Notebook 21: Cerebus #173 Swoon / Astoria / Cirin

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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We’ve been going through material from Dave’s notebook that covers the phonebook 2, and last week we made our way up to Cerebus #173 with text from Cirin and Astoria’s books and other text pieces in that issue. And page 90 of Dave’s 21st notebook contains material used on pages 2 through 4 of Cerebus #173:

Notebook #21, page 90

The dialogue is Swoon / Roach trying to contain his other Roach identities. Most of the dialogue is used, but the above page is definitely a preliminary take on those three pages. For example, we don’t see the “original” Cockroach saying “Revenge on the Red Clan Matriarchists, through we do see him pop up and ‘hssss!’. 

The next page of the notebook contains the preliminary text of what would become Astoria’s flashback on page 8 of the issue, aka page 214 of the phonebook Women. 

Notebook #21, page 91

And yes, that is Astoria’s flashback pretty much word for word with a few minor tweaks. The text from the book she was handed to her, Kevil, is not on the notebook page, but the mark-ups and different additions are the final text on the page. If you can’t read Dave’s handwritten text – I know, I know, he is a great letterer, but this is his notebook – here it is:

Astoria had had visions before, though she had seldom lent them any credence. But there she was in the park near her parents’ home. (text from top right corner added here) She was dressed for church, but as was her habit, she had gone to the park instead to sit and muse. She liked to fantasized about her own church – it would be a courtyard, open to the skies and the clouds with pews of ornately carved marble instead of an altar, a large bird feeder adorned with fresh picked flowers and (back to original paragraph) A man had approached her. Even at that age (nine, ten?) she had had no fear of men. She had fixed him with a direct and level gaze as he approached and sat beside her. Without preamble he had handed her a small book with a single name ‘Kevil’ engraved on its binding. ‘Here,’ he had said. She had flipped to the first page without a word of acknowledgement and had begun to read. An inner peace had descended over her there as it did now.

"     "

She had reread the passage several times, feeling each word deep within her resonating each word had seemed so perfect, sublime, and sweet and pure. Illuminating her inner being. ‘How much do you want for it’ she had asked, hoping the price would be less than the three copper bits she had talked within held in the her palm of her right hand under the white white cotton fabric of her best kid glove; money which her mother had intended for the church collection plate. But as she looked up, her little face solemn and determined in anticipation of hard and protracted negotiation, the man was gone. She Without bothering to look around for him, she began reading. Finally she was unable to see the words clearly anymore. Looking up she realized the sun had set many hours before. 

And yes, the next page is another “wall of text”, but if you’re like me, these text pieces while not as “flashy” as preliminary sketches and drawings, are still fascinating to read and compare to the finished pages to see what Dave left out, changed slightly, or added in. And on page 92 we have on the left we can read the dialogue from pages 9 and 10 of Cerebus #173, aka pages 215 and 216 of Women. 

Notebook #21, page 92

The dialogue on the right of the page is between Cirin and her followers and appears on page 10 of Cerebus #173. So not only do we get the preliminary dialogue to compare to the finished work, but a bit of the layout as well – Astoria / Cirin.