Cerebus First Crisis

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.

Summit Enchanted Evening Part Three from March of 2022 was the most recent post in which we saw pages from Dave Sim’s fifth Cerebus notebook. With 79 out of 80 pages scanned it covers Cerebus #45 through 49. On page 11 is a huge graphic for Cerebus Six Crisis which starts in Cerebus #45:

Notebook #5, page 11

It looks like Dave started one list for the six crisis up in the top right corner with:

Politicians Crises

Isolation

Misinformation

War

But he crossed that out and wrote down the list on the left hand side:

#1 Bankruptcy

#2 The Summit

#3 Invasion

#4 The Defense of Iest

#5 Unity

#6 Denoument (sic)

Of the cover sketch on the page, Dave said this in the digital High Society: “Original design for CEREBUS’ SIX CRISES I should have gone with instead of the monochrome insert panel motif.”

Cerebus #45 cover

In the Cerebus Cover Art Treasury hardcover, Dave said this about the cover for Cerebus #45 “A good example of choosing a strong illustration concept that’s not really a good cover (i.e., you can’t read the logo from more than a good away). Commercial suicide in the name of. . .I don’t know. Enduring future poverty?”