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.
Maybe instead of rewriting this opener every week, I’ll be a bit more efficient with my use of time and have this standard opening . . .though Boss Man saying I'm giving the notebook away for free, I see it as a way of advertising all the good stuff in the notebook, and wouldn't it be easier to have a hard copy to flip through and read at your own leisure?
Have you got your copy of Albatross One? That is Dave Sim’s name for his first notebook used in the creation of Cerebus. If you want a copy of the notebook – and trust me, as someone who has held the actual Albatross One, it is a pretty close duplicate and looks great – you can check out this post right here. Well not this post. The one at this link. Go check it out, this post will still be here.
And if you don’t want to buy one, you can wait as I release a couple of pages a week and check them out using the Notebook One tag. But trust me, the notebook is much much nicer then my silly little posts.
Okay, now that is done, on with this week’s Notebook One post.
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With last week’s entry, we finally got to material on Cerebus #25. On the next few pages, this material from Dave Sim’s first notebook used in the production of Cerebus continues. One the last page we looked at, page 120, Dave had sketched some of the outside parapets to the Artist Chap’s castle. Dave had also written a list of possible plot items and numbered them #5 – 8. #8 was “break in on Wrightson stuff is just to give me ideas for my paintings”.
So on the next page, when it starts up with #7 again. . .makes me think that he started over or there are missing pages.
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| Notebook #1, page 121 |
This page has #8 not as the Artist Chap referencing Wrightson for ideas but now is “inside grand tour to page 10”. The rest of it looks like dialogue between Charles X. Claremont and Cerebus talking about Woman Thing. The next page we see yet a third list of plot points numbered 1 through 20. Number 8 is now “inside castle grand tour of”. And we get more pictures of the castle itself.
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| Notebook #1, page 122 |
The bottom of the pages has some text that caught my eye:
Drugs vs Magic? They’ve all taken a new stimulant to help them get up the hill. New theory about people taking massive quantities. Want castle for setting up a space observatory of all things.
On the next page, we do get another sketch of the castle, and more text:
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| Notebook #1, page 123 |
Beside the sketch of the castle, we get another reference to space with “They want to knock off the castle because it obstructs their view of Venus. . .” Then under the castle the text says “castle filled with magic artifacts stuff Claremont can use but has moved in with all this neat magic looking shit crushed to death between two crazed shambling monstrosities.”
Next week we won’t be looking at page 124 as we already saw that in The Way to Sannozay, but yes boss man, we’ll be giving more away for free. On to page 125 and perhaps more material for Cerebus #25.
