The Aardvark-Vanaheim Succession Plan: PART too

Hi, Everybody!

Eddie Khanna checked in again:

Hi Matt! I'm attaching my questions to Dave about public domain, merchandising, etc. and his response. 

-Eddie

Next Time: The combination to Dave's Luggage?

The Aardvark-Vanaheim Succession Plan: PART 1

Hi, Everybody!

So Eddie Khanna sent in this:

Hi Matt! 

I'm sending the initial fax Dave sent to me regarding becoming his successor to the position of President of Aardvark-Vanaheim, and how he would like things to proceed after his death. 

He says the fax should be posted to AMOC at the time of his passing, but I think it important to have it posted up there now so there are no surprises down the road (although I think anyone who has been reading Dave for all these years won't really be surprised by any of it). 

Part of my intention in doing this is to also provide a better understanding to everyone (including myself) what being in the position might and will entail when the time comes, especially since Cerebus and all things Dave Sim related are currently being kept alive only by a small number of dedicated readers and fans (a number which I assume is only going to decrease as the years go by, and the number of first generation Cerebus fans who were there in the beginning and experienced it being created, month by month over 26 years, begins to shrink). Which begs the most obvious question: How to keep Aardvark-Vanaheim going after Dave passes, in accordance with Dave's Final Will and Wishes? Where does one even start to prepare for such a role?

I have some rough ideas of where to begin, but as usual with all things Cerebus-related, this is uncharted territory, and I'm curious what the AMOC readership would do in my position. Say you suddenly found yourself in the situation of inheriting Aardvark-Vanaheim: Where would you start in preparing to take over as President? How would you go about getting ready to take on such a massive role and responsibility? What would you do if you were in my shoes? 

Thanks as always, Matt, to stepping up to the plate as AMOC "Interim Editor" (and thanks to Tim for creating it in the first place!), and helping to provide an on-line presence for all things Cerebus and Dave Sim related. It's obvious AMOC plays a vital role in helping to keep the train rolling, and hopefully will always continue to do so. 

Best

Eddie   

My response to Eddie went thusly:

As far as what I'd do in your shoes and Dave becomes Aardvark Vanaheim's First Ex-President? 

Crap my pants and panic.

Does Cerebus still go into the public domain? So that you have to compete with every Tom, Dick, and Seiler printing their own phone books and keeping cash out of AV's coffers?

What if the marketplace meets the saturation point for how much Cerebus it can absorb?

Do you keep printing new Cerebus In Hell? Books if there are still some left in inventory? Do you start writing your own Cerebus In Hell? Books?

Do you colorize Cerebus to beat out Seiler's marketshare? (I would...)

I mean, it IS alot to absorb. But the good news is that while Dave is packed and ready to go, my grandma was too at age 60. She lived another 31 years and died at 91. If Dave tracks the same way, you'll have 30 years to prepare for him to, "join the choir Eternal" (as Monty Python put it). 

I'd ask ALOT of questions. ALOT. Because the stupidest question is the one you don't ask...

Your welcome, as always. Running AMOC is... it's own unique headache. I'm pretty sure it's nothing compared to running the big show. Anything I can do to help, let me know,

Matt

So here's the fax, I've commented  on the individual pages as I saw fit:

"Feed the Poor", "Pay Ger", not bad for priorities. Although I laughed at "There are very few points of intersection between religion and Aardvark-Vanaheim".

I know that last full paragraph is gonna be all anybody talks about in the comments. I just know it. Let me just say, before the shitstorm starts, that I can SEE where Dave is coming from, but seeing his point, and agreeing with his point are not the same things. 

I want a wrought iron Cerebus. And Elrod! (I bet Seiler's good for buying the wrought iron Jaka in dancing costume...)

I have referred to Dave as my friend on a number of occasions when explaining my relationship to him just wasn't worth the time or effort. My wife's aunt doesn't care who Dave is, she just wants to know why there's a drawing of a  little aardvark penis framed on my wall...

Good advice, good advice. I'll have to warn MY successors about NOT opening any e-mails titled "Dave's Autopsy Pics" after they've eaten a big meal. My successor will be taking over about two minutes after I receive an e-mail titled, "Dave's Autopsy Pics"...

"I always "low-ball" it" being the reason the Kickstarter money never seems to be enough. In my opinion. Remember, I'm the schmuck who thought taking a gig with "Dave's Autopsy Photos" in the future was a GOOD idea... *sigh*

That's my plan. When I croak, all my Cerebus stuff goes BACK to Kitchener. I encourage everyone of you to do the same. (The plan was that I got Seiler's stuff when HE croaks, and then it goes to the Off-White House. I'll let HIM show up in the comments and tell you why that's not gonna happen...)

Tarzan is good, but The Yellow Kid is the one that keeps coming to my mind. We all know The Yellow kid, but how many of us have actually read a collection? Is there even a collection? When was the last time you even THOUGHT of The Yellow Kid? Hop-Along Cassidy is another. There was a time when Hop-Along Cassidy was a Big Deal. Hop-Along Cassidy merchandise was valuable. You could make bank with Hop-Along Cassidy. Now? Hop-Along Cassidy has sauntered down the trail and all his fans are dead. And his merch is dirt cheap. There is a window of opportunity that you have to be aware of. I mean I have almost every single Masters of the Universe action figure. But at a certain point, barring a major development Masters of the Universe-wise, they're just old toys. And eventually, they're gonna be old crap. That nobody cares about. I mean, Dave "shuffles loose this Mortal Coil", and Eddie takes the oath. Then what? The series will have ended how many decades before? I mean, with the proper exploitation, Cerebus COULD be another Tarzan. I hope it will be another Tarzan, but there is always the possibility that it'll be another The Yellow Kid...

When I first read the succession list, the Vainglorious Egotistical part of me wondered where I was on the list. And the sensible part answered, "hopefully near the bottom, or not even on the God damn thing! You really want to 'multiply your sorrows' that much?"

My advise to Dave about the "identifying Archive items" is the same: take the video camera, hold up the item, describe what it is in as much detail as possible, then pick up the next item. That way we have a digital record that could eventually be used to create a virtual tour of the Archive. And Dave doesn't have to sit at the typewriter for weeks on end typing it all up.

"Say Eddie, why EXACTLY did A/V NEED an "Executive Massaging Lounger with cupholders, heated footrest, wi-fi, and bluetooth capabilities?"-Me, from the future

Eddie, get a frickin' website. I'll happily flog Cerebus and A/V here for the rest of my time as Interim Editor (six years or llife, I haven't decided yet...), and I'm sure Margaret and the others will pimp A/V on Facebook. But as Yahoo has gone the way of the dodo, so too will AMOC and the Facebook group. An OFFICIAL A/V website will get you away from having to rely on schmucks like me.

Okay, it's bedtime. I look  forward to all of you guys SERIOUSLY LOSING YOUR SHIT in the comments.

Next Time: Eventually, death. Tomorrow: Ben Hobbs 

Eddie Khanna: Meet the "New" boss, same as the "Old" boss...

Hi, Everybody!

I just wanted to take a moment (heh...) to acknowledge and congratulate Eddie Khanna on being named Dave's successor.

Congratulations Eddie! 

Here's Eddie from glamourpuss #25, ya know, I was in glamourpuss #25 too...

Alright, back to work...

Next Time: Genesis. And I ain't talking about a blue Hedgehog...

Aardvark-Vanaheim: The Succession Plan (Dave's Weekly Update #233)

Hi, Everybody!

Auctions:

I got nothing... 

Anyway,

Heeeeeere's Dave:

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

Next time: "Blue Cheese Dressing" -I don't know what it means either...

Weekly Update #56: Judenhass In The Public Domain

Judenhass (2008)

by Dave Sim

(click image to enlarge)

DAVE SIM:
Hello, everyone!

Took me 40 minutes just to open and sort the mail today, so this one's going to be a little truncated. Just a LITTLE, though.  Lots of stuff to cover:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.  Reconstruction of the Off-White House foundation continues. I've got three photos and captions from this week but Dave Fisher hasn't had time to come by and pick them up. As soon as he does, he'll e-mail them to Tim and get them up here. Starting to get my thinking a little more organized, though  :).  The left rear corner is a nightmare, as you will see.

2.  Kickstarter surveys are still coming in, so not much  to report on that front from my end.  I am finishing the package for Tim F. our $10K retail patron. The last thing is a "Cerebus: The Last Post" piece that I've drawn on the back of a SIX DEADLY SINS PORTFOLIO from 1981.

3.  "If I die tomorrow" is the new basis for my thinking.  First thing:  I would want Eddie Khanna to get together with Ted Adams and get "as far as I got" on THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND in print as soon as possible.  Eddie knows where I'm going with it, so it should be possible to just run all of the new pages and then Eddie can take over in prose form from there on. Not the ideal solution, but preferable to trying to think of anyone who could actually finish it AS a comic book.

4.  "If I die tomorrow" Part Two:  I'm constitutionally incapable of destroying documents in the Archive and that includes my Last Will & Testament from 19 October 2006 which is in the office on the desk and has VOID written on it in big letters.  I've also signed the envelope that it's in twice, once in blue ink and once in red ink, overlapping (so you can't really fake it) and dated both signatures 10/11/14.  I'd appreciate that being called to anyone's attention you decides to take over after I'm gone. That's NOT my Will and shouldn't be followed/

5.  "If I die tomorrow" Part Three:  sudden flurry of JUDENHASS-related stuff. Leading me to the conclusion that it's time to put JUDENHASS in the public domain, having arranged through Lou C. to renew the website for five years.

1.  I'm getting a crash course in basic construction fundamentals and it seems like the best course of action is to get everything done on the house STRUCTURALLY that needs to get done -- and then contact Heritage Kitchener and get some expert advice on what the place should -- and shouldn't -- look like.  I have ideas of my own, but my ambition is really to conform as much as possible to the heritage aspects of the house while making the whole thing work between the Off-White House and Scott's place next door, not getting bogged down in property line obsessions which, looking at the evidence, seems to have a long and unhappy history (his place goes up to within six inches of my property line. Which is nuts, because his downstairs tenant really needs access.  I'm not using the four feet or so of space so it just seems sensible to work something out that's a) low maintenance b) works for him and his tenant and c) conforms to what Heritage Kitchener will and won't allow.

Obviously, this isn't "front of mind" most of the time for me:  but it's always there and has been there since Scott bought the place three years ago.  I'll try to keep you posted but I don't know how much of this is "TMI" as far as most of you are concerned.

I'm hoping to get Tom H to post a report here on everything he's been doing.  It SEEMS interesting to me and, hopefully, it isn't offensive to anyone.  As I keep telling him and Scott:  it's YOUR (I mean, YOU folks') money that's paying for this so I figure you should be shown everything that we're doing as we're doing it.

EVENTUALLY the basement will be a research centre.  In the immediate future, what I'm planning is basically a small loading dock.  I think it's time to import the CEREBUS inventory (mostly back issues) from Leamington Ontario and, basically, autograph everything.  I don't know what I'm going to use them for and I've been resisting doing that because it's a HUGE job, but I basically made that choice when I had to relocate all of the glamourpuss back issues from Val d'Or and persuaded Ted Adams to take them at the IDW warehouse with the idea that we would use them for...something...when it came time to promote THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND.  So, that's what I did.  I wasn't crazy about the entryway of the house looking like a loading dock for weeks on end, which is why I haven't done it again.  But the answer with the CEREBUS inventory -- tens of thousands of comic books -- is that WHATEVER I end up doing with them it will work better if they're autographed. And just putting in an hour or two a day "on the loading dock 'incoming' table" seems Low Stress.

So that involves digging out the rear basement in the spring and basically putting a big table in there where the signing can be an on-going thing.  Un-box them, sign them, re-box them, send them to a local storage facility.  Weeks.  Months. Years.  The journey of a thousand miles, etc. 

2.  John F is gradually getting all of the surveys from the Kickstarter supporters.  I did have a stray thought when I saw all of the names printed out in a post a couple of weeks back.  Is there a way to make the database "name searchable"?  What I'm thinking is: this could be a way to tackle the "Lariv" -- anti-viral -- problem.  If you have a friend who is a CEREBUS fan and their name isn't on the list, can you contact them and just ask if they're aware of Kickstarter, that the CEREBUS ARCHIVE folios in unsigned form will soon be available from Diamond and that it's an on-going series?  I do get anecdotal responses from people which suggest that they don't know about it -- or A MOMENT OF CEREBUS for that matter.  I'm trying not to be high-pressure here.  I just don't know of any other way to contact people who read a comic book ten years ago to ask if they know what's happening with it.

I am thinking differently lately since we started doing the Bonus Prints.

A good example is that I intended to send Tim F. a SIX DEADLY SINS PORTFOLIO and to do an ink drawing on it, which I started this morning (astonishingly, I was absolutely caught up on all the mail and faxes! NEVER happens!).  It was one of those things where I've looked at the portfolio folder for over 30 years and thought a number of times, "That would be an interesting paper to draw on".  It's really like a watercolour paper.  But -- as I figured -- it wasn't as if I wanted to do ALL of the DEADLY SINS portfolios in the Cerebus Archive (six or seven).  Just one for the experience.

If you have a copy you know it has Frank Cirocco's SCHANES & SCHANES logo/illustration in white on a sky blue on the back with plenty of drawing space.  So what I was picturing was in ink drawing and then putting in white highlights with white ink or white paint.  So, that's what I'm doing and it's coming out pretty good, I think.

Up to now, it would be "Well, looks like Tim's the lucky guy who gets this since it's the only one I'm doing".  But, NOW, with the Bonus Prints, I thought, "This would make a nice Bonus Print." And then IMMEDIATELY thought:  POTENTIALLY.  What I think makes a nice Bonus Print isn't necessarily what CEREBUS fans think would make a good Bonus Print.  So, that's interesting.  I'm going to get Dave Fisher to relay a scan of it for posting here and that will be the first FIRST RELEASE BONUS PRINT for CANIII.

I won't KNOW if it's any good (in a CEREBUS fan sense) until I see how it sells during the next Kickstarter. :)

I'm looking forward to that:  WHAT Bonus Prints were the top picks this time and WHAT Bonus Prints are going to be #1/1 (because only one person wanted it)?  :)

3.  I'm trying not to be morbid about this, but it's hard not to be when you start something with "If I die tomorrow".  So, having bummed most of you out (and cheered up some of you), let me just add a proviso to Eddie Khanna and Ted Adams working out some way for THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND HE GOT THIS FAR, FOLKS to be made available:  if there's a self-evident (how can I put this) STRANGE DEATH OF DAVE SIM involved, I'd like Eddie and Ted to get together and use an appropriate visual for a Cerebus Trust Fund benefit that they would both sign and number and auction.  Like if there's a news photo of me "buying the farm" or a news photo of Where It Happened.  Morbid?  Yeah, I suppose.  But I'd hate to think of everyone getting suddenly squeamish about it since the major problem I'm facing is being ignored to death.  "Oh, how TRAGIC!  We'd best just ignore this".

There's no close family to speak of, no friends who are easily unsettled, no sensitivities to tip-toe around.

If it actually sells copies of Our Story Thus Far And No Further, hey, I'M in. Even -- actually especially -- from beyond the grave. WOOOooooOOOOOO.

TRUST ME if it wasn't for Eddie Khanna and Ted Adams the book would never have gotten to where it is now.  After I'm gone IT'S THEIRS.

4.  Not much to add to this one.  There won't BE a will, per se, when I get to it:  just Aardvark-Vanaheim getting folded up, all of CEREBUS going into the public domain and all assets becoming the property of The Cerebus Trust.  As soon as I'm declared dead, everything will fall into place automatically. God willing.

5.  JUDENHASS is very weird.  Absolutely nothing happens with it and then all of a sudden I'll get two or three inquiries about it in the space of a week or two.

In this case, a retailer in a major Canadian city, contacted me because his son, Joseph, has a connection to the Hasidic education environment in that city and was interested in, you know, if something could be done with JUDENHASS and could I send him some sample copies to pass around?  Certainly. I've got like four boxes of the PREVIEW edition that I took here at the house when Lebonfon stopped storing books because I couldn't think of anyone else who would want them.  I mean, Menachem would take them, but that would have been a twenty-year supply cluttering up his store.

I'm not naive.

I sent five copies and included a cover letter basically saying that I could guarantee him that nothing would happen and citing the political climate today As It is (or As I Infer It from abundant evidence).  No need in belabouring it here and, potentially, getting everybody all worked up about it.

Then I heard from Lou C. that the JUDENHASS website is up for renewal and he was offering to fold it into his own website.  Well, no, I don't think anything can be DONE, PER SE with JUDENHASS but that doesn't mean that I want to even REMOTELY disown it.  So, I asked Lou to renew the website for the longest sensible time for the money which worked out to five years.  Okay, good.  JUDENHASS technically exists until 2019.  Not that I think anything is going to change before 2019 or after 2019 or in my lifetime, but ...as I say, it's important to me.  I think it will be seen as an important work but not until long after I'm dead.  So as long as I'm alive, I'm going to keep it alive.

The retailer sent an interesting observation relayed from his son, Joseph: "Despite the Hasids' attempts to live in the 18th century, they're modern enough to be infused with the attitude that it's preferable to dance with the Aloi than it is to study the Morlocks."  That's good, you know?  That's very astutely and wryly put.  Which is really what you're stuck with in our world and you have anything that's remotely pro-Jew, Pro-Israel.  You can only be astute and wry.

So, this from me, in return:

As someone who gives equal weight to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is inescapable that the Jews are the most inclusive of the monotheistic faiths.  From the time they "got" virtually all of the holy sites in the Levant, they have been scrupulous in making sure that each faith has access to its own holy sites.  And as we've seen lately, they keep strictly to the policy of Not Allowing Their Own People to pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  I mean, to the Jews that's the Temple Mount, but they understand...How The Muslims and Particularly the Philistines, excuse me, the Palestinians...ARE...about that.  The fact that they have the power to enforce their will and yet keep the holy sites open and in conformity with those kinds of sensitivities, to me, gives them Skyer No Higher in the Monotheism Sweepstakes.

Me?  Personally?  I won't make the Hajj to Mecca or, in fact, go to any Muslim country because they won't let the Jews in.  Excuse me?  You are barring the descendants of Isaac from the "Standing Place of Abraham" in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca?  You won't even let them in your country? Feh. And you plan on BRINGING THAT BEFORE G-D ON JUDGEMENT DAY?

To me, that's inexcusable.  Even as I know the only sensible response is the remark upon it astutely, wryly shrug your shoulders and persevere.

So JUDENHASS will go into the public domain when Lou gets around to uploading a downloadable version of it to the website.  You want to print 30 of them?  You want to print 3,000,000 of them and give them away to high schools worldwide?  With my blessing!  Please! Don't even think of crossing my palm with silver!  BELIEVE ME!  Anyone making JUDENHASS available anywhere to anyone for any reason, is more than payment enough for me.  MORE than enough!  SO!  Potentially MILLIONS OF COPIES are about to circulate, nu?  

Pardon?  AM I smiling?  What do you know? So I am.  Yes, and that was a philosophical shrug of my shoulders.

See you all next week, God willing.  

Dave Sim: A Tribute To Craig Miller (1959-2012)

DAVE SIM:

I was sorry to hear about the death of Craig Miller who had been associated with Cerebus as far back as THE CEREBUS COMPANION and was one of the exhibitors at the Spirits of Independence stops in Austin Texas (19 Feb 95) with his funny animal title, RENEGADE RABBIT -- and its "Day of Greatness, Age of Consent" parody cover.  My correspondence with Craig was voluminous for a while there -- I have an inch-thick stack of faxes on the book shelf in the office -- through the short, multi-year history of FOLLOWING CEREBUS.

His publications were always interesting.  I had (and have) zero interest in David Lynch and his movies and TV shows but I always read WRAPPED IN PLASTIC from cover to cover when it came in and always found something edifying in its pages.

Craig seemed to, finally, fight his way out of an extended period of writer's block with his article on The Three Davids -- Lynch, Foster Wallace and myself -- which appeared in the last issue of FOLLOWING CEREBUS.  Personally, I couldn't think of a more unlikely trio but, hey, anything which would trigger Craig's former unending, effortless stream of insightful commentary was more than "fine by me".  I encouraged him to write more on the subject -- to make it a recurring FOLLOWING CEREBUS motif -- if that was where he saw productivity "daylight".

That was really the last I heard from him as FOLLOWING CEREBUS co-publisher.

He used to sell the CEREBUS trade paperbacks on the Win-Mill website, relaying "once in a blue moon" orders by fax.  As happens a lot with me, suddenly his fax number would no longer receive. In our last phone conversation a few weeks back, it took several visits by technicians to get it up and running again (the latest bunch having to undo everything the previous bunch had done) (again, not atypical of my situation).  I had been trying to contact him to tell him that I could no longer afford the time and money to mail out the (usually) individual books (usually) at inflated international rates.

Hard to believe I'll never again get a photo Christmas card of him with Jennifer, his beloved daughter.

The last (five? six?) years of his life, he had been engaged in a never-ending battle for shared custody of Jennifer with his ex-wife who kept having him charged with the same crimes the child-custody people and the courts kept finding him innocent of. Every few months he'd report that he'd been cleared of the latest charges and his legal travails were finally behind him. I always hoped that would be the case but (as I suspected) it never was.

He would send cheques every once in a while to cover FOLLOWING CEREBUS royalties and trade paperback sales. I never kept track. I knew he was having to sell his ever-diminishing comics collection to pay his relentless legal fees. Whatever he could sell of FOLLOWING CEREBUS he was more than welcome to keep.

I've just sent a fax to Gene Lane telling his father, who I assume is his executor, (the fax machine indicates it went through: whether he actually GETS it is another matter) that I'd like to assign all my own rights to FOLLOWING CEREBUS to Craig's estate and to, hopefully, get an advance from someone on a COLLECTED FOLLOWING CEREBUS that might clear up some outstanding child custody legal bills or -- preferably -- that the rights and any revenues be kept in trust for Jennifer (jointly with John Thorne, Craig's Win-Mill co-publisher) until she reaches her age of majority.

(Just BTW, my own pre-arranged funeral documents went up in smoke at Sandeep's place.  I kept meaning to mention this.  It would be helpful if someone, on hearing of my death, could contact the Waterloo Regional Police at 1-888-420-1777 and have them contact Schreiter-Sandrock Funeral Home, 51 Benton Street 519-742-4481 and tell them that I prearranged my funeral in January, 2004 -- right after I finished CEREBUS --  I also have a funeral plot that I purchased at Woodland Cemetery, 119 Arlington Blvd. around the same time.  I never got around to buying the gravestone -- I'm only "zoned" for one that lies flush with the ground, just "name and years".  There are no "family and friends" in my case, so it would save some confusion if someone could make note of this. Thanks!)

Craig had a LOT of interests in pop and general culture and a pretty close to encyclopedic knowledge of each.  Conan -- he went to REH DAYS in Cross Plains numerous times, often with Jennifer -- TWIN PEAKS, BUFFY, 1960s Marvel Comics, the US Space Program.  I was always extremely flattered that CEREBUS made his list and that he was -- inexplicably -- as enthusiastic as he was about devoting a magazine to CEREBUS even in the midst of the deafening radio silence that met the book's conclusion in March, 2004.  The deafening radio silence persisted -- and persists -- to this day, but Craig was really the first besides me and Gerhard to experience it on a daily basis.  He reacted with characteristic good humour but the issues became harder and harder for him to put together since he had to write virtually everything that I didn't.  And then LITERALLY everything when I decided I was the problem and that I needed to withdraw from public view.

Like the last ten years of CEREBUS, though, it was always extremely gratifying to get the new issue in, to read it and say, "This is good work.  Craig and I did good work."  Or, with the last one, "Craig did a great job on this."  That's really ALL that could be said but, as with MINDS, GUYS, RICK'S STORY, GOING HOME, FORM & VOID, LATTER DAYS, THE LAST DAY, JUDENHASS, glamourpuss, CEREBUS ARCHIVE and CEREBUS TV, it was enough.

It HAD to be.

Fare thee well, Craig.  It was a pleasure having you along for a few years on this long, weird ride while it lasted.  I'll always consider our 2004 to 2010 correspondence a centerpiece of the CEREBUS ARCHIVE correspondence files and I'm sure future generations -- way, way, WAY off in the future -- will agree.