Notebook One: Cerebus #26 Part One

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. We’re up to page 134 today, and material for Cerebus #26. Yes, we finally made it to material for High Society. We really haven’t seen anything for High Society yet. 

Notebook #1, page 134

At the top of the page Dave starts with how Cerebus #26 starts, Cerebus with a sack of stuff from the Artist. Though the Regency is called the “Aardvarkian Age ‘Holiday Inn’”. Which in the digital version of High Society – the one that came with selected pages from Notebook #1 – Dave said this about the page: “Original idea was to do an “Aardvarkian Age” Holiday Inn, a middle class hotel. Then I thought that having a bath in your room would be a distinctly “upper class” thing at the time.”

Well, the Regency is a bit more than ‘middle class’, the sketch of the bed with the tub next to it does show up – kind of – in the finished issue as the desk clerk has a fresh bath drawn for Cerebus in his room, the tub just a curtain away from the bed.

The  little chair in the bottom left corner of the page with a barely noticeable Cerebus sitting on it is something I wished was used.

The next page shows us Dave working through some potential dialogue for Cerebus #26:

Notebook #1, page 135

On the next page of the notebook, Dave had this to say about the text near the bottom of the page: “Manservant in the original plotline (“smart ass kid but he knows what’s going down”) who later become the desk clerk of the “Holiday Inn” in issue 27. Plot problem: “businessmen, merchants, bankers, traders” would stay there, but not “politicians and bureaucrats” which were needed to drive the plot forward.”

We also get a taste for the Desk Clerk’s reaction to hearing Cerebus’ name: “You’re that Cerebus?!” Though the desk clerk at that point doesn’t mention knowing that Cerebus was the Kitchen Staff Supervisor.

At the top of the next page is some dialogue which Dave had this to say: “Sample exchange of dialogue on WHY Cerebus is seen as a key figure. I decided to skip that and leave it a bit of mystery. There was no reason anyone would discuss it with him except in terms of their personal experience (Skorz of Skorz, Skorz & Sons).”

Notebook #1, page 136

There are a couple of sketches of the private dining table Cerebus would be sitting, that didn’t end up being so private as everyone came by to try and make a deal with him. At the bottom of the page is the plot for pages 1 through 8: “Mostly, the young manservant is trying to get across to Cerebus how much money can buy. Cerebus explains that he just gets money when he needs it. . .what about banks. . .banks take your money and give you pieces of”.

Next week will be more – yes, you’ve probably guessed it – notebook 1 pages.