dave. Every Garfield strip goes through Jim Davis's hands too; he signs off on every strip.
I don't read CiH. I find the entertainment value to be unworthy of my time and money. YMMV; not everything has to be for me. I have the first one-shot and the four-issue mini-series, and the issue I was mentioned in ("bat wings"). I don't bother to read the strips posted here either. If you enjoy them, good for you.
Sean R.: Indeed? Then I admit that I am wrong. I note that I am wrong more in a matter of degree than of kind. Dave said that he didn't understand all the jokes in the Star Wars parody issue, so I inferred that he didn't write that one. I think I recall that "Manly" Matt was a heavy contributor to that one. Dave's relationship to CiH seems very similar to Jim Davis's relationship to Garfield. Another similarity: both cartoonists have stated that their motivation for creating the strip was commercial rather than artistic.
I would like to make clear that I did not state, and do not want anyone to infer, that I think Dave doesn't care about the quality of CiH. Even when Dave is doing work for purely pecuniary reasons (eg. his variant covers for IDW), he is an ethical hack: he tries to provide the employer and reader with solid work.
I have stated on this blog before that one admirable trait of Dave's is his determination to give readers value for their money. Again, the first mention of this I recall is Dave writing about the Swords volumes, saying that he included the extra material to avoid simply charging readers again for the same material. (Someone might object that the phonebooks do exactly this, but I maintain that the reading experience is different. Reading a Cerebus story in the monthly issues is like watching a TV show with commercial breaks; reading it in the phonebook is like watching a movie. The rhythm of and immersion in the story is different.)
Eddie K.: I accept that you were lying as much as I was -- i.e. not deliberately lying, but simply mistaken. (I notice that your comment doesn't actually admit that you were wrong, but that's the upshot.) Eddie, that's what happens when you let your desire to hurt someone trump whatever intelligence you may have.
-- Damian
So what you’re saying is it wasn’t in your deleted post about your city apartment?
Eh? Desire to hurt someone?? Says the guy who comes in insulting everyone. Unfortunately, you don’t get to have a civil conversation when you march in and insult people. You don’t get to pretend you’re an adult.
Eddie
Eddie K.: Well, I'm sure you're correct. Unlike last time.
-- D.
To shamelessly borrow from the inimitable J. Wellington Wimpy:
"Let's you and him fight!"
Steve
ps -- and good grief, where do you guys find the time to write all those long comments?!
Anyone who thinks Dave makes CIH for FINANCIAL reasons has a. A fundamental misunderstanding of Dave, b. No knowledge of the state of publishing, and c. A very poor understanding of basic mathematics
Steve: I dunno about the others. I'm enjoying a relaxing weekend. And we have this global Coronavirus pandemic, so many of us have more spare time than we used to, albeit involuntarily. Pleased we're amusing you!
Sean R.: Go back on this blog and read the discussions about the inauguration of CiH to see the proof of my statement: Dave began CiH to make some money. That is hasn't worked out that way is partly Dave's fault (thinking that a product like this -- a black-and-white clip-art comic of in-jokes, misogyny, and RWNJ reactionary politics -- would find a large audience in the comics marketplace), and partly due to external factors (the ongoing contraction of the Direct Market, the aforementioned global Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant disruptions).
-- Damian
I think the post that Eddie was referring to is in fact here: http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.com/2020/07/cih-daily-strip-86.html?m=1. It was a lengthy rebuttal Damian gave to an argument I was making. 7 parts to it. Part 5 is where he makes the Davis comparison.
I don’t think Eddie is lying here, just that he might have very long comment thread with another.
Also, I vote not to ban Damian. He can be very acerbic, but like Mr. Ritter said makes very astute and thoughtful comments. He is the AMOC Fool in Residence. I say that without sarcasm. It’s healthy to have someone in a group who NEVER refrains from offering their own opinion on things. Pushes the boundaries but also makes group aware of the proverbial line might be in terms of discourse. Perhaps that’s Damian’s function here, though I am sure he has some words to say about that too.
Anyway, I hope to have cleared some of the confusion here. See you soon.
*I don’t think Eddie is lying here, just that he might have confused one very long comment thread with another.
Perhaps a better more palatable description I think for Damian would be as being the AMOC Skeptic in Residence. That seems more charitable a title, though I am sure Damian will have something to say about that too. Ok, bye for reals. See you soon.
I'm coming into this in the middle so have questions:
What treatment has Dave gotten for the wrist?
Exactly what's diagnosis for he loss of vision?
At 64 y/o, is healthcare coverage a problem?
Post a Comment