Notebook 21: The Story-Teller’s Ideas

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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Believe it or not, more pages of text from Dave’s 21st notebook. . .but not too many left to go. And yes, there are sketches left. Not too many, but hey, we’re nearing the end of this notebook after nothing but it for a year and a couple of months.

‘Where do you get your ideas?’ appears on page 182 of Reads, aka Cerebus #183 page 17.

Notebook #21, page 249

Now if you had gotten up and gotten your copy of Reads or Cerebus #183 and followed along with the handwritten notebook page, you’d see that both texts are pretty much the same. The crossed out bit of the notebook:

“writers. Implicit in the question is the supposition that the whole thing is some sort of skill, some kind of magic track.”

Was indeed left out of the finished worked. A few other words are substituted as well – ‘jacket’ for ‘coat’ for example. And there is some extra text in the finished story that isn’t in the notebook. They both pick up again with “It’s very common for a story-teller to say an idea just came to me them.” Which appears at the topo of  page #183 of Reads. If you are following along with both you’ve noted that Dave ‘s underlined text in the notebook becomes italicized in the finished book. The paragraph for page 183 of Reads continues along in the next page of the notebook.

Notebook #21, page 250

The blank line in the notebook separates the different . . .sections? in the finished work. As the next paragraph that starts with “In psychiatric terms this is called schizophrenia, the inability to differentiate between reality and  fantasy.” is there word for word on page 183 of Reads. The text for page 183 continues onto the next page of the notebook, as if Dave had sat down and wrote it all out in one go:

Notebook #21, page 251

Yes, even the John Lennon quote from Strawberry Fields Forever is in the notebook and on page 183 – along the bottom! – of Reads. However, the paragraph down the bottom wasn’t included on page 183 nor in Reads as far as I can see:

“I’m not leaving you with much, am I? It has been something of a problem in my life for the people in my life who have strayed too close to me for too long a period. Eventually, sooner rather than later, the subject of reality comes up. I believe a) some foods taste better than others b a) if you light a cigarette on the end and pull on it, you will get smoke out of it. b) if you drink enough alcohol, you will get drunk. c) the Toronto Maple Leafs will play hockey for half of the year and the Toronto Blue Jays will  play baseball for the other half of the year. Many of the games will be on television. So long as I restrict”

The paragraph finished up on the next page of the notebook, but I put it all above to make it easier to read. Left out of the finished work, but not crossed out in the notebook.

Notebook #21, page 252

The next paragraph that starts with 1977 is at the top of the second half of page 184 of Reads. And the rest of the notebook page is also on that same page of Reads.