Cerebus #53 - Thumbnails for Pages 16 - 19

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.

Over the last couple of months we’ve looked at Dave Sim’s notebook pages that have the thumbnails for Cerebus #53. These pages come from Dave’s sixth notebook which covers Cerebus #49 through 59. Today we pick up with page 48 as that has the thumbnail for page 16 of Cerebus #53.

Notebook #6, page 48

Last week we left off with page 45 of the notebook. I’ve skipped, for now, page 46 and 47 as they mainly Wolveroach issue stuff. So they’ll wait until we’ve looked at all the pages with thumbnails for Cerebus #53.

The dialogue surrounding the thumbnail for page 16 is pretty much the same on the finished page. Except for seeing Cerebus’ writing we just get Dave’s note “Writing ‘On Governing’”. 

Cerebus #53 page 16 and thumbnail, click to embiggen

A sketch of Artemis Strong as Wolveroach with some really elongated boot thingies. If you’ve noticed, Dave has been writing down the pages he has left in the issue on the page as well, with the numbers for pages 17 – 20 visible.

We skip page 49 as it is more Wolveroach issue items, and go to page 50 which has three page thumbnails: pages 17, 18, and 10:

Notebook #6, page 50

The dialogue along the side of the page is what appears on the finished page. Well, except the Countess saying ‘Terim’s blood’ on page 19. 

Lining up pages 17 and 18 to their thumbnails from the 6th notebook, we can see the panel breakdown is the same and the character placement is just a bit different. For so few lines in the thumbnails, it amazes me how I can still follow along and know which character is which and get a sense of what is happening on the pages.

Cerebus #53 page 17 & 18 and their thumbnails, click to embiggen

Same with page 19 and its thumbnail. Dave penciling in CRASH in the thumbnail helps, but we can still see the flow of the page just from a tiny thumbnail in the notebook. 

Cerebus #53 page 19 and thumbnail, click to embiggen

And yes, next week will be our last look at the thumbnails for Cerebus #53 when we look at page 51 and the thumbnail for page 20. Which also includes a thumbnail for Cerebus #54’s cover.