Endgame

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.

Earlier this year, "Odds and Ends", we saw the first sketch of Cirin in Dave Sim's notebooks. On page 92 of notebook #7 we see a picture of Cirin sitting on a chair, completely covered by Cirinist like robes. Now in notebook #8 we see Cirin in the same pose, but her hood is down and you can see her hands:

Notebook 8, page 85

On page 20 of issue #100 (or page 996 of Church & State II if you're following along in the phonebooks) we do see Cirin in the same pose, but on the finish pages she is wearing the Cirinist robes we come to associate with Cirin, and she says "And may Terim have mercy on us all..." instead of "And may our lady have mercy on all our souls."

The next page of the notebook shows some dialogue Dave was coming up with for issue #100:

Notebook 8, page 86

The Bishop Posey text is almost the same as the finish issue. The Bishop Powers text however, is much different. In the finished piece Powers only warns Cerebus that there is great peril and that she must be dealt with before she... and he cuts off. On the above notebook page you can see that Powers was concerned that Astoria was going to cast another spell, and that she needed to be sentenced and then executed while she was in a weakened state.

The page numbering is also off, as Dave put in the end of the shared vision between Cerebus and Astoria of Suenteus Po and Great Andrena during the moment of Po's execution. But the main points from the dialogue in the notebook still exist in issue #100.

Color Sharpening-- focus on CAN3

Sean Michael Robinson:

Greetings folks.

Last week I received a message from John Funk that his last printing session for CAN3, focusing on the numbered bonus prints, had gone off without a hitch. He also sent along this nice message, with some praise for the new printing facilities, and some feedback on the prepress/print prep--

I just had to tell you how great the black and the colours against the black on BP-23 looks! WOW is all I can say. I showed it to the print company staff and even compared it to a proof I had with me from May (their previous machine). NO comparison. This one has deep, deep, very rich black and the colours just jump off the page against the rich black. It looks stunning. You must have done some more fine tuning on this one (and other as well probably) because I don’t recall the last proof I sent you looking as good as todays production printing did! I just hope Dave has a silver pen to sign them with.

With that in mind, I thought I'd give you all a technically oriented walk-through of prepping that image for print. If you're bored by tech talk, this is a good place to tune out :)

 Here's a view of the raw scan, scanned on Dave's Epson WF7510, which has reasonably good color balance and sharp enough optics at this resolution, especially considering the price. 

As Dave had specifically requested that this image be treated as a "finished" image rather than a "warts and all" color reproduction a la the porfolios, there are several different things for me to do here. First, let's take a look at the image at 50 percent zoom. (When working on sharpening levels etc you should always be viewing the image at 100 or 200 percent, but with the dimensions of images required for the blog, you'd be seeing basically no information. :))

Raw scan, at 50 percent.

So as I said before, it's a reasonable scan. The image looks a bit dull color-wise, and it's soft, in need of some sharpening. The black is also washed-out. Since the black border is such a major feature of the image, and will serve to anchor every other color adjustment we do, let's adjust that first--

In Photoshop CC, Cntrl-L will bring up the Levels command-

The little black arrow on the far left represents the black point, the point where the software will recognize absolute black (in this case, 100 percent of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). In a photograph, this type of adjustment ("crushing the blacks") would be verboten for many styles of photography, as you're losing any information to the left of the point. Or more specifically, you're crushing that information into a more uniform black. 

In this case, because a lot of the color modeling was worked pretty dark, I can't move the black point very far without changing the color cast as well. So I end up moving it a bit to the right, then moving the mid point (the grey arrow in the middle) to the left a bit, until all I've done is blackened the blacks and not affected the rest of the color. Here's what that looks like.

Raw scan plus "Levels" adjustment

Okay, now let's address some of the softness in the scan.

Before we do any kind of sharpening at all, you first need to confirm that your scan is already the right size of your destination. In other words, if you'll need to scale your image at all, it's best to do this before you do any sharpening. This is because any scaling inevitably softens the image, which might require more sharpening afterwards.

(The book Real World Image Sharpening by the late great Bruce Fraser actually recommends sharpening on output, at least in the case of photographs that might need to be printed at varying sizes, on varying media, for different purposes. This workflow might also make sense for you. In my case, I'm saving each of these steps as a layer, so it's easy to back out if something else comes up in the future that requires something radically different.)

First off--what's sharpening, and why do we need it?

I'm going to quote myself from the last time I wrote about color sharpening--

For a wide range of reasons, and to varying degrees, all digital imaging techniques invariably soften an image. This is true whether you're working with a digital camera, or a flatbed scanner, or even a high-end drum scanner. Additionally, all methods of full-color reproduction do the same thing. Picture, if you will, the millions of tiny colored dots that make up the average full-color print. Through a miraculous flaw in your vision, the result appears as a continuous tonal image. But the result of all those dots is a diffusion of detail, a "softness" that's difficult to avoid. 

So, you improve your output device, you improve your substrate, i.e. your paper. Coated paper holds ink with less expansion, therefore, your dots can be smaller, carrying more detail from source to print. Additionally, you compensate for what expansion there is with correction curves that try to predict dot gain and adjust accordingly. But still, the image gets softer.
That's where sharpening comes in. 

Sharpening is essentially contrast-boosting edges, controlled by threshold (i.e. what is considered an edge), amount (strength), and radius. The radius is what gives you real control. How large of an area should this effect cover? Smaller radii bring out high-frequency detail, and larger radii are for softer-focus targets.

Okay, we're going to do two passes of sharpening here. The first one will be high-frequency--addressing itself to the small details, namely the grittiness of some of the paint and the small lines. I bring up the Unsharp Mask tool--

The Threshold is essentially "what gets seen as an edge?" The lower the Threshold, the more of the image is affected. I've set a very low Threshold here to affect more of the image-- I want to bring out some of the very small texture of the paint and paper first. I've also set a low radius-- the radius is the size of the effect that's generated. Larger radiuses can look like halos-- smaller ones are much more subtle. Lastly, I've kept the amount down fairly low, so that the overall effect is fairly mild.

Here's the result.

Everything looks just a bit more textured, and the very small white on black sections are now really popping.

Okay, now I'm going to address the colors again. They look a bit dull compared to the other scan of this image I've seen. So I'm going to use the Saturation control and up the saturation of the colors just a bit.

Then I go ahead and apply one more pass of sharpening, this time with a higher Threshold (affecting less of the image) and a higher radius (wider sharpening effect overall).

Here's the result--

Lastly, I use the "Select from Color Range" tool to select only the black, and make that pure black. Next I extend the black border a little further to make this a full-bleed print.

 After printing out the image, I notice the Cerebus logo could probably use some color flattening as well. So I use the same trick-- "Select From Color Range" grabs the logo, which I then fill with a single color, eye-droppered from the logo itself.

And here's a screenshot of the final product. (Click to enlarge)

Of course, the real destination is always the print itself--

Unorthodox Economic Revenge

Unorthodox Economic Revenge (2006)

by Dave Sim

Dave Sim: 3 Minutes About Misogyny

"I think that equating opposition to feminism with misogyny is the same as suggesting that the only reason to not be a communist is that you hate working people. I don't hate working people. I don't hate communists, I don't hate women, and I don't hate feminists. I don't hate anybody. I keep my political discussions completely free from emotion because I think emotion has no place in a political discussion." ~ Dave Sim, September 2015

Links & Further Reading:
"I Don't Believe Dave Sim Is A Misogynist" Petition
15 Impossible Things To Believe Before Breakfast
Neil Gaiman: Why I Won't Sign Dave Sim's Petition
Sandeep Atwal's Explanation Of Dave Sim's Views

Gerebus: Gerhard's Convention Sketches

GERHARD:

I did all of these Cerebuses at the Chicago Wizard Convention. One of them is currently on eBay for about $155... I need to rethink how much I'm charging for sketches!

 

Gerhard will be attending the Ohio Wizard Comicon on 18-20 September 2015. More details...

Correspondence From Hell: Introduction

CORRESPONDENCE FROM HELL

A Conversation Between Dave Sim & Alan Moore
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Conclusion

Alan Moore: "I Wear The Chain I Forged In Life" (2013)
Art by Dave Sim

The following essay first appeared in Alan Moore: Portrait Of An Extraordinary Gentleman (edited by Gary Spencer Millidge & Smokeyman, Abiogenesis Press, 2003), a celebration of Alan Moore on the occasion of his 50th birthday, and it accompanied a reprinting of Dave Sim's Correspondence From Hell with Alan Moore, which had originally appeared in Cerebus #217-220 in 1997.

DEALING WITH PAGANS

By Dave Sim

Dealing with pagans (as I frequently do) is an interesting business. When Gary Spencer Millidge contacted me about contributing to this publication, he mentioned in his fax that Cerebus is the first comic book that he reads when he receives his fortnightly shipment (Cerebus is the comic book that I write and co-draw -- if you are a feminist forget that you ever heard the name and you can continue to exist in your happy little mythological world). Since it is, by now, common knowledge in the comic book field that I am not a feminist and that I am vehemently opposed to feminism, for anyone in the comic book field to acknowledge that they read Cerebus is a most exceptional circumstance. Owing to the implicitly... expulsive?... quality of feminism, Cerebus has not been mentioned in polite society -- pagan or otherwise -- for some years now. Nor have I. So Gary's observation, for me, begged the question which it immediately raised: is this true? Does Gary read Cerebus (leave aside the question of whether he gives it any amount of priority)? Or is there some manner of pagan chicanery afoot? Is he (let's be completely indelicate here) in Alan Moore's thrall? I ask this because Gary's communication had been preceded by another from a fellow in New Jersey, enquiring if I had in my possession an Alan Moore script which had been sent to Gerhard (Gerhard does the backgrounds on Cerebus and we jointly run the company) (I would say we're partners, but that, unfortunately, bespeaks a different connotation these days) and myself some years ago when Alan and Neil were talking about doing a joint anthology title and which he wished to publish in a volume celebrating Alan Moore's 50th birthday (this same volume? Or are we about to be inundated with books celebrating Alan's 50th as we were with "Princess Diana Tribute" books five years ago?). Neil Gaiman had, evidently, mentioned to this fellow in New Jersey that Alan and Neil had jointly concluded that the copy of the script which we had been sent was the only copy of said script in existence. Neil didn't have a copy. Alan didn't have a copy.

Now, I ask you, exactly how likely is that?

Pagan stories always... "sound" funny in exactly this way. Like a Neil Gaiman fairy tale. (lilting musical voice) "And there was only one copy of the story in all the lands and all the world and by the strangest of chances it came about that the story had fallen into the possession of a Deluded Acolyte of the False and Wicked Judaic, Christian and Islamic God Who Doesn't Believe that Abortion is a Virtue."

You see what I mean? Wait, it gets better.

Coincidentally, there had arrived in the same day's mail as the envelope from the fellow in New Jersey another envelope containing an ad slick for (I swear I'm not making this up) a collection of stories which had won an "L. Ron Hubbard Writing Competition" -- said ad slick containing a nice, big quote from Neil Gaiman about what a jolly good show it is that a science-fiction writer who founded his own religion -- er -- "religion" -- had indirectly produced such a volume of great writing. And which also contained a very nice cover letter from someone in California saying what a jolly good show it would be if I ran the ad in Cerebus. To which I could only reply (albeit only mentally -- I see no need to get stuck, however cosmetically, in the tar baby that is the spiritual residue of whatever L. Ron Hubbard has left behind in this vale of tears) that it would be an equally jolly good show if the earth's core were to turn to permafrost. Alas, life does hold its little disappointments for us all, doesn't it?

The fellow in New Jersey had interviewed me some years ago on behalf of another (I am coming to suspect) pagan publication and mentioned in his letter that he found himself "having to" contact me again. In a letter from someone representing Alan Moore (however indirectly) the phrase "having to" does tend to jump out at you, having the "whiff" about it of someone being compelled to discharge a completely unpleasant but unavoidable duty. That part, at least, rang true. In pagan society I can well imagine that having any manner of contact (however fleeting) with Dave Sim would be considered an unpleasant duty which would be undertaken only if it was completely unavoidable. Or perhaps the fellow is merely a feminist and has picked up his aversion to Dave Sim by that brand of osmosis which is peculiar to the politically correct and which is the only discernible means by which they arrive at their political opinions. Like sheep with scrapie: if one of them has the opinion, they all have that opinion.

Anyway, I found the script right where I had left it in my "don't under any circumstances for one second lose track of where this is" drawer next to my drawing board. Swiftly, I put it in an envelope and mailed it off to New Jersey guy within minutes of receiving the letter. Didn't want Neil's fairy story to have an unhappy ending. "And the Deluded Acolyte of the Wicked God Who Doesn't Believe Abortion is a Vitue returned the story to the Brave and Noble Necromancer and he and all the children celebrated by spending the night raising the spirits of the dead from out of the earth including Princess Diana because her grave was just over the road a ways from the Necromancer's house and because all the children, of course, loved Princess Diana. The. End."

I mean, it as Alan's script. He wants it back, he can have it back. What am I going to do? Pour holy water and sacramental wine on it?

Anyway, it was a couple of days later that I got a fax from Gary. Not enough time for the script to actually make it to New Jersey, but that really has nothing to do with how, you know, pagan stuff works. "Space and time are mere uni-dimensional extrapolations of the earth-bound three-dimensional limits possessed of the blahdy-blah-blah-blah, etc." I mailed it and, presumably (in doing so) had passed some pagan test or other. "...for on the third day, there came unto the Deluded Acolyte a fax. And the fax sayth unto him..."

So, okay. I have a bit of a problem. I would like to contribute something to Alan's birthday celebration but pagans are like homosexuals and feminists and socialists (most of them are homosexuals and/or feminists and/or socialists, but let's leave that discussion for another time). You support the idea that they shouldn't be hunted down and shot or burned at the stake or drawn or quartered or made a public laughing stock by contrasting their viewpoints with reason or commonsense (broke the last one myself which is how I've ended up outside of the comic book field looking in), and the next thing you know, they're running around telling everyone that you're a closet homosexual or a closet feminist or a closet socialist or a closet pagan -- "HE'S ONE OF US! HE'S ONE OF US! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" As with most of my dealings with people these days, it's a lose-lose proposition. Reinforce their viewpoint that everyone and everything is interchangeable -- that Dave Sim is secretly one of them but is just going through a... phase... or some Freudian or Jungian closet homosexual / closet feminist / closet socialist / closet pagan... trauma... or other -- or decline to participate and be accused of being, well, I don't know "The Antialan" or something.

Well, where angels fear to tread:

So, anyway, this is a dialogue/correspondence which Alan and I conducted by fax (at my instigation) and which I published in the back of Cerebus (issues 217-220) a number of years ago after the last instalment of From Hell had been published (to very little -- which is to say no -- fanfare. A fact which irritated me since at the time -- as I do today -- I thought that From Hell was a high water mark for the comic book medium, a graphic novel in every sense of the word, mature majestic, sweeping , beautifully conceived, beautifully realised and, consequently, of virtually no interest to the comic book industry. I thought that devoting vast amounts of space to a discussion of it in the back of Cerebus in four consecutive issues was the least that it deserved. And which, unfortunately, was about all that it got.

In retrospect, to me, the most memorable part of our exchange came when I asked Alan a question about morality -- that is, right and wrong -- and he answered the question by talking about talking backwards and how everything is the same backwards as it is forwards. Which, of course, isn't true. Right is always right and wrong is always wrong even when we are unable to perceive the distinctions between them accurately.

You know, it occurs to me that it would be really nice if, as a 50th birthday present, I could just type "IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY GOD COME OUT OF ALAN, THOU VILE AND ACCURSED." And have it work. Just like that when Alan read it. But, alas, I don't think demonic possession -- at least of the sort that Alan seems to have involved himself with -- works that way. As the Synoptic Jesus found out (I suspect) very much to his own chagrin as he went about casting unclean spirits out of people. You can cast them out, sure, but... "When the uncleane spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dire paces, seeking rest: and finding none, he sayth, I will returne unto my house, whence I came out. And when hee commeth, hee findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked then himselfe, and they enter in, and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse then the first." It's interesting to note that even though this verity of Jesus' (Luke 11:24-26) was about a man, he seemed to have struck a... feminist?... nerve; "And it came to passe as hee spake these things, a certaine woman of the company lift up her voice, and said to him, Blessed is the wombe that bare thee, and the pappes which thou hast sucked." I suspect this "certaine woman" was Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus was said to have cast seven devils. You know what I mean? Early prototype of the mouthy feminist? "And hee said, Yea, rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and Keepe it." Yes, exactly. And so much more eloquent than "You are SO busted, Mary."

Oh, sorry. Forgot where I was. Anyway all of Alan's words are in a non-italic typeface. So, if you're a pagan simply read all of the non-italic blocks of type skip over all of the italic blocks of type. My apologies to Gary Spencer Millidge for "outing" him as a Cerebus reader (note: he never said he liked Cerebus -- no one would be so foolish as to say that, publicly, in out Feminist Age -- he just said that he read Cerebus) and...

Happy Birthday, Alan.

Next Sunday: Correspondence From Hell Part 1

From Hell & The From Hell Companion

by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell

Available from Top Shelf / Knockabout Comics

Alex Raymond Died On This Day In 1956

"The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond"
by Dave Sim

Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond

Born 2 October 1909, Died 6 September 1956

Jeff Seiler: Dave Sim & Me

JEFF SEILER:

I got back Monday from the Jimmy Buffett concert at Alpine Valley, in Wisconsin, that took place on Saturday. I happened to mention it to Dave in a voicemail message that I left for him over the weekend. Now, when I dress up as Carmen Miranda for the Buffett show, as I have done at least 8 times, I always have people wanting their pictures taken with me all day long at the parking lot parties. Fortunately, most of those people are pretty girls, some of whom also want to squeeze my butt. And, free drinks for Jeff all day long in the parking lot. Not, sadly, during the show.

SO.

After I had mentioned the trip and my dressing up to Dave, he called me on Wednesday afternoon and left a voicemail message for me. Among other things, he said:

"Hi, Jeff. I've been wondering for a while now, what connection, exactly, does Carmen Miranda have with Jimmy Buffett? It's not like I'm particularly interested in the answer, but I'm working right now on the commentary to Cerebus Archives #4, and I'd pretty much rather do anything else but that..."

So, I called him back and explained it to him on his voicemail.

A no-prize to the first person who can correctly answer the question.

Weekly Update #98: The Great Cerebus Give Away (Part 2)

THE GREAT CEREBUS BACK-ISSUE GIVEAWAY!

The giveaway of Cerebus back-issues (full details here) has been scheduled for October 23rd, 24th, and 25th in Leamington, Ontario. Dave has reserved a block of rooms for Cerebus fans at the Comfort Inn in Leamington. To register for one of the rooms in the block, call the Comfort Inn at 519 326 9071 and cite the name of the event: CEREBUS 2015. Book now!

The Sky Is Falling

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's notebook #8 only twice so far. Both times were almost a year ago: "The Final Ascension" and "The Trial". As we saw before it covers issue #96 to 102. It has 140 pages, only 114 were scanned and 15 were blank pages.

On page 32 of notebook #8, Dave starts some near complete thumbnails of issue #97 page 8 and 9 (or if you're following along in the Church & State II phonebook, pages 924 & 925):

Notebook #8, page 32

It looks like Dave even wrote "Cerebus No. 97 page no. 8" in the middle of the page. Along with when issues #97 to 100 will be at Preney, the company who printed Cerebus, when the issues would ship and the cover month.

You can also compare page 8 and 9 of issue #97 to the above notebook page:

Issue #97, page 8 and 9

The thumbnails match the finished pages pretty close with a few minor tweaks. Most notably page 9's Cerebus-Astoria-Astoria-Astoria-both goes Cerebus-Astoria-Astoria-Cerebus-both instead. Dave also changed Astoria's come here finger motion for her pointing at her mouth instead.

Tone and Circling the Original

Sean Michael Robinson:

Another week, another late blog post...

I'm bogged down again this week, with the initial work on Church & State II and as-yet unannounced Mystery Cerebus Volume. Yes, two books simultaneously. Yes, a bit of a logistical nightmare to try to get them both off the ground, especially as they've very different from each other in terms of the materials involved...

BUT! All I have time for here is an anecdote, and a quick quiz (and prize!)

Here's a few of the sheets of tone that Dave faxed me a few months ago, when work began on Church & State I. These were sheets of tone used during the monthly production of the book, to create various background textures, tones, or other effects. The idea of sending them to me was, when adjusting a negative that was damaged in the initial photography, or an original in really bad shape, I could refer to the actual tone sheets as reference, or even scan a chunk to use to replace damaged tone on an original, if need be.

Of course, the "used in the monthly production of the book" aspect was really an abstraction until I saw one particular sheet of tone.

You might recognize the texture from various places in the series. For me it's memorable in Weishaupt's death scene. But a particular segment of this was, I dunno, REALLY familiar.

Look familiar to you?

It's an interesting mental exercise to consider what relationship this sheet of discarded tone has to the original art of the mystery page in question. A distant cousin? A ghost? A cast-away carapace? 

Recognize the ghost of the page above? Like to play along? Leave a comment identifying the book and page number (or numbers) related to the image above. First one to successfully do so wins a prize sent to their home, a prize related to the upcoming Church & State I printing. Leave a comment, and once you've been selected as the winner, send your mailing address to cerebusarthunt at gmail dot com.

Happy hunting!

Cerebus Archive #3 Almost Ready To Ship!

Cerebus Archive #3 is almost done, which means the Kickstarter campaign for Cerebus Archive #4 is almost ready to launch.

1995 Spirits Of Independence

Jam image created for the 1995 Spirits of Independence tour. Shi penciled and inked by Billy Tucci; Megaton Man penciled and inked by Don Simpson; Cerebus the Aardvark penciled and inked by Dave Sim; hotrod penciled and inked by Gerhard; laid out by Dave Sim. 

(via ComicArtFans)

Dave Sim: The Final Word

DAVE SIM:
(from Hero Illustrated #9, March 1994)

Well I had to laugh, didn't I?

Having read Marvel's solicitation for Spider-Man Whatchamacallit number mumbiety mumble in which "Spider-Man Reveals His True Identity To The World For Real Would We Lie To You?" and having just found out that it was a guy in a Spider-Man costume and that retailers are (once more) up in arms over another mainstream dirty trick... the mental image of Wayne and Garth with opened palms on either side of their mouth leaps to mind. I mean, come on. What if Mort Weisinger were alive in the 1990s? Can you picture the solicitations?

"Gee, Bubba -- says here Superman gets turned into a giant turtle an' it's fer real."

"Get outta Dodge."

"Naw -- sez right here. We better order another case an a half. When he's still a giant turtle twenny years from now, they'll be worth a fortune."

Every month I read the solicitations in Advance Comics and Previews. Every month I think to myself, "Self," I think, "this month, the retailers and the fans are finally going to get the joke." I read about another epic storyline that is going to change the shape of whomever for years to come. I read about another death, another marriage, another epic confrontation with Destructo, or Megadevoid, or Hellsstayne, or Evilkill and I think, "No one is this gullible. No one could possibly think that any amount of metal effort went into coming up with this rhetorical tripe." Every month I'm proven wrong.

It's a joke. You know, like, Marvel Comics paid Rob Liefeld $10,000 for a list of fifty nouns that they could turn into characters. Right now, someone (many someones) are reading this and thinking to themselves, "Wow. Ten grand. I wonder what those nouns were?"

It's a joke.

I talked to a retailer somewhere in my travels in the last year. Nice guy. Like most retailers, he confronts a handful of questions day after day. You could do a David Letterman Top Ten list: "Top Ten Stupid Questions Retailers Have To Answer On A Daily Basis": If Batman and Wolverine had a fight, who would win?" (Fill in any two characters for this last one -- or even creators, from what I understand of the state of Bubbadom: The Hulk and Rob Liefeld. Stimpy and Matt Groening); "Can you tell me how much this comic is going to be worth?" Store owners and people who work in stores take over where Mom and Dad left off; they are absolute and irrefutable authorities in the life of the young Comic Book Bubba. I used to tell store owners to tell them "$1,000 in 45 years." Since Comic Book Bubba has the attention span of a fruit fly, this guarantees a sure sale at a very low risk.

Oops. For all you Comic Book Bubbas reading this, that was a joke as well. I don't tell store owners that.

Anyway, this retailer noticed that the third most popular question was "Can you tell me what's going on in X-Men?" This question recurred so frequently that this retailer (being a cagey sort of fellow) thought there might be a genuine market for a publication called What's Going On In X-Men. An up-to-the-minute synopsis, guide to the characters, plot line flow chart, the whole nine yards (A lot of Comic Book Bubbas are eagerly scanning the ensuing paragraphs to see if there's an address and ordering information. Please, just wait for the punchline). He got out all of the X-Men back issues, right back to #94. He got a pad of paper and he sat down after hours and started making notes.

Now the punchline. He couldn't do it.

Get it? It didn't make any sense. None. Oh, the Claremont issues did (after a fashion), but once Chris was booted off the book, ANY pretense of coherence went out of the window. No one can tell you what's going on in X-Men. Not Chris Claremont. Not Bob Harras. Not Tom DeFalco.

It's a JOKE.

The X-Men consists of different groups of different characters who clench their teeth, wear various kinds of amour and shoot various kinds of energy  out of various appendages. They fight each other. Why? No one knows. Who wins? No one knows. Where do they come from? No one knows. Not the writer, not the editor, not the publisher.

It's not just The X-Men; it's not just Marvel Comics; it's not just superheroes. Did you read Children's Crusade? I tried to. I read the first one by Neil. Wonderful. My back teeth ached to read the next one. I wondered what happened next. Then I got the next two parts. I read the first few pages of the second one 3 or 4 times and then I started smiling. They got me. Ha Ha! It's a joke. I get it. I'll just wait for Neil's end bit now. But they did it. They really got me with the "Continued in the next 3 Annuals" gag.

Get it?

Or the new universe's last year. That was a side-splitter. "Our universe is going to be coherent, everything will be there for a reason. Twenty years from now, we'll still be publishing the same six titles, they'll still be written, pencilled and inked by the same creative teams, everything will be coordinated and woven into a seamless and exhilerating comic book experience." Guys would be telling me this at trade shows and conventions. I'd start smiling and snickering to myself. Okay, what's the punchline?

Then they'd all look offended. "No, no. It's true, 20 years from now, all these titles will be at issue #120 and..." I'd crack up. I really would. And they'd walk away. I'd think, "Hey, you haven't finished the joke."

Sure enough, a catalogue would come in six months later. Guess what? The writer quit after issue one! That's beautiful! What timing! What a build-up! I get it, I get it!

Hey, you wanna join in the fun? Tell you what; the next time you get your hands on one of the catalogues, read it out loud. Seriously. Use your best Jerry Seinfeld delivery. Just go through the Spider-Man listings. In between each listing look up and say "and then do you know what happened to the poor slob? Do you? Well the very next morning..." and then read the next listing. After that one say, "Now, a morning like this is going to take a lot out of a guy, as I'm sure you'll agree. So he heads down to the deli for a nice roast beef sandwich (no mayo, I mean, c'mon, the guy has to haul his own body weight around on gummy stuff that shoots out of his wrists), and what do you suppose happens to him? Go on, guess. No? Well..."

Some day, I hope some of you get the joke. Some day, you'll be reading the catalogues and you'll, you know, start to smile a little bit. Trust me. Then you'll be on the floor, you won't be able to stop. Tears will be streaming from your eyes.

Company controlled comics. Get it?

Gerhard At Wizard World Chicago

TONY TURKOSZ:
(via email, 27 August 2015)

I got a Cerebus sketch from Gerhard at Wizard World Chicago last week. I figure it's something your readers would like to see. 

...and Gerhard has more photos from Wizard World Chicago posted on his blog right here.

Jeff Seiler: Dave Sim & Me

JEFF SEILER:

Eleven years ago, when Cerebus ended, Dave Sim decided to answer all of his back mail. A month or so later, he had his "Jeff Seiler Day" in which he answered multiple letters I had written over the previous year. After I received that letter, I decided to keep writing, and he kept his promise to answer every letter he received. And now, I have a foot-high stack of letters written and received over 10 years or so. I will be posting full paragraphs or pages of interesting excerpts from those letters every Saturday.

From a letter dated 13 November, 2004, from Dave to me, a PS in response to something. I don't remember what I wrote and can’t find it right now, not that it matters much:

See, this is where I start running into problems. David C. has written me, I believe, two or three letters at the most, all of which I have answered. He is certainly not turning to me with "every spiritual dilemma" and I tell him the same thing I tell everyone else if they come to me for an answer: submit yourself to the will of God, acknowledge God's sovereignty, pray and fast and pay the stated alms [Jeff: the zakat]. I wouldn't know what to advise beyond that. As I wrote to Billy [Beach], I think it highly unlikely that anyone would be a follower, or a "follower", of mine, per se. I am just too much at variance with my society for it to be possible that someone would believe what I was saying within a year of first publication. Later? Maybe. But, as I say, I've been out here on my own for a long time, so I think I know the difference. There are people who credit me with helping them through what I've written. That, I assume, is not unheard of. Norman Mailer gave me an enormous amount of help through his writing but I'd hardly describe myself as one of Mailer's followers or even "followers". There are a number of people who are very enthusiastic about what I have to say and credit me with breaking them out of the feminist mindset. Only God knows what is actually inside of those people. I answer my mail as honestly as I can. I answer David C's letters and your letters and Billy's letters. I'm interested in ideas and exchanges of viewpoint and I don't trust anyone any further [sic] than I can throw them -- except for God.

No, I don't believe I'm a prophet of God. [Jeff: An answer to what I believe was a facetiously-asked question written by me. Remember, this was early on in our relationship.]

Five times a day, I acknowledge my belief that Muhammad was God's Last Messenger and Seal of Prophets. I'm just someone who thinks it makes more sense to believe that 2 out of every 100 people are just going to get a passing grade on Judgment Day. I just happen to live in a time and a society where most people believe that either a) there isn't going to be a Judgment Day, or b) if there is a Judgment Day it’ll be enough that you flossed after every meal to allow you to "make the cut". I’m "reading into the record" because I assume that, at some point in the distant future, society will begin to take Judgment Day as seriously as I do and that it will be useful to have a record of what someone who took Judgment Day seriously had to say. If that resonates with anyone in the next twenty or thirty years or however long it takes for the "penny to drop" well, hey, bonus. But, to say that I don’t anticipate that to be the case seriously understates my viewpoint. I do figure that a lot of people are going to claim to agree with me, but I assume that will mostly be a tactical means of trying to distract me and get the subjects under discussion off track. That’s one of the reasons behind Collected Letters 2004: "This is what I’m saying. This is 580 pages of what I am saying. You can disagree with it if you want or you can change it if you want by paraphrasing it or misrepresenting it, but this is what I'm actually saying."

Thanks, Jeff.

Weekly Update #97: The Great Cerebus Back-Issues Give Away!

The warehouse where the back issues of Cerebus have been stored is closing. So, if you are willing to drive to Leamington, Ontario, you can hang out with Dave and get pretty much as many copies of as many issues of Cerebus as you want, for free. More details in future updates.

UPDATE

The giveaway of Cerebus back-issues has been scheduled for October 23rd, 24th, and 25th in Leamington, Ontario. Dave has reserved a block of rooms for Cerebus fans at the Comfort Inn in Leamington. To register for one of the rooms in the block, call the Comfort Inn at 519 326 9071 and cite the name of the event: CEREBUS 2015. Book now!

THE LEAMINGTON WAREHOUSE CEREBUS INVENTORY

Notebook #10 Bits

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.

The third of three "quickies" as when this gets posted I'll hopefully be all unpacked, and only a couple days away from getting FiOS installed. Have I mentioned how much I hate packaging? Because it sucks.

This week - some pages from Dave's notebook #10, which said it covers issues 112 / 113, but it also covers some of Jaka's Story. Like page #74, which shows us Jaka in bed perhaps writing something, with a lump beside her, whom I assume is Rick.

Notebook #10, page 74

It also has the name "Pat Withers" down at the bottom - whom would later transform into Pud Withers. I do like the quotes that Dave has jotted on the page:

"people are genuinely disappointed if you one is are both an artist and normal"

"No one wants to know where you came from. They just want to be where you are."

"I find it disappointing that most temptation is ordinary in the extreme."

The next page that piqued my interest was page 78. All it had on it was an outline of the different phonebooks from issue #1 to issue #200.

Notebook #10, page 78

While Jaka's Story did end with issue #136, Mothers & Daughters didn't start until issue #150 as we all know now. And along with missing Melmoth, Dave had only broken Mothers & Daughters into two books instead of the four we know now.

Neil Gaiman: Why I Won't Sign Dave Sim's Petition

Earlier today, Neil Gaiman announced that he was supporting Dave Sim's Patreon fundraiser, saying that "the world of comics is a big one", but "I won't sign his pledge", a reference to Dave Sim's online petition which asks people to confirm that they do not believe Dave Sim to be a misogynist. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask Neil (via Twitter) to make clear his reasons for not signing Dave's petition. Neil's response was as follows:

@MomentOfCerebus For one, my disgust re Dave's statements on the McFarlane trial (eg I won it because all-women juries can't understand law)

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 26, 2015

@MomentOfCerebus As I recall, Dave explained you either sign his statement as written, unmodified, or never communicate with him.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 26, 2015

@MomentOfCerebus I don't force friends to sign ideological passes before they can talk to me. I'd rather they disagreed with me to my face.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 26, 2015

To give some context to Neil Gaiman's objections to Dave Sim's perceived misogyny, the following is an extract from a letter to Erik Larsen (then Image publisher) from Dave Sim posted on Al Nickerson's Creator's Bill Of Rights Website on 27 July 2005. The letter comments on the dispute between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over the ownership and royalties due from Medieval Spawn and Angela, characters created by Neil Gaiman in Spawn #9 in March 1993, written by Gaiman and illustrated by McFarlane. The dispute was finally settled in 2012 with Neil Gaiman being award the full ownership rights to Angela. The Hollywood Reporter has a handy summary of the case if you're interested.

DAVE SIM: 

...I conceded your point on Medieval Spawn. Even though a court of law said Neil had a case, I don't think it serves the comic-book field's best interests to see that as a precedent -- or, perhaps, more accurately -- that it proves that those things need to be established by the publishing creator. "I don't go in for that. If you want to take back Medieval Spawn, go ahead, but I don't see variations as innovations and I can't concede ownership of something that’s just a modification of my own intellectual property". I think it was a very badly-reasoned verdict in the Neil vs. Todd trial that would make very bad case law -- all you have to do is reverse it to see that: what if Neil had created Medieval Spawn and sold it to Vertigo? Would anyone in their right mind think he was entitled to do so? -- and just between you me and the lamppost I think it had more to do with the all-female jury at the trial. It wouldn't matter what Todd and Neil were disagreeing about, an all-female jury was going to find Todd in the wrong and Neil in the right just because Todd is Todd and Neil is Neil. Had the judge asked them, I'm sure the all-female jury would have been happy to give Neil the rights to Spawn, Todd's house and cars, Madonna's uniform from A League of Their Own and the Mark McGwire baseball and anything else Neil expressed an interest in.

Angela, I would maintain was a different matter entirely and I would think that all of these "well after the point of creation" items could be better handled on an issue-by-issue basis. It would seem to me that Neil was entitled to a royalty on each appearance of Angela and on the action figure and if that seemed unreasonable to Todd -- and, as I've said, I can certainly see Todd thinking that $100,000 should be you some consideration -- then the easy answer, it seems to me, is to write Angela out of the book and discontinue the action figure. And I quite agree with you on who was driving the Spawn bus. As far as I know the sales on Spawn 9 were probably higher than on Sandman to a factor of ten. Just as the sales of Spawn 10 were higher than on Cerebus to a factor of 100...

Neil Gaiman: "I'm Supporting Dave Sim on Patreon"

I'm supporting @ErikaMoen on @Patreon https://t.co/FGWiBO3bk4

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 25, 2015

I'm supporting Dave Sim on @Patreon https://t.co/6CyvG9J89R (Because the world of comics is a big one that includes Dave and Erica Moen)

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 25, 2015

@illogicology @the_ogre I've known Dave for 30 years. He no longer talks to me, as I won't sign his pledge. I wish him and his comics well.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 25, 2015

@megalanzero @illogicology @the_ogre Sure. I don't retract anything I've said about Cerebus, or the quality of Dave's work.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 26, 2015

Further Reading:

"exit sandman: My Chat With Neil" by Dave Sim (1996)

"300 Good Reasons To Resent Dave Sim" by Neil Gaiman (1992)