Notebook One: Cerebus #27 Part Two

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.

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Yes, we’re still looking at Dave Sim’s first Cerebus notebook, Albatross One.  Why did I start this chronological look at Albatross One? I started because there were questions about the notebook in a Please Hold For Dave Sim video according to a post from last December, Albatross One - AKA Dave's First Cerebus Notebook which covers Cerebus #20 through #28, plus a few other bits and pieces. So now that we’ve been looking at Albatross One for almost a year, what have we seen? Here is the page count so far:

Notebook One, page count breakdown as of 27 Oct 24

And Manly Matt keeps asking “And she's gotta be nearing the end, right? Right?”. Yahhhh, about that. There are 194 pages scanned out of this 200 page notebook, and we’ve seen 153 of them so far. We have 41 pages to go on this journey. I don’t think we’ll finish by the end of 2024, but soon thereafter. So should we pick up where we left off?

We left off last week with page #154 and material for Cerebus #27. And that is right back where page #155 picks up. Yes, that big bird looking like thing is supposed to be The Albatross. This page gives information about the Albatross that wasn’t used – that the Albatross is a scared symbol of the Eye in the Pyramid group and used for ransom. It is released from a safe at the Regency and floated down the river in a small boat which is then picked up by the kidnappers. Some Cirinists kill the kidnappers and take the Albatross to a Cirinist church in Doveshire. Lord Julius has an agent in one of the Priestesses of this Cirinist Church and she brings it to him. 

Notebook 1, page 155

However, Dave mentions in the AV version of High Society that “it isn’t the real Albatross. The idea is that Cirinists and Kevillists embark on a ‘Mad, Mad, Mad World’ style rugby game with it, decimating their own ranks.” This plot of the Cirinists and Lord Julius vying for this Albatross was never seen in the finished comic, but it continues on in the next notebook page.

Notebook 1, page 156

Dave said this about the above page: “’Lord Julius accomplishes what he set out to do: get some major Cirinists and Orthodox Tarimites bumped off.’ The rest of the page is still plotting Cerebus getting the Albatross – but NOT knowing what it is – and the kidnappers getting murdered. I moved all of that COMPLETELY behind the scenes so that Cerebus would have this exponential rise in his perceived significance while he wouldn’t have any idea why all of the ‘major Cirinists and Orthodox Tarimites’ were getting ‘bumped off.’” 

That sketch of the odd looking guy with the big ears is another version of what Cerebus looks like according to some artist. We saw another take of Cerebus similar to this on page 139 of the notebook.

The next page of the notebook continues this same unseen plot of the Albatross as ransom:

Notebook 1, page 157

With all of this plotting, perhaps some Cerebus fan out there could take it and turn it into the Untold Tales of Estarcion. Reminiscent of Jaka’s Story, Cerebus wouldn’t be the main character – if he would appear at all. But what is happening in the world around him unbeknownst to him. 

Anyone?