Continuing from last time:
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| Mail there, or just Fax: 519 576 0955. Or email me at momentofcerebus@gmail.com and I'll take care of it. |
ADAM BEECHEN
January 13, 2021
Dear Dave:
I hope 2021 is off to a good start for you. I really enjoyed your last letter… It made me do a lot of thinking, which I always appreciate.
“And I wasn’t really pulling the strings. The strings are the strings. Each individual pulls their own strings and then has to live with the consequences.”
Yes, but Cerebus is a fictional individual, who wouldn’t exist had he not been created and developed by you. You determined his personality and at least his initial goals, so even if you subscribe to the notion that “the character tells you what his or her story is going to be,” the fact that you are the originator of that character means you set the strings out there to be pulled by whomever, doesn’t it?
My intention in asking this isn’t to be flip. I’m genuinely curious as to how you view your role in presenting the story of Cerebus – Creator? Collaborator? Facilitator?)
“When you Choose… God, you do “do a different kind of investing to accommodate the story’s [your story’s] shape and new rules.” (Underlining mine, emphasis yours)
I guess what I should have written was that, upon the revelation of yourself as a character in Cerebus’ story, I realized the storytelling rules in this particular case were very different than I thought they were, that I wasn’t dealing with the kind of tropes I was used to, and that I needed to alter my expectations to accommodate that the rest of the way. Once I did that, I had an entirely different perception of what I would read from there out, as well as what I had read previously. Certainly, I had a different perception of the story on subsequent readings. Given the “new shape” of the story in my mind, I had to work a lot harder to try and understand how everything fit. I still have to work at it each time I read an issue, a book, or the entire series because I freely admit that you painted such a big picture, I find it hard to keep its entirety in my head during any given reading. Even now, seventeen years after the series’ conclusion, I imagine I grasp about a quarter of the totality of what you were doing and saying with Cerebus’ story (and that might be generous). But I know it’s out there to be grasped, and that’s part of why I return to it again and again. Cerebus rewards repeated readings in ways few other texts do, as far as I’m concerned.
I wonder if your experience of reading the Bible is similar to my experience of reading Cerebus (I’m not intending to compare the two texts in any other way). You’ve read the Bible “thirty to forty” times. Is that partly because you get a better view of the “overall picture” of what you feel it’s trying to communicate each time you read it?
I guess that sort of answers the question you go on to ask me: “Have you ever thought – or come close to thinking – ‘Maybe the problem is me. I can read this as a really good, 6,000-page entertainment. I can follow the internal logic of all its various arguments. I can see what Dave is saying, but I just can’t Go There?’”
I don’t see myself having a problem as it pertains to reading Cerebus. Cerebus is complete. It’s a bunch of things all at the same time: an entertainment; a series of position papers or arguments on politics, religion, relationships and lots of other subjects; a chronicle of Dave Sim’s creative and personal journey; a theory of Life, the Universe and Everything. How successful it is at being any of these things can be (and has been, for 17 years and counting) debated, and is subjective anyway. Like you say, “Well, it worked for me, that’s the important thing,” and I agree with that whole-heartedly. My own opinion, I find Cerebus to be entertaining (with some parts more compelling than others, but that comes with being a long, sweeping story), fascinating as a personal statement (whether I agree with it, or parts of it, or not), hugely educational as a piece of both traditional and non-traditional storytelling, and challenging intellectually. Whether I don’t have the capacity to understand all of what you want to communicate with the book it or hold it all in my head at once, or because the communication of those ideas isn’t as effective is it could be, is another matter for debate other people can have. I do know that I feel I understand facets of the story and what you’re saying with the book better every time I read part of it or all of it. And I likewise feel I understand certain facets of it better every time we exchange letters. I’m enjoying the process of figuring it out for myself, however slowly.
Thirty-nine years since picking up my first issue, my journey with Cerebus continues. That’s a certain kind of success for a creative work, isn’t it?
“Are you sure it’s (guilt over leisure activities) strictly work-related?”
I re-read the part of my letter outlining the issue I’ve been experiencing, and I really regret how ungrateful I sounded (and probably was). I’m lucky to have such trivial things to worry about, given that I have shelter, companionship, resources and health when so many others don’t. I try not to take any of those things for granted. Sometimes I’m not as vigilant about that as I should be.
That said, I don’t have a firm answer to what you’re asking. Probably some of it is work-related, some is existential angst, some is probably the product of being loosely quarantined and having some activities unavailable to me, and some is just being too self-conscious in general. Many people find comfort, answers and purpose in religion or faith when faced with these feelings, but for many reasons, that’s never been my inclination.
Best,
Adam
Amazon. (Which is were his website sends
you.)
_______________________________
There's FIVE copies of the Regency Edition left. Five.
_________________________________
Carson is Auctioning off Strange Death of Alex Raymond art. (Unless I missed something,) Current bid is $100 (USD!) to Ted Adams. This ends tonight at a minute to midnight, so last chance to swipe.
_________________________________
_______________________________
The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe is on sale:
Your store will be on sale:
Jan 27 – 29
Tell your fans! Remind them that everything will be up to 35% off! That means $13 tees, $20 phone cases, $30 hoodies, and way more.
________________________________Anyway, I'm selling something on the eBays. A big bundle of "rare" Cerebus in Hell? comics, including a copy of Vark Wars and Vark Wars: Walt's Empire Strikes Back that I took with me on vacation so they've been to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
________________________________
Next Time: Hobbs.
12 comments:
I love reading Dave. I'm so glad that someone can draw him out to write like this.
While I'm liking the "Remastered Cerebus #2" cover... if the "barbarian" stuff is most popular, seems to me there's lots of room for some side-adventures? Issue 2.5, etc, non? Pretty sure that's never been done before, either?
Also: can we have a new 'house rule'?: no one can criticize Dave's work without showing their own stuff? Partly because I'm *dying* to see what Damian's drawings look like... :)
It is really sad to see Dave cling to the idea that one day he will be seen as an important artist like his hero Norman Mailer. He can't come to terms with the fact that Cerebus has already been forgotten outside of a small group of fans. The fact is, Dave ruined his own book with all that god bullshit and nobody cares anymore. Many, many years from now, Sim will still be a footnote. A sad and pathetic end to a promising beginning.
Dan: Me too.
RSS: Don't know if you're just pulling Damian's chain there, still, I think fans have every right to criticize Dave's work. It's a 26 year long work, after all, and has been part of the cultural discourse for over 40 years. Genie's out of the bottle.
Even if there are critics who might possess less expertise in the comics field than others, that doesn't mean that any critic here should have to pass some litmus test to speak his piece here. That kind of stuff is what the other guys do.
There's enough restrictions and coercion (not to imply that's what you had in mind RSS) going on elsewhere online. Would be terrible to see it come here. Like the shirt says, "APPROVAL IS AN AUTHORITARIAN CONSTRUCT."
Ha! Thanks, RSS; I actually gave an audible burst of laughter at your post. I had no idea there was a public out there thirsting for my work! In that, it seems I've outdone Dave Sim.
Anon @ 08:10 PST: This was my point in my recent (borrowed) description of Dave as "an aging hipster who's lost touch": he's still airing the same grievances he was in the '90s, and making the same errors in thinking. (I see from me email notifications that there's another comment on that thread from Brian W.; off to read that next!)
There are maybe 1,000 Cerebus fans left in the world, and perhaps as many as 3,000 people who've heard of it and / or Dave. That number is only going to decline into the future; Cerebus will never be the "best-selling graphic novel" Dave wanted and wants it to be. Like Cerebus trading his helmet, the decisions Dave made forestalled certain outcomes, and one of those was mass appeal.
(Dave's claims that he's the first person to understand the Bible and the first person to understand the universe are simply risible. Dave's narcissism demands that it's not enough that he be just very good, or even just the best, but unprecedented.)
I agree that Dave will be a footnote in comics history (and unknown outside comics) -- but he will be an important footnote. Students of cartooning will appreciate his deployment and command of a wide variety of tools and techniques of the comics medium. Student of comics history will find some interesting information of the history of English-language North American comics from the 1930s to the 1990s (if they can filter out the zombie lies Dave still believes and promulgates).
New subject: I wish all the best to my USAnian friends as their new president and government begin their tenure!
-- Damian
Lest anyone think any part of the above comment is anything other than the bitter screed of a lonely internet keboard warrior...
>>There are maybe 1,000 Cerebus fans left in the world, and perhaps as many as 3,000 people who've heard of it and / or Dave.>>
So, what happened to the other 18,000 people who read the book at its peak? They've all perished?
Damian's completely invented number of "3,000 people who've heard of it or Dave" is completely ludicrous. 3,000 is... lesse. Less than the number of people who have purchased a new printing of V1 in the past few years. Close to half of the people who purchased the fiest issue of CIH?. About 1 percent of the circulation of Wizard magazine circa 1993, when Cerebus appeared in some form several times a year. Probably about 1/20th of the circulation of the Believer, which featured Cerebus a decade ago.
There are some howlers in all of his comments, but this is one of the most ridiculous (and verifably untrue).
It's a new year, Damian. A good time for a change.
Heck, that's close to the size of the A/V mailing list... sheesh!
Huh?!? What did *I* do?
While I admit that my estimate of the size of the Cerebus audience is just that, Sean R., I'm not certain that you've made quite the devastating rebuttal that you think you have.
Yes, three decades ago a magazine from another publisher, targetted at the general comics audience, sold many copies. What information does that give us about the number of the current Cerebus fans? Not as much as you seem to feel, I'm afraid. Since then we've seen the collapse of the entire comics industry, a collapse from which that industry has not yet recovered.
You say that the first issue of CiH? sold 6,000 copies a few years ago? Great! Even I bought a copy. However, I suspect that you are being slightly dishonest in selecting the premiere issue as your example, as we both know that premiere issues always have a higher sales figures as collectors buy multiple copies for investment purposes (and more fools them). Indeed, that was the stated reason for every issue of CiH? being a premiere issue. So we know that 6,000 copies are not being sold to 6,000 readers.
Dave's formula was that the second issue sells 50 percent of the first issue, and the third issue sells 50 percent of the second issue, and so on. He even had an ongoing sad-gloat that every subsequent issue of CiH? was the rarest Cerebus ever, so we know that figure is under the 2,000 copies of Cerebus no. 1 and declined further. And we know from a recent Facebook poll that many people buy multiple copies to support Dave (though many volunteered that they don't read the book); I've seen "Manly" Matt D. alone get 25 copies. So (I repeat) we know that 1,500 copies are not being sold to 1,500 readers.
David B. pointed out recently that the print run for each issue of CiH? is written on the cover. I don't know what that figure is, but it's easily-obtainable information; perhaps you can supply the number. Have sales been going up lately? I think the Star Wars issue sold well, didn't it? -- to Star Wars fans, not to Cerebus fans. And the recent Spawn no. 1 rehash sold well, didn't it? -- to Spawn fans, not to Cerebus fans. Indeed, that was the whole point of doing those issues.
We know that the Cerebus Facebook group currently has fewer than 1,000 members. We know that Dave's weekly videos average around 20 viewers on YouTube (I noticed a spike with the Strange Death autopsy) -- down from around 100 a coupl'a years ago. We know that most comics shops carry no Cerebus phonebooks at all, and even the ones that do don't usually have them all (and they're not even all in print anymore). We know that some comics shops don't carry CiH? at all; we've seen complaints at this blog and on Facebook that even people who have CiH? in their pull-file don't get their copies.
You ask, "So what happened to the other 18,000 people who read the book at its peak?" (Actually, I think the highest circulation figure I recall from the book was 37,500, so your figure is off by 100%. Maybe neither us is very good with numbers.) Perhaps the answer is simple: they lost interest in Dave and Cerebus and stopped buying the book. As is their perfect right; surely you don't believe that having once been a fan of something, one is required to continue being a fan of that thing forever? Dave printed the circulation figures in Cerebus -- down and down and down, until he stopped printing them out of embarrassment. (I have a dim memory of him saying the book was selling about 3,000 copies a month by the end; can anyone confirm?)
Am I in error that there are currently 1,000 Cerebus fans? Sure, could be! How many do you think there are? 2,000? 3,000? There sure aren't 18,000 any more.
-- Damian
Chain-pulling (no, not intended that way), I'll do prettymuch anything to see someone else's artwork; like Matt's drawings, it's always interesting/enthralling to me to see someone else's work; writing, not so much, but the medium is (as the award says) "written and drawn"... So I have *cash* for Damian's first "written and drawn" takedown
And I could say, okay: enough word-bias, now we're all switching to communication-via-drawing (could be worse: I could say communication via sandstone carving, right?)
As an 'artist' in almost every medium you can think of (welding is the only one *I* can think of that I haven't tried) I'll always be in awe of Dave's accomplishment, the sheer writing/drawing/persistence/organizational feat involved. I've worked in offset printing (design, photomechanical), so I have a fair idea of all that's involved, including the glitches (backwards covers, etc.). And the printer making off with the original artwork for Dave's first effort (if I have that right), that makes me want to take a shower. #grotesque
And hey, I got a burst of laughter out of Damian... Er, is that a good sign?
Now a confession: God sent me: my job is to keep kicking Dave's butt (not otherwise 'touching', mind you) until he comes up with the world's first four million unit print run.
I'm here to tell you, God has plans for Dave...
Last five weekly updates:
January 15: 150 views
January 8: 166 views
January 1: 193 views
December 25th: 220 views
December 18th : 227 views
Viewcount divided by 5: 189 views
You’re average for the updates are off by 169 views, Damian.
Not Jake Paul numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but higher than your estimate nevertheless.
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