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.
Another quick turn – as it is Monday as I type this, what happen to this weekend? No, I didn’t go back to Vegas, I must’ve just slept though the weekend. . .So it is more of Dave’s notebook #29. In fact, it is the next page in the notebook, page 14:
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| Notebook #29, page 14 |
And it the nearly complete page 180 from Going Home:
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| Going Home page 180 (aka Cerebus #240 page 14) |
While the page is composed of the same size panels with the characters in them in roughly the same spots, Jaka’s poses are different. The placement of a few word balloons are different. But pretty much the same page.
6 comments:
I still don’t understand why it doesn’t work that way…
It's all in the details. Dave makes Jaka's stripping a lot less sexy in the published version.
17 years after it finished, I still miss the anticipation of the monthly book. If you ever speak to Dave, tell him thanks from me for 26 years of wonderment!
@Dion - Because it's a subtle battle of wills and nerves. If F. Stop dresses up, they have to outdo him to show how effortlessly they can one-up him, scoring point for "team Jaka". If he shows up dressed *casually* but they are dressed up, they put in notable effort for something he doesn't consider that important, scoring points for "team F. Stop".
This is exactly the kind of thing a barbarian-at-heart like Cerebus would never really be able to grasp (or really care about - he's only going along to please Jaka).
This ignorance may explain why my diet consists of mostly of potatoes and scotch (well that and ya’know… Irish).
Yes, the sketchbook version is "sexy stri - uh, I mean 'dancer' " Jaka, while the published version is "encroaching middle age" Jaka.
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