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.
We’ve seen Dave Sim’s ninth Cerebus notebook a lot over the years: eighteen times since the first time in July of 2014. The most recent time was just last December in Are They Always Like This? The notebook had 200 pages, of which 118 were scanned as there was some missing pages and 17 blank pages. The notebook covers Cerebus #80 through 86 and items from those years – around mid-1985 to early 1986.
One of those items was Anything Goes #3, which was anthology comic published by Fantagraphics in March of 1986. On page 106 of the notebook is a sketch of the cover for Anything Goes #3:
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| Notebook #9, page 106 |
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| Anything Goes #3 |
7 comments:
Cool. I never saw that sketch before. Note how the weapon Cerebus is holding in the notebook sketch is a cheese slicer, the *spoiler alert* murder weapon in the Anything Goes short story. In the finished drawing used for the cover, Dave changed it to that crazy edged weapon to look more like the Neal Adams cover of that old Charlton comic (don’t remember the name). Love these deep dives into the notebooks. Keep ‘em coming, please!
Isn’t this actually a sketch for the story inside this issue?
I actually paid $5 for Neal Adams to sign this issue. Then I almost screwed up and smeared the silver ink all over by trying to put it back in the bag too quickly. D’oh!
Cool. I’ve never seen that sketch before. Note that the weapon Cerebus is holding in the sketch is a cheese slicer, which *spoiler alert* was the murder weapon in the Anything Goes short story. Dave changed that to a crazy edged weapon for the actual cover drawing so it could look more like that Neal Adams drawing on the old Charlton comic (I forget the name). Love these deep dives into the notebooks. Keep ‘em coming, please!
If I'm not mistaken, the finished cover was drawn by Neal...correct?
Travis - oops. You are correct, sir. That sketch became the drawing in the Anything Goes story. Neal Adams drew the cover. My memory has become fuzzy with the passage of time and Heineken. :)
As has been pointed out, Mags whiffed the published image. it's here: http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.com/2015/08/anything-goes-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do.html
The cover is Neal Adams Cerebus parody of the cover to Armor #1, by Neal Adams.
Manly
(You're "On Notice" Mags... Double Secret Super Probation...)
You get what you paid for.
Looks like the cover to me. Just 'cause Dave didn't draw the cover himself doesn't mean that this sketch wasn't used in the cover's creation. Perhaps ask Dave next time you talk to him.
And if me being wrong actually creates some discussion on these posts, perhaps i'll continue to make up shit, eh?
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