Notebook 21: Cerebus #164 page 11

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.

We’re continuing our look at Dave Sim’s 21st notebook used during the creation of Cerebus #164 to 187. We’ll be looking at this notebook, which there were 260 out of 300 pages scanned, until we’ve seen every single page of it. Well, the pages scanned. If you want to see all of the notebook #21 posts to date, just use the Notebook 21 tag. 

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Last week we saw pages 8 and 9, which were “walls of text”, most of which made it to Cerebus #164 pages 5 and 16, but some did not. The next page of the notebook says it is for page 11 of that same issue:

Notebook 21, page 10

And if you flip to page 37 of your Women phonebook or page 11 of Cerebus #164, you’ll see that same text – for the most part – on the page. We even get different word balloons for Swoon’s text. Though the text in “panel 2”, has bound crossed out and replaced with captured. However, in the finished page, the word bound remains:

Cerebus #164, page 11

On the next page is a sketch of Astoria, which is reminiscent of Astoria trying out earrings on page 8 of Cerebus #164 (page 34 of the phonebook), as her hair has the same look to it. But on page 8 she is wearing a different shirt.

Notebook 21, page 11

The next page of the phonebook is another sketch of Astoria with two things she’ll be doing: getting her haircut and buying a jacket and scarf.

Notebook 21, page 12

Though we never see Astoria buying a jacket and scarf, we do see her getting a haircut in Cerebus #163 page 5, or page 11 of the phonebook Women.