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.
So the boss man is back and you know what that means! More of Dave Sim’s sixth notebook. We saw almost every page from #30 to 50 when we looked at the thumbnails for nearly every page of Cerebus #53. We went back and looked at pages #39 and 40 a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve seen pages 47 and 48 back in June of 2019. The only page left is page 46.
You can see the thumbnails for pages 14 and 15 on the back of page 46, which is page 45, along with a sketch of Cerebus. But on page 46? The majority of it is random stuff.
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Notebook #6, page 46 |
I don’t know why Dave was composing a note to the mayor of Victoria, BC, who was Peter Pollen in 1983, but my guess is the First Canadian Tour ’83. And no, I did not make up the name, Peter Pollen. It was actually his second term as mayor of Victoria. The line that is crossed out says ‘My wife, who incidentally is my publisher lived’.
Then a sketch of the Countess and the sketch of Cerebus. That seems very Cerebus #53 related, but then we get a thumbnail for the cover to Cerebus #54. And a preview of what was to come in Cerebus #54 through 57. Along with “Possessed by the spirt of Charles X Claremont”. And “Mick Jagger character runs a charismatic democracy in the T’Capmin Kingdoms”.
Man, Dave really likes that word. Charismatic. Seems to be the first mention of Prince Mick in the notebooks as far as I can recall.