A MOMENT OF CEREBUS: November 2020

Monday, 30 November 2020

Strange Death Of Alex Raymond Update

Hi, Everybody!

Carson Grubaugh:
Hi all, now that the You Don't Know Jack campaign has come to a close Sean and I are making plans to bring you a "completed" version of The Strange Death of Alex Raymond.
The book will be re-named The Strange Death of "The Strange Death of Alex Raymond." It will include all two-hundred-fifty-seven pages of content from SDOAR V1 and V2, an additional twenty-one pages that were mocked-up by Dave for V3 before he quit working on the book, and another thirty-one pages created entirely by me that are intended to bring the reading experience to a narrative close.

Dave has requested the right to provide an intro and/or outro essay, which is a no-brainer "YES, PLEASE". I will probably write some commentary as well, and Sean is such a darned good essayist it would be a travesty if he didn't contribute, so I am guessing that the book will be up around three-hundred and fifty pages in total.

Here is one of Dave's V3 mock-ups, tweaked by myself to ready it for the next step.

A page of ready-to-ink mock-ups written and designed by myself, intended to bridge V2 and V3

And a mock-up from my post Dave's-V3-material conclusion.

The ending is entirely written and mocked-up. It was almost eerie how the final pages put themselves together, revealing meaning I wasn't consciously intending to embed in them.

The finished art is underway and I am refining the script as I go.

Sean is getting the information he needs regarding the production of the book as well as working on the design elements, like the cover.

We have agreed that the book will be hardcover, printed on the same paper as the restored Cerebus books, produced by Marquis, with sewn case-binding so the book can lay flat when open and the spreads won't get lost in the gutters.

Give us something like 6 months.

Best,
Carson
_____________________________________

Thanks Carson!

As a reward, have the $200 from David Birdsong for this:

Click for Bigger.

It's:

This was the painted cover I did for SDOAR V1, based on mock-ups by Dave. Four months of work that we both agreed was just too cluttered to serve as the actual cover. The work is a 20" x 16" oil painting on board. It already has a frame.

Highest bidder in the comments after one week gets the work. Buyer will pay shipping, and if desired, insurance. If no insurance is purchased any awful thing the USPS does to the work on the way is the buyers loss."

Congratulations David, and Carson!

And this stuff:

Cerebus in Hell?: order the new one: The Amazing Batvark Final Order Cut-off is December 27th. And, on Wednesday, the 25th, pick up Spider-Whore.

And if you haven't gotten your surveys in for the Spawn #10 Kickstarter, you really should, so I can get my stuff. Which will get printed once the second chance IndieGoGo ends on today (supposedly...).

Also, Original Cerebus Pages/ Remastered Spawn #10 Preliminary Art/ Other goodies. And Kevin Eastman's original preliminary cover to Turtles #8.

The AMOC Cerebus Merch store: Check out the new Cerebus masks and whatnots.

And Dave's calling on Thursday, and Margaret has so many questions... But I'll squeeze you guys in if you got something...

Next Time: @#$& I gotta come up with something?

Sunday, 29 November 2020

Cerebus Around the World and Web #56 by Oliver Simonsen

Hi, Everybody!

Oliver Simonsen:

My right arm is in pain so doing this column with my left only - there might be some mistakes. Matt hurts his hand [finger. Just my finger... -Matt] really bad and of course there's Dave's wrist...I just didn't want to be left out:)

Cerebus movie first?
https://twitter.com/Dilan_Smithee/status/1331159925288943616

Live action Cerebus (in Spanish)
https://twitter.com/eternaucrop/status/1331410309416964096
https://twitter.com/m_machiaveli/status/1331520413948633089

Cerebus 2d study for the Cerebus film's traditional animation portion.
Theodore Trout:
Having promised to Animate Cerebus #78 (a daunting proposition), then having spent the whole summer and fall playing around with my rock’n roll band, I now find myself finallly getting down to the grindstone as it were.
My first order of business is to finally take on the task of learning how to handle Cerebus the character, including how his structure works and how to keep his proportions constant. THIS IS NOT EASY because as a three dimensional creature, Cerebus makes very little sense.
He’s like an extremely idiosyncratic blues lick that only its originator can play properly.
Sim spent years forcibly imbuing a two-dimensionally constructed character with a sort of three-dimensional tangibility.
He treated Cerebus’ mouth, which always appears as two separate apertures on either side of his head, in a more and more realistic way as the series progressed, as though making sport of what appears (when rendered in this way) as a serious deformity.
Likewise what were originally Garry Trudeauesque eyes, which only occasionally appear as separate organs, most of the time appearing as a bisected diving mask with two pupils.
Cerebus’ trunk is almost featureless except for the indication of pectoral muscles where his arms meet it.
His legs are inverted plant pots, flat and featureless but for the three tiny claws that indicate the front of each foot. The position of his knees seems fairly arbitrary, and the length of his legs fluctuates a bit when they are bent.
His arms are well muscled but each hand has of course only three fingers, with each finger only having two knuckle joints except in extreme close-up, when there appear to be more like three.
If a character will not work one hundred percent in three-dimensional rotation, the character can be fudged by using animation techniques that result in a more cartoony (rather than more realistic) action.
If Cerebus will not work in full rotation, I will simply have to wipe him around the screen whenever necessary.
Once I have achieved whatever understanding of his structure there is indeed to be had, I will embrace his illogicality as completely as possible.
Hopefully this will put my animations in in some sort of Sim like zone; in the meantime here are some pages of my attempts to master the little @#$%&!!
ox, trout

[Click for bigger on all of these -Matt]

(I cheated as this belongs under the Cerebus Facebook Group heading
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3516569595077057/
in the link you will see a lot of well deserved praised and agreement on Theodore's observations)
Chris Howard's drawing in the comments

And i get in on the action too:
So glorious - almost enough here for a whole comic...or comic strips?:). I present "Cerebus without Garfield"?

or "Varknuts"!?:)

Thumbs up on Cerebus animation
https://twitter.com/jacobproper5gm1/status/1332500057459974145
https://twitter.com/jacobproper5gm1/status/1332500071997452288

Cerebus and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
https://twitter.com/Russdaren/status/1330638514652897281

Look out Robert Downey Jr...IronVark drawn by Gerhard!
http://gerhardart.com/back-to-the-old-drawing-board/

[As is policy for Ger art, click for bigger. -Matt]

"Smile of the Absent Cat" collection next year?
https://twitter.com/Cerebus92/status/1332354434156949505

Jim Lee and Gerhard
https://twitter.com/StephenCrane71/status/1331784864761200640

Vark Wars praised
https://twitter.com/ljacone/status/1331752597808680967

Latest "Cerebus in Hell?" bought (click link for video)
https://twitter.com/RadiantComics/status/1331672422911766534

"Cerebus in Hell?" trade requested
https://twitter.com/CastlesofImagin/status/1331282118887034882

"Cerebus in Hell?" strip shared
https://twitter.com/CastlesofImagin/status/1330646004522233865

[Clicky 4 biggy -"M Dawg"]

Cerebus issue "zero" shared
https://twitter.com/CastlesofImagin/status/1331282448668372996

Cerebus cards
https://twitter.com/ROKiTcomics/status/1332386287752450050
https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/comic-related/cerebus-diamondback-playing-cards-aardvark-vanaheim-1978-created-by-dave-sim-for-the-comic-book-cerebus-the-game-of-dia/a/14042-17757.s

Cerebus issue #21 reviewed: I don't know how Dave Sim did it but he satirizes America nearly perfectly in this issue. Are we that transparent?! Does everybody else around the world look at us and think, "All of their political and social decisions are based on racism and profit"? "IS THAT ALL WE ARE?!" I scream rhetorically because, you know, we're just finishing up four years with the worst person in the world as president and a bunch of stupid fucking assholes who believe he did a good job.
http://tessatechaitea.blogspot.com/2020/11/cerebus-21-1980.html

Cerebus question
https://twitter.com/SubliminalAd/status/1331261061555757062

Cerebus figurines
https://twitter.com/monkey__marc/status/1331174718100135936

Cerebus issue 55 cover shared
https://twitter.com/capnsnacks/status/1331694415761563648

Dave Sim fav letterer
https://twitter.com/wozat/status/1332606530970152960

Love for Cerebus and it's clever writing
https://twitter.com/Alien8n/status/1330629187481296903

Cerebus panels shared
https://twitter.com/shaverart/status/1330702818118754304

Cerebus drawing request
https://twitter.com/rcall7/status/1331664496121831426

Cerebus and the public domain
https://twitter.com/NuclearConvoy/status/1331633803429896198

Dave Sim and indie publishing
https://twitter.com/JohnPontoon/status/1331323647353442305

Sim/Gerhard and caviar in the French Riviera
https://twitter.com/JohnPontoon/status/1331284513901617153

Gerhard and heavy lifting
https://twitter.com/NuclearConvoy/status/1331628112770199552

Cerebus collection shared
https://twitter.com/ThePeterKelly/status/1331028763266736128

Starting Cerebus
https://twitter.com/HomuraTheBest/status/1330991769878609921

Indie publishing inspired by Dave Sim
https://twitter.com/CHADinAMSTERDAM/status/1332356523973103618

still no instagram

Cerebus Facebook Group

Margaret Liss: Organizing the collect part 2,235: the first sketch that Dave and Gerhard did for me when I first met them at SPACE in 2002. Dave captured the look in my face in his sketch of Cerebus perfectly.
When Dave asked who to make the sketch out to, and I said Margaret. And he said Margaret? And I said yes. And he said Margaret Liss? I said Yes and was speechless the rest of the time.
He even asked to see my tattoo
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3522662241134459/

Margaret Liss in the comments: For the full story http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/columns/column09.php

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3512415995492417/

Margaret Liss:: Lethargic Lad Adventures #14 cover by. Greg Hyland and Dave Sim.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3523402787727071/

Margaret Liss: Cerebus Atacks. In reality it is Mars Attacks: Zombies Vs Robots one shot and this cover by Dave is the 1:20 retailer variant. January 2012
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3523043784429638/

Margaret Liss: Cerebus 1991. Card stock cover. Eight pages. Promo stuff for AV in 1991. I’m not sure who AV sent this out to, but it would seem comic shops would be a target audience for it. If anyone has any info or if Ron could put it on the list to ask Dave during his call, it’d be appreciated.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3512010882199595/

Margaret Liss: From Clay Geerdes’ Comix World #210, December 1, 1982. Diana Schutz report on the First American Tour. https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3511896955544321/

Margaret Liss: Organizing the collection part 32 a letter from Dave to Al at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3511803458887004/

Margaret Liss: Interview with Dave from the September of 1995 issue of previews.
For things like Previews, I’ll tear off the cover and take any pages with Cerebus content. The rest gets recycled due to volume. I have stuff from eight different issues of Previews so that’d be a lot of excess paper.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3509564665777550/

Margaret Liss: A postcard of Cerebus on the Berlin Wall. It took me years to find it. When I did get it, it, a couple more postcards of the Berlin Wall, and a supposed piece of the wall were on a display. The post card is unused and bagged and boarded.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3509441982456485/

Nathaniel Radman Oberstein in the comments:
My friend went to Europe in the 90's and when he got back he gave me that post cart!

Margaret Liss: Things found while organizing the collection part 345.
This was bagged with a copy of the Swords of Cerebus supplement. Has anyone else seen one of these before? It looks like it was provided to comics retailers from AV.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3527791410621542/

Claude Parish in the comments: I knew about the supplement. My store knew about it. A new employee wouldn't give me my supplement. She had to track down the store owner and read the notice to him that it was free and should she give it to me or charge me for it. It only took an hour and a half for this to happen. I still have my supplement. The store died long ago.

Ron Essler shares a Facebook memory
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3521717154562301/
From Red Anvil Comics "War of the Independents"

James Windsor-smith shares Cerebus drawing
https://www.facebook.coWindsor-smithm/groups/cerebus/permalink/3520941291306554/

Philip R. Frey: Arrived today and the subject of my next read. All are later printings
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3514771048590245/

James Windsor-smith shares Benjamin Hobbs' excellent banners
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3514583891942294/

Michael Dodsworth: Was gifted this collection yesterday. As far as I can tell it’s a nearly complete run of single issue (definitely has a few missing and some are reprints)!
Also included are a few of the phone books which appear to be signed by both Dave and Gerhard which was an amazing surprise.
Looking forward to getting to stuck into the singles now.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3513733002027383/