Cerebus #74 Page Thumbnails

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.

Dave Sim’s eighth Cerebus notebook covers Cerebus #70 through 79 and had 86 pages scanned in. Last July is when we last saw pages from it in Layout for Cerebus #73. Page 51 of the notebook has a listing of issue numbers, dates, potential titles, and bits and pieces of what would be in that issue. Like issue #77, August, being called Odd Transformations and the note “asleep and dreaming”.

Notebook #8, page 51

The thumbnails at the bottom of the notebook page are indeed pages 18, 19, and 20 for Cerebus #74 or if you’re following along in the Church & State I phonebook, pages 470 – 472. The dialogue around the thumbnails in the notebook is the same as the dialogue on the finished pages, but the layout varies a bit as you can see: 

Cerebus #74, pages 18 – 20

I’m a bit curious why Dave wrote ‘issue three hundred’ near the top right corner of the page.  Or down the bottom right corner of the page: “The kid from the milk carton, Craig, Lisa, Tom, Norma, Biff, Janine, Jolie, Karen, The demon, Lady Jane, Kim.”