Thumbnails for Cerebus #53 pages 5 & 6

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.

For the last few couple of weeks we’ve been looking at Dave Sim’s 6th notebook and more specifically pages pertaining to Cerebus #53: the wraparound cover to Cerebus #53, thumbnail for page one of Cerebus #53, and thumbnails for Cerebus #53 pages 3 and 4. Today we’ll be looking at the next couple of pages.

The next page in the notebook, 35, has not only the thumbnail for the next page of Cerebus #53, page #5, but the dialogue as well. 

Notebook #53, page 35

Not much else on that notebook page. Page 36 of the notebook is pretty full:

Notebook #53, page 36

Not only do we get the thumbnail and dialogue for page 6 of the issue, but there is a sketch of the Countess’ ground floor area that includes the kitchen, dining room, the “tavern”, and the living room. 

Looking at the thumbnail it matches up pretty well with the finished page. Though the dialogue is a bit different:

Cerebus #53, page 6 and the thumbnail from the notebook

The notebook page actually shows more of the background for the top half of the page than the finished page shows. It also looks like there are shadows of rain drops on Cerebus’ face on the second panel of the bottom row and they don’t show up on the finished page. Though we do get the same nice lighting on his face that is shown in the notebook.