The AV Family Photo Album: 1984; Petuniacon!

Hi, Everybody!

Over on the Cerebus Facebook Group, Margaret shared scans of the PetuniaCon program booklet from 1984 and asked:

If you were able to go to PetuniaCon and have some stories, please share with the group. We'd love to hear them. . .Well, I'd love to hear them.

Which was her way of trying to trick me into going through the A-V Family Photo Album.

Since I gotta post anyway, here's the bits I found in the first ten minutes of looking (I need an intern to go through and sort and format the four hundred or so scans Dave sent me...):

And then I had to get out of there (there's this really big spider down there...)

There ya go Mags, no, no need to thank me. Just be a lamb and kill that spider for me...

Rigamarole:

Acquaintance to the blog Travis sent in:

My Kickstarter was unsuccessful. Thank you for adding it to the blog in the last several days.
I appreciate it.
I decided to just put the comic for sale on Lulu.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/fanny-kelly-and-hal-kolbeck/my-captivity/paperback/product-459wr8z.html?page=1&pageSize=4

And Tim Gagne sent in:

If you can link this on AMOC Matt Allsion could use the help. https://crowdfundr.com/a2Yvxb?ref=ab_3UXdKBiCFCH3UXdKBiCFCH Bargain @ $10.

I'm selling bootleg Cerebus trading cards featuring my art, coloring by Hobbs, and unused art of MY characters by Dave. $10 a set for 11 cards plus TWO HANDDRAWN cards (by me). Email momentofcerebus@gmail.com and I'll explain how to pay.

Larry Shell could use a hand to keep his house.

The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. More on this as I'm allowed to post stuff...

Our very own Jen DiGiacomo is part of a film production titled The Day Elvis Died. She'll never ask anybody here, but they're crowdfunding to finish the post production on the movie. (It's set in 1977, will a certain obscure Canadian cartoon aardvark make a cameo? (No. Elvis died in August. Cerebus wasn't published until December. Any appearance in the flick would be an anachronism that would ruin the movie for everybody. EVERYBODY!).) Here's the first trailer.

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The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 35% off June 22-23.*

*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.

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You can get all 16 volumes of Cerebus, many of them Remastered for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)

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Heritage has:

• THREE pages of original art 

1. Cerebus #3 page 21
2. Cerebus #20 page 21
3. Cerebus #293 page 7

• And Cerebus 1, 3, and 4 slapped.

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Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..., "Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".

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Mondays!

Dave's To Do List

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 last saw a few pages from Dave Sim’s seventh notebook used in the production of Cerebus just this past January in Mind Game IV. It covers Cerebus #59 through 69 and some other things that were going on at the time. Like all these items shown on page 18.

Notebook #7, page 18

Up at the top we get a list of things that Dave must’ve had on his to-do list:

• Record album cover
• Portfolio Plates
• Story with Ger
• Petunia Artwork
• Designs for Ger to do
• Ad supplement 
• Aardvark Update
• Newsletter Cover (Petuniacon)
• Notebooks section

That is quite the list. The record album cover has to be a reference to the unreleased Radio Show LP:

Cerebus: The Radio Show album art from the back cover of Cerebus the Newsletter #10

While the LP was never released, you can go to Jeff’s Cerebus The Aardvark website’s AV Room page, scroll down to see ‘Audio’ and viola, all the MP3s of the audio version of the first 6 issues.

Portfolio plates. . .is that the Animated Cerebus plates or the First Fifth plates? Well, since the Animated Cerebus portfolio came out in 1983 and was in notebook #4, this reference must be for the First Fifth portfolio.

The story with Ger has got to be a reference to the Epic story “His First Fifth” which was Gerhard’s first collaboration with Dave on a Cerebus story. 

Petunia artwork? Yes, Dave did the artwork not only for the PetuniaCon program booklet, but the badges, and other items. See this page on Brian’s old site (I don’t seem them on his Comic Art Fans site, which has mouth watering large amount of cool Cerebus, Dave Sim, and Gerhard work – take a look, but have a free hour ‘cause it’ll take you a while to get through all the goodies).

As for the newsletter cover (PetuniaCon)? There wasn’t a newsletter that had a specific cover for just PetuniaCon. . .the notebooks section goes along with the newsletter. Since AV was publishing the newsletter at this point, they printed  some notebook pages in them.

The bottom half of the page deals with Cerebus comic book stuff – well, other than that Cerebus The Newsletter inside front cover design – but I’m not sure what issue, or if it was used, as it isn’t ringing any bells. The lines:

“Cerebus doesn’t want to have a good time. Cerebus wants to stay here with you. . .” sounds like something he’d say to the Countess. However,  she didn’t appear in issues #59 through 69 which is what this notebook (supposedly) covers.  However, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve found items meant for other issues in a notebook labeled as something else.

If anyone knows where that dialogue is from, let us know in the comments.

PetuniaCon Guest List

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.

Last week in PetuniaCon Day One we say a couple of pages from Dave's second Cerebus notebook. One of the pages had a sketch for the cover to Cerebus #37, PetuniaCon day one. So when I started digitally flipping through the pages of the third notebook, which  covers Cerebus #37 to 40, and saw writing for PetuniaCon day one, I slowed down a bit and read what it was.

On page three I saw some dialogue, just a wall of it. One thing caught my interest, a name: Suenteus Po. What? He doesn't appear in Cerebus #37.  What we see is some dialogue between Cerebus and Po during a face to face meeting at PetuniaCon.

Notebook #3, page 3

The next reference to Po is on page 6, which appears to be more dialogue between him and Cerebus.

Notebook #3, page 6

I don't remember Po showing up in Cerebus #37, but I double checked. There is no Po in that issue. In fact, the next issue he appears in is #155.

PetuniaCon Day One

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.

Dave Sim's second notebook covers Cerebus #28 through 37 and had 198 out of 200 pages scanned. Page 186 caught my interested because it has a preliminary sketch for the cover to Cerebus #37:

Notebook #2, page 186

The only similarity to the actual cover, which is for PetuniaCon, is of Cerebus sitting behind a desk. There are also sketches of cards. Going to the next page, it appears they are sketches for a card game called Priestess:

Notebook #2, page 187

If Priestess is anything like Diamondback, part of me is glad it never saw the light of day. Take it from someone who had played Diamondback, the only way to play it is drunk, while complaining about rice cakes.

Speaking of Petunia Con...

"Petunia Con '84" print

Art by Dave Sim

(Click image to enlare)

DAVE SIM:
(from an AMOC Comment, 16 March 2017)
Coincidentally (?)

a) I just sent Conan Tobias [at Taddle Creek] two pictures from the Aardvark-Vanaheim panel -- featuring Bill Loebs, me, Deni, Arn Saba, Jim Valentino and Joshua Quagmire -- at the Real World (?) PETUNIACON '84 in Oakland California (since they were two of the only four photos of Arn Saba that I had for his article on Arn Saba/Katherine Collins for QUILL & QUIRE)...

b) researching LOVE & AARDVARKS #1 in Todd Hignite's JAIME HERNANDEZ book, I just noticed in a period photo of Los Bros. that Mario is wearing a Petuniacon t-shirt (it was the first convention Los Bros. attended: Jaime's was definitely the first mohawk I had ever seen in my hotel suite). It was also Gerhard's first convention.

*I* don't even have a Petuniacon t-shirt!

Los Bros Hernandez: Jaime, Mario & Gilbert (1984)
Photo by Carol Kovinick Hernandez

c) a caption for another photo in the book mentions that I had organized PETUNIACON. Which isn't true. Faye Desmond organized PETUNIACON at the beginning until the Bay Area Comics & Comix retail chain crew got wind of the fact that the only guests were going to be Indy creators and recognized a disaster in the making and jumped in and lined up Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz as guests to prevent the disaster from taking place. I did drawings for the program book, t-shirt and poster but that was the extent of my hands-on participation. Apart from holding the above-mentioned Killer Party in my suite. And insisting that I needed to have a suite large enough for a Killer Party as part of my attendance.

Does Cerebus Really Need To Go To PetuniaCon?

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 looked at Dave Sim's notebook #2, which covers Cerebus #28 to 37, only twice before. First in Albatross, Too in August 2016 and most recently last month in Hsssssssssssssssssssss. If you've picked up the Cerebus Cover Art Treasury book, you'll see a few pages from this notebook with sketches of the covers of the single issues in High Society.

However, you won't see the page that shows the cover thumbnail for Cerebus #37.

Cerebus #37 cover

On page 186, out of the 198 pages scanned, there is a thumbnail for the cover:

Notebook 2, page 186

As you can see, Cerebus looking a bit irritated sitting in a chair behind a desk is about the only similarity to the artwork which we can see.

Since we can also see Dave's drawings of for the Priestess card game. The next page shows a bit more of the card set:

Notebook 2, page 187

Petunia Con: A Celebration Of Cerebus!

Petunia Con Advert

The Comics Journal #88 (January 1984)

Limited Edition Petunia Con 1984 Print

Art by Dave Sim

(Click image to enlare)

Petunia Con 1984 Print

Petunia Con 1984 Print

Art by Dave Sim

(Click image to enlare)