Sunday, 1 December 2024

Black Friday Miracle: Cerebus in Back Issue Magazine

Hi, Everybody!

Before I "Moment", Dave and I will be doing the December Please Hold For Dave Sim on Thursday. Get your Questions/Comments/Fruitcake recipes/whatevers to momentofcerebus@gmail.com by Wednesday night when the Fax goes up Nort'. Please.
______________________

As part of Twomorrows publishing's annual holiday sale, you can get the issue of Back Issue Magazine where they look at Cerebus (#75 for those playing at home,) for six bucks (plus shipping). And when you order a physical copy, they give you a digital copy for no additional charge.

Which means I can grab pages from the article and "Moment"...

Is a Black Friday Miracle!

I'm not gonna run the whole thing. Mostly, because it's eighteen pages, but partly because if you like the bits I'ma post, you can buy your own copy and support Twomorrows so they can continue to publish their many and varied fine publications. Come on, don't be a Damian. Throw 'em a couple of bucks. You can afford it.

Anyway, Your tease my friends:






Again, if this is your cup of tea, you can get a copy here. Roger Ash, who wrote the article, interviewed Dave, Gerhard, and Deni for it. And there is some rare and unseen bits in there. Other than the "gee-Matt-your-being-a-tad-'Seiler'-like" details that are "wrong", it's a pretty decent summation of the entire series (he says that it's almost 6000 pages long instead of over 6000 pages long...can you believe that? Huh? You can? I thought youse guys were obsessives like me...). I HIGHLY recommend that you buy your own copy that you can pore over again and again like the Cerebus obsessive that we all know you are...

And if eighteen pages of Aardvark aren't enough, there are the other bits that are in there:
Click for bigger

And that's another thing, if my images of the article are too small for reading on your phone while you take a forty-five minute bathroom break at work (come on Zipper, they ain't payin' ya to poop...), you can buy a copy that you can "zoom in" on by bringing it closer to your face (by the way your reading glasses are on the top oof your head. You're welcome.), and "Bob's your uncle"...

BUT, since this is the "season of giving", I'll post the next six pages of the article if thirteen people post "I'ma just a poor boy, from a poor family" in the comments. 

Rigamarole:

40% off November 29-30.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
_______________
Got a message from my friends at the Waverly Press. They're doing Holiday Bundles for 2024. There are limited to 50 bundles. Available until December 31 or they sell out. Whichever comes first. Get 'em while they're hot. https://waverlycomics.com
_______________
Since it's Holiday time, Twomorrows publishing is having their annual sale. Comic Book Creator magazine has done interviews with Dave adjacent creators like Steve Bissette, Bob Burden, (I haven't read it, so I can neither confirm or deny if Dave is mentioned) Rick Veitch, among others. And Cerebus is covered in Back Issue #75, and the X-Men crossover is talked about in #118. And Margaret has a photo printed in issue #31. If you search for "Dave Sim", they have a bunch of issues. Anyway, just letting people know. Sale ends December 9th.
_______________
In other news, since Twitter is a dumpster-fire and most people are skipping out of there, AMOC has joined BlueSky. Follow along. Or don't. No skin of my nuts either way...
______________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
_______________
Heritage has nothing major, but if I drop the link, I'll have to spend hours searching for it when they DO have neat stuff of interest. So, move along.
_______________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
_______________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
_______________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
_______________
Next Time: The Monday Report. And something else Cerebus related...

Saturday, 30 November 2024

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Ultimate Collection Vol. 7 (Well the Cerebus bits...)

Hi, Everybody!

So, when I bought this TMNT Humble Bundle, one of the books was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Ultimate Collection Volume 7.

It's a...weird...book.

It's all behind the scenes stuff. No comics. Just covers and sketches and stuff.

It's basically the Turtles version of AMOC. In book form.

Which is good for me, since there's Cerebus in it:







PLEASE note, that Turtle Muppet is made by the same guy that made the Cerebus Muppet:

Here's the cover painting for Turtles #5, notice something?

Yup, that's our Aardvark.

Here's the pencils, and the published cover:
All right, that's more Moments than a single day deserves.

Rigamarole:

40% off November 29-30.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
_______________
Got a message from my friends at the Waverly Press. They're doing Holiday Bundles for 2024. There are limited to 50 bundles. Available until December 31 or they sell out. Whichever comes first. Get 'em while they're hot. https://waverlycomics.com
_______________
Since it's Holiday time, Twomorrows publishing is having their annual sale. Comic Book Creator magazine has done interviews with Dave adjacent creators like Steve Bissette, Bob Burden, (I haven't read it, so I can neither confirm or deny if Dave is mentioned) Rick Veitch, among others. And Cerebus is covered in Back Issue #75, and the X-Men crossover is talked about in #118. And Margaret has a photo printed in issue #31. If you search for "Dave Sim", they have a bunch of issues. Anyway, just letting people know. Sale ends December 9th.
_______________
In other news, since Twitter is a dumpster-fire and most people are skipping out of there, AMOC has joined BlueSky. Follow along. Or don't. No skin of my nuts either way...
______________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
_______________
Heritage has nothing major, but if I drop the link, I'll have to spend hours searching for it when they DO have neat stuff of interest. So, move along.
_______________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
_______________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
_______________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
_______________
Next Time: Black Friday was berry berry good to me...

Friday, 29 November 2024

Longfellow's Rainy Day (Dave's weekly update #567)

Hi, Everybody!

Like it says on the Logo:
The little bit on the bottom there...

It's Friday, so that means:
Dave's Weekly Update:
 
_________________________
A Moment of Cerebus runs Saturday through Friday.

The Week in AMOC:
  • Saturday: Josh Even made a Cerebus Action Figure. I got one.
  • Sunday: Dave did a commission. New Dave Art.
  • MondayThe Monday Report, and I post a little something that I maybe never posted before...
  • Tuesday: Jen lets us know where we are with the Strange Death of Alex Raymond GoFundMe. No new pages unlocked. $200 until page 106 unlocks. 
  • Wednesday: Hobbs has fun with baby throwing...
  • Thursday: Margaret continues looking at pages from the first Notebook AKA Albatross 1, YOU can get your very own BETTER-THAN-MARGARET'S-POSTS-O.-M.-G.-YOU-GUYS-SERIOUSLY copy. See here. She's still looking through the pre-material for issue #27.
  • Friday: that's this post. You're reading the Friday post right now. This is STILL like that bit in Spaceballs. (Should I link to LAST WEEK'S Update in these things?)

Okay, so that was the past week in AMOC. You're welcome.

Rigamarole:

40% off November 29-30.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
_______________
Got a message from my friends at the Waverly Press. They're doing Holiday Bundles for 2024. There are limited to 50 bundles. Available until December 31 or they sell out. Whichever comes first. Get 'em while they're hot. https://waverlycomics.com
_______________
Since it's Holiday time, Twomorrows publishing is having their annual sale. Comic Book Creator magazine has done interviews with Dave adjacent creators like Steve Bissette, Bob Burden, (I haven't read it, so I can neither confirm or deny if Dave is mentioned) Rick Veitch, among others. And Cerebus is covered in Back Issue #75, and the X-Men crossover is talked about in #118. And Margaret has a photo printed in issue #31. If you search for "Dave Sim", they have a bunch of issues. Anyway, just letting people know. Sale ends December 9th.
_______________
In other news, since Twitter is a dumpster-fire and most people are skipping out of there, AMOC has joined BlueSky. Follow along. Or don't. No skin of my nuts either way...
______________
The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
_______________
Heritage has nothing major, but if I drop the link, I'll have to spend hours searching for it when they DO have neat stuff of interest. So, move along.
_______________
The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
_______________
The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
_______________
Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
_______________
Next Time: I'll find something, I always do...

Thursday, 28 November 2024

Notebook One: Cerebus #27 Part Six

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. Wait, why am I pushing this, boss man is on vacation. . .I should just take off. . .

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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Last week we looked at pages 164 – 166 which contained some page by page plot outlines, the reveal of the names of the McGrew Brothers, and a little bit of the scoring for the diamondback game they’d play. Now on page 167 of Dave’s first notebook we see the list of hands the three are playing and how they are doing and what pages this game would take up. 

Notebook One, page 167

Down the bottom of the page there is more plot outlining similar to past pages. It is getting closer to the finished Cerebus #27, but still has some differences.

The next page in the notebook continues with Cerebus #27 material. As Dave said in the AV High Society “The ransom note in its rough form. . .None of it finished but just getting me thinking in the right direction.” 

Notebook One, page 168

Yes, there are more references to The Eye in the Pyramid group, but most of this is the McGrew brothers dialogue. What you sign through the page is an early version of Astoria which was based on Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders when Dave thought he had abandon the “Mary Astor” character, which we know now he didn’t. We saw page 169 in Playing Diamondback with Onliu Freelancers originally posted in May of 2020.


Wednesday, 27 November 2024

More toned Baby Throwing Panels!

Benjamin Hobbs:

Here's the next three panels from the Baby Throwing sequence in Church and State I:

 Here's the same panels, redrawn by Dave Sim for Narutobus #1.  The tones were added by me:

 Next Week: More CIH? fun!

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

SDoAR 2.47: Reader Comments and a Fax from Dave!

It's been a while since we took a look at the comments coming in from past posts. Let's see what the mailbag has for us from last week!

Anonymous said, "Those pages look amazing!"

Then, AlNickerson added, "I agree. Dave is producing amazing work, as always."

The only problem is that most of the pages from last week were drawn by Carson Grubaugh, pages based on mockups by Dave Sim! 

I wasn't exactly sure where the line of demarcation was, so I asked Dave and he came back with the following fax...

So there you have it! These were a bit of a mixture of both artists and moving forward from there, Carson did the artwork based on mockups by Dave.

Not to be outdone, Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. claimed, "Man, Dave just can't do Schulz, can he?"

Apparent not! I guess you can't please everyone.

Speaking of which, no new donations in the past week, but depending on how I'm feeling next week, I might be putting a pretty nifty item up for raffle, so any $25 donation between now and the next raffle counts as an entry!

Just the GoFundMe Facts, Ma'am

  • $16,000.00 raised to date from 270 donations
  • 84 new pages released as mocked up by Dave Sim from 11 June to 29 December 2021
  • 105 total pages available on Dropbox, including Dave's 2019 mocked-up pages
  • $200.00 away from unlocking page 106
  • If you have not donated > $5+ donation grants access to all 105 pages and all pages moving forward
  • If you have donated, thank you, but if you want to donate monthly, GoFundMe does not offer that option, so please do so as we are at the end of month #11 of Year 2.

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Preview, Part 46

The following are links to previous updates that featured pages from The Strange Death of Alex Raymond hardcover. If you click on the links in order, you can begin to devour the magnum opus that is the Strange Death of Alex Raymond...

This
Thisthis
Thisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthisthisthis
Thisthisthisthis
then...
Ciao!

Jen x
SDOAR GoFundMe -->> https://www.gofundme.com/f/sdoar-2023 <<-- SDOAR GoFundMe

Monday, 25 November 2024

I MAY have posted part of this, but some of it is ALL NEW (and all different)...

Hi, Everybody!

Mondays!
________________

So, cleaning out the 289 emails in my inbox at my personal account, I  found this little ditty from Dave circa  June 4th, 2020:

Still at sixes and sevens, trying to figure out how all this shakes out long term.

 

In the short term, I'm just going to do more writing here at AMOC, hopefully, on a weekly basis the day before Rolly comes in so he can e-mail it to Matt. 

 

Read the WALT KELLY (1969) section of SPARRING WITH GIL KANE.  I'm not sure how much more of the book I'm going to read. The "here's what this is presenting itself as" and "here's what I think I'm actually reading" is jarring and not edifying in the way that, say, John's Gospel and the Koran are edifying. 

 

Interesting? Um, interesting but not in a way you would get from the contextualizing of it. Kelly is being interviewed by Gil Kane at a National Cartoonists Society function. In this case, the missing information is that Kelly's POGO animated special has tanked ("the voices were good") not long before that and Kelly is definitely in "Is That All There Is?" mode. This was supposed to be a triumphal appearance as the POGO animated special carried him to new and undreamt-of heights.  I always think of Roy Orbison's signature line as one of the Travelling Willburys "I still have some love to give" just before he died. Then George Harrison died and now the Travelling Willburys are…Jeff Lynne (sp?) and Tom Petty (deceased?). New and undreamt-of heights don't happen in your sixties (or fifties or forties, usually), but it's a very common syndrome. The more successful you WERE, the more susceptible you ARE to "Is That All There Is?" 

 

[I'm very happy that I got to bypass that because I never really WAS successful even in the context of what Gil called comics' "small fame" even before I was demoted to non-human/sub-human in 1994 when issue 186 came out.  One fifth the popularity of ELFQUEST, One tenth the popularity of the TURTLES. One-one hundredth the popularity of SPAWN.  I never arrived AT "Is That All There Is?" because that's where I've always lived.  Yes. This is all that there is or ever will be in this vale of tears. IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN, as Seth put it.]  

 

Kelly had been drinking and was belligerent.  He had roughly four years left to live (he died while I was at the Detroit Triple Fan Fair in October of 1973 where I interviewed BWS, Mike Kaluta and Russ Heath). He would die of diabetic complications, so the fact that he was drinking at all let alone to the point of inebriation is a very bad vital sign.  By 1969, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (1965) was already becoming the cartooning success gold standard and clearly Kelly was hoping to match or exceed that -- partly riding the coattails of that Hollywood success ("Okay, what's LIKE Peanuts?" leading naturally to POGO) and hoping that his best days were still before him.

 

[Which they weren't in those frames of reference but they were in terms of cartooning brilliance. I didn't read POGO until Watergate when I was reading it in my Dad's Globe & Mail.  It was extremely toxic and bitter with Spiro Agnew as a jackal and J. Edgar Hoover as a bulldog. It was hard to tell which was more darkly brilliant -- the writing or the art.  And that was still in the future, that work wouldn't be done until Walt Kelly was officially dying.  The NCS -- and Gil Kane as an eloquent spokesperson -- is trying to pay tribute to the fact that Kelly is in That Cartooning Pantheon. And Kelly is having none of it. He's bristling at the Lifetime Achievement Award quality of it. Which everyone does who gets to that point. "But, I'm not DONE yet!". It's a Denial phase thing. Another aspect of "Is That All There Is?"  "Let's talk about your work at Disney in the classic animation days." It was plainly galling to him. By NOW, POGO should have been the next Mickey Mouse and he the next Walt Disney. He shouldn't still be eclipsed by Disney's cultural radiance. In those frames of reference, yes, it was all over for Walt Kelly and had been since the mid-1950s with the first POGO comic-strip collections. You don't become the next Walt Disney in your sixties.]

 

Technically, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS is a piece of garbage. It makes THE FLINTSTONES look like SNOW WHITE.

 

TECHNICALLY.  But that's really the source of its success. The reason it got made when so many things aren't.  It cost nickels and dimes to put together because the strip itself is complete minimalism. TECHNICALLY, there's nothing to it. Front view, side view, close-up, wide shot, WAY too long musical numbers which just repeat the same stock images.  But, it's A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS.  Skyer no higher.  Schulz insisted that the Luke chapter 3 "For, lo, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a saviour which is Christ the Lord…" be kept in. FOUGHT for it. You're getting a scalp rush, right? THAT's why it's the gold standard.

 

Kelly would die in his 60s shuttling between his home base and Hollywood. It would be a stretch to say A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS killed him but only in the sense that "Elvis died when he went into the army" and "John Lennon died when he met Yoko Ono" are a stretch.  I'd call it "cruel but fair". An inability to see that A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS was a Once In a Millennium Thing for a cartoonist.  Schulz had no idea he would never be that successful with anything again. It was SO "thrown together".  Just imagine what we could do with a Major Hollywood Budget!!  Answer: Met Life commercials.  Is That All There Is? Sorry, "Sparky" -- yes, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS will prove to be "it".  SNOOPY COME HOME is just SNOOPY COME HOME.  Met Life commercials are just Met Life commercials.  

 

Anyway, back at the NCS meeting…

 

Kelly starts doing a riff on having two girlfriends and his wife finding out and chaining him to his drawing board.  Which I think is why Rube Goldberg "chimes in" (as the book puts it) from the audience.  It's either Goldberg's last NCS meeting or one of them. He's 86 and will be dead before Christmas of the following year. I think that what happened was that Goldberg realized "Oh my god, he's doing me."  Which is an extremely eerie moment because Goldberg in 1945-46 -- when Goldberg basically created the National Cartoonists Society -- had been the age that Kelly is in 1969. i.e. early 60s. i.e. a little younger than I am right now. It's as if I'm frozen in this…50-year-old tableaux where only Goldberg and I know what's going on.  Not  a fun reading experience, And everyone else is washing out to a sepia tone and the sound quality is going tinny.  "Uh, Rube, Gil Kane's supposed to be interviewing him. You're not supposed to interrupt". Goldberg can't save Kelly from his place in the audience but he can at least try to contextualize things for him. Try for some sort of ameliorating gloss in this Nightmarish Cringeworthy Moment.  I'm here, Walt. I know what you're trying to do, but  It isn't 1946 any more, Walt.  We don't DO that anymore. Don't DO this to YOURSELF. 

 

There IS a place for this, is what Kelly is obviously wrestling with through an alcoholic fog, listening to Gil Kane's smooth-as-oil intellectualisms.  Yes, I want these nice things said about my work. Yes, I want my work discussed in these superlative terms this nice young man -- whoever he is -- is using.  Maybe in THE ATLANTIC or TIME magazine.  Like Milt Caniff and Al Capp used to get.  Like Charles Schulz is getting now.  But, that's there.  i.e. the imagined Walt Disney moment when it finally all comes together. The Academy Awards. The Tonight Show. The Emmys.  Here, in a squalid hotel meeting room in Somewhere, Connecticut I'm supposed to be cracking everyone up as a former NCS president.   I don't even know who three-quarters of these people are. 

 

 "Like I used to do". 

 

Yes, Rube. Like you used to do.  What happened, Rube?  Where did it all go? This used to be so much…fun.  IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

 

I'm here, Walt. Think of the great cartooning and illustration names you most admired. We may be the only two in the room who know who we're talking about, but WE do know who we're talking about. And that's important. WE remember.

 

It ISN'T important. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi shouldn't surprise you in your sixties. If it does, you're Doing It wrong.   

 

Goldberg was financially independent before he became a cartoonist because of his father's money.  His father was a land speculator and…everyone is completely euphemistic in the comics field about these things…either a loan shark or a Shylock or just a loan officer. It's always hard to tell if it's an anti-Semitic pig with lipstick on or genuine anti-Semitism.  Or -- self-evident truth of Goldberg's father's generation -- look, Jews have to make money, too, in the 19th century USA and there aren't many doors open to us.  Call it what you will, non-stupid Jews are always just getting ready to survive the next pogrom.  And the next pogrom is always just up ahead where and when you least expect it. Don't kid yourself. And don't try to kid me.  

 

So Goldberg, was insulated by that, by his father's money, always just did whatever took his fancy and I think he started the NCS as a vehicle for himself because he had been a Vaudevillian comic temporarily and what was then called a toastmaster (and still is if you're on that circuit).  He probably wasn't good enough to make a living at it at a high elevation, but as I say he didn't need to.  I think what he thought was, "I know all these guys. They're good guys. Anti-Semites but not anything out of the ordinary with any bunch of goys in the 1940s.  A little less now that the concentration camps have been liberated. That's probably just temporary. But!  Some of them are very funny because they make a living being funny. I'M funny.  Funnier than most of them. Why don't I start a Cartoonists' Club? We can rent a room somewhere, bring in some dancing girls, a cash bar, a buffet table and basically spend two or three nights a year getting corked and cracking each other up."  And, by all reliable reports, that's what happened. It was just a big piss-up social-club thing and -- no big surprise -- Rube Goldberg got elected its first president. In no small part, I'm sure, because he was the quickest and funniest of them all.  It's one thing to be funny on paper. It's another thing to be funny on a Vaudeville stage or at a banquet head table when the hoots and the catcalls are always just around the corner and when everyone is already three sheets to the wind.  Good ol' Rube. A credit to his race. One funny Kike, I'll tell the world. Picture facing that intentionally and coming out of it in one piece.  For Rube Goldberg it was "This isn't nearly as pressure packed as an actual Vaudeville stage. This is fun." 

 

The thing was most of the NCS were "also-rans".  They were wealthy to varying degrees and they had however many subscribing newspapers they had to make them middle class or upper middle class but they were all "running ahead of the freight train". Year after year after year: trying to stay 12 weeks ahead of publication date. No time off, no vacations, just work, work, work, work.  Dreaming of the animation or movie deal that would make them wealthy enough to hire someone else to draw their strip so all they needed to do was drink, eat and play golf.  At the NCS meetings without their wives (as opposed to the NCS banquets with their wives) they Blew Off Some Major Steam. The NCS Newsletters (which I've read a lot of courtesy of the Billy Ireland Library at Ohio State University and Eddie Khanna's generosity in getting everything photocopied and mailed to me-- Milt Caniff saved EVERYTHING and his widow donated EVERYTHING) are like mimeographed Shriner's newsletters, embarrassingly badly written and concerned with suburban trivia and Family Newspaper-style salaciousness.  Could everyone please pay their dues?  Just a reminder that you need to pay for the banquet ahead of time and it's $5. Please send your check to Marge Devine ASAP. The Major Cartoonists are underrepresented because, basically, they won. They were actually known by the general public. They actually were wealthy and did hire people to do their work for them. Except Schulz. Key point. They didn't need to go to an NCS meeting with a bunch of drunks to be a Famous Cartoonist (capital F capital C).  They WERE Famous Cartoonists. Every one of them a fraction of what Charles Schulz and PEANUTS were.  Bigger and smaller fractions, but everyone outside of Schulz a fraction.   

 

Except at the non-wife meetings themselves which had their own social chemistry and where everyone was a Famous Cartoonist. Where Rube Goldberg shone, year after year for at least the first decade of the NCS's existence, with exactly the kind of story Kelly was trying to tell about having two girlfriends on the sly and was clearly just making a mess of. 

 

And Goldberg, as I say, being 86 at that point and obviously not drinking to the point of inebriation -- if at all -- has also bypassed the "Is That All There Is?" trauma Kelly is clearly enduring. He's a) still wealthy and b) in the dictionary.  Goldberg, Rube (1883-1970) U.S. cartoonist; full name Reuben Lucius Goldberg. As creator of the comic strip characters Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts (and inventor of complex mechanical devices to achieve simple tasks), Boob McNutt, and Lala Palooza, he satirized American folkways and modern technology.

 

However, even there, comics scholarship was catching up with him.  Bill Blackbeard's comments in Maurice Horn's THE WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMICS which would be published in 1976 had obviously been circulating for some time: 

 

His foolishly complicated inventions which gained him dictionary-entry (for "Rube Goldberg contraption" etc.) appealed to the same broad audience base, even though it was not his unique idea. W. Heath Robinson had developed fanciful inventions of his own in various cartoon series for English magazines and newspapers in the 1910s, while the American strip cartoonist, Clare Victor Dwiggins, introduced devices very similar to those of Goldberg's in a New York World Sunday page called School Days of the 1900s, which Goldberg must have read before he ever drew any of his own comic contraptions, since his early Mike and Ike ran in the same comic section. A curious case of a strip cartoonist better known than any of his characters (except possibly Mike and Ike).

 

But, at age 86, really, what was the difference?  And 50 years later, what's the difference?  Everyone knows what Rube Goldberg contraption means.  There is absolutely no danger of that becoming a W. Heath Robinson contraption or a Clare Victor Dwiggins contraption by popular consent at this late date.         

 

Eisner made the acquaintance of New York

Sun editorial cartoonist Rube Goldberg…

he was sitting in a chair off by himself, one

hand tightly gripping his cane…Goldberg

said, "The Spirit, what kind of thing is that?"

"Well, it's different than the daily strips,

Eisner said. "I believe the medium is an

art form and that there is tremendous

opportunity for literary potential in the

field."                                                     

Goldberg looked at Eisner, banged his

cane down, and shook his head in

disgust.                      

"Bullshit, boy!" he said. "You are a vaudevillian

like the rest of us. It's just vaudeville, 

just  plain vaudeville; don't ever forget that ."

                                     A SPIRITED LIFE p. 168

 

"Will took me to my first NCS meeting," Jules

Feiffer recalled, "and I heard my first argument

about whether to admit women. Rube Goldberg

didn't want women admitted because you couldn't

say 'fuck' in front of them. Alex Raymond was the

only one who stood up for admitting Hilda Terry

("Teena"). I don't remember Will saying a word."

                                         A SPIRITED LIFE p. 169

 

More soon, God willing!

 

Dave

Now, since I MAY have posted this four years ago, (and a signed something or other to the first person to send a link to that to momentofcerebus@gmail.com) here's something I didn't know existed until about two hours ago. From What The--?! #25/the 1993 Summer Special, a NIFTY Cerebus appearance:
not one but TWO Cerebus...es pencilled/inked/colored/and lettered(?) by the Late Great Marie Severin! (I infer that's what they mean by "stuff"...)

James Banderas-Wonka-Nixon-Sneezy-Sleepy-Happy-Doc-Larry-Curly-ALVIN!!!-D2-Smith is probably jazzed about it...

Okay, "Moment"? CHECK!
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Rigamarole:

40% off November 25-30.*
*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.
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Got a message from my friends at the Waverly Press. They're doing Holiday Bundles for 2024. There are limited to 50 bundles. Available until December 31 or they sell out. Whichever comes first. Get 'em while they're hot. https://waverlycomics.com
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In other news, since Twitter is a dumpster-fire and most people are skipping out of there, AMOC has joined BlueSky. Follow along. Or don't.
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The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)
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Heritage has slabbed copy of  #1.
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The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 
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The Last Day Without nothing.
   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.
   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque
   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques
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Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..."Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".
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Next Time: Jen's got NOTHING! NOTHING I tells ya! Yer a Bum DiGiacomo! A BUM!