My "fax machine" has a pile of papers laying next to it...
Remember Al Nickerson and his Graphic Novel, The Sword of Eden?
Dave's got a message for ya:
Why does Diamond have a different Starcode?
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Remember When did you stop reading Cerebus? Dave got a postcard from Andrew Rilstone:
John Rovnak sent Dave a copy of his, and Steve (PUMA BLUES) Murphy's Fun to Funky Volume 1 #1.:
I sent this to John, who responded:
Hi! Thanks for sharing that postcard from Dave! I don’t have a website or anything set up for the Fun to Funky comic yet. I do have an Instagram @Fun_to_Funky_comic and I’m happy to send out issues if folks PayPal me $2.95 to p2p.rovnak@gmail.com
So, there ya go.
Cerebus in Hell?:
So this means The League Of Extraordinary Corona and Swords Of Cerebus In Hell? Volume 8 will be getting the final order cut-off soon.
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Get that sweet, sweet Gerhard art, Greg Hyland's Monster Atlas Volume 2 part 3. (Greg hit the four grand, so Gerhard is in the book. (Ends in 26 days.))
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Heritage, is gonna be auctioning off the original art to the Cerebus #2 covers (5 of them,) and the NEW Cerebus #1 (just 1 of them.)
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Up to 35% off site-wide:
September 22 – 27
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!
12 comments:
I emailed Al about the book. I bought 2 last year. 1 for my nephew and 1 for me. It's really good. Buy it!
Michael R. Also says:
"I bought 2 copies of the book. One for my nephew. It's really good. Highly recommend it."
Sorry, Michael...
Manly
(Fat fingers hit the delete key instead of publish...)
Wow, Dave's paranoia is getting worse. And he still doesn't understand how science works, does he? And he's speaking for Jack Kirby now? Well, I guess he speaks for God on a weekly basis ...
And again, for a fellow who claims to believe God sends personal signs, he's not taking the hint. Dave, your post-Cerebus projects all failed, and you didn't take the hint. You lost your ability to draw, and you didn't take the hint. Now you can't do minimal inking, and you won't take the hint. God is done with you, Dave.
Well, let's hope he can make a few bucks strip-mining his ever-decreasing Front-Facing True Believers. He needs the money for his "Museum of Me". This is the same guy who once mocked Yoko Ono for "making all her nowhere plans for nobody".
Really, he couldn't destroy his legacy more thoroughly if he tried. Maybe he is trying -- "If I can't be the besterest success, I'll be the biggest failure ever!"
Yikes.
-- D.
Some thoughts...my opinions ultimately.
Cerebus began as a parody book. It's humor evolved, story became more sophisticated, the parody less a presence. I see the Cerebus In Hell as similar efforts...not quite paradoy, but certainly not High Society or Reads or Church and State, etc. Where some believe CIH is eroding the legacy I find it...something in the lineage not everyone will appreciate.
I don't believe Dave Sim publisher is doing himself any favors, and likely that is really eroding his legacy. Aardvark-Vanaheim pushes onward with the momentum of the CIH team, certainly with input from Dave, but without those toiling CIH there'd be nothing published.
Waverly Press...really doesn't help the Cerebus brand. They do fine work, the High Society book is exceptional and likely further editions will match (even exceed). The Kickstarters are coveting the loyal (as Damian commented, above) but really they do nothing to build any sort of momentum (and in some instances, impugn the brand). However, Waverly Press doesn't do anything to expand the brand.
SDOAR was by far the most successful effort, gaining bookstore and Amazon presence (and if the printing debacle had not occurred, more than likely Sean and Carson would have had possible momentum and a lot of cred). SDOAR did nothing for the Cerebus brand, but those fellows promoted the heck out of the book and expanded awareness (even if by a small measure, which in the noise of the marketplace is commendable).
The closest Aardvark Vanaheim has gotten to an industry focused promotion is many years ago when Sandeep was (tirelessly) trying to find different ideas to build Cerebus awareness and brand. Virtual convention, panels, special events...anything that could bring interest without needing Dave to interact in society. When Sandeep left, the only outward facing efforts left with him, and we're left with our 100 or so loyalists screaming in the void.
Legacy...Dave will be Dave and people will either accept or reject. Without something promoting the Cerebus brand, it will die over time.
Damian, as an admirer of Cerebus, you should swallow some pride, and start actually following a few of the goings-on with Dave post-Cerebus. If you did you would know that Dave wasn’t speaking for Jack Kirby, but for a work that has a character inspired by the King in it. That fax with Jack Kirby’s likeness is not by Dave’s hand but by that of Al Nickerson. It’s a blurb for Nickerson’s SWORD OF EDEN VOLUME ONE.
Dave reviewed it a year ago (https://youtu.be/a9hk1pJyNEI), when it was only available at Nickerson’s SWORD OF EDEN website and a few online Christian bookstores. However, After Diamond recently picked it up for solicitation at comics shops, Dave decided to photocopy a panel with the Jack Kirby character, and added some of his still considerable lettering skills, and his name, to help spread the word about SWORD OF EDEN Vol. One on Twitter.
Ok, that’s my only quibble with what you wrote. The rest is just your usual conjecture about Dave and his fans.
Apropos Bill's comments - some updates about buying the phonebooks in 2021. I sold my individual issues before my summer 2020 cross country move, and in the past few months thought this would be a great time to get the remastered trades and fill in some gaps. ONE comic book store here in Denver (All in a Dream on Colfax) had any Cerebus anything in stock. I got Cerebus and High Society there. I was able to get C&S I and II, Jaka's Story, and Minds from instocktrades.com (via AMOC). I highly recommend them - easy website and efficient shipping.
Here's something I have noticed on that site over the past few months: Reads is not in stock in it's remastered edition. There is no listing for Rick's Story, Form & Void, Latter Days, or The Last Day. CiH? collected editions are now being listed and are five of the nineteen total items that come up when you search "Cerebus."
Reads remastered is VERY hard to find - not on eBay, my local comic shop, or instocktrades. I ordered from Page 45 and again had a GREAT experience. They shipped it to me from overseas in less than three weeks. But, that is one of the few remastered editions they have in stock. No doubt the pandemic and Diamond distribution issues have made things difficult to get.
Relative to local stores and instocktrades, I also worry that CiH? is taking away from any market that MAY exist for the seminal work. Personally, CiH? has never been my "thing", and to some extent it seems to be taking oxygen out of the room for the original run. And, for what? I few hundred dollars a month income for Dave?
I will continue to support the Kickstarters to remaster the series, but only through a donation and no reward. I'm still in downsize mode and don't need the portfolios, as much as I liked them.
I don't understand Waverly Press' strategy - why Cerebus #2? If we are down to the hardcore supporters or casually interested, why not 51, 112/113, or Cerebus #0, etc. Or a "curator's choice" best-of reprinting of classic issues?
Just my thoughts and experiences. The remastered editions may themselves be niche items for those interested in Cerebus. Certainly, the phonebooks in earlier versions and individuals issues can be easily had from places like eBay. (The remasters are GORGEOUS, worth every penny, and have made me reevaluate my already high opinion of the series. Seriously - Sean, if you are reading, kudos kudos kudos. I love them!)
But, I echo Bill's concerns - how often are the trades or the series itself promoted? The weekly updates and AMOC are focused on CiH?, and the Waverly stuff. The few issues of CiH? I have bought have devoted all of a half page of the inside back cover to the original run (compare this to multipage ads for the trades in come of the original series issues).
I don't suggest that there is an easy way forward to keep Cerebus alive in the (ever shrinking) comic buying public's consciousness. But, I do think it should be the original series that first comes to mind.
Thanks for reading!
Mr: Trimmer: coincidentally, READS REMASTERED has made it back into PREVIEWS for solicitation. Have a look, if you’re interested: https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/OCT211071.
Brian W.: You should swallow some pride and learn to read actual English words. Here's what Dave wrote: "I think Jack Kirby would have loved Professor Jack ..." I don't know why you find it necessary to misrepresent opinions and even facts that hurt your feelings (well, that's not entirely true; I think I do know, but it's not flattering to you).
Bill R. and Jason T.: I agree that Cerebus In Hell seems to be eclipsing Cerebus, and that is regrettable. I find it ironically disappointing that the much-lesser work CIH got hardcover collections before the work it parasitizes.
I have said before that Dave has become Jim Davis (at least, before Davis sold Garfield): he contributes the occasional gag and exercises executive approval, but other people do all the work -- the writing, drawing, publishing, and promoting. Dave isn't a self-publisher anymore; the work his company publishes isn't his own, and the work that is his own he doesn't publish.
Exception duly noted for the phonebooks, of course! The reputation of Cerebus the work has been long since eclipsed by Dave's reputation as a boneheaded, misogynist, right-wing reactionary, religious nutbag. It's a bit weird that his most ardent defenders have made fellating Dave a core part of their own identities. They actually seem to feel they're doing Dave a favour by swallowing his every bitter, sterile ejaculation (to torture the metaphor), when all they do is make themselves and Dave look ever-more ridiculous. It is certainly understandable that a civilian encountering Dave for the first time would think, "This is the reputation this guy has? These are the people defending him?" and turn away.
And that is a shame, because to (again) quote Alan Rubinstein: "Cerebus contains some of the all-time best and some of the all-time worst cartooning I've ever read". I maintain that the literary content of Cerebus is much the lesser than the execution of Cerebus; where the former never advanced beyond the adolescent, the latter at times was the work of the English-language cartoonist most in command of the medium.
-- Damian
Sorry Damian, but Dave writes and lays out almost every CiH? Strip.
While SOME issues are done as you describe, the vast majority aren't.
(I'd post the faxed roughs I get, but I don't wanna ruin the surprise for the folks that care, and don't wanna annoy everybody who doesn't.)
Manly Matt Dow
(And Brian, I'm fairly certain that Dave drew that Professor Jack.)
((Also, Damian, how is Dave expressing a personal opinion, "I THINK Jack Kirby would have loved Professor Jack" (emphasis mine) equate to "speaking for Jack Kirby"? Dave's met Kirby. I presume they talked. So, it's entirely possible that Dave might know Jack well enough to guess at what his opinions might be.))
All right, "Manly" Matt D.; you'd know, and I wouldn't. I apologize, and retract my third paragraph above.
I'll go so far as to make the cheap -- but accurate -- shot that Dave has not demonstrated the ability to correct his thinking when he's proven wrong. His responses range from simply ignoring the refutation to maintaining (as Neil Gaiman portrayed), "Of course, you proving me wrong only proves how right I am." Indeed, look above as Dave mocks "evolving science", unaware that this is the entire point of the scientific method. It's very funny to me that someone who literally doesn't know how science works feels that he has come up with the Unified Field Theory after (as Dominick G. pointed out a fortnight ago) a whole two months of research.
I did see Dave's "I think", thank you. Similarly, Joel Silver said that he believed Alan Moore approved of the V for Vendetta movie, and was justifiably taken to task.
I'll add that I agree with Bill R. above that "SDOAR was by far the most successful effort" -- but I'll point out that this success was despite Dave, not because of him. I'll reserve judgement on the work until I see it.
-- D.
I haven’t misrepresented shit, Damian.
I read what passes for your unique brand of grandiloquence fine. I have written what I have written. You didn’t refute a damn thing of what I said, just attempted to insult me, which is par for the course from you.
My guess is that the fax from Dave is the first time you’ve seen anything SWORD OF EDEN related, and you were totally ignorant of the Jack Kirby reference, but admitting that here would have probably hurt your feelings. So, I ain’t mad at you for trying to clown me.
If you want to get serious watch the link I posted above, then come back at me and talk some sense. Hopefully, after watching the video, you’ll see that Dave wasn’t talking on behalf of Jack Kirby’s estate here — as you imply —but praising Al Nickerson. Look up the meaning of the word “metaphor” in a dictionary, dullard.
Manly, thanks for the clarification. Dave does a pretty good Al Nickerson impersonation.
Ok, Damian. After sending what I wrote, I just saw that you at least re-read what Dave wrote, after Matt had expressed to you what he thought Dave was getting at. If reading is thinking, then re-reading is re-thinking. Good on you.
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