First Look at Astoria

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.

Just last week we looked at one page from Dave Sim’s first Cerebus notebook that had 194 pages scanned in out of 200 pages. The notebook covered Cerebus #20 through 28. And even though Astoria doesn’t show up until Cerebus #31, she makes an appearance in this first notebook.

Or at least some preliminary sketches of her character does on page 184.

Notebook #1, page 184

In Cerebus the Newsletter #6 Dave said this about Astoria “The evolution of Astoria, originally referred to as 'The Mary Astor' character, referring to the actress who played Brigette O'Shaugnessy in The Maltese Falcon ... I gradually changed her when I realized Cerebus has a low threshold for whining. The more competent 'n' cold version was geared to complement the earth-pig's disposition."

It also looks like Dave had plans for  the “Trail of the Albatross” for Cerebus #28 through 35.