Notebook 21: Cerebus #173

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.

Having finished looking at Dave’s last Cerebus notebook, notebook #36, it is on to a request from the big boss man. Take a load off, as this is a bit of journey.

Over on the Cerebus Facebook Group, Will had this to say:

Issue 173 (“WOMEN”) on Magus Doran and “Pure Male Magic” and its “lore”: —the most expansive and enigmatic, enchanting, dare I say Magical “snapshot” in the entire storyline. Dave leaving this mystique here and only touching very obliquely on this in “MINDS” was deft… but all these years later I intend to ask about it in his q+a community feature.

And he put that text with page 5 of Cerebus #173 (aka page 211 of the phonebook, Women):

Cerebus #173, page 5

And with a little back and forth on phrasing that in the form of a question for the Please Hold for Dave Sim podcast, we got a question and an answer:

And I was asked to share any notebook pages that dealt with that one page. Well, I found it and shared it to the group:

Notebook #21, page 93

And for those of us who have difficulty reading Dave’s handwriting. . .well, at least in his notebooks, not always as nice as it is in the finished book:

Cerebus had no idea how long he had been awake, starring at the clouds over the Church Upper City, rising in a dark column. He felt no ill effects from the scotch. But he heard a voice. A voice what seemed to come from the clouds themselves. A long-forgotten conversation with an old hermit Magus Doran in the woods near his parents’ house. 

‘Well why not you, then.’  The voice was saying. ‘They’re starting again. Low Upper Felda this time. Our turn, they always say, you’ve had your turn. Well we haven’t had we? The women are always in control. Wives and mistresses, concubines, relatives. From the dawn of time, the men have never had a fair chance. The women are a sickness; they’re parasites, young Cerebus. Partaking of them will sicken your soul. Mark what I say here. If left unchecked they’ll take over the armies, they’ll take over the churches, they’ll take over business and government. They’re mad. All of them. Follow insanity back to its source and you’ll find a woman every time. When it’s time you’ll hear these words again. You’ll have the chance to stop them. If Tarim is strong within you you won’t have a lady-friend or a wife feeding on your guts. B You’ll have to be strong, though. There’ll be a trace of womanhood with you. Put it aside. It’ll be feeding on your soul. If you need to make a choice, save the Church. Put it aside. Be strong for all the men who are weak.

The women will try to break you.

You are our last and greatest chance. Let the one true Tarim live at last through you. Take back the throne that is rightfully yours.

There is a line of Dave’s writing pointing towards the line ‘There’ll be a trace of womanhood with you.’ And that line states:

A symbol a tolem that

You’ll be cling to a memory and the memory will be feeding on you.

Several other lines down to the bottom right:

A dead memory

A dead memory that will keep you weak.

Much of that notebook page’s text made it to the final text on page 5 of Cerebus #173. However, there is some additional text down the bottom.  It is missing the mention of Ketigern.

There are two other pages in this notebook that cover Cerebus #173, but their mentions of page 5 are very small. First up page 94 has a rough plot outline for Cerebus #173 and page five just says ‘Cerebus’.

Notebook #21, page 94

The next page of the notebook has a more tighten plot outline which only goes up to page 12, However, it does have a bit more on page 5 than the previous page in the notebook:

Notebook #21, page 95

Again, no mention of Ketigern, but we do get a reference to Magus Doran and the text “some residue of womanhood – get rid of it. It represents something dead and you are very much alive.”

And yes, you can see the issue box number for Cerebus #174 on the following page.