Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Two NEW CIH? pages

Benjamin Hobbs:

Here are two pages from a possible upcoming CIH? issue.  I was exploring a different layout and style on these. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Update: I posted a set SPAWN 10 DISTRESSED EC style covers on eBay!


 
Next Week: Something to do with SWORDS of CIH?!

Tuesday, 30 March 2021

A Very Dave Sim Christmas

Hi, Everybody!

Dave's calling Thursday, get your questions in to momentofcerebus@gmail.com.

And I'm busy, so here's from the "kitty"

Thanks Mags! And Jesse!

This post originally appeared on the Cerebus Yahoo!Group way back in December of 2004. Since that time, the Yahoo!Groups have been dismantled, all the posts are gone. Except that some of them live on in my Gmail archives. So as I was looking into some information on the BRGWST in my gmail archives I came across this "phone interview" (as I had originally labeled it) between Jesse Lee Herndon and Dave Sim. Jesse said it could be reposted here - thanks Jesse! So the I in question below is him.

2pm on Saturday, I got the call. My caller ID said "Aardvark Vanaheim". It's one of those the reads it aloud, so it actually said something more like "A-Aired Vark Vah-nah-im" or something else incomprehensible. Upon answering, Dave immediately greeted me with a hearty "Merry Christmas!". I returned it, he confirmed who I was, and there was more exchange of pleasantries, ending with his asking if I had a happy Christmas. I said that it was good, but it's really different once you get older. He sympathized with me, talking about how his visit with the Kitchen family meant a lot to him, having a wonderful holiday meal and seeing the season through the children, it puts a different perspective on the Christmas season.

I asked how his lip was doing. The swelling went down after three days of repeated soaking in rubbing alcohol, which he mentioned to the effect that this is one point where if he had a wife she would've told him to go to the hospital. The scab is all that remains, giving him a, as he said, "Hitler mustache". I made the comment about how the Comics Journal would probably want that for their cover, which he laughed about. Then I repeated the "Jeff Smith paying the pavement" joke, which he also got a chuckle about.

I relayed to him my earliest Cerebus memory, which was a price guide mention of the counterfeits in Comics Buyer's Guide, which he mistook initially for my having discovered Cerebus via the Silverspoons strips. I then revealed to him I was born during the release date of one of the strips, which surely made him feel even older.

I brought up the wiki and how I'd been helping to work on it. He thanked me for it, having not visited it in some time, but recalling a lot of blank pages on the site way back when. I expressed my gratitude to Margaret for the wiki and her regular website, which he echoed, finding them valuable resources. Concerning a question I had related to work on the wiki, I asked him if he had a particular name for the stone floor in outer space dimension from "Magiking" (and repeated in issues 81 and 92), but he didn't recall off-hand ever having one in mind. This lead to a discussion of the BRGWST, that he only called it that because he needed to give it a name to have something to call it as it repeatedly appeared. He also talked at length about it. I wondered to him what the "Ignore it, it's just another reality" cover comment was about, and he explained about how BRGWST was another echo of the big bang and the universe. I brought up the "Reads" mention of our universe resembling BRGWST when seen from afar, and he relayed that it had a lot to do with the whole "expanding" away from God to turn away from God. He went into much detail about the subject, but stressed that as much as he knows, there's still a lot he probably didn't get "right". So I'm not doing his explanation justice whatsoever. I was surprised to hear he pronounces YHWH exactly as Y-H-W-H (I knew he didn't go with the "yoowhoo" one, but I just assumed he went with the common "yahweh" one).

I asked about the Issue 300 in the windowbox of the Off-White House. I've noticed it in the issue 301 picture from way back, and saw it still there on CerebusTV. Turns out, Dave recently switched it out to an issue of glamourpuss. It used to be the place for the most recent issue of Cerebus to go, and had been there since 300 came out. So now that it looks like glamourpuss is indeed sticking around, he's finally got the most recent one of those up there. I talked to him about glamourpuss, and how on CerebusTV it seems he really is enjoying working on it. He's actually happy with his work, and how I think it's great he's gone into "retirement" to do something he loves, especially after sticking with Cerebus way past the point of his own enjoyment (which he felt would be a good tagline "Cerebus: Way Past Enjoyment"). I mentioned how many reviews, people expressed their main interest in glamourpuss as being the historical sections. But with Dave, it's the fashion parodies at the front that he loves to do, the stuff he truly enjoys working on during each of the bi-monthly work cycles (which go something like every ten days per project). I also discussed my own view on photorealism getting a bad rap these past few years (I was thinking Greg Land, for instance), and how much the book deals with deconstructing the artform and showing better what it's capable of in storytelling. It's what he's always been interested in, and this isn't really something that had been getting such focus and discussion done on it in the comics realm in a while. He's glad glamourpuss is now getting attention, since it hadn't for so long, which is pretty much what happened with Cerebus.

Talked about Cerebus Archive. He's working on issue 12 now, which will be all about T. Casey Brennan. Going a little out of order for a reason. Well, twofold reason, of course. There's always a natural segue way to the skipping around in dates, but in this case, it also works since this'll involve two of his earliest bits, "A Boy and his Aardvark" and "Picture This". He said that he intentionally held off putting those in the first issues of CA, since they're so badly drawn he didn't want to run off too many readers right off the bat! I complimented him on his art and how much it improved over the years, yet even in the earliest work of his, even before his training with Gene and his own experience, there was something there that surely looked like his work (I can see Elrod's lankiness exactly in his Mister Miracle cover from his fanzine, for instance). He appreciated it.

Let me take this time to thank Brian Coppola for making this phone call possible. He had a question he was curious about, so I brought it up to Dave: about Crimson Alpha, from Revolt 3000, specifically the Cerebus stone plant holder and how it related to the chronology of Cerebus' evolution as a book. It was apparently drawn concurrent to Cerebus, either while issue 1 was being done, or exactly right after, as Crimson Alpha was the last of the four done (and he also mentioned Phantacea). He began mentioning aspects from that period, how it was being drawn in October 77 and how Deni took it to get something done or something... Needless to say, it's not the "comic panel" second drawing of Cerebus mentioned before. That was done before finding a comfort level with the character, which the planter bit would've come afterward. I'm sure we'll hear more about it eventually when Cerebus Archive gets to the Cerebus #1 era (which I didn't ask when that would be, but most likely within a year or so).

I asked about question that came up in relation to the wiki, about how Elrod was "poit"ed out of existence during "Reads", but showed up in the afterlife, and how that involved Joanne talking about him as her neighbor during "Guys". It goes like this: To make the "married to Jaka, living next door to Joanne" thing happen during "Minds", even to just Cerebus, "Dave" had to actually make it happen. He couldn't exactly un-make it. As such, Joanne became real, where she lived became real, and her neighbors had to be filled in to make up the fact Cerebus and Jaka didn't live there. Elrod was basically pulled back into existence to fill the gap, and as a result, he ended up married to Red Sophia (interesting observation, if only to me: Dave pronounces her name as "Sof-fi-ah" instead of "So-fee-uh"). And because of that, he was able to eventually end up in the "light". The "filling in" bit relates to how he figures God probably would have to do it, and why God doesn't do it, which relates to his view that there are no parallel realities (which he discussed during the start of "The Last Day").

As the call stretched close to an hour, Dave's 3pm prayer time was coming up. I made the Bissette reference of "Just one more thing, and then I'll let you go". He laughed. Dave makes me laugh my ass off every week on CerebusTV, so to make him even chuckle meant a lot to me.

I told him about much I loved CerebusTV. He stressed that if us fans want to see the older episodes become available on DVD or whatever, the best way to is to donate! It only barely squeaks along as it is, even just a couple of bucks once in a while would help to get expansions of it to branch out eventually. I told him I loved the C-Minus Kid, he told me he'll be back on the tentatively January 7th show. Then I brought up how I was the Cerebus Power Rangers headsketch guy, and Oliver (I'm pretty sure that was Oliver on the Cerebus Film FB page) had mentioned to me he'd seen it and it was hilarious. Dave was surprised to discover it was me, but confirmed that yes, C-Minus Kid rocking out to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme had been cracking up everybody for some time now and to look forward to it.

When talking about the wiki, I had brought up how it later appeared, to me at least, that Cerebus & Jaka's night together in issue 6 was later fleshed out retroactively to imply they'd slept together. Dave said he wouldn't go that far as to say that. Which makes me wonder if I misunderstood the later elaboration, and something I need to check up on eventually to see why the heck I got that wrong.

I told him how I felt "Guys" was my favorite of the stories, and how it had the most realistic, such as it was, depiction of what it's like to talk to yourself, at least for me. He talked about how there are a lot of people who don't do that sort of thing at all, never having internal monologues and the like. I also mentioned I liked "Melmoth" the least, and I explained why. But I did compliment him on his annotations, so much that I made sure to get the phone books for "Latter Days" and "The Last Day" just to read them, comparing the enjoyment of reading them to the similar ones in "From Hell", which he thanked me for the comparison.

I also mentioned how I had read the whole of the series over the past year, having started with the Bi-Weeklies and onto the original issues, because I wanted to read the Aardvark Comment and related back-up material. He seemed interested in my decision to do this (namely the condensing of 26 years of his life into pretty much a year of my own), and asked what my thoughts were on the experience. I said that it was fascinating, seeing how his views evolved over the course of the run, and how they shaped the book itself in the course. Dave, at one point, mentioned he'll probably "smoke a turd in Hell" for something. I can't remember what, but it may have been when the discussion went to how he lived over the years. I asked what had happened to "apricot brandy", which stopped being mentioned, and he discussed how when something that's an inside joke becomes a motif, he made a conscious decision to stop "overdoing" the recurrence. I brought up the "buggid o' scotch", and he talked about how much of a bad idea that was in practice. But Matt Dow used to have a toy bucket he'd carry around at parties, and I guess that alone was pretty much a lot of scotch, even as a gag.

As I've done here, I complimented him on the Torah commentaries. He talked about how during his Sabbath readings he keeps notebooks of comments he has, that he'll write down from time to time. He's got Genesis pretty much "thought out", but the later books, he's still figuring out and may never fully grasp them. He talked about how in "Latter Days" he knew he wouldn't get all the way through Genesis, even at such a small font. There was only so much space and so much he could ask of his audience to put up with.

It ended up running just a few minutes after 3. Dave wished me a Merry Christmas again, I returned the wish, and I thanked him for the call.

So, there you have it, with a few gaps, but pretty much covering all Dave and I discussed. It was a great conversation. He's just as loquacious and verbose as he is in text! Definitely a great Christmas present. Endless thanks to Dave for taking the time to talk to me.

Monday, 29 March 2021

Bold Headlines, because Bold actions demand Bold Headlines...

Hi, Everybody!

What's happening?

Please Hold For Dave Sim April 2021
Dave's calling on Thursday, get your questions in to momentofcerebus@gmail.com

Mondays:
The Latest (and GREATEST) A Moment of Cerebus Contest:

If you REALLY loved me, 
Heritage has some interesting "Dave Sim" bits Including Original Art

No, really, Thanks, Jeff!
Bigger with the clickings



Seriously Jeff, what's your question for this month "Hey Dave, what's your take on War & Peace?"?

Cerebus Overload
Home to all the Cerebus #1/Spawn #10/and (if you're lucky) High Society Regency Edition swag you could throw a baby at.

And then I sent Dave Erick's comments on previous New Mutants posts, Dave responds:
Heh. I don't think so Dave, I don't think so...

Next Time: Not razzin' frazzin' New Mutants commentary, I tell ya that much for free...

Sunday, 28 March 2021

Cerebus Around the World and Web #73 by Oliver Simonsen

Oliver Simonsen:

Margaret got her first dose of the vaccine @meowwcat
https://twitter.com/CerebusFilm/status/1375480373874855939

Tom Allen: bandaid gone, but mine was in the same place
https://twitter.com/yoohootom/status/1375484550789406736

The mom of new account "cerebus the aardvark and daenerys targaryen" had her second vaccination
https://twitter.com/cerebusdaenerys/status/1375407101850251270

Cerebus special effects never bettered
https://twitter.com/iestynpettigrew/status/1375501574341021698

Bleeding Cool spotlights Dave Sim and Gerhard Original Art at Heritage Auction
https://twitter.com/bleedingcool/status/1375795069702266880
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dave-sim-and-gerhard-1985-cerebus-original-artwork-goes-to-auction/

Cerebus #1 Remastered and Expanded Edition from Waverly Presss shared
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM5qGo7j6FD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Gets a hoot out of "Cerebus in hell?" every month
https://twitter.com/ljacone/status/1373476041721839616

Looking for more info on "Cerebus in hell?"
https://twitter.com/KyleBenning_Art/status/1373627749072535555

"Cerebus in hell?" spotlighted
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM2BRNGBMnj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Cerebus is one of the most amazing characters in comics (in Portuguese)
https://twitter.com/IvanIlitch/status/1374781816947752961

Eisner & Harvey winning Senior Editor@Z2Comics, WGA Screenwriter Rantz Hosely:
https://twitter.com/MysteryCr8tve/status/1373380218862198784

Independent Journalism The Walrus posts Cerebus bday greeting
https://twitter.com/thewalrus/status/1374020655700717569

Cerebus and Spawn
https://twitter.com/AfterDragons_/status/1373363702783647744

"The Dennis and Andy Show" look at the Cerebus/Spawn Remastered
Margaret Liss:
If you watched Ron’s unboxing video, he showed a back of a copy and said if you put them together it forms the crossing over art. I put together the gold covers and got this.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3833197093414304/


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cerebus (in Portuguese)
https://youtu.be/Y2wGaXac6Jw

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cerebus
https://twitter.com/MC2SpiderVenom/status/1374910165460295683

Cerebus, Hellboy and Savage Dragon
https://twitter.com/rpace/status/1375621879222898689

Cerebus and Bone
https://twitter.com/FishLikesFlicks/status/1374168490110763008

Arabic account spotlights Most Holy
https://twitter.com/Ahmed_Esam1221/status/1375655720234942466

Considering starting Cerebus (in Portuguese)
https://twitter.com/florescativas/status/1374798483333451776

Thomas Boatwright draws Cerebus for Joshua Even
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerebus/permalink/3840533289347351

Reading Cerebus High Society for the first time: "8 issues into High Society & I can’t put it down!"
https://twitter.com/wardhillterry/status/1373988378677551108

"Cerebus: High Society" and "Cerebus: Church and State" should be required High School reading
https://twitter.com/TUCKsez/status/1373805611478044672

Alex's read one Cerebus a day (in Spanish) has started the High Society arc this week
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1375740930905489414
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1375175294450077698
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1374812287412895753
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1374766275507978244
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1374056924942045188
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1373688642577784839
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1373319698977320962
https://twitter.com/ClockworkAIex/status/1373216502451683328

Cerebus review of issues 27-29:
"Not a lot happens this issue (27) but it's quite entertaining. One thing Dave is really good at is taking a few characters, locking them in a room together, and simply having a lot of wonderful dialogue fill up the pages."
https://twitter.com/GrunionGuy/status/1374330162485940228
https://twitter.com/GrunionGuy/status/1374872919877160961
https://twitter.com/GrunionGuy/status/1375627939295895559

Reading Cerebus issue 30
https://twitter.com/JusticeTrek/status/1373486939974873090

Lord Julius and Gomez Adams
https://twitter.com/SteveLinder1/status/1374779917943050242

Mike Lynch updates his Cerebus drawing
https://twitter.com/MikeWLynch/status/1374697781349203968

Indepth look at Cerebus
https://twitter.com/reelComicHeroes/status/1374654026353152004
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM0yHmsBDTG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM0yHmsBDTG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I don't post all the misspellings of Cerberus, but needless to say more spell it as Cerebus than don't
https://twitter.com/DavidSeanDunn/status/1374562640408637443
https://twitter.com/Silverthistle/status/1374358516631285763
https://twitter.com/toddalcott/status/1374349614761926667
https://twitter.com/AleenaOwO/status/1373358498097065987

Prince Mick and Prince Keef by Dave Sim shared
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMsSiugBcDd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMrkD7zBVfbzlL8zggLUImQPmYGCt467taiEak0/

Cerebus gets around and around
https://twitter.com/Al_Nickerson/status/1373775156124905472

Check out Cerebus on the back (in Spanish)
https://twitter.com/cachalotecomix/status/1374040487494041606

"beautiful, an overwhelming level and that no one could ever raise again. The Cerebus thing is tremendous" (In Spanish - thank you google translate)
https://twitter.com/gonmruiz/status/1373035076838121472

Cerebus acquisition score
https://twitter.com/ljacone/status/1373601916576489473

Cerebus recommended
https://twitter.com/JosephZapataIII/status/1373482964386975744

Deni and Seth
https://twitter.com/RevChrisStangl/status/1374929076163538949

Dave and Seth
https://twitter.com/zacksoto/status/1374787226740027393

Cerebus and Seth
https://twitter.com/petecorson/status/1374693329632382977

Comic in progress hashtagged "Cerebus" says: "...writing a story that captures the reader with more than just the art is challenging."
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMyToc8HIfx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Speaking of comics are to be read - over at James Smith facebook Group "Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Excellence" they are writing limericks about cerebus:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/340056510686015
"At a bar just under the Wall of Tsi
Cerebus drank with a few other ‘Guys,’
Cave-Dawe helped 'lubricate'
A new game of Five Bar Gate,
That is when Kingsley just happened by!"
- Brian Payne
a treat ending all Cerebus singles
was just what Aardvark Comments would bring us
some letterhacks grate
or pontificate
but you'd only love all Connie Lingus
-Nathan Fischer

There once was a cerebus the aardvark
Through the kingdom was a diamondback card shark
He defeated the fleagles
When they caught the measles
Cerebus favorite simpson is bart bart
-James Smith

There once was a sinister pope
Who gathered up gold like a dope
He ascended to space
After a slash marred his face
With jaka he never could cope-James Smith

There was an albino named Elrod,
Who'd tromp around Iest with his dad-bod.
His skin was quite white,
His head, not quite right,
And of him, Cerebus could not get shod.
-Tricia McDaniel (Super secret edit, ty Nathan Fischer) Cerebus drawn by Tricia McDaniel


James Smith draws Cerebus

Thanks Oliver!
______________________________

Dave's calling on Thursday, get your questions in to momentofcerebus@gmail.com


Next Time: Faxes!

Saturday, 27 March 2021

Matt's Confession. (Don't worry, it's got lots of Art from Dave...)

Hi, Everybody!

So, part of this gig is that I get stuff emailed to me from Dave (well, on Dave's behalf. Dave doesn't do email. Or the Internet. Or...it gets complicated...) and how that works is that I usually get a google drive link to a folder. And in the folder is whatever Dave wants me to have. And then next to that is a folder of stuff Dave wants somebody else to have.

And...sometimes those folders "fall off the back of a truck" into a folder on my computer labeled "Backstage".

What?
I titled this "Matt's Confession"...

It's not like I DO anything with them. I just keep them, just in case. (There was a Neil Gaiman Superman story that never was published, because the script was lost. Until a fan who had a copy turned it over to DC. So, maybe some day in the future, somebody will need the scans of the original art to issue 151 that "fell off the back of a truck" onto my hard drive, and I'll be a HERO.)
"Oh yeah! Well remember when Dave had TWO sets of all the negatives to Cerebus, High Society, and Church & State 1, and he decided to get rid of one set, because "I don't need two sets" and then the other set got burned up in Sandeep's apartment when there was that fire that destroyed everything that Sandeep owned? Huh? Remember that? Huh? Do ya?!? Who's crazy now!?!" typed the guy who is arguing with a drawing of an aardvark...

Anyway, as the new Merch at The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe shows (see the post under this one,) I got a bunch of stuff AWHILE back, from around the time of High Society, that was being used by the fine folks at the Waverly Press for use in the Regency Edition

Can't remember if I'm supposed to have it or not, but who wants to see the original art for Diamondback? (Click for bigger)



As seen here:

Neat right?

Or the Original Art to the Diamondback decks? (Again with the bigger clicking...)

I'm a little annoyed. My Diamondback deck has the Priestesses printed so the Ankh is upside-down.




I'm thinking of making Diamondback shirts and stuff, but should I put the five cards together? Or various hands? Or just each card individually? Or what? And should I just use the original art, or alter it to match the actual printed cards?

And I also got this:

I don't know if this would look good on a shirt, but I bet Larry Wooten wants it on a wall tapestry...

Okay, so, sorry to Dave, and Rolly, and Eddie, and Sean, and anybody else I've "stolen" from. But I'm a weak Cerebus fan, and "Backstage" is full of so much cool stuff.

And Dave DID give me a backstage pass:

This ain't going on a shirt...

Next Time: Oliver's got a confession too...