Notebook 21: Cerebus #164 Page Nine

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 production of Cerebus. Notebook #21 covers Cerebus #164 through #187 and had 260 pages out of 300 pages scanned in – due to some pages missing and other pages being blank.

Last week we looked at pages 1, 2, and 4. Page 3 had already shown up back in February of 2019. Those pages covered the earlier pages in Cerebus #164. Now on to page 5. 

Notebook #21, page 5

The text at the top of the page:

Astoria: Other women submit to and are subservient to assholes. I have to confess that I have never been so self-destructive as to do so, but I must confess that the strongest and most intelligent women are susceptible to the worse examples of male kind imaginable.

I definitely don’t see that text in Cerebus #164. I skimmed the next couple of issues and didn’t see it there either.

Then we have a thumbnail rough for page 9 of Cerebus #164 along with some dialogue for the page. Yes, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Thumbnail from the notebook (left) & Cerebus #164 page 9

Pretty close. In the top three panels we get the crowd getting ready to light torches, their confusion as they look up, and then the camera moving to their right. The bottom three panels is where there is more of a difference. Though we do get a bunch of word balloons and then Roach in the final panel. 

Then on page 6 we see some more for page 9:

Notebook #21, page 6

Ahhh, another thumbnail but this time it is for the bottom half of page 9, the half that wasn’t as finished in page 5. This is closer to the finished page. And the dialogue is as well. 

Will next week bring more thumbnails (I hope so, transcribing text isn’t fun, Dave’s lettering in the book is outstanding, but in his notebooks? Good luck.) or more walls of text? We shall see for we are on the Notebook #21 binge watch.