This Man, This Carrot

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.

It was November of 2021 in Cerebus #102: Good Abbess Text Not Used when we last saw Dave Sim’s twelfth notebook. That notebook had 133 pages scanned in and covers Cerebus #102 through #11 (though it does have some prep work for Jaka’s story near the end of it as well). Looking through it I saw some Flaming Carrot items. 

Like a Dave Sim Flaming Carrot and a sketch for the cover to Cerebus #104 on page 18:

Notebook #12, page 18

That looks a bit more action packed than the finished cover. The next time we see Flaming Carrot in this notebook is some dialogue for page five on page 28 of the notebook:

Notebook #12, page 28

Then on the next page of the notebook are some thumbnails for pages 15 through 17 of Cerebus #104 along with some dialogue.

Notebook #12, page 29

But wait, we’re seeing all of these Dave Sim drawn Flaming Carrots, what about a Bob Burden drawing of Cerebus? Well, here you go:

Notebook #12, page 31

I’m pretty sure the text at the top is by Dave, but I’m even more sure that the blue inked Cerebus in a car and the text ‘cerebus buys a datsun’ is by Bob Burden.

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New one:

Click for bigger

Here's Dave's schpiel:

TECHNICALLY it went live at midnight, and ends at midnight, but, since it's my birthday on Sunday, I'ma extending it to Saturday at midnight.

DJI has the opening bid of $10 CAD.

Next Time: Dave. Weekly Update.

The Please Hold For Dave Sim for April 2020

Hi Everybody!

Welp, it's that time of the month...

No, Jeff, not THAT time. (Prevert.)

Time to hold for Dave Sim!

We talked for over two hours, which I have broken up into eleven videos. I'll update this as they upload (it usually takes a couple of hours per video).

And any videos I don't get to today will get posted Monday (and possibly Tuesday, this takes longer every time...)

Okay, part one starts mid conversation as Dave talks with my wife Paula. She's a nurse and they're discussing the COVID-19 situation. (I was buck nekkid when Dave called, as I had just stepped out of the shower, and wanted to get pants on before I talked to Dave. (It's this funny rule I have.) And then I was waiting for a natural pause to say I was on the phone. And then I decided that their conversation was too interesting to not record. So we start here.

The questions:
Margaret says/asked: “Thank him for the voice mail about the picture for me :)”

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Part two: 
Question from Margaret: “So now that Diamond is on . . .hold? What is A-V's plan for distribution of Cerebus in Hell?” (Rick Sharer popped in with: “ web comics, come on Dave you can do it!”)

The third Free Cerebus in Hell? issue is: Super-Cerebus VS COVID-19 (I have a preview, but I'm not posting it. God-willing, you'll see it on Wednesday...)

Green Dante/Green Virgil MIGHT be headed to stores(?).

CAN8 should be getting shipped sooner rather than later.

Next question:
John Glismann asks: Please ask Dave if he’s ever seen Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. It looks just like the tower that delivered Cerebus to the Moon so he could get the bad news from the Judge.

"This means something"

He says: “Last summer my wife and I traveled around the U.S. and visited a place called “Devil’s Tower” in Wyoming. As a Cerebus fan, that tower looked VERY familiar. Apparently it was considered a mystical, holy place by Native Americans back in the day. I’ve never seen any indication throughout the years that Dave has seen this place- just wondering? The first picture is the tower and the second picture is a closeup of the tower’s face of a rock formation that actually looks like a skull (!).”

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Part Three:

Questions:
Jesse Lee Herndon asks: Speaking of this week's one, I have a few questions for Dave.
1) In "Latter Days", at one point during his time spent quarantined... err, bound, Cerebus thinks the word of Rick he's supposed to give the Three Wise Fellows is "Mungu Mkono", but he can't recall how to say it. Was "Mungu Mkono" the actual "word of Rick" Cerebus was supposed to answer them with, and if so, would the outcome of the situation have been any different if he'd done so?

2) I just heard that back in 2015 a previously "lost" F Scott Fitzgerald short story, entitled "Temperature", was discovered and published. Has anyone sent that to you, or did your interest in the subject of F Scott end entirely once the research into him in "Going Home" ended?

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Part Four:
Questions:
Jesse Lee Herndon asks: 3) Have you heard from Bob Burden recently? On his Facebook this week, he revealed he was very sick for the past month with pneumonia and ended up quarantined! He's better now, thankfully.

[Flaming Cerebus has been sent, Bob's response was: cool  you should have had me  write or  help write it  lol  bb  -Matt]

Seiler wants to know: My questions for Dave this month: 1: Who? 2: What? 3: When? 4: Where? and
5: Why? Sorry, the former journalist in me couldn't resist.

Brian West says:

Hi Dave!
With #stayathome the words of the day in my home state of KY I found it interesting that there are still those who chose to dissent from the conventional wisdom of state officials here. This being that individuals and businesses must follow strict social distancing guidelines and/or to leave money on the table to stay at home for days, maybe even weeks at a time.
Case in point is a bill filed on 03/19/2020 by House representative Savannah L. Maddox of Dry Ridge, KY which would, in principle, limit "the scope of a governor's executive orders issued during a public health emergency" and "also allow Kentuckians to sue the state if an order adversely affects their business."

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Part 5:
Continuing Dave's answer to the last question.

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Part six thru eleven to come eventually...

"Let's just say, I get around!"

Hi, Everybody!

Rigmarole:

This week's Auction is at $50 (USD) to Dion Turner. 

Colin Upton!: https://www.patreon.com/colinuptoncomics COLIN UPTON!!!: https://colinupton.tumblr.com/ For the love of Pete: COLIN UPTON!!!!!: https://www.facebook.com/Colin-Upton-Comics-257449422123/ 

"Manly" Matt Dow is still giving away free @#$%!

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SEP191310 Order ten, makes a GREAT Stocking Stuffer!

ALSO:

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Man, I can't wait to see this remastered...Oh right, "sotto voce", sorry...

Next Time: Stuff?

Intro by Dave "BOB BURDEN: The Man Who Proved the Earth is Flat"

Hi, Everybody!

Hey Look! It's The Flaming Carrot:

BOB BURDEN

The Man Who Proved the Earth is Flat

by Dave Sim

Snapshots in the eighteen-year kaleidoscope: Marching to the beat of an indifferent drummer.

 

"I know how to fly- even if it is straight down." Is Bob Burden a position or a vector? Is the carrot-on-fire the beacon on the hill or a first glimmering of the devil's eye socket glimpsed behind the infernal gates? "I need a bigger bucket or less sand." In Alan Moore's Thought Space, Bob Burden is the migrating bookmark, selling mercury leashes to unwary periodic-table owners. "Look- it's a miniature Abraham Lincoln." "Aww- he's so cuuute." The universe is askew, but it never knew how to tie a decent Windsor knot anyway.

 

Flash forward to the present. A Flaming Carrot movie? Picture Eraserhead sensibility with "Animal House done with super-heroes" as the template. When Bob Burden is a position, Hollywood is a vector. "What's you vector, Victor?" I can't see anything, says the candy store with it's nose pressed up against Bob's glass. 

[picture of a flying saucer] 

To the new reader: you're either going to "get" it or not. No elitism should be inferred. Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot exists in a comic-book no-man's land that will put you under only if you had the right kind of breakfast this morning.

 

As with any creative work, the Carrot is out of Bob's hands once it is done. I look through the eyepiece, and each successive work moves into and out of focus- sharp, an almost excruciating clarity, then soft, indistinct. Everyone has an eyepiece, but Bob's the one doing the adjustments. I don't know what it is Bob sees. I. Do. Not. Know. What. It. Is. That. Bob. Sees.

 

As a host of angels disco dance on the head of a pin, an insanely dressed super-hero eats lunch at the bowling alley, while in the background: kissing dogs, a woman breast-feeding a dictionary, a baby-headed politician, and the assassination of the leading members of the Chihuahua In A Teacup Fan Club! The chair is not my son!

 

I. Do. Not. Know. What. It. Is. That. Bob. Sees. Call it "Bob's Burden."

 

Bob's Burden.

 

In person, this mercurial talent's personality and appearance are like the Van Allen Belt around the terra firma- the largely terra incognito- of his glimmerings of genius. He was once described as Dr. Zhivago and Gabby Hayes rolled into one.

 

He shifts his weight sideways in a chair in a honky-tonk bar, clearing his throat with a rumbling sound that calls to mind the phrase, ancient of days ("I've been around the block so many times, I feel like my turn blinker got stuck"). The band blares out a dubious rendition of "Reverend Blue Jeans" that sounds like Perry Como on crack. We are surrounded by the kind of people who'd rather curse the darkness than light one candle. Gerhard is talking to a woman with lipstick on her teeth and a dress that looks like it was just hit with a dessert tray.

 

Bob cannot be kept on the subject. "I'd rather pay retail than go through this." "Suggested retail?" "Yes." Is he talking about the band or the conversation?

 

Ionized particles coalesce behind the cool, brown-gray eyes as his inquisitor (me) tries to corner him on a specific point. Even as the argument's endgame reaches its climax, the last avenue of escape closed off, the radiation flares, and he says, "You see that girl at the table over there?" And he relates an anecdote- something written about Thelonius Monk, or something William S. Burroughs said to him in a dream. The story seems to end, but I'm left wondering who really put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder. I eye Burden suspiciously. A sudden insight dawns- like white sheet lightning on the horizon- that anecdote applies to the discussion. Tangentially. No- not tangentially, but rather it inhabits the authentic core, is a thematic distillation, a small key, a cake with a sign that says "Eat me"; it is a rocket-powered pogo stick that has carried Bob to safety. ("Yes, Mr. Death...I'll play your game! But not chess!!! Bah...Fooey! My game is WIFFLEBALL! HA! HA! HA!")

 

One gives up. But only temporarily. Even as you walk away from the chessboard, you cant's shake the feeling that whiffleball makes more sense. Bob was telling me something- or, more exactly, something inside Bob was telling me something- and I'm just too stupid to see it. 

[picture of a flying saucer] 

Scene 18- "The Making of 104: Ten Days that Shook Atlanta"

 

Ext. The Back patio of Bob Burden's Atlanta estate. Bob is seated at a card table with a manual typewriter of 1903s vintage. It is a clear, warm day in late October.

 

ME: (operating the video camera) Look. It's Bob.

 

BOB: (wary, squinty-eyed) Good morning.

 

ME: Whatcha doing?

 

BOB: (clearing his throat noisily and getting up) Writing a script for the next issue of the Carrot. (sits down again, reads) "Flaming Carrot! Flaming Carrot! You better come quick! Uncle Billy's new mail-order bride arrived and she's a...WILD WOMAN!" (standing up and indicating his shoes) Pan down and get a shot of these.

 

ME: Very nice. What are they?

 

BOB: Penny loafers. With Canadian nickels in 'em.

 

ME: In honor of our visit?

 

BOB: In premonition of this visit These have always been there! For fifteen years I've worn Canadian nickels in my loafers. Good things come to those who watch and walk around...

 

ME: Well, sit down. Let's get a shot of you writing.

 

BOB: (sits down) Let's...see here. Page 29. "Hey! It's that crazy dame again!" (begins typing)...the Jungle Girl jumps down and hits the bad guy and says...she s-a-y-s..."Gwaloompas Go Away" (smiles broadly at the camera) Hey! Why not? (types it furiously, smiling the whole time)

 

In the final version (issue 18), the Jungle Woman says, "Gwaloompas pugi! Go Away!!!" Bob's Burden. Why is "Gwaloompas Go Away!" wrong and "Gwaloompas pugi! Go Away!!!" right? It is no small matter, though the reader can be forgiven for thinking it is. Bob's Burden. In the realm of the surreal, where even the term surreal is inadequate, how do you know when what you're doing is right? Insight, instinct, gut reaction, craft, winging it- all wrestle together at the doorway of creation. And after that comes the reaction, and Bob's reaction to the reaction, and Bob's reaction to Bob's reaction to the reaction. But all I have is my eyepiece, and Bob's the one doing the adjustments. Bob's Burden 

[picture of a flying saucer] 

 Bob has finally consented to allow the early issues of the Carrot to be reprinted. For at least ten thousand people in the comic-book industry, we are finally (finally) able to stop breathing through straws from below the surface of a pond. What does this bode for our industry? Commenting on these times, Bob reminds me that if you graph the incidence of Flaming Carrot publications and compare it to the comics industry's health and volume over the last fifteen years, there is a direct correlation. When this information is then set against the statistics of sunspot activity, UFO sightings, and the number of women reported to be seen wearing rubber dresses in the Balkans, you have more than ample proof of the one conclusion we can draw from these specious but interesting facts. Within these calculations, he claims, lies the secret formula to a legendary, fifth basic food group he has referred to all these years as the source of his arcane creativity. "Wild horses will not drag the secret from my lips; a thousand dollars will not by it. But since you freely gave me the most guarded secret of all Aardvark-Vanaheim, the secret of Gerhard's last name..."

 

As he leans over to whisper in my ear, my mind scours the clues. Like Citizen Kane's Rosebud, it all makes sense to me. Life is a circle. The rise and fall of tides. A whispered secret from lips that have always been a mystery even unto the owner of the lips. A secret I have always known but always wanted to know better. A secret whose clues lie in pages and pictures. 

[picture of a flying saucer] 

 It looks like the Flaming Carrot is getting ready...I think I saw him getting up...you always say that...no, really, I think he's really getting up this time...he's moving around- he hasn't moved around in a while...that's gotta be a good sign, right?...you would think so...I'll believe it when he actually gets up...maybe we shouldn't talk about it- maybe talking about it is the problem...he's getting up...yeah, right...he's moving around more than...no, look...

 

LOOK!!!

Copyright 1997 Dave Sim

 

Reprinted by the permission of Sponge Boy

 Next Time: Sunday!

 

Dave Sim: Dead Bob

17 April 06

Dear Bob:

By the time you read this you will probably be dead, so I will keep it short. Craig Miller just sent me the posting from The Beat saying you had surgery yesterday for a stomach virus you contracted in New Orleans. That sounds about right. What in the hell were you thinking, cowboy, going into that cesspool (literally)? Oh, well, it was your call and you made it. I hope you had fun while it lasted because it sure doesn’t sound as if you’re having much fun now.

Craig tells me that you intended (or intend, let’s stay optimistic here) to write something for Following Cerebus about the issue 104 crossover. I hope you do because that means I can dig up all of my Bob Burden stuff to run as illustrations. Do you remember the big picture you drew on the inside cover and front page of that Oscar Wilde book you sent me? No, I didn’t expect that you would, but you did. I had forgotten about it myself until I popped it open while putting the Cerebus Archive together. It’s a beaut.

If this reaches you before you die, and you have something written already for FC or if you have anything done on the Cerebus/Carrot crossover sequel (the one where they go to Hollywood) please tell someone where they are so we can run whatever you had done in the special Dead Bob issue. Otherwise I’ll have to find a manual typewriter somewhere and fake something. Also if you can think of any Dead Bobs we can include besides yourself, Kennedy and Hope, please scrawl their names on the nearest nurse and have Roxanne forward her to the address below. Much obliged.

Keep your eye on the donut.

Your morbid amigo.

Bob Burden is the writer/artist of Flaming Carrot Comics which The Comics Journal described as "steeped in a broth of surrealism, hardboiled adventure stories, knowing innuendo and superhero comics turned inside-out." Aardvark Vanaheim published Flaming Carrot Comics #1-5 between May 1984 and January 1985, with #6-17 published by Renegade Press and #18-31 by Dark Horse Comics before ending its original run in 1994. In 1987 Cerebus and the Flaming Carrot teamed-up in Cerebus #104.

Tribute Art Round Up #12

Inktober 2015 Illustration

by Jorge F. Munoz

Art by Chuck Forsman (2015)

"So I did this cerebus commission and thought it would be a good thing to try my homemade screentone for the first time. Think it came out okay. I have no idea how the adhesive will age but I think it is doing its job visually. Thanks to Mr. Bissette for the quick screentone tips."

Cerebus & His Watchmen (2015)

by David Branstetter

Art by Zidders Roofurry (2015)

Art by Tattoo Mike (1998)

"I did this years ago for a comic book convention competition...some image thing won...of course..."

 

Art by Bob 'Flaming Carrot' Burden (1986)

(Click image to enlarge) 

From The Archive: Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot

DAVE SIM:

Treasures From The Archive -- Bob Burden is comics' greatest cartoonist/flea market dealer. He obviously ran across this edition of THE HARLOTS HOUSE AND OTHER POEMS (1929) by Oscar Wilde either in the book stacks somewhere in his house or at a flea market or rummage sale and said "HRRRMMPPPHH. Dave's doing an Oscar Wilde character right now. I should send this to him." Which he did, while also adding a great picture of the Flaming Carrot to one one of the (many) blank white pages. I'm willing to bet this is a one-of-a-kind item. Unless Bob found a dozen of them and used them as Christmas presents that year. In which case forget I said anything.

Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot

Cerebus #104 (November 1987)
Art by Bob Burden, Dave Sim & Gerhard

BOB BURDEN:

Bob Burden is the writer/artist of Flaming Carrot Comics which The Comics Journal described as "steeped in a broth of surrealism, hardboiled adventure stories, knowing innuendo and superhero comics turned inside-out." Aardvark Vanaheim published Flaming Carrot Comics #1-5 between May 1984 and January 1985, with #6-17 published by Renegade Press and #18-31 by Dark Horse Comics before ending its original run in 1994. Bob Burden was the recipient of an Inkpot Award in 1990 and an Eisner Award in 1988. The following quotes are taken from an interview in The Comics Journal #268, June 2005.

On Publishers:

Deni [Loubert, Renegade Press] was a great friend and somebody that I could trust, and you always have to be able to trust your publisher. I've been very very lucky with that. Dave Sim [Aardvark Vanaheim] was a sweet, honest, wonderful guy, and Mike Richardson [Dark Horse Comics] has always been solid, 100% there for you... Really, when you think about it, the comics industry has had a few nebulous and shady characters, but by and large we've been very very lucky. National magazine distribution and movie distribution and whatever it is, it's whole different ball game. We had a wonderful cottage industry there where there was integrity and honour that you don't find in a lot of other businesses. It was more of an art form.

On Leaving Aardvark Vanaheim:

It was fine. Dave was cool. He was all "Go for it! Do whatever you want!" He was the rebel and the rest of us were kind of following this madman, upstart, revolutionary, like the cast of Seinfeld through a parking lot. There was a sort of hippy spirit there. No one ever thinks of Dave and Deni as hippies but it was real laid-back and there was a trace of that. Also in Dave there was always this almost undetectable but very dark and deep sadness: a bit of introspective, self-aware Hamlet thing going on there. Don't know if he even knows it but Dave is different from most people. Never met anyone quite like him.

On Creating Cerebus #104:

I think that ideally I'd like to be working with two or three more artists and be plowing through this stuff quick. My big problem is the backgrounds. They are just a big chore for me. I dread [them]. If I had a Gerhard like Gerhard, I could be knocking out a monthly book... When I worked with Dave Sim on Cerebus #104, Dave wrote the story, and I contributed some dialogue. It was such a relief to not have the responsibility for the whole story. It was one of the most fun stories I've ever done because the pressure was off. It was a good story too, because Dave wrote a good story. I find that it's hard for me to work on a story that sucks. It's like the artwork takes five times as long to draw, because you're just drudging your way through it. So when I write a story, I have to write a good story in order to get me spirited up to actually sit down and start drawing it. So anyway, that Cerebus story was one of the best times... We did Cerebus, me and Gerhard and Dave, in nine or ten days, Cerebus #104... It was great to knock out a comic book in ten days... if we hadn't been out partying and carousing and drinking all night, we might have been able to get that issue done in seven days.