When Your Creator Tells It Like It Is

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 has been over a year since we last saw a couple pages from Dave Sim’s 30th notebook in Hurtling Through Dark Realms. The notebook had 73 pages scanned and 25 pages missing and was labeled by Dave with just ‘Minds Rehearsal’. At 5” x 3” notebook #3 contains mostly writing, just walls of text, of what Dave has to say to Cerebus.

On page 44 and 45 Dave says to Cerebus that what Cerebus really wants to know is ‘does she still love you.’ And Dave’s answer is: No. She doesn’t. 

Dave then goes why Jaka doesn’t love Cerebus:

To her, you happened a long time ago. In retrospect when she thinks of you at all it is as the one who didn’t come back to her. It is unfortunate in affairs of the heart that timing really is everything. Jaka must be the center of someone’s world in order to love them and you have made it plain in a hundred different ways that whatever does exist at the center of your world it is not her.

Notebook #30, pages 44 & 45

At the bottom of page 45 and on page 46, Dave tells Cerebus what Dave is going to do next:

I will return you to your world soon, to whatever it is that you most want to be. There are three distinct possibilities. Depending on which one you choose, your remaining life will follow three different courses.  There is not much time left to you. If I had to note you progress to date, my assessment would be that is has been meager, but not insignificant. It was my choice as to whether to restore you ear and I have chosen not to. Your life has been a series of self amputations, exhibiting an inability and an unwillingness to see.

Notebook #30, pages 46 & 47

Whew, harsh. You can see that the next page goes to cover number boxes and doesn’t finish Dave’s thought of what Cerebus has an unwillingness to see.

Hurtling Through Dark Realms

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

We last saw pages from Dave Sim’s thirtieth notebook over two years ago in Fascination with Gore. The small notebook, only 5” x 3”, had 73 pages scanned and 25 pages missing. Dave had labeled it the ‘Minds’ notebook, as it contains what he would say to Cerebus in the Minds phonebook. Last time we saw it, we saw pages 6 though 11. So about we start back up with page 12 (you can click all the pictures to get a bigger view):

Notebook 30, pages 12 & 13

Notebook 30, pages 14 & 15

Notebook 30, pages 16 & 17

Once again, it doesn’t look like much of this dialogue was used. It a bit on page 17 appears to be paraphrased – the part where Dave talks about how Cerebus surprises him many times.

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And from the Head Office in Kitchener, Ontario, it's TODAY'S Cerebus in Hell?!!!:

Daily Strip #2 (click for bigger)

Fascination with Gore

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

We looked at pages 1 through 5 of Dave Sim's notebook #30 just last week in Seemingly Lead a Charmed Life. It is the notebook of what Dave would say to Cerebus in Minds.

I figured we'd start back up with pages 6 & 7:

Notebook 30 pages 6 & 7

Notebook 30 pages 8 & 9

Notebook 30 pages 10 & 11

The dialogue doesn't appear to be used in Minds, not at least that I can see.  Dave talking about what a creator does to his creation.

Seemingly Lead a Charmed Life

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

We've only seen Dave Sim's notebook #30 once before here at AMoC in November 2014: Minds Rehearsal. Notebook #30 is just that, what Dave would say to Cerebus in the Minds phonebook. The notebook is the smallest notebook at 5" x 3" and only had 73 pages scanned in and 25 missing pages.

I scanned this notebook in two pages at a time as it was so tiny. So the front inside cover was scanned in along with page one:

Notebook 30, page 1

Notebook 30 pages 2 & 3

Notebook 30 pages 4 & 5

The only bit used from those first five pages was a paraphrasing of "I am your creator, but I'm not your god" on page 127 of Minds (issue #193, page 1):

Minds, page 127

Notebook 27 Minds Rehearsal

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.

Notebook #27 is the smallest of the notebooks I scanned in it. It measures 5" x 3", one of those small notebooks that you could fit in your pocket:

Notebook #27 back and front cover

The cover says there are 100 pages in the notebook, but only 75 pages remain: 73 pages with material on them were scanned. Only four pages have sketches on them, the rest is text. What Dave thinks he is going to say to Cerebus during Minds, as Dave gets his say first. Some of it makes the final cut, but not all of it, like what he had to say about Prince Mick and Keef, Oscar, Lord Julius. . .

"The skirted the border-line between breathing fire and soiling themselves noisily. They were (and are) a linger petition to the superiors -- the lesser gods, unapologetic for their contrariness letting their words and deeds peak for themselves. They are restrained at times, lose sight of the untenable position emerging on the chessboard of their lives, they are dismissed as aberrations, explained away as self-promoting exhibitionists. Time is their ally. As their beloved contemporaries fad into foot-noted history or obscurity they are returned to over decades. The defy ready explication."

Notebook #27, pages 24 and 25

Notebook #27, pages 26 and 27

The small text like that is only on pages one to 46, and then the lettering changes style, we get a couple pages of sketches and some of this:

Notebook #27, pages 58 and 59

"Cerebus stands for just about anything if it'll make you buy his phonebooks." Looks like some text for a promotional campaign that Dave was formulating.