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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Last week we saw pages 155, 156, and 157 which contained more bits from Cerebus #27. And then boss man goes and says this “And she's *this* close to being almost at the end. Then Dave'll start selling replicas of Albatross #2, and she'll post all the pages from that. Or not...” I am almost that close. There are 38 pages left in Albatross 1, and we’ve seen 7 of those pages already, so really only 31 pages left to look at. And yes, we will see them all. Perhaps not before the end of the year, but they will be posted here sequentially. And then. . .
Are we on to Albatross 2 once we’re done looking at Albatross 1? Umm. . .
But on to page 158. And is it more on Cerebus #27 or are we moving forward to Cerebus #28, the final issue covered in this notebook?
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| Notebook #1, page 158 |
It is more material for Cerebus #27. This is closer to what becomes Cerebus #27 than what was in the previous notebook pages. Notice that Dave crossed out ‘Eye in the Pyramid’ between items listed as #4 and #5. If you’re wondering what the line by #9 is: “Engravings . . You remember don’ya? The old peacock road chap what cut up half a dozen derelicts with a pair of rusty hedge trimmers”. Dave had this to say on it: “Didn’t know who the kidnappers were, yet, and I was toying with the idea of doing The Maltese Falcon – that’s Peter Loree in the lower right. . .which is where the Mary Astor character, Astoria, originated.”
Well, Dave didn’t know who the kidnappers were on page 158, but with page 159, he starts sketching some:
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| Notebook #1, page 159 |
As Dave says about this page: “Two of the original three kidnappers / first concept sketch.” We know who the “kidnappers” are going to be, so perhaps the first sketches of the McGrew Brothers.
