Notebook One: Cerebus #21 Material Part Five

​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 far in this past month of two during our look at Dave Sim’s first notebook used in the production of Cerebus we’ve seen up to page 39, so today we’ll start with page 40. If you want to get caught up, just use the Notebook One tag to find all past blog entries with pages from Notebook One.

Last week we saw pages from the notebook which covered Cerebus #21 with Elrod and Cockroach selling bonds while Cerebus wakes up and discovers them. Page 40 of the notebook continues this, with some discussion about selling bonds and going to meet the President:

Notebook #1, page 40

We get to see one of Weisshaupt's lines: “If you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, start breeding them for stupidity.” Though the line in the finished book, and yes this line appears in Cerebus #21, is: "I firmly believe that if you can't fool all of the people all of the time, you should start breeding them for stupidity..." 

The next two pages of the notebook, pages 41 & 42, were shown previously on this blog in the entry Adam Beduin. On those pages are sketches of Weisshaupt, Beduin, and Captain Cockroach.

On the next page up along the top is Dave shorthand notes:

Start talking m o conversation eo action action Elrod hurt.

Perhaps it is some plot points he wants to address? 

Notebook #1, page 43

The gray spot on the page is me crossing out the address and phone number of the person whose name is written in the notebook. Then we see a bunch of sketches. I like the water reflections of the sitting Cockroach character. That Cerebus figure is . . .something else. Another shot of Beduin and Elrod. The big half naked guy must be Dave just have fun sketching.

The next page of the notebook, is only half full:

Notebook #1, page 44

Some dialogue between Weisshaupt and Cerebus along the top, another random sketch, and the little note: “C wakes up doesn’t know where he is going to supposed to be in Parmoc.” Parmoc? Really? The one note I can find on Parmoc is “the northwestern district of Palnu, containing the city of Fluroc.” Parmoc does appear on a map in the main, but doesn’t get any other mentions that I know.

Next week: pages 45 through 47? We shall see.