Notebook One: Cerebus #27 Part Nine

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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We finished last week with a look at page #179 of Dave Sim’s first notebook, so we’re picking it back up with page #180. And yes, if you guessed we’re still be on material for Cerebus #27 you’d be correct. In fact, we get the panel lay outs and some dialogue for pages #5 and 6:

Notebook #1, page 180

The writing at the top is the text of the note that the McGrew Brothers wrote, and we get the finished note in the notebook page. When Cerebus is reading it out loud on page 5 he leaves off Drew’s name. Notice in the text of the note Dave originally wrote pieces, then peeces and ended up with peesiz. The final texted ended with peeses. 

The text down the bottom of the page is some of what ends up on page 6 between the inn keeper and Cerebus talking about fleecing the McGrew brothers.  

Dave had this to say about the notebook page in the AV High Society: “sometimes just sketching panel designs can lead to a good idea. Like the horizontal panel at the top of the right hand page which gave me the ‘Cerebus held hostage’ gag.”

On the next page we get something similar – page thumbnails and more text:

Notebook #1, page 181

We have text for page 7, and a sketch that goes along with it – Cerebus sitting down with his back against the wall writing the ransom note. The rest of the text at the top of the page is the dialogue between the McGrew Brothers as they wonder what Cerebus is doing. One line that didn’t get used: “D’huh think he gets the conninennul breakfast too? Mebbe we gotta share ours with’em.’

On the lower half of the page we get page layouts for page 8 and 9. Page 9 is Cerebus leaping out of the window and across the alley to the next building and then running across roofs to deliver the ransom note. The dialogue to the left of the page 8 thumbnail is the dialogue for the McGrew Brothers.

The next page of the notebook continues the plot outline with page 10 and then starts with what is happening on the days Cerebus is “held hostage”. On the right hand side starting about a third of the way down is some plot outlining for page 9 and 10. 

Notebook #1, page 182

The date and time at the top of the page – 3:24 AM Oct 18, 1931 – is the death of Thomas Edison. 

Dave had this to say about page 182: “Then there are times when I would come up with a good line – ‘A HUNNERT CROWNS! WAHOO! HOW MUCH IS THAT IN MONEY, VARMIT, SIR?’ is very funny – but I would have no idea how to follow it up. ’42,000 Onliu copper pieces.’ Well, you’d have to explain to Dirty Fleagle what a ‘thousand’ is. ‘More than twelve times twelve’. Or explain it terms of gold. ‘Two chunks and some clumpy bits’.  That’s funny, too, but you can’t use it with ‘money’ which is what makes the original line funny. I finally just had to give up.”