Looking at Cerebus #37 part three

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.

Another week, another look at Dave Sim’s third notebook that he used in the creation of Cerebus. The unnamed Albatross #3 that had 78 out of its 80 pages scanned in as the other two pages were blank. Last week we looked at page 5, which showed some thumbnails and dialogue for the first five pages of Cerebus #37.

So there are no thumbnails on the next page of the notebook, but there is a written outline for pages 6, 7, and 8. 

Notebook #3, page 6

Dave says about page 6 “At this point I was still trying to use the five pages as a base and expand it carefully while still introducing Suenteus Po, cutting a lot of the ‘fat’ off of his conversation with Cerebus.”

The dialogue between Po and Cerebus near the middle of the page:

Po: I am Suenteus Po

Cerebus: You’re the voice in Cerebus’ head.

Po: Voice in. . .? Ah, no. I know the incident to which you refer. That was my administrators in Togith. For the purposes of continuity the senior Illusionist in any city is referred to as “Suenteus Po.

The on the next page of the notebook, Dave goes over some ideas for pages 6 and 7 which change up his plans from the previous couple of pages.

Notebook #3, page 7

Dave says about this page: “That was when I came up with the idea of Cerebus trying to write a letter to Jaka and then bringing Bran Mak Mufin in and – instead of over-writing their dialogue and then cutting the “fat” off of it, just keep it very basic: he’s there to serve and he thinks Cerebus should be Prime Minister. Pages 8 and 9 done. Moving the plot one giant step forward as Astoria looks at how the 113 representatives would vote if it was a contest for Prime Minister instead of Ranking Diplomatic Representative.”

There is a thumbnail for page 5 and page 6 and some dialogue between him and Bran.