Notebook 21: Cerebus #168 Part Two

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. 

~*~~~*~

Last week, after a few weeks of Spawn #10 material, we final got to Cerebus #168 material. It was dialogue between Swoon, Astoria, and a bit with Cirin from when Swoon entered their dreams. We also saw a calendar for January / February 1993.  On the next page, we have a couple of sketches, one of which is definitely JFK:

Notebook #21, page 69

The flip side of that page returns to the Swoon and Cirin dialogue:

Notebook #21, page 70

The dialogue for the first two thirds of the notebook page shows up on page 13 and a bit on page 14. Even the word balloons look the same:

Cerebus #168, page 13 (aka Women page 119)

Note that on the second “row” of dialogue on the notebook page, the Roach’s full name, Artemis Strong, is crossed out. Neither does it appear on the finished page. The reference to the Tick always makes me chuckle.  The next page of the notebook continues the dialogue between Swoon and Cirin:

Notebook #21, page 71

The dialogue is pretty much as it appears on page 14 of Cerebus #168. Then mid-page on the notebook page we get a bit of a page by page outline for Cerebus #168. That includes the line that appears by itself on the first page: “But, you know, I know when it’s a dream.” That line also appears on page 66 of the notebook. We even get the Eye of the Pyramid on page 5.