Some Dialogue from Cerebus #213

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.

It has been three and a half years since we saw pages from Dave Sim’s twenty-fifth notebook in an article called Turning South to the River. Skimming through the articles for this notebook, I noticed that I never showed the cover. Perhaps it was due to the phone and fax numbers on it? They come back to a New York area code, but when I google searched the numbers, they didn’t come back to any company, so I’m thinking it might be someone’s personal numbers. So I edited out the last four digits. No, I didn’t try calling the numbers. It’d be my luck that it’d be Steranko’s number and he’d laugh at me for that time he wouldn’t let me take a picture of him back in 2008. 

Notebook #25 front cover

The notebook is unusually small as the majority of notebooks Dave used were the 11.5” x 8” in size notebooks. This notebook covers Cerebus #213 through 241 and had 96 pages scanned. On page 1 we see some dialogue from Cerebus #213 page 2 through page 4 between “Pooh Bear” and Ziggy. The dialogue in the notebook doesn’t match up with the finished page, but most of it does. 

Notebook #25, page 1

For example, Ziggy’s dialogue “So aren’t you going to offer me a drink Pooh-Bear” has little notes around it and appears as if Ziggy is making a sweet sing songy request of Bear. On page 271 of  Guys, aka Cerebus #213 page 3, the ‘Pooh-Bear’ is dropped and Ziggy is in her demon form, the text show more like an order and just harsh. 

On page 2 of the notebook we get take two of some of the same dialogue, and some quick sketches of Bear and Ziggy. The same line of dialogue we looked at above is on this page, but it has lost the notes and the ‘Pooh-Bear’ reference and now is underlined and seems more harsh. The sketch of Ziggy with her sharpened teeth is just to the left of it.

Notebook #25, page 2