Notebook 36: Cerebus #280 & 281

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.

It is more of Dave’s 36th notebook used during the production of Cerebus. You can see all the posts for Notebook 36 by using the tag of the same name, just click here. Last week we saw three blank pages for Cerebus #277, 278, and 279. Well, they were nearly blank as the only thing on them were the issue box numbers that Dave put in the notebook. Then hopefully you took at the next page in the notebook, page #43, in The Final Notebook post. So next up? Yup, page 44:

Notebook #36, page 44

If you took a look see at page 43, then you’d already know that this material is for Cerebus #280. About halfway down the page, starting with the “Not that I’m an expert on these things but I think you’re supposed to unroll it from one side and roll it onto the other side one page at a time.” That dialogue – albeit slightly changed – is on page four of Cerebus #280 when Konigsberg and Cerebus are talking. So is the rest of the dialogue on the bottom of the notebook page, though it has slight tweaks.

The next page of the notebook, which I thought was blank, has some light pencil sketches on it:

Notebook #36, page 45

It looks like a page layout and using the ‘a talking snake’ dialogue in the middle left panel, it would be for page five of Cerebus #280. However, it doesn’t quite match. Dave didn’t go with two rows of three panels with close-ups of Cerebus and his magnifying glass, but interspersed panels of Konigsberg with panels of Cerebus. 

And then, for Cerebus #281, another blank page. Well, yah, it does have the issue box number and you can barely see the Cerebus sketches on page 45 showing through, but overall there isn’t anything of substance on it:

Notebook #36, page 46

What will we see next week? More blank pages? We shall see.