Notebook 21: Cerebus #175 Preliminary Writing Part 2

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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Would you look at that. After two pages of just text, we get more text. Yup, walls of text for the phonebook Reads. Last week we were looking at material for Cerebus #175, which I think this is for as well. Last week was Victor going to see M Zulli about his illustrations, and staying for the model he was drawing. So lets see what is in the next few pages.

The next page has the number 175 in the top left corner, so perhaps we are still on Cerebus #175. We get some plot points at the top of the page. I’m not sure what the numbers are under the text ‘Reads’ – be them page numbers or something else.

Notebook #21, page 121

We then get something that appears to be a quote for Reads: “Inspiration seemed not to be a variable to the illustrators or musicians. They were quite matter-of-fact about their craft.” Below that is a paragraph that plays off that quote – Victor going on about “commerce and creativity”.

The next page of the notebook is Victor going into a reads store and asking about Vertigo Horse titles. 

Notebook #21, page 122

Yes, I did cut out Jeff Nicholson’s phone number from the bottom left corner of the page. Not the first time I’ve cut out personal information, even if it is 30+ years old. Yes, 1993 was over 30 years ago. We're all getting older. 

The next page is more of Victor’s story which work in some of the local politics – Cirin’s takeover of the Upper City. And The Beguiled gets mentioned as a reads store (after Dave crossed out Beguiling, the name of the real store in Toronto that Dave would go to from time to time).

Notebook #21, page 123

The final page is yes, more text. I mean, it is Reads. We are bound to get to some Cirin vs Cerebus fight scene stuff eventually.

Right?

Notebook #21, page 124

Mentions of Church & State and how Victor mandated a bottle of cognac as part of his appearance fee. I’m thinking next week will be more text pages. . .probably. I mean it is Reads.