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.
Maybe instead of rewriting this opener every week, I’ll be a bit more efficient with my use of time and have this standard opening . . .though Boss Man saying I'm giving the notebook away for free, I see it as a way of advertising all the good stuff in the notebook, and wouldn't it be easier to have a hard copy to flip through and read at your own leisure?
Have you got your copy of Albatross One? That is Dave Sim’s name for his first notebook used in the creation of Cerebus. If you want a copy of the notebook – and trust me, as someone who has held the actual Albatross One, it is a pretty close duplicate and looks great – you can check out this post right here. Well not this post. The one at this link. Go check it out, this post will still be here.
Please buy one so boss man stops yelling at me for "giving the store away for free". Perhaps if he sells one or two or all that he has left, he'll finally give me some PTO.
And if you don’t want to buy one, you can wait as I release a couple of pages a week and check them out using the Notebook One tag. But trust me, the notebook is much much nicer then my silly little posts.
Okay, now that is done, on with this week’s Notebook One post.
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Dave Sim’s first notebook, which he entitled Albatross One, covers Cerebus #20 through 28 and has 194 pages out of 200 scanned in. Since we’ve started our chronological look at this notebook back in December of 2023, we’ve seen quite a few pages. Last week we ended with page 136 and material for Cerebus #26, the start of the High Society story line. We’re right back at it today with page 137:
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| Notebook #1, page 137 |
Most of the page is taken up with dialogue for the “man servant”, who turns out to be the desk clerk, and Cerebus as he enters the yet unnamed Regency looking for a place to stay. Most of the dialogue isn’t used. The bit about the Cerebus’ room and him taking a bath is used. There is another bit that isn’t used but later becomes the basis for upper and lower Iest: “Manservant: Don’t want to spend the rest of me life in the down the hill”.
Dave had this to say on that: "More plotting of the "Holiday Inn" hotel "down the hill" ("don't want to spend the rest of me life 'down the hill', do I sir - no sir."). It was a variation of the Hamilton, Ontario reference to Hamilton locations on top of the Niagara Escarpment as "up the mountain" and those below the Escarpment as "down the mountain".”
For those who aren’t familiar with the geology of Ontario, the Niagara Escarpment is very simple terms, a really big cliff. For more info on it, check out the Wikipedia page on it.
On the next page we get more sketches than text:
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| Notebook #1, page 138 |
“Then you just sit in it.” And Cerebus lowering down in some steam. And as Dave said on it: "Cerebus easing into his bath. Too slow a moment when I'm trying to get things going. The snobbish desk clerk begins to take shape. Cerebus in his "hotel appropriate" garb. This is mostly what the plotting consisted of, doing things wrong so I would know how to do them right."
The next page shows some plot threads of what is to happen in Cerebus #26 with people meeting with Cerebus while he is trying to eat. That indoor plumbing later turned into Scorz talking to Cerebus about sewage.
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| Notebook #1, page 139 |
And that guy with the big ears, pronounced lower jaw, and abundant hair? That is how Cerebus would look if human. Kind of.
As Dave said about this page:
"Scorz "talk at Lord Julius, SEWAGE, SEWAGE, SEWAGE" began as "indoor plumbing". I was always trying to work how people envisioned Cerebus from the description: "Long ears, pronounced lower jaw, flaring nostrils, large eyes, short but abundant hair" and then having them picture someone who looked like this. Again, it was just too slow for getting things rolling. It was until Church & State that I finally devoted a couple of pages to it."
