Cerebus #103 Cover

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.

May of 2020 is the last time we saw some pages from Dave Sim’s twelfth notebook in a blog entry called Suffering You’ll Have No Trouble With. The notebook covers Cerebus #102 through 111 and had 133 pages scanned.

On page 13 of this notebook, there is a sketch for the cover of Cerebus #103:

Notebook #12, page 13

Which is only slightly like the actual cover:

Cerebus #103 cover

In the Cerebus Cover Art Treasury hardcover, which if you haven’t gotten a copy, you are missing out, Gerhard said this on the cover: “These two, lots of black. This must have been another time-saving technique.”

Dave had this to say about the cover to Cerebus #103: “Trying to get the same paperback design quality as on #101 and #102 and just not getting it.”

Covers to Cerebus #101 and 102