Thursday 14 September 2023

Cerebus #53 - Thumbnails for Page 14 & 15

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.

We’re still making our way through Dave Sim’s thumbnails for Cerebus #53. The thumbnails are from his sixth notebook, which covers Cerebus #49 though 59 and had 158 pages scanned. We’ve already seen thumbnails for the cover and pages one to eleven and 13. You read that right, there was no thumbnail for page 12.

Page 43 of the notebook had the thumbnail for page 13 of Cerebus #53. On the next page, there are some sketches of the Countess in her sun dress and hat:

Notebook #6, page 44

On the next page are the thumbnails for pages 14 and 15 of Cerebus #53.

Notebook #6, page 45

The dialogue all over the page is for page 15. I’m thinking he started writing it under the thumbnails, and then went up above the thumbnails. The dialogue above and to the side of the thumbnails is what made the finished pages. The dialogue under the thumbnails has too much crossed out and different. 

It is also interesting to me to put the thumbnails by the finished page to compare the two. The flow of the pages is pretty similar to the final pages. Wit the exception of the second panel on page 15 showing a close up of Cerebus instead of the two of them sitting. 

Cerebus #53 pages 14 & 15 and thumbnails, click to embiggen



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