Notebook 21: Cerebus #168 Part Three

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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For the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at material from Dave’s 21st notebook which cover Cerebus  #168. Last week we ended with dialogue between Cirin and Swoon from Cirin’s dream. Today the page starts with a page by page outline from page one to page 17 of Cerebus #168:

Notebook #21, page 72

Dave’s outline for pages one through seventeen matches up pretty well, though the ‘Cirin coma debate’ starts on page 16. Perhaps that is that he meant, it just looked like to me it started on fifteen according to the notebook scribbling.  

Taking up the bottom two thirds of the notebook page is the dialogue that appears on page six of the issue starting with panel four. Yes, the round circled numbers here indicate panel numbers. And the dialogue continues to page seven of the issue. The text is pretty close to the finished page, but there are a few changes. The next page of the notebook continues the dialogue between Astoria and the Kevillist guard. 

Notebook #21, page 73

Then below the continuation of the dialogue from page 72, we get Dave redoing the same dialogue for pages six and seven, the numbers now in squares for the pages and circles for the panels. 

The next page of the notebook is sketch of Astoria sleeping, it doesn’t appear in Cerebus #168. Well, I thought it was Astoria until I saw the text below it:

Notebook #21, page 74

Friends called to her, stepping forward and holding her arm. ‘Jaka,’ they would say. ‘Stop a while. Tell me what you’ve been doing.’ No, she would reply. I have to find my way. Come along if you like. They would find a way like phantoms. Some joined her briefly. This way, Jaka, they would say. No, she would reply. I’m finding my own way now. And then they were gone.

That text doesn’t appear in Cerebus #168 nor in Cerebus #169, where Jaka does appear reading “Jaka’s Story”.