Notebook 21: Cerebus #165 Cirinists Dialogue

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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Lake week we looked at pages #22 – 24, so why are we now starting with page 32 of Dave’s 21st notebook? Because we saw pages 25 – 31 in other posts. For all of them, check out last week’s post as I haven’t gone back and added the notebook 21 tag to the old posts. Sigh. One of these weekends.

So I’m going to do this post a bit differently. As pages #32 – 35 are what I’ve affectionately referred to as “walls of text”, I’ll post all of the pages and then the transcription of all of it below the pages.

Notebook #21, page 32

Notebook #21, page 33

Notebook #21, page 34

Notebook #21, page 35

And the transcription, no Boobah didn't help with this:

Well we don't know. We have the transcript from Vera and we know he's in the tavern.

You're certain of that.

Yes. Well. Yes and no. He hasn't done anything or attacked anyone so there's a real possibility that he's just an illusion. We have our best-equipped group stationed there now so he can't take us by surprise this time. They're armored—heavily armoured—so the sword won't do him much good if he isn't an illusion.

Then there's the doll.

Oh yes I almost forgot. He's clutching a doll, which was not mentioned during the last... sighting. A plain rag doll.

A doll.

Yes, we think it might be a provocative gesture sign from the illusionists, since it's obviously a maternal symbol. Of course if he's real and he's still a Kevillist the symbolism is even more significant. He's definitely holding it in a protective manner and he's already forced one of the other residents to pay homage to it.

Homage to a child symbol. That doesn't sound like a Kevillist.

No it doesn't, which leads us back to the Illusionists or it might mean he's come over to our side.

That's pretty far-fetched.

I agree, it is so unexpected and confusing it would seem to point at Illusionism.

It's the sort of thing Lord Julius would come up with, don't you think? Maybe they're still connected in some way.

A child symbol. And he's not doing anything?

Just sitting and drinking a beer.

Unbelievable. It must mean something.

Do you want us to go in and get him?

No. The Alcohol sanction shouldn't be violated. That’s probably Our best guess is that that’s probably what the Illusionists want is provocation. Make us break our own code and use it to fuel an insurgency.

But he's murdered a dozen mothers in cold...

He's an illusion. He has to be. How do you explain the doll?

We'll leave him there for the time being. Monitor his conversations. Wait the Illusionists out. They're getting careless. The ascension is at hand. There's no way they can stop it at this point. They're trying to break our concentration.

Yes. Yes, of course. That must be it.

Mrs. Thatcher is down there now with Hammond.

It has to be an illusion. Things don’t construct themselves like that.

The designers are beside themselves. You know how they were always qualifying the purity? Ninety per cent? Ninety-eight per cent? They aren't doing that now. It makes me suspicious. It's ironic—we kept telling them they could do it at under one hundred and now we're the ones with the doubts. Now they're all confident and we're the ones with the doubts.

We have to trust that the Goddess is guiding the construction.

We have to — expanded. (Margaret notes: unsure if this ‘expanded’ belongs in the above or below sentence.)

But if the Illusionists... if the forge isn’t really there. It's just a skeleton of wood, one step past a blueprint.

If the principle is sound and all of the designers and technicians say it is, then it doesn’t matter if the skeleton is an illusion, the forge itself will be real. . .

But what if the principle is an illusion? I never understood the mechanics of it in the first place. What would prevent the Illusionists from making them see some miraculous new construction idea that’s unsound.

The fact that it's two elements instead of three worries me. We needed a mold, a forge and a ladle. Now they’re saying the ladle is unnecessary. Three elements constitute is a queen, two elements is a priestess.

Unstable.

It’s so Astoria it squeaks.

You forgot the gold itself. That meant it was four elements before: mold, forge, kettle and gold. A king. Now it's three elements: mold, forge and gold.

Praise the Goddess.

Praise the Goddess.

Doubt is going to be our greatest foe as the ascension approaches. We must trust in Her absolutely.

Yes, Great Cirin. You’re right, of course.

First, the signs have been changed from Roachland to Swoon Country. Again we have no idea what that means.

We’ve been able to scan nothing of the fellow with the skull emblazoned on his chest. As per our discussions late last night, we decided to have some of our people go in on a reconnaissance mission over the rooftops. There’s a young woman who seems to be the new custodian of the have the same kind of weapons perhaps that Skull man was on our first occupation force.

A woman?

Yes. Very young, wearing the sacred symbol. Dressed entirely in black. We tried to monitor her thoughts and drew a blank.

She’s screening, then.

Evidently.

Kevillist?

That would be our best guess. We have no idea how she knew our people were on the roof, but she took them all out with pinpoint accuracy. Twenty dead.

Deaths are confirmed?

Yes, no chance of it being an illusion.

There’s a companion. A large man in black robes. Both are described as extremely pale-skinned. We haven’t been able to scan him either. Except for one word: “Blossom.”

Sounds like the ascension.

Blossom. Exactly. Big trouble.

I’d like to recommend an all-out assault, but at this point we’d consider it highly inadvisable. We feel it would be more advisable to First we don’t know where Skull man is and we have to assume he’s still there and fully armed. And we don’t know who else might be there.

So your recommendation is...?

Hold the perimeter, as we’ve been doing. No one gets in. No one gets out.

Yes. Yes. Very good. I’ll like a full report the full their activities by later today.

Of course.

This dialogue shows up on page 55 of the phonebook, Women. Or Cerebus #165 page 9. It is General Greer, General Dworkin, and Cirin discussing the ongoing events in Iest. 

The dialogue then continues on page 11 of Cerebus #165 with Cirin talking with Mrs Hayes and Mrs Mills about the gold sphere's creation.

The dialogue wraps up on page 20 of the same issue with General Greer, General Dworkin, and Cirin talking about Cockroach and Elrod's activities in Iest. 

The text in the notebook is very close to the finished text. Missing the names that the "person" transcribing it in the comic gives them, but close enough.