HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #35

Okay. Here we are at the end of the Virtual Tour (October 13th where I am), ready to link to the last question. Firstly, let me say thank you to the sponsoring websites who hosted the HARDtalk Virtual Tour: BLEEDING COOL, MILLAR WORLD, THE BEAT, MINDLESS ONES, TERMINAL DRIFT and CANADIAN COMICS ARCHIVE.

However, since we're still only at 400+ names on the iPetition, the only conclusion to draw is that 99.97% of the comics community still believes that I shouldn't go out in public and that I am, indeed, a misogynist. For some reason the petition now has a heading at the top saying that the "goal" is 500 names. I don't know whose idea that was or why they didn't ask me before putting it on there but...

Well, no.

I've said for some time that if we get 2,000 names on the petition, I would revisit the question of my going out in public. That doesn't mean that I would automatically start going out in public again.  Far from it. I think the threshold is getting higher instead of lower and that view was certainly reinforced rather than refuted by all of the unpleasantness at the COMICS JOURNAL website. And, again, with the fact that virtually no one took issue with people explicitly stating that I'm a misogynist. I would be giving far too much weight to 2,000 names (1,600 of them, at this point, entirely hypothetical with no evidence to support the hypothesis).  It does not bode well and is certainly nothing that I think I'll have to reconsider -- at the rate we're going -- for many, many, many years. I assume that everyone is in complete agreement that the only sensible course of action for me is to live the rest of my life in complete isolation from any and all people who haven't said, specifically and publicly, that they don't believe I'm a misogynist.

And I assume we're all 100% comfortable with that.

I know I am.

Looking on the bright side, we did get 30 or so new names on the iPetition (no Big Names in comics, but I didn't really expect that, given the "political climate" we're all inhabiting) which constituted a year's worth of new signatories up until the last month or so.

Okay. The last HARDtalk Tour question goes to Carola Quick at BLEEDING COOL:

Dear Dave. First of all, thank you for all the good laughs and stories you've brought over the years. Now for my question. Do you really belive that the content of issues 289/290 constitutes a scientific theory (which as I recall one of your letters, and one of your introductions seems to suggest)? If so, how? There is little if anything that to me suggests any form of hard scientific evidence. At best I see it as theology. What is your view on science and evidence (in this or other cases)?

Hit the link to BLEEDING COOL for the answer to that question...

...and that will do it for the HARDtalk Virtual Tour. Now -- having accepted that the verdict on me, that as a non-feminist I shouldn't be going out in public hasn't changed appreciably from four years ago -- I'm headed back to my solitary confinement with strict limitations on my contact with people. I still have to make a living. I still have to buy groceries. I try to keep it to that.

Now, I've got my sunset prayer time coming up.

Ciao!

[All the Cerebus head-sketches used to illustrate the HARDtalk Virtual Tour posts were taken from John Scrudder's excellent web-site Behind The Panels. Thanks John!]

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #34

Ludwig Van Aardvark

Sweet Cheezus at BLEEDING COOL asks:
Aloha Dave, As with all who are responding to your invite, I'm a long time fan of the Earth Pig born. Both art and story have kept my interest right to the end.It is the satire that I love the most and your ability to use this as a device to comment on what interests you, i.e. High Society and Church and State as a satire of government, Reads a comment on the Comics industry, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald et al. As not only an Atheist but an Anti-theist I particullarly enjoyed your views on Christianity and Judaism; I'm quite inclined to tossing babies of off porches and and kicking cripples of roofs. That being said, I'm curious; was it your self imposed limit of 300 issues that did not allow you time to comment, via satire, on Islam ? Or, as Islam seems to be your personal preference on the Imaginary Friend theme, did you not satirize it out of respect for the Prophet (so called ), a fear of being be-headed or just plain hypocrisy? Thanks for your time and for THE best comicbook series I have ever read.

...and Bunnuelista, also at BLEEDING COOL, asks:

This may sound like a rehash of Old Angel’s question, but there, I felt that you replied to a question about what *you think* with an answer about what *God knows*. I think I speak for a lot of comics fans when I say that I think you’re a great cartoonist, I would hate to see you leave the profession, and I’d love to sign the petition if I could.

The problem is that I’m not convinced that you’re not a misogynist. I’m also not convinced that you *are* a misogynist, and I would like to believe that you’re not, but there’s some strong evidence to the contrary. That evidence has nothing to do with birth rates in North America, feminism’s intellectual foundations, or with the false choice between feminism and misogyny. It has to do with statements like these:

"a gender which has no ethics, no scruples, no sense of right and wrong"
"No one wants to be a woman"
"This is part and parcel of women being the silver medallists in the human race"

"Considering how dramatically limited the female intellect is"

Perhaps you have some kind of contextual justification for each of these statements, but, taken together with a lot of other statements like them, they certainly raise enough reasonable doubt that I can’t bring myself to sign the petition. Are you willing to repudiate the following inference (inaccurate though you may deem it to be) from your writings about feminism: that you consider women incapable of rational thought, devoid of ethics, intellectually limited, inherently inferior to men (silver medalists), and unclean in their bodies?

Hit the link to BLEEDING COOL for the answers to those questions... and be here tomorrow for the very last HARDtalk installment.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #33

Winters Spawn has a question for me over at MINDLESS ONES:

Hi Dave. How come Collected Letters 2, comes in the smaller book-format and not in the phonebook-format? It looks really dwarfed and kinda ugly next to the other volumes. Stay cool!

...and Mint City Comics at BLEEDING COOL asks:

Hi Dave, This is a question about the innate artistic spark. Do you believe that all artists contain a "finite" spark of creativity? In other words, there is only so much greatness in each individual to create "transcendent" works. I remember studying literature in college and several professors commenting that many American authors seemed to create their greatest work at a very early stage in their careers; they quickly flamed out in regards to high artistic quality. Hemingway was one of those authors mentioned. How do you see this concept? Thank you, sir.

...Cory Foster at BLEEDING COOL asks a follow-up question:

If I might be permitted a second question (you needn't send another comic for an answer, I'm just curious as an artist): Was there any conscious impetus toward the evolution of Cerebus' design as a character? The transition over the years from an aardvarkian elongated head and snout to a more circular and pig-like design is one of the more interesting in the comic. Was this just a natural evolution, or did you find drawing his head as a circle to be easier and less time consuming (important for a 6,000 work)?

...and its Gabriel McCann again (!) over at MILLAR WORLD with multiple questions for me on religion:

Politics tends to bore me after a while as I'm sure it does you but religion I find more interesting as it asks big questions as opposed to how is our party going to get re-elected and how can we slag off the opposition to the utmost without ever bothering to let people know what we actually stand for.

You've probably answered this before somewhere else but Did you have a Road to Damascus moment and if so can you describe it in any great detail? or point to wherever you've already answered this question before.

How do you react to Richard Dawkins and all the other Atheism as the new religion viewpoint? (ie. God doesn't exist. It's bloody obvious and anyone who doesn't get that is just an idiot so I'm going to express this as much as possible to get a reaction and piss off anybody with any sort of religious beliefs).

Before your converison (whatever you like to call it) how did you think of yourself from a religious point of view? Were you an atheist, and agnostic, didn't really think about it. Did you have any sort of religious upbringing or were you raised liberally.

Is religion all that imporant and is it really worth bothering trying to convert or ever explain your point of view on the subject to people out there who clearly aren't all that intersted in spiritual development, mysticism or whatever  you like to think of as What is the meaning of life and how can we think about it from a non-scientfic point of view.

Hit the links to MINDLESS ONES, BLEEDING COOL and MILLAR WORLD for the answers to those questions, and I'll be back tomorrow to answer more of your HARDtalk questions.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #32

TT at THE BEAT has some questions for me:

Hi Dave. I’m sorry to hear that finances doesn’t look very good. And I’ve got a HARDtalk question for you along those lines. I know that you are very pro self publishing. And that you have expressed doubts at for example TMNT franchising, and for example said no to the possibility of a cerebus action figure connected with the crossover back in the days. Is there anything that you regret concerning letting other companies use the cerebus trademark?

Do you now think a little more laxed view might have been good for your trademark and financially gainful. Or are you as adamant now as ever?

Also, in your thoughts about getting an other job. Is a drawing-kind-of-work out of the question? Do you view all your artistic work the same way, or might we one day meet Dave Sim corporate logo designer or advertisement creator? All the best to you.

...and Glen at CANADIAN COMICS ARCHIVE asks:

I remember one of you “Notes from the President” stating you might like to write a play after Cerebus was finished. Did you ever accomplish that goal? Also have you ever submitted a column and/or article to the National Post? They might be receptive to your take on current events here in Canada and around the world.

...and Illusionator at MINDLESS ONES asks:

What was the original motivation to do the “Mind Games” issues? They were a startling idea at the time.

Hit the links to THE BEAT, CANADIAN COMICS ARCHIVE and MINDLESS ONES for the answers to those questions, and be here tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #31

M. Keener has a question for me at BLEEDING COOL:
Any chance of a digital edition of the SELF-PUBLISHING GUIDE (say, via Amazon Kindle)? I'd imagine it would be a lot less involved, as far as digital pre-press goes, and it would surely be helpful to new cartoonists.  

James Waley at TERMINAL DRIFT posted the news of Blair Kitchen's liver transplant:

Posted on FB today by Blair’s wife Rochelle, thought you’d like to know …

...and John Mosher at THE BEAT asks:

Dave, In our never ending quest to heap work upon you, allow me to ask about the item I would like to see most. Is there any chance we could see a coffee table book - 11 x 14 or so - on high quality slick paper showcasing all 300 covers? I would shell out $150 for that…..

Hit the links to BLEEDING COOL, TERMINAL DRIFT and THE BEAT for the answers to those questions, and I'll be back here tomorrow for more of your HARDtalk questions.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #30

We're now entering the home-straight on the HARDtalk Virtual Tour (which will end at #35). Dave Sim has answered all the questions put to him by the 'HARDtalk Home Team', so now is a good opportunity to say a huge thank you to our guest interviewers: Stephen Holland (co-founder of the UK-based comics store Page 45), Eric Hoffman (editor of collected essays Cerebus The Barbarian Messiah) and Dominick Grace (co-editor with Eric of the up-coming Dave Sim: Conversations from the University Press of Mississippi) ...and for the last week of the HARDtalk Tour, Dave will answer as many questions as he can from those posted at the HARDtalk Tour's sponsoring websites. Back to Dave...

First, let's take a few questions from Silber Spy at BLEEDING COOL:

If there was enough money coming in to justify it, how many people would work at Aardvark-Vanaheim & what would their jobs be?

Given that you had an amount of sales that income flow was no longer a significant consideration, how do you think that would effect your work? 

It seems there's all this concern about the continuation of glamourpuss, but will there eventually be the issue of CEREBUS ARCHIVE about making that very issue of CEREBUS ARCHIVE?

And then Gabriel McCann at THE BEAT has three questions:

The obvious and easy question that no one seems to have asked you is “Is there one question that nobody has ever asked you that you’d like to answer?” In other words What is one thing (or several) things you’d like to tell people that has never been asked of you or in other words suppose you had a split personality what would Dave #2 ask Dave #1 that nobody else has ever asked.

Quoting from an answer you made to one of my previous questions “If you didn’t make money at it, you’d really have to describe that as psychotic behaviour.” In that case what do you think of outsiders artists such as Henry Darger? 

You seem to read the Bible and other original material (The Koran?) but are you also reading later interpretations of religion such as William James The Varieties of Religious Experiences? Have you ever read SF author Philip K Dick (eg VALIS or The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). If so what did you think of their writings? 

Hit the links to BLEEDING COOL and THE BEAT for the answers to those questions... and I'll be answering more of your HARDtalk questions tomorrow.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #29

What are your top 10 favourite comics ever?

In no particular order -- and these aren't necessarily periodicals, just comics stories -- Vaughn Bode's The Man, a textbook example of a very simply, self-contained single issue that you can read and re-read without tiring of it. Barry Windsor-Smith's (with Roy Thomas) Red Nails for the perfecting of his black and white style, BWS's The Beguiling as the consummate allegory, Berni Wrightson's The Black Cat adaptation as the perfection of his black and white style, Neal Adams A View from Without for sheer inventiveness, Richard Corben's Rowlf -- same deal as The Man, it's self-contained, charming and immensely re-readable -- Spider-Man #32-33 by Lee and Ditko ('nuff said), the "Grady Worlock" story in The Heart Of Juliet Jones by Eliot Caplin and Stan Drake. I think that's ten.

And now a question from Menachem Luchins at Escape Pod Comics:

Dave, You've made it quite clear that your belief in G-d means that you see and meaning and a cause behind everything, a moral cause and effect kind of thing. That being the case, what do you think the moral "cause" of the Fire that is delaying the Cerebus Digital launch and harrowing the life of your assistant/archivist?

I'll have to post the answer to his question here since Menachem hasn't got his web-site up and running yet, and I should also point out with readers unfamiliar with Menachem's faith that he's a devout Orthodox Jew and so doesn't spell the full name of G-d. In deference to his faith, I do the same when corresponding with him. Anyway:

A lot of possibilities there as to (I duly note your reference) "cause" (or cause or Cause), depending on what chessboard the fire, "fire" or (I duly note your reference) Fire either happened or "happened" or Happened.

It certainly does have at least he appearance of a threat, doesn't it? "You could be next, Sim". Well, yes, but then I COULD be next all the way back to 1994, at least.

Things were definitely going "wonky" BEFORE the fire and then go wonkier AFTER the fire (not to mention DURING the fire: I got a long phone message just after three o'clock that day and when I played it, it just sounded like rushing water. Like someone washing the dishes or running a bath. I listened to it all the way through just in case someone, you know, SAID something. Nope. Hit *69 after it ended and it turned out to be Sandeep's number. Didn't call him back, figured he just auto-dialled by accident.

Well, turns out that was when the place was going up in smoke. Uh. Coincidence. Right. His iPhone defaulted to redial while it  was melting and just happened to leave that on my voice mail. Happens all the time. Thinking anything else is just...crazy...right?

It seems to me there are two likely scenarios: a) G-d or someone delegated by Him to the task was testing my resolve and courage and paranoia levels. Do I follow the HIGH SOCIETY negatives' example and, you know, just melt down?

Well, no. My reaction in any crisis situation skews in the Muslim direction of my tripartite faith.  "Allahu Akhbar". G-d is Great. That is, don't even flinch, mentally, in the direction of "G-d! How Could You DO This To Me? No, crisis situation is autopilot: G-d is Great. Didn't miss a prayer time, continued to read Scripture aloud, kept fasting sunrise to sunset.

My attitude is reflected in that of Ishmael's (or Isaac's, depending on your interpretation of the verse) when his father, Abraham, informs him that he has had a dream that he's supposed to sacrifice him (Sura 37 "The Ranks"): "My father, do what thou art bidden: of the patient if G-d please, shalt thou find me." End of story. Nothing happens without G-d's permission so if it happened, it's because G-d saw a need for it to happen.

God's will be done.

The other scenario that I suspect might pertain is b) the Job Rule is always in effect: G-d basically telling His adversary to put his/her/its money where his/her/its mouth is: Pick a test to prove Dave Sim is bats--t insane or a coward or whatever else it is that you keep trumpeting. Dave Sim, my obedient servant, will pass with flying colours. Which I hope I did and always will.

Likewise if I have exceeded my boundaries and run out of rope, G-d will know that far better than I will. Conversely, if someone on some chessboard...(let's say) overreached?... G-d will know that, too, and his repercussions will be perfectly measured and appropriate. "G-d will not wrong you so much as the husk of a date stone."

(Just after I finished writing all that in my notebook, 1-800 GOT JUNK showed up [see Dave's essay The End?]. Someone using my name had called them and arranged for them to come over and pick up some "comic book stuff". Like I say, since the fire things have gone pretty wonky around here. If you've ever employed them, as I have on a couple of occasions, the 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys work very hard, so whatever "ha-ha" practical joke might have been there, was somewhat diminished in my eyes, to say the least, by the fact that it was at the expense of two working stiffs.  I also noted what I assume was the intention to weird me out along the lines of "We Know Where You Live". Again, G-d's will be done. If it's my time to go, it's my time to go. After the last 18 years and particularly the last three weeks? I'd consider it a promotion. Oy. Shalom, Menachem).

I'll see you tomorrow for more HARDtalk right here on A Moment Of Cerebus.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #28

I’ve really enjoyed your published conversations with other comics professionals (eg Alan Moore, Chester Brown, Steve Bissette etc). Is this something you would like to continue and who else would you like to converse with?

It was interesting to me as an issue of FOLLOWING CEREBUS, united by the theme of graphic novelists editing their graphic novels. That was really what interested me - the variety of different attitudes the guys had towards it and documenting that. For obvious reasons, I like things that point to there not being One Right Way to do something and exploring the different ways there are to think. I would definitely have liked to have explored it further into "WHY do you think that way?" That is, what is it about the various choices that leads you in the direction of the one that you've chosen? I think that can be helpful to a new generation of cartoonists who are being raised to believe that there's only One Right Way to think, leading them to examine the various options and reasons given and to say, This is the one that most closely matches how I look at that subject.

In terms of continuing it, well, that gets into the Dave the Pariah areas. Bill Willingham signed the petition and told me that he would like to have a discussion of religion in the form of a dialogue with me. Great! So he sent me his overture, I sent him back a response and that was it. That tends to be what happens. Several times I had to hunt Chester Brown down to finish the dialogue on LOUIS RIEL in the last few issues of CEREBUS. Having to hunt people down to do something tends to take the fun out of it, to say the least. If you DON'T want to do it, by all means, just say, "I don't want to do that." Don't tell me that you do and then become completely unavailable in mid-stream.

Kevin Eastman has signed the iPetition and I told him if I have the cash next November is the 25th anniversary of the Creator's Bill of Rights and I asked if he was interested in meeting me at the Hotel Northampton on the anniversary. We could just hang out in the lobby and talk. I was asking about Steve Bissette as well -- because there was some bad blood between them at one time. Would Kevin be okay with Steve getting invited? That would make an interesting conversation, I think, to record and preserve.

Really, I'd be very interested in talking to Kevin about as many things that have gone on in his life since back then. How did the marriage to Julie Strain come to an end? I mean, not the gory details. Or the gory details if he wants to get into it. We've had a couple of conversations on the phone and it's very nice because he's, you know, he's still Kevin. He's still a huge fan of my work and actually makes a point of talking about me in public. "Dave, your ears must have been burning during Dragoncon, because I was telling everyone what a huge influence you were on me." Why is Kevin like that and virtually no one else is? THAT would make an interesting conversation. Why does HE think it's that way? Does he have any theories?

Loren Visser at BLEEDING COOL has a question for us now. Loren?

Mr. Sim, we know you're a fan of Al Williamson and Mort Drucker, but what are your feelings about the work of some of the other EC artists, specifically Jack Davis, Johnny Craig and apparently nobody's favorite but mine, Jack Kamen? Thank you. 

Hit the to BLEEDING COOL for the anwer to that question... and I'll be back on Monday for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #27

What was the secret of maintaining (the longest running?) creative partnership in comics with Gerhard and would you recommend other cartoonists to collaborate (even on sorter projects). If so, what are the potential benefits?

I'm not sure there was any one particular secret to maintaining the partnership. We were dependant on each other so, as guys, you tend to be supremely conscious of that. You can sense a problem area coming up, so you just taper off and forget it. Once something is said it can't be unsaid, so you have a lot of things that you don't say. If there's tension, you really have to assess, is there ACTUAL tension here or am I just being paranoid? If there IS tension, what is causing the tension? Did I do or say something wrong? For me, that's always been the way with people in general. Whatever pleasure I get from the company of people, I'm always aware that there's this level of tension there that seems always on the verge of them going berserk and saying "THAT'S IT!"

Gerhard wasn't just a person, Gerhard was also an idea -- the idea of someone working on this book and what was the fair way to treat him? Only it isn't theoretical, it's an actual person. So, I always tried to make sure he was compensated well, that he had the things that were important to him. You know, I didn't want a brand new car or a sailboat, but he did, so that becomes something that has to be important to me BECAUSE they're important to him. I pay him piecework rates until he proves he's reliable and then I pay him a salary and then ultimately give him 40% of the company. His contribution is so huge, you can't make it remotely work-made-for-hire.

I don't really recommend too much these days. I had a  very long conversation with Steve McNiven at The Last Signing. Very nice guy, definitely reminded me of Gerhard at that age. And he was thinking of starting a studio and since I had run a studio did I have any advice for him? He wanted to hire a friend who was an inker and go into business together. Only the guy had a regular paying gig already at a University -- but definitely seemed like he would like to make the leap into comics.

It's just him and me, so I said, "Is he married?" And he said, yes, he was married. And I said, if you're going to talk to him about it, you better talk to both of them because she's going to have a very big effect no matter what happens. It's a surreal conversation for me, because I'm basically talking to Dave who reminds me of Gerhard and giving him advice on how to deal with a potential Gerhard.

Comic-book guys are married to their work. They sort of have to be because it takes way too many hours to do a competent job and way more hours than that to get better at it. You're running ahead of the freight train. The pages need to get done. So you have one marriage competing with another marriage in a lot of ways.

It's not easy, because work is not at all like a real marriage. It IS just work. A guy knows the difference between work and relationship. Working on CEREBUS had nothing to do with my relationship with Susan. Working on CEREBUS had nothing to do with Gerhard's relationship with Rose. But for women it's a matter of seeing where the attention and time is going. There's going to be an emotional reaction to that.  And women don't want to be that way. So when they get that way, you have a double irritant:  how she doesn't want to be and how she's being.

The potential benefits are good work. Two guys who are determined to get better at what they do will provoke each other to get better without consciously intending to do it. We were at an insane level of fine pen line by the end there. He'd go fine so I'd go fine to match him, then he'd go finer to match me and I'd go finer to match him.

There tends to be an awful human toll. Most guys don't look at it that way because of the inner drive to get better and then the urge to keep getting better. But a lot of very human things go out the window.

Now let's head over to the MINDLESS ONES for a very long question from Igmus. Here's the short version(!):

I want to know why most current comics creators have personalities that are so similar to one another, and similar to their audience as well. 

Hit the link to the MINDLESS ONES for the answer... and be here tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #26

What is Gerhard's second name? Why is it/has it been a secret? Is he embarrassed by it or something?

Yes, it's a funny sort of name. It was my suggestion that he just leave it off and just go by Gerhard and he was pretty relieved to do so, having lived with it for as long as he had to that point. Everyone has things that they're embarrassed by. I find that the older I get the less embarrassed I get.  I'm a decrepit old man, pretty much indistinguishable from the derelicts that populate most of downtown Kitchener.

I remember walking into the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto when I was staying there and I had gotten a message that I had a fax. So I went up to the desk and said "Room -- whatever -- I had a message that I had a fax?"  And they wanted photo ID. The Metropolitan is in a dodgy area of downtown TO... lots of shootings, junkies, street people. And the thing was I wasn't even embarrassed, I just gave them my passport and got my fax. This is what I look like. I'm not going to suddenly look better someday, I'm going to look worse. I get my head shaved because it means I can go a month without a haircut. No one looks at old men if they can help it. With good reason. Old men don't look very good. They look like old men.

I'm hoping Gerhard is getting to the point where he isn't embarrassed about his last name, but in case he is, I'm certainly not going to tell you what it is. And I'm telling you that not being embarrassed by things is one of the big pluses of getting old. I used to get really stressed about my appearance, how I seemed to people. People are usually so concerned about how THEY appear that they don't even register what someone else looks like or if they have a tiny stain on their jacket or something.

Okay. There's quite a back-log building up of your questions at the HARDtalk Tour's sponsor websites, so let's take a couple of those today.

First up is James L. Sarandis at MILLAR WORLD:
What comics are you reading right now?

And then Matt Tauber at BLEEDING COOL has a couple of questions:
Dave, what's the best way to contact you for commissions? 
Will you do any more headshot auctions via Ebay?  

Hit the links to MILLAR WORLD and BLEEDING COOL for the answers to those questions... and I'll be back tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #25

Excluding Cerebus, are there any other classic comics that you’d like to see reprinted in an archival format by Fantagraphics or another publisher, that aren’t already in the works?

You know, I doubt that there's a classic strip that isn't being reprinted or discussed.  The only one I can think of off the top of my head is DAVID CRANE during the Creig Flessel years.  I used to read it in the KITCHENER WATERLOO RECORD and thought it was pretty good.  Then someone sent me a couple of issues of CARTOONISTS PROFILES with Stan Drake material in them and one of the other strips they covered was DAVID CRANE and they had a couple of good examples of Flessel's work that made me think I'd really like to have at least a couple of volumes on my bookshelf.

Flessel had one of the longest careers in comics. He did a lot of the early pre-Batman DETECTIVE COMICS covers and some of them are miles beyond anything else being done at the time.  He later became one of the Johnstone and Cushing artists. So he always had his hand in. He did the logo for Robin Snyder's THE COMICS just a few years before he died.

Now, we're off to MILLAR WORLD for another question from James L. Sarandis. My arch-nemesis! Actually, that's not true.  I just like the sound of "arch nemesis". Hi James. What's your question?

Comics have gone through quite a few changes over the years in style, tone, and technology. What do you think are the best and worst things to happen to comics over the years?

Hit the link to MILLAR WORLD for the answer to that question... and I'll see you back here tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #24

There have been opinions expressed that Cerebus was a product of its time (ie the blossoming direct-market) and that 300 issues of a self-published comic couldn’t happen now in today’s market-place. Do you think that is true, or is it more due to a lack of ambition by today’s cartoonists?

I don't know. We'd have to wait and see if it started to happen and see how the market reacted to it.  I assume I've poisoned that well to a large degree.  The comic-book field is bitterly disappointed in me over how CEREBUS turned out, so I think that would definitely be a Sword of Damocles hanging over anyone making the attempt:  certainly anyone announcing it.  "Oh, great.  Another guy who's going to go bat-s--t insane in twenty years.  No thanks.  I'll save my money this time."  In terms of the marketplace, itself, no I think that's a separate thing.  If you do something like THE WALKING DEAD, that catches fire in that way and you're able to produce it regularly and it's self-published?  People will buy it, people will tell other people, stores will over-order.  Self-published or otherwise.

I don't think you can call not wanting to do a 6,000 page graphic novel over 26 years a lack of ambition.  It's like saying the only reason to not climb Mount Everest is sheer bone laziness.  There are a lot more good reasons NOT to climb Mount Everest than there are reasons TO climb Mount Everest. Common sense for one.  People die on Mount Everest.  Why do something that you really don't have a good reason to do that people die doing?  Obviously, Neil Gaiman looked at it and said, mmmm, maybe 75 issues instead of 300.  Is that a lack of ambition on Neil's part?  You have to experience creating something on a regular schedule and sticking to that schedule and looking at what it takes out of you and do the mental trigonometry implied.  How long do I want to do this?  How much of myself am I going to allow to be eaten up by this, given that THIS much of me gets eaten up when I do THAT many pages or that many issues.

I think, in a general sense, that as a society we aren't facing the extent to which computers eat lives in the same way, so that militates against it happening again.  Just having e-mail and a Facebook page and you are probably talking about eating up 10 to 15% of your working time right there.  If you aren't someone who can "transition" from cyberspace to writing and drawing comic books smoothly or easily -- which I suspect most people can't:  they answer their e-mail, play a video game, watch some porn, watch some YouTube, that is, they're cyberspace junkies in denial -- then that's going to severely limit the body of work you end up producing.  Particularly the "denial" part.  You MEAN to just look something up with Google -- 10 minutes -- and the next time you look at the clock it's an hour later.  Well, you might get a few mini-series done in the average decade, but that's going to be it.

Right! Everyone head on over to TERMINAL DRIFT for this question from David Birdsong:

High Society was never my favorite Cerebus novel and I don’t believe it is yours either. If I am wrong then please disregard this question. What I would like to know is what is you favorite of the sixteen Cerebus novels? When I say favorite I don’t mean which one you think is the best, but that does bring up a second part to my question, actually several additional parts – Which one is the best in terms of art or writing or lettering. I think everyone has their own opinion in each of those categories, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say what part of Cerebus is your best work. I do recall that you were very fond of the Africa sequence in Form & Void, but that is about all I can remember. Let me see if I can state it a little better… What is your favorite Cerebus novel and where in all sixteen volumes do you think you see your best writing, your best art, your best lettering.

Hit the link to TERMINAL DRIFT for the answer to that question... and be back tomorrow for more HARDtalk. Same time. Same channel.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #23

Was working with Gerhard always a smooth process in terms of getting the page completed?

ALWAYS. It stressed him out incredibly but on my side there were just minor adjustments necessary. When we fell behind and went to Hawaii to get caught up, it was because he was slowing down and I was looking at the pages on the wall and going, "Well, I'm fine. I'm five pages ahead. I'll wait 'til he starts getting caught up and then I'll do some more pages."  Well, no, then he just slows down and goes "Well at least he isn't putting any more pages up on the wall, so I've got time to do these." Then I'd have to do more pages faster because the end of the month was coming up. So, then I just worked at my own pace. Get an issue done in three weeks.  Period.  No excuses. Complete blinders on. Danny Thomas gave his daughter Marlo blinders as a present one time with a card "Run your own race." I never forgot that.

Twenty nails on the wall with twenty buffalo clips and the pages go up and Gerhard finishes them. I fill the twenty hooks in three weeks. Then when we moved the operation to the Off-White House, we each had a room with twenty nails on the wall and twenty buffalo clips. So I'd fill up my wall and then he'd take them down and finish them. If I go ahead, I'd put the next issue's pages on his wall, so he can see that the other wall is full and now his wall is filling up. Not subtle, but very Real. And then I'd even get to the point where I had my "orphans of the floor". Both walls are filled up and I'm three pages into the third one and the pages are next to my drawing board leaning against my table. He gets the issue done, moves the pages off his wall onto my wall and puts my orphans onto his wall.

Did you ever ask him to change something he had drawn (or wanted to, but bit your tongue)?

No. It would never have occurred to me. He was a much better technical artist than I could ever hope to be. It's a Gerhard page. It blows anything else in comics out of the water. It wasn't until WAY late, the second or third last year -- 2002, 2003 -- when the stress was really getting to him and I said, "If you want, I'll just fix anything I don't like." Anything I think I can add, I'll just put it in. And yes, that was a great relief to him. Because he thought I was chewing my tongue to ribbons. For me, it was fun. Are you kidding? A finished Gerhard page and I can go -- you know, a few 102 pen strokes here would really make it look like Wrightson. But it was always COMPLETELY unnecessary. But I would get this sense of relief from him when I would do it. His stomach might be in much better shape today if I had said that in 1990, say. But, it was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Why would I think to say it?  

We're now off to MILLAR WORLD, where James L. Sarandis has a few questions, but the one that caught my eye was this one:

Pretty much the same question as Dave Vai above but with Eastman and Laird's TMNT. Also What was your favorite collaboration?

Hit the link to MILLAR WORLD for the answer to that question... and be here tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #22

Okay, I'm back at the Secret Mountainside AMOC Lair for a question from Dominick Man and Mr. Eric. As Avril Lavigne once said, "What's up, boys. Wanna trash the mall?"

Uh. Not really, Dave.  

No? Forgive me. Non-fasting day. It's the caffeine talking. Your question?

How will glamourpuss be collected? You have advertised a digital version of the first 25 issues and that the series will conclude (at least in print) with issue 26. Will the digital version include both the fashion satires and the history sections? Will each section be separate or will the collection closely approximate the issues as they appeared in serialized versions. Will the covers be included or any other supplementary material?

You're SURE you don't want to trash the mall? Sorry.

That was actually one of the Hail Mary passes that Sandeep and I came up with and he threw together a prototype of it.  Beautifully, I must say, the man does beautiful work.  Basically gp #1 to 25, all the covers, the unpublished two zombie covers, Zootanapuss covers.  The idea being that it would be my version of his MALCOLM X DVDs which don't always sell like gangbusters, but it's a steady revenue stream.  All of Malcolm X's speeches.  I mean, EXHAUSTIVE.  So he can get an order in by e-mail, dub off a copy, put it in its DVD folder, put that in an envelope and mail it and he's ahead by whatever number of dollars.

Of course, the Kickstarter campaign was another Hail Mary pass that REALLY connected.  So, that shifted my thinking in that direction.  Now it seems to make more sense as a Kickstarter reward -- the same package that you saw but, say, a $75 pledge item where however many of them sell, that's how many I sign and number.  I envisioned it, right away, as the NEXT Kickstarter campaign for THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND, because it would contain all of that material to date, plus all of glamourpuss. So it would be a way of doing a cost-effective package that actually, hopefully, would whet people's appetites for STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND.  The flaw was that the story isn't anywhere near finished, so you don't want to be whetting people's appetites for something that might not actually "land" until...well, I don't even know.

My three-subject notebook I started back then -- in May -- is now virtually full of  Kickstarter and HIGH SOCIETY DIGITAL stuff and still only three or four pages of STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND.  VERY valuable pages of what needs to be done to polish that part of the project.  But that's been it since May.  I'm HOPING that when the Virtual Tour is done October 10th that I can then put in some quality time on it.  I'll have to "fess up" to the Kickstarter pledge people.  I AM going to do CEREBUS AUDIO DIGITAL but it's not ALL I'm going to do. I'm going to have to strike a balance: here's what people have given me money to do, and here's what I consider to be my actual work, my, hopefully, Next Big Thing.

Sandeep was saying "We have all this room -- you can put everything on here."  And I said, "Great! I can bring over all of my pasted together mock-ups and three and four proof-reading copies that you couldn't WAIT to get out of your living room and you can start scanning it all in and retouching it in Photoshop."

You know, Sikhs don't blanche visibly, per se, but they are capable of getting that facial expression.  

Okay, now we're headed over to BLEEDING COOL for a question from Loren Visser. Loren, if you're over there, you MUST be "bleedin' cool". What's your question?

How does Dave fit into Cerebus' theology? In the end Cerebus never thinks to call out for Dave when the light has him. Has Cerebus forgotten all about Dave in the intervening 180+(?) years, or does Cerebus recognize God as a higher power than Dave?

Hit the link to BLEEDING COOL for the answer and be back here on Monday for more HARDtalk.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #21

Any regrets?

No.  It's interesting that people would ask me that and they've certainly asked me that a lot here on the Virtual Tour so far.  But, you know, if you think about it, if there's anyone on the planet who WOULDN'T have regrets, it would have to be Dave Sim.  I've made all of my own calls all along the way, made all my own choices and made of my considerable opportunities what I made of them.  I would have to say, standing back mentally as far as I can from where I am now, where I've arrived at that I've been very fortunate and very blessed to get here in one piece for the most part (certainly in all ways that I consider important).  Particularly when I picture all of the really bad choices I made for the first forty years of my life.  We are, none of us, perfect.  "All have fallen short of the glory of God" so I think it's completely impractical to think you're going to be 100% content with everything.  At the same time with, say, the pariah thing, I've always said it gives me a lot of space and time to work, which is one of those things that non-pariahs are always going to have trouble with.  What do you allow to encroach on work time and to what extent?  I really don't have that.  Apart from five prayer times a day,  doing the ten flights of stairs at City Hall every weekday, going for groceries and doing basic business stuff, the rest of the time I'm just ploughing through my work.

Okay, we're now off to the MINDLESS ONES for a question from Tam. Hi, Tam.  Go ahead.

I recently read a 1930s science fiction novel ‘Last Man in London’ by the author Olaf Stapledon. Although his concerns and style were vastly different from yours, he nevertheless reminded me of you because he had a unique visionary perspective and ploughed his own furrow with honesty and integrity. It was also clear that he was writing the novel with one eye to posterity and how it might be seen a few generations down the line, which made me wonder... Were you ever wondering what future generations of readers might think about Cerebus when you were writing it and if so what aspects did you think would be most important?

Hit the link to the MINDLESS ONES for the answer and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #20

Was there ever any tension between Gerhard's backgrounds and the characters you drew in that they didn't quite gel together for you?  

Very early on -- maybe the first dozen pages of No.65. I had to see what he was doing first and then see what needed to be adjusted. It really came down to "what's in behind the characters". If it's a picture of Cerebus, he's 30% black so you can't really put cross-hatching behind him or he's going to disappear. Cerebus needs either white or black behind him. If it's a character with a cross-hatched jacket, same thing, you need either white or black behind him or her. If it's someone who is solid black or wearing solid black clothing you can choose either white or cross-hatching or tone. If they're white, you need black or cross-hatching. It took a little while to sink in when I first brought it up because he's primarily concerned with making a picture consistent with the narrative. If Cerebus was here and this bush was behind him and we're now looking at him 15 degrees over from there then the bush has to be somewhere else. Well, no, not necessarily. The layering takes precedence because it reinforces the composition. If the bush is black it is going to be more useful behind Cerebus or if the bush forms a pleasing shape relative to the rest of the panel -- or both -- then that's what you go for. The reader is going to register the overall effect more than the specifics.

Apart from that, there was a natural work ethic -- value for the money. It takes more time to do cross-hatching and if he's getting paid by the line then the more lines there are, the better value I'm getting. Well, no, that just makes for a very grey page. Which, if you look at No.65, that's what you see. It's very grey. No, if solid black is what's needed, what works best, then THAT's what I'm paying for. Like Jaka in her prison cell. The IDEA is really grim conditions, very dark. Don't render, just black it in. An easy page or an easy issue. There won't be that many of them, so don't sweat it. Put in your time on the little pools of light.

Okay, we're now off to MILLAR WORLD to answer a question from Dave Vai:

My first introduction to the charactor of Cerebus was in Spawn #10, I am sure I am not alone in this. Having recieved a large collecion of Spawn comics from an older cousin, which being in my early teens I loved, I became intrigued by Cerebus after reading #10 and while at the time I bought a few books and did not fully appreciate what I was reading, upon revisiting these books years later I found a whole new love for this creation and have since added to my collection of Cerebus.

There have been many arguments over Todd McFarlane and creator rights etc, it has also taken along time for #10 of Spawn to ever be reprinted. I would like to know however, what how felt working on a cross-over project like this was for yourself, did it bring more fans the way for Cerebus and was that your hope when agreeing to do an issue of Spawn?

Hit the link to MILLAR WORLD... and there'll be more HARDtalk right here at A Moment Of Cerebus tomorrow.

HARDtalk: The Virtual Tour #19

You have always been very respectful towards the comics writers and artists of earlier generations, and in your writing / essays / annotations you have drawn attention to their achievements and importance for the next generation. Would you consider writing a series of occasional articles (for A Moment Of Cerebus or another publication) to continue that process?

I'd certainly consider it. Right at the moment if I never see the inside of this coffee shop again, I will die a happy man. Just kidding. It's a very nice place with great owners and a wonderful staff. What I think needs to happen is for me to come to the end of the Virtual Tour and then for us to examine how to coordinate A Moment of Cerebus and CerebusDownloads.com. Maybe an "Every Friday" question on the same basis? Get a free autographed comic with head sketch if your question is selected? That way if you don't get any questions, you could just ask me to talk about a specific creator and what I see as their importance and what I think cartoonists in any age can learn from them.

A lot is still up in the air. The Dave Sim Art site just wasn't going to work. Too difficult to maintain for too little return. George is up to his eyeballs in the HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL end of things, but theoretically, we're still going to have downloads of the CEREBUS TV episodes either on their own site or at Cerebus TV Downloads. But none of this is going to happen in the next five minutes...

Okay. Everybody over to BLEEDING COOL for a question from Cory Foster.  Actually one question and then a follow-up with a little background info.

First of all, I'd like to thank you for creating one of the most important pieces of art in my life. Let it be known that I finally got a friend to check it out after 17 years of only being able to talk about it to myself (though I had to actually purchase the volumes for him!).

My question is about your pacing of the issues after you had decided to go for 300. Aside from your assertion a couple days ago in which you state that the story was predestined, even before your grandfather was born, do you think back on Cerebus and have other ideas for spacing events out over the years? Specifically, do you ever regret introducing yourself into the story during Minds rather than perhaps another 25 issues later?

I personally find idea of this little grey character trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his now action-stunted life quite rewarding, but I know there's also a lot of criticism out there regarding the reflective 100 issue epilogue.

My aforementioned friend made me think of this, as he just finished HS and the first book of C&S and noted that there's some issues in which the plot isn't moved forward. I mentioned to him your quote from years ago in which you state that when telling a complete life story, you have to take into account that there will be days when nothing happens. Nobody's life is action all the time.

Hit the link to BLEEDING COOL for the answer to that question, and I'll see you tomorrow for more HARDtalk.

HAVE YOU GOT A QUESTION FOR DAVE SIM?
Already signed up for the HARDtalk Virtual Tour are Bleeding Cool, Millar World, Terminal Drift, Canadian Comics Archive, The Comics Journal, The Beat and Mindless Ones. Add your question for Dave Sim at one of these fine websites before 10 October and if your question is chosen (they'll need to be tough, interesting questions!) you'll receive a personalised, autographed copy of a Cerebus back-issue, with a Cerebus head-sketch by Dave Sim!