"Like sands through the hourglass..." Dave's Sim's Blog & Mail #1

Hi, Everybody!

Your ol' Interim Editor Matt Dow here. Today, I thought we'd take a look back at Dave Sim's Blog & Mail. Specifically, the first one. With my then-commentary.

Preamble: Dave Sim's Blog & Mail ran on the Cerebus Yahoo group from September 13th, 2006 to December 26th, 2007. And...no, that's pretty much all you needed to know. I used to call it the "bloggymail" because in Spanish, "and" is "y", and I thought "Blog y Mail" sounded funny, or something. Dude, it was a decade ago. Wait do you want? Anyway,

Dave's text is in bold. 

And my comments are in not bold.

Hi Dave,

Since Jeff Seiler has made it clear that we (the yahoos,) are pretty much mandated to write in (hmmm...who made THAT decision?  Something smells fishy here...), here's my replies/comments/mad ramblings on the first weeks worth of "blogandmail"s.

On 9/13/06, Dave Sim <dsim@nonexistente-mail.net > wrote:

Wednesday September 13 – Hi and welcome to my Blog.

Hi.

I'm actually going to try to stay current with this on a daily basis, having noticed that I spent way too much time saying to myself while answering my escargot mail "I really should make a note of that and let the Yahoos know about it" and never, you know, actually doing it.  

Oh the things that never turned up here...

Even tried self-inducing a trance-like state and saying to a particular paragraph in a letter I was working on: "Go to Larry Hart (or Lenny Cooper or Jeff Seiler or Jeff Tundis or…you get the idea).   Go to him now and tell him what you have to say. Tell him to post you to the Yahoo discussion group. Go now"  You know, I figured if I had it typed on my computer screen and I just wanted it to go to another computer screen, maybe I could make it into a Lassie-type gig.   "Go to the Yahoos. Tell them you need help." 

Well, that explains that.  We've had about twenty border collies hanging around for the past month or so.  Nobody could figure out what they wanted.  It went kinda like this:

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Jeff Tundis: "What's that Lassie, Timmy fell down the well and has a compound fracture of the lower mandibula?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Lenny Cooper: "What's that Lassie, bootleggers are hiding out at the old Miller place?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Larry Hart: "What's that Lassie, The Highway Ghoul is really Smithers, the cantankerous old caretaker?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Jeff Seiler: "What's that Lassie, 'be sure to drink your Ovaltine'?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Margaret Liss: "Does anybody know why this dog keeps following me around with what looks like an old notebook that somebody drug through a creek?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Chris Woerner: "So Sir Gerrick was supposed to be a major presence in Cerebus, but Dave had to cut him out to fit in all the Cirinist stuff?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Jason Trimmer: "Why does a dog have original Cerebus sketches in it's mouth?"

Border collie: "woof-woof."

Me: "'Deep is the suede that mows like a harvest'?  What does that even mean?"

Jeff Seiler: "Hey look, this dog just pulled out a copy of 'Latter Days' and opened it to the sheep dog at the beginning."

Jeff Tundis: "Aww, he must think he knows that dog."

Border collie: "Grrrr."

Um... you get the idea.

(Say, since these are technically your dogs, could you kick in a couple bucks to pay for dog-chow?  Cause in a few months we're gonna have even more dogs around here.)  (It looks like somedoggy's been up to the devil's business.)

     Finally, I decided to make Uber Yahoo and Minister-in-Charge-of-Checking-Dave Sim-for-Hypocrisy-on-Behalf-of-Secular-Humanists-Everywhere Jeff Tundis

Ha!  Now I know Jeff's official title.

And knowing is half the battle.

(check out his www.cerebustheaardvark.com website, still in progress) my posting victim.  The nice thing about Jeff is, like me, he is always working so I never have any trouble getting him on the phone. 

Sweet.

The even nicer thing about Jeff is that even though he's up to his ass in crocodiles as a general rule, he's always glad to find out what it is that I want (or he's glad to pretend to be interested in finding out what it is that I want which is "close enough for government work" for me!).   

Remember Dave, don't abuse this awesome power.  Ya know, like by making Jeff go get you a turkey sandwich.   Okay, that'd be pretty funny.  But don't make him get you a turkey sandwich a whole lot.  Only on special occasions.

He pretty much put this format together while I was still talking to him on the phone and asking him if it was possible. 

Much like that lady who used to hang out with Helen Keller, Jeff is a miracle worker.  Like Scotty from Star Trek.

So I really found out that it was possible for me to do a Blog without actually being hooked up to the Internet and found out that I was now doing a Blog pretty much in the same moment. 

That sounds like it was fun.  Fortunately, Jeff didn't post THAT conversation as the first installment of blogandmail. 

You: "Jeff, it's Dave.  Is it possible to do a Blog without being hooked up to the internet?"

Jeff: "Sure Dave, I'm posting right now, what do you have to say."

You: "Um...'Hi, this is Dave Sim.'"

Jeff: "Anything else?"

You: "Yeah, 'Go get me a turkey sandwich.'"

  So, we'll launch the new "Blog & Mail" right after this brief commercial message.

Jeff's great.  Now make him cluck like a chicken!

The Blog & Mail is brought to you today by

  www.cerebusart.com

I've been, neat sight.  (Now if only that dump truck full of twenty dollar bills would crash in front of my apartment and make me rich enough to afford original Cerebus art...)

 Your "One-Stop Shopping Headquarters" for all your Cerebus Art Needs Well, okay, not ALL of your Cerebus Art Needs.   Let's say you NEEDED all of the interior pages for issue 8.  Well, we haven't got them.  SOMEBODY sold them for $10 apiece back in 1978 and spent the money on marijuana. Not naming any names.

Hey, somebody mentioned that somebody else was interested in getting a full recreation of issue one for the thirtieth anniversary of Cerebus.  And that that was gonna cost a small fortune.  Is there any interest on your or Gerard's part to do a "Special Edition" of Cerebus #1 for the thirtieth? (He asked knowing the answer's probably "not really" and "Where's that Tundis kid with my sandwich?".)

In the Blog & Mail today:

  IN TALES OF THE SILVERFISH #4 WITH CEREBUS ART AND DIALOGUE BY DAVE SIM  CEREBUS CROSSES OVER WITH THE SILVERFISH.    This was quite a bit of fun to do from John Q. Adams' layouts although I changed it from the regular old dying Cerebus of The Last Day to Cerebus' first post-mortem guest appearance at a comic book convention.

Neat.  (Of course now I gotta find a copy, but still neat.)

   The pages sat around here for a while as I tried to figure out how to put tone on Cerebus and still have the Silverfish in the foreground.   That was when I figured out they're just cartoon silverfish: draw a head and a body shape and people should get the idea from the context. People are, you know, pretty bright that way.

"Look Peggy, it's a little silverfish."

"Why that's real purdy Joe-Bob, I wunder how he does it?"

Even did my own (albeit second-rate on a Gerhard scale) backgrounds!

Aw come on Dave.  They can't be any worse then any background I've ever done.

   Some or all of the proceeds from issue 4 will be donated to the CBLDF [see www.SilverfishGallery.com or www.jqadams.com for details].  

Well now I know where to look for a copy.

And knowing is half the battle...

(The other half is gratuitous violence.)

The Silverfish Gallery features an extensive exhibit of silverfish cartoons done by a variety of comic-book big names and some little names.

Well Dave around here you'll always be a big nam...WOW, FRED HEMBECK!  AW, NEAT!!!!!

    It also took a while for the issue to get printed which is pretty much par for the course for rookies and folks for whom cartooning and self-publishing is not their regular gig. 

Are you talking about me?

  I tend to think about that when I'm working on a jam strip for somebody: I wonder what's going to be going on in my life when this turns up in printed form?   Sometimes the stuff just vanishes and I never get an answer to that question.

Okay, you're talking about me aren't you?

___________________________________________________

If you wish to contact Dave Sim, you can mail a letter (he does NOT receive emails) to:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc

P.O. Box 1674

Station C

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2

You'd think I'd have this memorized, but every time, I end up having to look it up.

Looking for a place to purchase Cerebus phonebooks?

Not really, I sorta have 'em all.  I mean I was thinking of finishing my best friend's set for him

_________________________________________________________________________________

And that's it. Come back next week for the next installment of "Bloggymail Archives" or whatever I call this feature.

Cerebus Archive Number 7 - Kickstarted!

Congratulations to Dave Sim & the Kickstarter Team!

Unique way to publish a 1st issue (Dave's Weekly Update #212)

Hi, Everybody!

Heeeeeere's Dave:

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

Hey, do you support Dave Sim on Patreon?

I support Dave Sim on Patreon. And I just got this email from Patreon:

Dear patron, 

Your support is truly changing the lives of creators around the world. You give creators a reliable paycheck that enables them to do their best work. Thank you thank you thank you. 

In order to continue our mission of funding the creative class, we’re always looking for ways to do what’s best for our creators. With that, we’re writing to tell you of a change we’re making so that all Patreon creators take home exactly 95% of every pledge, with no additional fees. 

Aside from Patreon’s existing 5% fee, a creator’s income on Patreon varies because of processing fees every month. They can lose anywhere from 7-15% of their earnings to these fees. This means creators actually take home a lower percentage of your pledge than you may realize. Our goal is to make creators’ paychecks as predictable as possible, so we’re restructuring how these fees are paid. 

Starting December 18th, we will apply a new service fee of 2.9% + $0.35 that patrons will pay for each individual pledge. This service fee helps keep Patreon up and running. 

We want you to know that we approach every change with thoughtfulness for creators and patrons. By standardizing Patreon’s fees, we’re ensuring that creators get paid to continue creating high quality content. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please visit our FAQhere. 

Sincerely, 
The Patreon team

So if you support Dave Sim on Patreon, Good News! Now when you support Dave Sim on Patreon, Dave Sim gets more money? Or something... I don't really get it. 

And hey, if you aren't supporting Dave Sim on Patreon, now if you DO decide to start supporting Dave Sim on Patreon, Dave gets more money? I guess? I find this all very confusing...

Sketches of Prince Mick

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 we left off with page 63 of Dave Sim's notebook #9 with a look at the sketches of Prince Mick. There are a few more pages of Prince Mick sketches so I figured we could look at them.

On page 64 we see Prince Mick now with his sunglasses on for every portrait and we get a glimpse of his carriage as well.

Notebook 9, page 64

On page 65 It looks like Dave didn't like the top of Prince Mick's head so he crossed it out and  redid it.

Notebook 9, page 65

The next page shows a few more full body sketches of Prince Mick and a close up of those lips. And a little Cerebus in the reflection of his sunglasses.

Notebook 9, page 66

Just one sketch on the final page this time. And a line of dialogue "Dunno. The axel broke or the spoke or summ't."

Notebook 9, page 67

Cerebus Anniversary-- Forty Years of a Cantankerous Aardvark

Sean Michael Robinson:

Greetings!

I wanted to use this week's post to bring some attention to a so-far-unheralded milestone in the world of comics. This month is the fortieth anniversary of Cerebus #1, first published (according to the cover date, anyway!) in December of 1977.

So as of yet, no one's thrown Cerebus a party. No one's baked him a cake. But to celebrate in a smaller, less icing-involved way, over the next few weeks we'll take a look at a few excepts from the essay I wrote for the newly-restored 17th printing of Cerebus Volume One, released January 2017. If you enjoy the excerpt, or really, even if you don't, I'd recommend picking up a copy of the printing, which is remarkably better than any of the preceding printings. (Easily identified by the increased cover price, and the giant REMASTERED EDITION banner on the top!)

***

Taken as a whole, the 6,000 page Cerebus the Aardvark is one of the richest, most confounding, most complex, most multi-layered, most singular works of visual narrative art of the last century. 

This from a comic that began as both tribute to and parody of  Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan; a comic born of the twin forces of fanzine culture and the economic opportunities of the comic industry as it transitioned from newsstand distribution to the direct market. It is simultaneously a tribute to artistic development and craft borne of dedication and focus, to complexity, to serialization and public development, to the limitless possibilities of genre-free work; a work of great narrative accomplishment hand-in-hand with asesthetic achievement.      

It’s also funny as hell.

The current linguistic climate of accumulating hyperbole has made it difficult to describe the scope of achievement of Cerebus the Aardvark in terms that haven’t long since worn out their welcome. Incredible, as in, difficult to credit, unbelievable. Awesome, as in, inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear. In an earlier time, words that might be equally appropriate to the description of a birth, a cathedral, or a sink hole.

Cerebus, in toto, is truly an awesome work, unlike any other in the history of fiction. This is in part because of, not despite of, the work’s more modest beginnings, including the volume you now hold in your hand.

Entirely original, entirely self-published, Cerebus ran for twenty-six years, over 300 mostly monthly issues comprised of more than 6,000 pages of comics, the original artwork of which, if stacked perfectly flat, would reach a height of more than 31 feet. The physical scale of the accomplishment aside, the series is a treasure-trove of visual technique, of narrative diversity, and is unprecedented for the frequency of genre-flipping and continually violated expectations. What starts as a sword and sorcery pastiche quickly evolves into adventure, social criticism, and wicked, cutting parody. And that’s just the first slice.

When people ask me, “Do you ever hit a writer’s block?” it seems like a very odd question, because the history of comics is an immense line that snakes around in very bizarre directions, with the word “super-heroes” written on it, and aside from that snake there’s nothing but empty territory... If I were writing a novel it would be difficult, trying to think of a theme that hasn’t been done before, an attitude that hasn’t been done before. But if you take everything that’s been covered in novels and movies and television and lay it over the top of the themes that have been dealt with in comics, there’s nothing but open space. 

 — Dave Sim, in interview with Kim Thompson (1982)

It’s difficult to divorce the genesis of the book from the culture that spawned it. 

Since the creation of the format in the late 1930s, comics had been a vehicle for the supernatural, for violence, and for pulpy adventure stories. They were distributed almost entirely through newsstands, drug stores, and candy stores, and sold by distributors on a returnable basis. When the new monthly issues arrived, the left-over copies were pulped to make way for the new, their covers ripped off and returned as proof of their destruction. The economic pressures of such a system, and the explosion of material crowding the stands, meant that only the most sensational prevailed, and any success was soon imitated by rival houses. But 1954’s Seduction of the Innocent, psychologist Frederick Wertham’s largely fictional expose into the supposed effects of comic book exposure on delinquent youth, changed all of that. Mounting public pressure on the industry led in short order to the formation of the “Comics Code Authority,” a self-regulating organization similar to the Hayes Code of the film industry, that laid out specific rules that must be followed in order for a comic book to be distributed on newsstands. The result was immediate—the elimination of virtually all of the horror, science fiction and crime comic books that had up until that time proliferated and flourished. The superhero was ascendant, laying claim to almost every slice of the ever-shrinking pie. 

In the 1960’s counter-culture comic books made some inroads against that bulwark with an alternative distribution system that targeted mainly head shops. But the erratic publication schedule of these titles, combined with the erratic nature of the shops themselves, weren’t supportive enough for long-term success. 

That would have to wait for the so-called “direct” market.

The late 1960s and early 70s saw the emergence of fan culture in North America. Science fiction conventions, in one form or another, had existed since the late 1930s, but comic conventions didn’t begin appearing until the mid 1960s. But these gatherings were self-generating, and brought with them social connections that persisted in the form of fanzines (a portmanteau of fan and magazine). Popular comic books spawned their own fanzines, which could feature reviews, interviews, pin-ups by fans or aspiring artists, pin-ups by pros or semi-pros, in-depth critical disquisitions, public arguments with the editors of other fanzines... 

The direct market emerged from these two opposing forces—the burgeoning culture of fandom and the continuing malaise of the newsprint-distribution model. Phil Seuling, comic book enthusiast, comic convention organizer, and would-be distributor, worked out deals with the major publishers to purchase their books, which his Sea Gate Distribution would then re-sell to the new comic enthusiast stores. These purchases were made with up-front money and were sold on a non-refundable basis, but these downsides were offset by steeper discounts and more reliable delivery and tailored smaller orders. It wouldn’t be long before other benefits would become clear, changes that would affect the way that the comics themselves were read and produced.

Enter Young Dave Sim. 

In a larger sense this is the reason that I stopped answering the ‘Why an Aardvark’ question some time ago. Each thread of the actual, fully interwoven answer is deserving of lengthy explication. Taking it down to “sound byte” level makes me uncomfortable and reduces many large contributions and contributors to bit players — Gene Day and T. Casey Brennan foremost on that list.   
...
I have no memory of drawing the first picture of the aardvark mascot. I was doing so much freelance work (both commissioned and on spec) that the work I did for my girlfriend’s magazine was more of a hobby, an afterthought to the day’s work. I only did the one version (“A Boy and His Aardvark” was still fresh in my mind, so I don’t think I even referred to the little picture in the dictionary): a cartoon barbarian aardvark (in keeping with the fantasy theme intended for the magazine). I probably knocked it out in about twenty minutes with an extra thirty seconds for the tone.
As the first issue started to come together, it was Deni who realized that the fanzine’s title, Cerebus, was misspelled. The three-headed dog who guarded Hades in Greek mythology was Cerberus. ‘Not to worry,’ I said, somewhat less than eager to reletter the logo and figure out how to squeeze in an extra letter and transpose two others, We’ll just say that Cerebus is the name of the cartoon aardvark mascot.’
The fanzine was never published. The originals and a cheque for (I believe) $175 were sent to an address in California of a Deep Discount quick printer. The magazine and the money vanished without a trace.

— Dave Sim, “Why an Aardvark?” (1996)

Born May 17th 1956, Sim was an early comics enthusiast. A self-taught writer/artist, and almost-native of Kitchener, Ontario, he dropped out of high school at seventeen to pursue his interests, and spent the next few years contributing interviews, editorials, pin-ups, stories, and artwork to a bewildering variety of fanzines both local and remote, using each acceptance as a foothold to the next. He found a second home and an outlet for some of his creativity at Kitchener’s Now & Then Books, which started as a second-hand book store in 1971 and, under the sole ownership of co-founder Harry Kremer, soon became one of the first direct market comic stores in North America. Kremer was willing to finance small-press fanzine publications, such as Now & Then Times (1972, 1973), by Dave Sim and John Balge, and later, Oktoberfest (1976), a vehicle for Sim and his near-peer mentor Gene Day, whose own career continued to develop ahead of Sim’s. It was also Now & Then’s Kremer who eventually gave Sim the final push into what turned into his life work, by financing the first issue of Cerebus by purchasing five hundred copies of the initial print-run, sight unseen. 

The origins of Red Sophia, who first appeared in issue #3 (April 1978), give some insight into the difficulty involved in sorting out the origins of any one element of a work so filled with pastiche and appropriation. Red Sophia, a buxom chain-mail-bikini-clad warrior princess, is a broad (ahem) parody of Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Red Sonja, adapted from Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonya of Rogatino (an otherwise unrelated red-haired Polish/Ukranian gunslinger) and placed into Marvel Comics’ ongoing Conan the Barbarian with issue #23 (1973). Red Sonja, whose troubling origins involve her own brutal rape, and a plea for revenge, granted by a goddess who insists she have sex only with men who can defeat her in combat, became the leading edge of a wave of “fierce and beautiful” female warriors, and was a popular fixture in the glut of sword and sorcery comics, fanzines, and conventions. Frank Thorne’s depiction of the character in Marvel Feature became the definitive version, and it’s this version that Sim appears to be parodying. A good indication?  Thorne’s likeness, and his comic convention persona as “The Wizard,” appear to be one and the same with Sonja’s father Henrot. (Coincidentally, July of 1978 would be the last appearance of future Elfquest artist/”direct” market star Wendy Pini as Red Sonja in Thorne’s “Sonja Show” convention piece, only months after the Cerebus parody appeared.)

The kind of clubhouse mentality infuses the early issues of the book. Deni Loubert, soon to be Deni Sim, acted as publisher and wrote a brief editorial at the lead of every issue. Brother-in-law Michael Loubert assisted Sim in the early world-building, designing the “Aardvarkian Age” map that appeared in the book from issues 3 to 10, and also penning a column by the same name that appeared on and off in the back of the first few issues. Certain characters bear names that are anagrams or anagramed amalgams of the names of Sim’s acquaintances. On a few occasions, names were inked into the curly-cue lines of a vest or a segment of background hatching. 

[...]

more next week...

Watchvark #1-- Reptilio-normative Messaging, the Last Wednesday of Every Month!

Order at your Local Comics Shop now! Diamond Order Code: NOV171094

Merchandising: Cerebus In Chains

Hi, Everybody!

Did you buy your Cerebus Archive #7: Flight? (Just how long can I flog that horse? Stay tuned and we'll see...)

You didn't?

Well sucks for you... Uh, I mean, "Gee that's too bad. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be a mass market version available through Diamond at some point."

But, you say, "Christmas is coming, if I don't have something Cerebus related under my tree I'll JUST DIE!!!" 

Dang you're melodramatic...

But don't worry, your friends here at A Moment Of Cerebus have got you covered.

How?

"Merchandising! Merchandising, where the REAL money from the movie is made." Mel Brooks as Yogurt in Spaceballs: The Movie (1987)

That's right! Merchandising!

What kind of Aardvark related merch do we have today?

The Cerebus In Chains T-shirt :

Cerebus...IN CHAINS

"Officially licensed Cerebus the Aardvark shirt. Commissioned in 2008 from Dave Sim. Black Gildan 100% cotton T-shirt, Unisex sizes only, Professionally screen printed, Image is approximately 12.5" x 14", centered on the word 'Cerebus'"

I believe Dave was giving these out back in the day. I think Margaret got one. And "super-duper" L nny Cooper (in fact I think all three of the moderators of the Yahoo Cerebus group got them...)

(Although I'm a little concerned by the "copyright 2008 Poetic License Printing" on there. Seems fishy to me... I think it should be "copyright 2008 Dave Sim" or "Aardvark-Vanaheim". But that's just me and how I roll...)

"Gee Matt, that sure is spiffy, how ever can I obtain one of these beauties?"

Well I'm glad you asked A Moment Of Cerebus reader, you can get one right here.

"Thanks Matt! You sure are one nice and handsome fellow. Any girl would be lucky to have you in her life."

Yes, yes, she would. 

"Wanna get a drink sometime?"

Your getting creepy A Moment Of Cerebus reader, you're getting creepy...

Next time: Text from The Restraining Order!

CRAZY DEAL BONUS PRIZE OVERTIME

From the fax machine of Dave Sim:

OFF-WHITE HOUSE BULLETIN 4 DEC 17 1300 hrs

Just wanted to thank everyone for their outstanding support of the CAN? Kickstarter which ended Saturday;

Unfortunately, owing to an oversight -- the buck stops here -- the BONUS CRAZY DEAL -- being an extra in Owen Kline's Independent Feature Film, TWO AGAINST NATURE, during their one-day shoot at. the COMIC BOOK JONES comic store on Staten Island -- didn't end up getting posted on Day 30.

This being one of those occasions that calls for the otherwise reasonably democratic Worldwide CEREBUS Nation to briefly convert into the Worldwide CEREBUS Benevolent Dictatorship, I, as your benevolent dictator, have decided to award the CRAZY DEAL BONUS PRIZE to Michael R. of Easton, PA for being the only person-· with one hour to go -- to ask the whereabouts of the CRAZY DEAL BONUS PRIZE.

As Michael has already specified that his participation depends on the shoot taking place on a non-work day, I'm just waiting to hear back from Owen Kline's PA, Audrey T. as to what day that's going to be.

So, Michael, please call 519-576-0610 and leave your phone no. so I can let you know what day it is, as soon as I know.

If Michael CAN'T make it for the film shoot, then we will go into CRAZY DEAL BONUS PRIZE OVERTIME which should be really, really scary for every CEREBUS fan in the Tristate area who will have One. More. Chance. To be in Owen Kline's movie.

It seems auspicious that my copy of the film script that was mailed to me from NYC by registered mail on November 15th (at a cost of $21 to the production company -- U.S. $ no less!) just arrived today.

Stay tuned!

"It ain't over 'til it's over." It's over.

Kickstarter ended on Saturday, hope you got one...

Hi, Everybody!

So the Kickstarter is done. 209 other people, and I, raised $25,485 (Canadian. Slightly less American. And probably even less in Euros... And maybe two bitcoins (currency is weird...).)!

So "Yay." us!

Congrats to Dave and the team!

So...how long until we get "Women"?

NEW COLUMN! Reading Cerebus

Kevin Kimmes:

Welcome to “Reading Cerebus”, a new weekly column here at A Moment of Cerebus. The goal of this column is to bring a fresh perspective to the 300 issue saga of Cerebus as I read through the series for the first time and give my insights into the longest running independent comic book series of all time. Think of this as part book club, part lit-crit, and part pop culture musing. Oh, and they told me Dave Sim himself may be reading this, so I hope I don’t screw this up. Let’s begin.

Issue #1 – “Cerebus The Aardvark”

Most things come from humble beginnings, and Cerebus is no exception. The opening issue of our epic finds a very different (at least visually) version of our protagonist than that which most comic book readers of the past 40 years have come to know. Just like the pilot episode of “South Park” (where they still used cut construction paper) or the early “Simpsons” shorts that ran on “The Tracy Ullman Show”, the art of Cerebus appears a bit “off-model” in this debut adventure.

The first issue’s art direction is a loving homage to 1970’s Barry Windsor-Smith “Conan”, a style which can best be described as “Kirby-esque”. Windsor-Smith set the standard for Conan at Marvel Comics in the early 1970’s, working on 21 of the first 24 issues of the title before departing. The exception to this artistic choice is Cerebus.

Sporting a longer snout; a horned helmet; and a slimmer build, the Cerebus of issue #1 is more Conan by way of Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” than anything else. Absent are his signature vest and his medallions appear as more of a necklace, not yet achieving their standardized three circle look.

The story itself borrows heavily from the early Robert E. Howard Conan adventure, “The Tower of the Elephant”, in which a young Conan decides to steal the mythical gem known as “The Heart of the Elephant” from an evil sorcerer named Yara. By comparison, the opening issue of Cerebus features a tale in which Cerebus is convinced by two brothers to steal the mythical Flame Jewel from an evil sorcerer in exchange for a sack of gold. In the end, the joke is on the brothers as the Flame Jewel becomes nothing more than an enchanted walnut after the sorcerer is slain, and Cerebus still collects on his due for a  job completed.  

While simplistic in it’s construction, this tale serves as a great introduction to Cerebus and sets the tone for the world in which he lives. Come back next week for my further adventures “Reading Cerebus”.

Currently Listening To: The Sword – “High Country”

Kevin Kimmes is a lifelong comic book reader, sometime comic book artist, and recent Cerebus convert. He can be found slinging comics at the center of the Multiverse, aka House of Heroes in Oshkosh, WI.

Kickstarter for Flight ends TO. DAY.

Kickstarter ends TODAY!

Hi, Everybody!

With the Kickstarter for Cerebus Archive Number 7: Flight, ending TODAY, I thought we should look at two of the pages we're NOT getting in it. (Also two of my four favorite pages in the whole 6000+ page saga...)

The death of "Death"...

Cerebus No. 151 page 13

Cerebus No. 151 page 14

I actually sent Dave a letter in the long-lost bygone days before the book ended, attempting to buy these two pages (and the two that preceded them,) for a hundred bucks a page. Based on something Dave had said in the back of the book about how any page he and Ger sell bumps them up into the next tax bracket, so they either had to sell low, or really high.

I hoped for "low".

No dice.

But at least I get the first two NOW! (Kinda...)

Kickstarter CAN 7 ends Saturday!!! (Dave's Weekly Update #211)

Hi, Everybody!

Dave's update isn't late, you just checked for it too early. (That's my story, AND I'M STICKING TO IT!!!)

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Kickstarter ends TOMORROW!!!

Dave Sim's Answers to Five Questions about Flight, part 7

Kickstarter ends 2 December!

Hi, Everybody!

As we close in on the last days for the Kickstarter for Cerebus Archive Number 7: Flight, I thought we should take a look back on Dave's answers to the Cerebus Yahoo Group's five questions. Specifically, his answers regarding Flight.

Preamble: So a few years ago (2005, I believe,) The Cerebus Yahoo Group started a re-read of the whole series. And then we'd discuss an individual volume and come up with five questions and send them to Dave, and he would respond. These are those questions and answers. (Please note, most questions were multi-part in nature, and Dave would break them down as he answered them.)

WILDCARD QUESTION: You use black wavy panel borders periodically throughout the whole of Cerebus up until two thirds of the way across page 253 of Minds. The borders disappear, make a brief reappearance on page 264 around your self portrait, and then disappear again. Also, in Melmoth, the borders are black, but not wavy. They pop up a couple of times during the last hundred issues. What is the significance of the black bordering? Is it aesthetic or thematic in nature?

DAVE: Both. #220 was the only Letratape that they had that actually had a hand-drawn quality to it apart from the various thicknesses of basic black strips. "Election Night" (i43) as an example was done with a tape that had a thick and a thin line. It looked all right but it didn't look as if it was drawn by hand. I was always looking for ways to speed up the drawing time and being able to lay down bordertapes turned out to be a good one. I could rough in a page and dialogue and word balloons and then put the border tapes on in fifteen or twenty minutes so that some part of the page was finished early in the proceedings. "This is the configuration of the page, now all I have to do is to fill in the resulting panels." The same reason that I would always try to start inking as soon as possible even if it was just one sound effect or a word balloon or part of a face. It was too easy to get bogged down in the penciling stage, making sure of everything in pencil and then having to face the fact that everything now needed to be inked. The sooner I had something inked on the page, the clearer a mental image I had of my ultimate goal with the page. The pencils were guidelines, not finished art. Also the #220 was on a "carrier film" that was about an eighth of an inch wide on either side, so I was able to draw right up to the edge of the carrier film and use the edge of it as an inset panel with no trouble, so Ger and I ended up with a clean edge to the illustration, a strip of white space and the panel border which looked more difficult than it actually was to do and gave the page a nice illustrative quality. The wavy line would swerve from the middle of the carrier film to one side, so I had to separate the Letratapes into "50 yard line" tapes-where the wavy line was going right down the middle-for the interior panel borders and the tapes where the wavy line swerved to one side as the outside panel borders with the greatest thickness of carrier film on the "inside" of the page. It tended to vary even in a given tape which would start out as a '50 yard line" tape and then swerve over to one side before I had a whole page "ruled up" so I had to pay attention. If you go through the books and look carefully, you can see how much "swerve" there is on any given border-sometimes quite a bit.. In a thematic sense, it served as my overall view of life which was that it was a lot like the monitoring device in the hospital, sort of jagged, sort of wavy. That was the reason that the wavy line disappeared for the duration of Melmoth. Thematically the book was about death, so the borders on all the panels "flat-lined". It also occurred to me that the characters were pretty universally trapped inside this reality-sort of jagged, sort of wavy but intermittently- usually for the duration of one panel or a couple of panels-something they thought or something that happened would break them out of that entrapped state of existence and I would drop the jagged/wavy panel border to signify that. I didn't get obsessive about it. Most of the time it was just something that was in the back of my mind that I tried to keep consistent in the hopes that it might register unconsciously with the reader. Just another layer among many.
And, of course, I put the border tape around my self-portrait at the beginning of Minds as a way of emphasizing that same point with a little edge of irony to it. I'm entering my own book at this point-the Cerebus part of my own book and I'm no different from my characters in a lot of ways. I am, likewise, contained by sort of jagged, sort of wavy parameters that I'm unable to escape that signal that I'm alive but not fundamentally more aware than anyone else who has incarnated physically. I'm Dave Sim, I'm not Tarim. And the decision to drop the bordertapes in the Juno sequence was decided at the exact point where I got through to Cerebus. I didn't get through to him fully, but sufficiently that he genuinely broke out of his sort of jagged, sort of wavy parameters. Once a thing is seen, it can't be unseen. It took some doing but I got him to see exactly what sort of person he was and to see it clearly enough that he couldn't retreat to a higher opinion of himself. I even made the attempt to show him that Jaka wasn't who he thought she was, that she was involved with someone else at that very moment. I really tried to crack open the nut because he had never faced the fact that it was vitally important to him that if he wasn't with Jaka he had to believe that she was somewhere else, alone, pining away for him. I call it the Sandra Dee Syndrome. What I couldn't get him to see was that when Jaka came back, she would be interested in taking up with him again, but she would be interested in taking up with anyone that she had been involved with. Truth be told she wouldn't have gotten involved with Rick again if she had run into him and he was willing to put all of that unpleasantness with Mrs. Thatcher behind them. She practically signed Cerebus' death warrant because taking up with F. Stop Kennedy sounded like fun. It was fun running Cerebus around in circles on the way back to his parents' place and it would be fun being the Patroness Saint of Art on Mealc for a period of time. If she could picture being That Jaka and being That Jaka sounded like fun, it was as like as not that she would go for it. The same as she admitted to Cerebus that the bloom had been off the rose in her marriage and if he had said, "Time to hit the road and go see the Wall of Tsi" she could do that without a backward glance. Not because Cerebus was her One True Love-which is how Cerebus saw it-but because the Wall of Tsi was unfinished business and sounded like more fun that what she was doing now; trying to get Rick to grow up and be responsible and fighting a losing battle to make Pud's tavern a success.

 Next: There is no "Next", it's five questions and a wildcard. Man you people are greedy...

Watchvark #1-- Alf, Alfie, and Alfred, the Last Wednesday of Every Month!

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