Notebook 21: Skulls and Alan Moore

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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Last week it was pages of text of Viktor just rambling, and guess what? Yes, more of his rambling. What is he thinking? We don’t need to ask, he just won’t stop rambling on and on. . .

Anyhoo, yes, you guessed it, more of Viktor’s ramblings. You can see Dave’s edits of crossing stuff out, writing more thoughts in the margins, et al. And like you, I don’t have the energy to go through it this week. So instead of me rambling, you’ll get five – yes FIVE! – pages for the low low price of nothing. 

Enjoy.

Notebook #21, page 211

Notebook #21, page 212

Like I can just imagine Viktor just rambling to himself. No paragraph breaks. . .But the above material does get used – page 162 of Reads, aka page 16 of Cerebus #182. Though going to the next page, there is more to this skull story that doesn’t make the finished pages of Cerebus.

Notebook #21, page 213

Huh, Viktor also had a letter printed in Superman #203, same as Dave. . .And down at the bottom Viktor writes about Alan Moore. . .which continues for the next few pages. . .

Notebook #21, page 214

Notebook #21, page 215

Hey, if you made it this far - congrats! And just think, once we've done with this notebook, we are done with it and its walls of text. . .