IDW Covers: Judge Dredd Year One #4

Judge Dredd Year One #4 (IDW, July 2013)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:

Chris Ryall was on his way to Angouleme and realized I was doing my covers the first week of the month so he faxed me January 17 that DREDD YEAR ONE #4 was on my list for the beginning of February "although I still need to get story details on that one."  It's interesting to me so far at the beginning of the process of creating an issue. Virtually nothing exists: the covers are the first finished pieces.

A week later, he had heard from the writer, Matt Smith, whom he had asked specifically for an issue description and cover idea (for me!).

"Year One no 4 info - the future of Mega-City One is in the balance as insurrection builds, psicopathic juves rampage the streets and Justice Department is struggling to contain the unrest. Only Dredd can stop the Four Mothers of the Apocalypse from spreading their malign influence and destroying the 22nd century metropolis.  As for covers...for Dave, something along the lines of a broken Judge badge being stamped underfoot, incorporated into the logo...?"

So that was what I started with on the top line. The badge part was pretty easy. I just took a photocopy of the logo badge and cut it into three parts and then traced those off. The bootprint was a bit more of a problem. No matter what I did, it looked like snow. Sort of like Canada in January (February, March and now April). No matter what you do, it looks like snow. That was when I got the idea to hatch the contours of the letters. It STILL looks like snow, but I'm sure the colourist will be able to help with that.

On the rest of the cover, I decided to just do the juves rampaging the streets. Briefly considered finding online images of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots and then thought, no, this seems like a good time to practice my tiny, little figures. Which you really need to know how to do to even pretend to be a photorealistic comics guy. I was giving myself passing marks on the guy in the "N" with his arm in the "O". I worked backwards from bottom to top and I think they got better as I went along. "That's it. That's as deep into the page as it's possible to go."

Then I asked to see the two Neal Adams BEN CASEY dailies they had in the Heritage Auction I was at February 22nd.

Not even close.  Two tiny little faces in one panel that were easily four or five MILES deeper into the page than I've ever gone.

Oh well.  I still got paid. And thank you, IDW.

Eddie Khanna: "Researching A Graphic Novel By Mistake"

Help finance Dave Sim to complete 'The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond' 
by making a monthly donation at Patreon.

Originally serialised within the pages of the self-published Glamourpuss #1-26 (April 2008 to July 2012), The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond is an as yet uncompleted work-in-progress in which Dave Sim investigates the history of photorealism in comics and specifically focuses on the work of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and the circumstances of his death on 6 September 1956 at the wheel of fellow artist Stan Drake's Corvette at the age of 46.

Dave Sim has often mentioned how grateful he has been for the research assistance provided by Eddie Khanna in writing The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, so I thought I'd track Eddie down and ask him just how he landed his role of unofficial "research assistant" on the project. I then forwarded Eddie's reply below to Dave, who then kindly added some thoughts of his own by way of annotating Eddie's original text. Got all that? Now read on...

Glamourpuss #26 (July 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

EDDIE KHANNA:
(from an email, 6 April 2013)

I knew (and still don't, relative to a lot of people) NOTHING about photo-realism, Alex Raymond, Stan Drake, Leonard Starr, etc. It's only because of glamourpuss and the way Dave has presented the material that I've started to get interested in it a lot more. I'm of that age group and demographic that comes from and grew up reading traditional super-hero comics in the late 70s - 80s, and was drawn to those Neal Adams /John Byrne / Jim Aparo / George Perez / Brian Bolland / Dave Gibbons / Bob Layton / Dave Lloyd / Bill Sienkiewicz / Art Adams et al styles (Kirby was a bit before my time). It's only once Dave started talking about all of this in glamourpuss and based on what I've come across that I've learned that pretty much all those guys who's stuff I grew up loving and looking at were on some level influenced by Raymond, Drake, Starr, etc. (just looking at Starr's work is really enjoyable and reminds me of Brian Bolland's work). And I was really impressed with Drake's art, but after seeing Raymond's Rip Kirby line and design work, I'm just blown away (considering he did it with a brush!).

[DAVE SIM: That's one of those lessons you have to take away from an unmitigated commercial and critical disaster like glamourpuss. It forged a connection between me and Eddie Khanna and -- win, lose or draw -- THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND would be a dramatically lesser work without his contributions. I may have had only ONE really ardent glamourpuss fan, but that ONE fan made the glass WAY more than half full.]

As to how I got involved with researching Strange Death of Alex Raymond, well, it began, as most things do, innocently and simple enough. I wrote a letter to Dave about an issue of glamourpuss (#18, "What if Cerebus had lived in the age of Madmen") saying that I found his oh-so clever connection between the front fashion parody part of glamourpuss with what he had been documenting about Raymond's September 6 1956 crash in the back; basically that I realized he had put Elizabeth Taylor in the book (and this was just before she died) because September 1956 was the same month she was immortalized on Hollywood's walk of fame at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Dave wrote back (I'm paraphrasing) saying, actually he HADN'T known that, that he was very pleasantly surprised, and he wouldn't mind taking a look at anything else I found, especially as he had some similar interesting connections himself coming up in the narrative.

[DAVE SIM: No, I hadn't known that. And it was the first, but certainly not the last, time that I wondered if I should include something that someone else had come up with. Which quickly turned into "should I make Eddie the co-author on this?" NOT doing so would seem like being one of those sleazy professors who takes credit for a student's research just because he said "Can you look up some things for me?" And I was also wondering if this was expanding my own context which was already having "midriff, muffin-top issues". I've still got the picture which has Taylor's handprints and she's actually written "Giant" in the cement -- the movie they were promoting. Which seemed to add a whole other layer of meaning.]

Glamourpuss #26 (July 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

It was like Wayne Gretzky sending back a personalized reply saying, "Hey thanks kid. I really liked that hockey stick you sent me and will probably use it in my next game. Any chance you can get your hands on some more?"

I think you can understand when I say that, in my world, that if you find yourself in a situation being able to help someone like that, you don't even have to stop and think about it. You just do it. From that point on it's been a matter of me trying to get whatever information I could and finding all these amazing, interesting connections (or what I THINK might be interesting or helpful) that I've been sending to him. I originally thought he would use it in the letters page of glamourpuss, and wrote them as such. Pretty quickly after some of the items I had sent him, he arranged to do a dialogue with me in the back of glamourpuss, including the Grace Kelly stuff we discussed there (like Michael Jordan asking if I wanted to shoot some hoops and play some one-on-one). Synchronistically, there "just happened" to be a Grace Kelly biography on the television in the background at the time when he first called me to set it up. When I exclaimed this to him, he just laughed as if it was the most natural thing, and didn't seem surprised at all.

[DAVE SIM: "as if it was the most natural thing" - Well, it WAS! The same day I walked past the front window of SECOND LOOK BOOKS here in town and there was an oversized Grace Kelly biography in the window. "No, I'm not THAT interested ...yet...but thanks!" And, no I didn't end up needing it. I found a bio at the library with everything I need in it. One of those "I need more than Wikipedia will give me" but "I don't need to build my own library on this person".]

And since then it's just been me sending him things from there on and hoping that what I turn up aligns or helps with what he's finding and trying to say with regards to Strange Death. It's not like he's really asked me to go this deep into it, and a lot of times I've found myself thinking the following sentences; "What if I was to look into and send him this? Well the worst that could happen is that he'll throw it away or tell me to stop." And each time I've started looking at something prefaced with that thought, it's turned up some of the most incredible, amazing, mindblowing things, which I would never have learned to look for or see without having read things like Cerebus. So far it's been one helluva ride (pun intended), with some pretty unnerving moments, even though I think it's grown well beyond what his original intention was when he first planned on serializing it in glamourpuss. I've been pretty much drowning him in research (and remember, this is in addition to the all the research that he's been doing on his own), and Arlen Schumer has been sending him stuff too. There's been a few things he's asked me specifically to try and dig up as well, which have surprised the heck out of me (like the original version of Hamlet. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that one).

[DAVE SIM: Yeah, that was an example of following a rabbit hole all the way down and in. Oftentimes I don't know if I'm just satisfying my own curiosity (i.e. wasting valuable writing and drawing time reading books). I mean, where DOES this end up? And in this case it ended up at HAMLET. And that turned out to be the Largest Point in a lot of ways.

Oh, THAT's what all this is about.

And then the Heritage Auction at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion turned out to be just down the block in NYC from where HAMLET enacted itself in the mid-1960s. And then there was an article in the NATIONAL POST last Saturday about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor coming to Toronto to try out their version of HAMLET there before opening in New York. And staying at the King Edward Hotel. Where the Beatles stayed when they played Toronto a few weeks later. I'm thinking of doing annotations in the back of the monthly STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND title called TMI. And maybe doing an online SERIOUSLY TMI to supplement that. I mean, I have to bear in mind that the comics audience who didn't even know I DID glamourpuss are going to buy the first issue expecting, you know, a cool car accident. And if they don't get it sales are going to be in the toilet before you know it. A problem I'm always working on mentally.]

Glamourpuss #26 (July 2012)
Art by Dave Sim

I guess the sound byte explanation is that it's like that line from the movie Withnail and I: "We've gone on holiday by mistake." Except it's more like "We've begun researching a graphic novel by mistake." And what I'm bringing to the table is a fan's innate ability to say, "Hey Dave. Umm, what about this?"

[DAVE SIM: "We've begun researching a graphic novel by mistake." That's a very good way of putting it! I started glamourpuss as an enjoyable brainless lark -- absolutely NO research, just what I have to say about photorealism off the top of my head. I wanted to draw pretty girls and that's ALL this is about. I paid my dues when it comes to heavily researched material, no one was particularly interested, so let's just have FUN for a change! Originally I was going to cover the car accident in two issues -- AT MOST. So? So fashion and fashion models turn out to be completely non-viable in the comic-book field. And here I am with 300 pages of graphic novel that's only halfway? A quarter of the way? done. Probably years of work ahead of me. Drawing two middle-aged men. Reminds me of the: "Know how to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans." D'OH!!! Well, I get to draw Katharine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, etc. etc.

I've got Eddie's cover letter for the latest ten-pound package of photocopies sitting right here. He photocopied SHADOWED COCKTAILS: THE PLAYS OF PHILIP BARRY "which contains within it a chapter on how Barry's plays relate to Katharine Hepburn." Hepburn really called attention to herself (actually two other people did) in Margaret Mitchell's COLLECTED GONE WITH THE WIND LETTERS. That one started as a rabbit hole and me thinking I was just satisfying my own curiosity. Turned out to be the Missing link between Margaret Mitchell and Grace Kelly. Barry wrote THE PHILADELPHIA STORY for Hepburn which was remade as HIGH SOCIETY (no relation, but be sure to pick up the 30th anniversary gold foil logo signed and numbered edition when it becomes available in May. Tell your store NOW!) with Grace Kelly when she was engaged to Prince Rainier (and which should have been called THE REAL PHILADELPHIA STORY). I tried to find out more about Barry on Wikipedia and the pickings were thin. So, had I been inclined, I would have said, "Eddie, can you find me something on Barry? Something with him discussing Hepburn?" No, Dave. Leave it alone. So what does Eddie send me without my having to say anything? "Hey, Dave, the producer in Barry's THE ANIMAL KINGDOM is named Hal Foster." Of COURSE he is. Why WOULDN'T he be?

And then he sends a romance story from 1955 from YOUNG BRIDES. One of those, 'Oh, Eddie, you COULDN'T make this stuff up. NO ONE could make this stuff up.' "Hey, Dave, is it just me or does this refer directly to Margaret Mitchell's anecdote in A DYNAMO GOING TO WASTE?" Well, if it doesn't, I don't know what does.

Eddie and I will be happy to do this on an on-going basis at A Moment Of Cerebus if Tim is willing. He can post a DANGER! LONG-WINDED CANADIANS warning and everyone can skip that day (or three days or week or...)

Okay, Eddie and I will shut up now.]

Happy 54th Birthday, Gerhard!

Go visit Gerhard Art and Gerhard's Blog!

Cover Tributes #4

Original: Batman #100 (1956), Superman #100 (1955)

Tribute: Cerebus #100 (July 1987) by Dave Sim

(Click Image To Enlarge)

DAVE SIM:
(from Cerebus Wiki)

Getting to issue #100 was more of a big deal to me. It seemed completely impossible. That's why I did the same motif that DC used for Superman #100 in 1954 or '55 and Batman #100 in 1956 - a composite of the covers of issues one, twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five.

Cover Tributes #3

Original: Detective Comics #472 (September 1977) by Marshall Rogers

Tribute: Cerebus #22 (November 1980) by Dave Sim

(Click Image To Enlarge)

(Thanks to I Love Comic Covers) 

Cover Tributes #2

Original: Armour #1 (1985) by Neal Adams

Tribute: Anything Goes #3 (1987) by Neal Adams

(Click Image To Enlarge)

(Thanks to I Love Comic Covers)

Cover Tributes #1

Original: Nick Fury, Agent Of SHEILD #3 (August 1968) by Jim Steranko

Tribute: Cerebus #2 (February 1978) by Dave Sim

(Click Image To Enlarge)

(Thanks to I Love Comic Covers)

The Lost Sim 'Road Bit'

Unpublished 'Road Bit' Dream Comic (1996)
Art by Dave Sim

RICK VEITCH:
(from Rick Veitch's Blog, 12 September 2008)

Found this cool unpublished Dave Sim ROAD BIT in one of my old sketchbooks. From the title, he seems to be hedging on whether its a real dream or not. This would have been done right in the middle of the SPIRITS OF INDEPENDENCE tour. I'm wondering why we didn't try the free beer idea!

Rick Veitch is a comic writer/artist best known for his creator-owned work on Brat Pack, Heartburst, The One and Can't Get No, as well as his work on corporate comics including Greyshirt, Supreme and Swamp Thing. Between 1994 and 1996 he self-published 21 issues of dream-inspired comics in Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends (a reference to Winsor McCay's Dream of the Rarebit Fiend), the first 20 issues of which were collected in three paperback volumes via his King Hell imprint. Rick Veitch had a cameo in the Cerebus story arc Guys as "Roaring Rick" where Cerebus is dreaming, and Roaring Rick appears to him and gives a surreal monologue on the nature of dreams and lucid dreaming.

Sim's Road Bit

'Sim's Road Bit' in Rare Bit Fiends #3 (September 1994)
Art by Dave Sim

RICK VEITCH:
(from Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends #3, September 1994)

When I travel away from home I carry a small black sketchbook to make a visual record of my dreams in. This serves to keep me focused on my work, even on the fly, and comes in handy when someone invariably walks up and says "I had the WEIRDEST dream last night!". I hand 'em the Road Bits sketchbook and tell 'em to put it down on paper. Some get right into it immediately and accept the challenge, others wait until they are back in the relative safety of their studios to come through...

Rick Veitch is a comic writer/artist best known for his creator-owned work on Brat Pack, Heartburst, The One and Can't Get No, as well as his work on corporate comics including Greyshirt, Supreme and Swamp Thing. Between 1994 and 1996 he self-published 21 issues of dream-inspired comics in Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends (a reference to Winsor McCay's Dream of the Rarebit Fiend), the first 20 issues of which were collected in three paperback volumes via his King Hell imprint. Rick Veitch had a cameo in the Cerebus story arc Guys as "Roaring Rick" where Cerebus is dreaming, and Roaring Rick appears to him and gives a surreal monologue on the nature of dreams and lucid dreaming. 

Miriad

Miriad #5 (1981)
Art by Dave Sim

KEVIN DAVIES:
(from the interview introduction, Miriad #5, 1981)

Dave Sim has been steadily growing in popularity as both writer, artist and comics personality since the introduction of his own character and independent comic book Cerebus The Aardvark to the comics scene in December 1977. The comic itself acquired its title through a succession of events which more than reflect the trials encountered by any publication when first making an effort to establish a publishing operation. Dave produced his first drawing of the character on request from an acquaintance, Denise Loubert (now his wife), as a logo for her intended sword and sorcery fanzine. Once completed, the book was shipped to a printer in California, with neither money nor material heard from again. But the aardvark survived!

Realising the potential which could incorporate the Cerebus character within a sword and sorcery setting, Denise offered Dave her financial support and the two struck up a partnership. With Dave acting as creator and Deni (as she refers to herself), fulfilling the role of publisher, the two set out and produced the first three issue of Cerebus as a bi-monthly experimental probe of the market, testing whether there existed enough interest to justify the continued publication of an independent magazine of this sort. The response was overwhelming and the rest, to the delight of all, is a very eventful history.

(Thanks to Eddie Khanna for the Miriad scans!)

Alan Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman

Miracleman #1 (Eclipse Comics, 1985)
By Alan Moore & Gary Leach

FOLLOWING CEREBUS:
(from 'The Controversy Over Copyrights' in Following Cerebus #3, 2005)

Alan Moore and Gary Leach created Marvelman for Warrior magazine in the UK in 1982. A modern updating of the beloved fifties series (obviously inspired by Captain Marvel), the new version became extremely popular. In 1985 Eclipse Comics began reprinting the stories in colour, also to wide acclaim. The series ended after twenty-four issues, with new stories written by Neil Gaiman. The character's name changed to Miracleman in the Eclipse editions because of complaints from Marvel Comics, thus souring Moore on ever working for Marvel. When Eclipse went bankrupt, Todd McFarlane bought the assets - which did not include publishing rights, but only tangible property. Eventually he transferred this to Gaiman, but soon afterward filed for a trademark on the name. Gaiman sued, and the controversy is still mired among the lawyers.

DAVE SIM:
(from 'Dave Sim On Parody &Copyright' in Following Cerebus #3, 2005)

...in light of what I've just said about all the ins and outs of trademark and copyright, and where I think there's a certain validity, and where I think it's all just "smoke and mirrors" make-work projects for lawyers, I find the Miracleman situation particularly disheartening. Essentially Miracleman is the changed name of Marvelman who was a very half-assed knock-off of Captain Marvel, which was published in England. The problem seems to stem from the fact that the iconic costume has great sentimental resonance for English comic book creators of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman's generation. This was the reason Alan Moore wanted to write a revived Marvelman, and this was the reason that Neil Gaiman was pleased to be asked to follow him on the book and thrilled that he was given Alan's share of Miracleman as part of his compensation and eager to get whatever part of Miracleman Todd McFarlane acquired out of the Eclipse bankruptcy auction.

When I became aware of the situation that was brewing, I contacted Neil directly and Todd indirectly and suggested that the whole thing could be headed off at the pass by just agreeing to make Miracleman the same as Cerebus is, an unprotected trademark. It seemed very sensible to me. Neil already had all of the Miracleman negatives from Todd, so he could print his own work and Alan's in one big Miracleman trade paperback, and Todd could do Miracleman statues and hockey sweaters and baseball caps and whatever else Todd was interested in. Miracleman would be protected on the same basis Cerebus is. Anyone would be free to do a Miracleman comic book, but they would be competing with the Alan Moore / Neil Gaiman / Mark Buckingham version if they did so. I think it would be as unlikely that someone would try to do that as it is that someone would try doing a Watchman sequel if Watchmen were an unprotected trademark.

Unfortunately - unfortunately, to my way of thinking - Neil adopted the viewpoint that everything had been set in motion, and there was no turning back, rather like the troop trains at the start of World War I. He has set up the "Marvels & Miracles Foundation" to determine who actually owns Miracleman and, to me, he has thereby walked into the oldest lawyer trick going: he has asked them to research what is, at essence, an impossible question to answer and which the lawyers can, therefore, spend an unlimited number of years researching and pretending to answer at hourly billing rates that boggle the mind to contemplate. From what I understand, the research phase has already eaten up all the money Neil made off 1602, with no end in sight. It's just such a waste of currency that could've been given to a food bank or the CBLDF or anyone else beside a pack of lawyers. In my view, all Neil had to do was to put out a Complete Miracleman trade paperback and told Todd that he was free to do anything with Miracleman that Todd wanted to do, and that would have been the end of it. Miracleman would be spewing money all over the place instead of sucking it into a black hole full of lawyers. It's just really sad and really unnecessary to me.

Pádraig Ó Méalóid explores the convoluted history of Marvelman/Miracleman's ownership in an ongoing series of 'Poisoned Chalice' posts at The Beat.

Zelda Cafe

"Zelda Cafe" in Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends #1 (July 1994)

Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:
(from the 100 Hour Internet Tour: Comicon, 2 Febraury 2008)

...The only published Dave Sim Dreams story is "The Zelda Cafe" in Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends #1... oddly enough a dream that I had before I knew anything about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda. Impossible but True! I have about 25 mint copies that I've been trying to figure out how to get a) Rick to sign in the presence of a CGC rep and b) get slabbed by CGC. A couple of obvious problems: I'd be willing to bet the Veitchmonster [Rick Veitch] hates the very idea of CGC slabbing and I'd be willing to bet the nearest CGC rep is probably no closer than Boston. Although I might be wrong. On both counts...

Louis Riel

Louis Riel (Drawn & Quartely, 2000)
Art by Chester Brown

DAVE SIM:
(from the 'Getting Riel' discussion with Chester Brown, Cerebus #295, October 2003)

I remember talking to Seth at the Now & Then Books anniversary party, enthusing about how [Chester Brown's new book, Louis Riel] was coming along and saying, you know, this could be sold in huge quantities in schools, libraries, universities and Seth saying to me in his characteristic dry-as-dust fashion, "Yeah, if everyone can just keep their pants on, it could be a real breakout, mainstream success." And I laughed, because it was such a Seth thing to say. His belief that you're this inherently contrary, inherently perverse being who will actively undermine his own chance at success by exposing a character's penis just for the sake of it. And then I mentioned the comment to you the next time you and I and Joe [Matt] and Seth were at Sushi on Bloor. And Seth was stricken. Absolutely stricken! He slumped over, grabbing his forehead. Seth! What! What is it, man? And Seth said that everyone had taken a vow of silence (practically) not saying a word to you and that, being Chester Brown, now you would have to expose someones penis because someone had mentioned what a bad idea it would be. And to me, this is nonsense! And the handling of the swearing scene, to me, exemplifies what nonsense that is. Eights pages of swearing and vile racial epithets, louder and louder and worse and worse. And how does Chet handle it? X's! You show him saying, "Imprisoned by a bunch of XXXXX XXXX XXXXX" (and indicate in a footnote that "these X's indicate racist comments and profanity.") which is fairly innocuous, followed by"I'm not scared of your XXXXX XXX guards!" You sort of go over the "PG" line with "They're too busy XXXX XXXXXXX each other to bother shooting me!" I mean, anyone can and will mentally fill in those particular XX's and I can picture any number of school librarians getting their noses out of joint over something like that. But then, you retreat back across the line to safety with "Riel, you XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX." And that's it for any recognisable word. Over four pages of mostly XXXXXXX. Not even a X@#$%&. Now me, I would have gotten to that part and thought, hm What insults would he be letting fly with? And I'd lean into it. When Cerebus was trying to improve to please God, I'd letter "no swearing" over a swear-word - indicating his own self-censorship - but most of the time, if its called for, I'll just use "fuck" or "shit" where I think its needed. Or even worse as far as most people, I think, would be concerned in this day and age, I'll use "faggy" or something like that which is probably a closer analogy to the "racist comments" you edged around. But it seems obvious to me that anyone who is being that careful is hardly a born provocateur.

Digital High Society: Reviews

All 25 issues of High Society (Cerebus #26-50) are available to download right now at CerebusDownloads.com. Here's what people are saying about it:

ED BRUBAKER:

Looking at the trailer they released for the Digital High Society, it looks like it’s going to be quite a package. Like the "Artists Edition" version of a digital comic. And say whatever you want about Sim and Cerebus after a certain point, but High Society is a great work of art. It's one that’s very unique to both comics and its era, and I wonder how some of the parodies will come across to any new readers or younger readers.

GAIL SIMONE:
...The issues Dave is making available digitally, to my mind, constitute a masterwork of comics. They are so good, there are only a handful of North American comics that can compete with them. When I was a kid, for a long time, I could only afford one comic a month, and that comic was Cerebus. The story being reprinted, High Society, is possibly my favorite single comics story ever... if someone were to ask me what comics to study to learn meaningful sequential storytelling, Cerebus would likely be in the top two or three choices I would recommend.

COMIC LIST:
No comic collection is complete without these classic stories and soon they will be available at the tap of a finger! Today marks the return of all things Cerebus to the pantheon of the comic book elite.

TERMINAL DRIFT:
The extras are exhaustive and amazing. It is clear that the DVD extras concept is what they are going for here and there is most everything you could have ever hoped to see, turning a 20 page comic into a 60+ page digital DL for .99 cents. Every page, letter, note, sketchbook or notebook page even business correspondence is included. Some of it is just an odd curiosity, but most of it is really interesting, and out of print since the original issues or never seen at all. Having completely forgotten the experience of reading the individual issues years ago (I now have all the phone books and sold my originals ages ago) this was all an unexpected treat.

MULTIVERSITY COMICS:
It’s quite staggering, really, going from a phonebook that has been worn down by the years to a digital version, because you forget that at one point these pages were supposed to be black and white (see: below), not blackish hues and mustard yellow... It’s akin to seeing an older film get an HD Blu-ray re-release through something like the Criterion Collection, and while not all older films inherently need to be given shiny new coats so you can see the actor’s wrinkles (there is a certain charm there), having these versions of “Cerebus” that are accessible and crisp in terms of quality is – if nothing else – a rather great talking point for the pro-digital. And while some remastered comics enhance various aspects throughout the process, it’s nice to see such a clear version of this comic exist that is ostensibly unaltered, giving us all of Sim’s work as it was originally produced – just, you know, on a screen.

COMICS BULLETIN:
May of 2013 marks thirty years since “High Society” came to a close. The Cerebus “phonebooks” remain in print and Comixology has begun releasing each issue of “High Society” as a ninety-nine cent download. Cerebus possesses such a handmade, analog quality that the fact it is available as binary code feels (almost) like an anathema. Time and technology wait for no man or aardvark, I suppose.

DECONSTRUCTING COMICS:
Rereading High Society again for this podcast - the last time I read it would have been like 10 years ago - it blew me away all over again. Absolutely. You're definitely coming into an artists work that is already very strong. Not as good as its going to get, but pretty darned good.

PROGRESSIVE RUIN:
...you pay about a buck, and you get a download (in a variety of formats) of a full issue of Cerebus from what is arguably the best and most reader-friendly segment of the series, “High Society.” Includes big ol’ scans of the art, all the ads and letters pages/text pieces, plus sketches and production work and much more. Also, you get a bit of video business, where Cerebus creator Dave Sim reads through the entire issue for you, doing voices for all the characters, and there’s music and sound effects, too. Oddly compelling, certainly fun, and I think I’m totally down with having Uncle Dave read me a Cerebus story once a week.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:

...the series still represents an unprecedented triumph in self-publishing and is one of the earliest examples of independent publishing success, planting the seeds for the current wave of creator-owned independent and self-published comics... Asked about his hopes for Cerebus' revival and its new publishing ventures, Sim was hopeful and blunt: "the same as everyone else’s in the Internet age: that somehow it goes viral." If Digital High Society in its various forms is successful, other Cerebus books are likely to follow, bringing Sim closer to his goal of digitizing the entire series. For that the author still has a long and uncertain way to go, but as he says, "Anything’s possible."

Distribution

Cerebus #37 (April 1982)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:
(from page 52, The Cerebus Guide To Self-Publishing, 2010 Revised Edition)

Had I been able to make a living doing Cerebus on my own web site, would I have bothered to try and get distributors to carry it? Autonomy was a key element in my developing the self-publishing model that I did. Phil Seuling, the pioneer Direct Market distributor, was quite a character and, in a personal sense, I'm glad that I got to know him reasonably well (I got the blustery character of Filgate in High Society from him, if nothing else). However, in a business sense, in the late 1970s, I definitely saw him as a fly in my autonomy ointment. One way or another, Phil's personal quirks and preferences and sensitivities had to be taken into account. Why? Because there was no other option in 1977. If you got on Phil's bad side, there went half your market. I would definitely have weighed that in the balance, at the time, if I could have had my own web site instead of going through the distributors.

That doesn't mean it would have been a right decision.

There is a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" dynamic: to what is going on right now, at least potentially. Stores with declining sales in the economic downturn mentally jettisoning marginal indy books, Diamond literally jettisoning marginal indy books. I don't think it’s completely outside the realm of likelihood that there are self-publishing cartoonists who are likewise, jettisoning the idea of selling their work through stores on the other side of the equation.

Cerebus #37 (April 1982)
Art by Dave Sim

It Could Have Been...

Judenhass (2008)
Art by Dave Sim

STEPHEN HOLLAND:
(from Comics International #207, 2008)

Literally translated as "Jew Hatred", Judenhass' release coincides with the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. On the dedicated website, Sim writes, “I decided some time ago that the term Anti-Semitism… is completely inadequate to the abhorrent cultural phenomenon which it attempts to describe… It seemed to me that the term [Judenhass] served to distil the ancient problem to its essence, and in such a way as to hopefully allow other non-Jews (like myself) to see the problem “unlaundered” and through fresh eyes. Europe and various other jurisdictions aren’t experiencing a sudden upsurge in “Anti-Semitism”. What they are experiencing is an upsurge in Judenhass.”

The pages depicting the Holocaust or Shoah – the bleak barracks of Auschwitz in their full, freezing horror, and the gaunt faces of their skeletal occupants crammed onto stacks of hard, wooden racks – are accompanied by a calm, considered explanation of why Sim believes that every creative person should consider embarking on such a work, particularly those who aren’t Jewish:

““Lest we forget”… “Never again”… are fine and noble-sounding sentiments which have attached themselves to the historical remembrance of what was done to these innocent individuals and millions of others like them. But it seems to me that the words are largely meaningless if (as has been the case to now) in movies, in books, in plays and in documents of the historical record they are expressions largely if not exclusively being enunciated by Jews. If there is a chance of systemic Jew Hatred being eliminated from our society, it can’t just be Jews who speak out against it.”

Some things bear repeating, because some things do not bear being repeated.

He also points out that but for “geographical happenstance” the comicbook field “created, developed and built primarily by Jews, painstakingly, one comicbook at a time” could have lost Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Will Eisner, Bob Kane, Max Gaines or Sheldon Mayer.

That’s precisely what Joe Kubert set out to explore in Yossel, published in 2003. Joe moved to America with his Jewish parents and sister when he was only a couple of months old, despite them being rebuffed earlier when his mother was pregnant. In Yossel, Joe puts himself in the place of a boy who hadn’t left Poland before its Nazi occupation. What follows is forced evacuation, incarceration, starvation and a systematic deprivation of comforts, communication, heating and clothes – a freezing endurance test without either hope or respite – and then it gets worse.

Kubert was one of the select few sent early copies of Judenhass and who have lined up to praise it, including Jean Shuster Peavy (Joe Shuster’s sister) and Marv Wolfman. Neil Gaiman wrote: “Judenhass is an astonishing piece of work. Painful and real and unflinching. I don't remember the last comic I read that made me cry, but this did." Indeed visitors to the Judenhass website should be warned, if only for parental guidance, that the animated introduction with its haunting soundtrack and terrible, echoing cracks of gunfire is as profoundly harrowing as the on-site preview.

The website also acts as a compendium to the comic, providing background research, some shockingly Anti-Semitic screeds from unexpected sources, and essays on the production process. In one of those Sim talks about the effect his detailed portraiture had on himself:

"At least temporarily I was able to individualize the victims for myself, personally, to differentiate each one as much as possible back into the individual he or she had been before the catastrophe of the Shoah had overtaken him or her."

"My people did this. That is, all of these individual Jews, all of these individual human beings, none of them very old, most in the prime of life came to the state in which I was capturing their likenesses through the actions of the non-Jews like myself. To set myself the task of capturing likenesses and expressions meant that I couldn't look away or see the Shoah through distanced overview, impersonally. How could I? Each death had been experienced personally, each death had been individual, each death had ended in a final eloquent...and horrific... expression. The only thing to me more horrific than those final expressions was the all-too-human urge to look away."

"How dare I? How dare any of us?"

Stephen Holland is the co-founder (with Mark Simpson) of one the UK's leading comic stores - Page 45.

Pussy-Whipped

Cerebus #213 (December 1996)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

DAVE SIM:
(from a reply to a letter from cartoonist Seth, Aardvark Comment, Cerebus #193, April 1995)

Okay. Pussy-whipped. Now there's a can of worms for you. It's a subject very much on the minds of the women I talk with (I know it comes as an enormous shock to you, Seth, that women do, indeed, talk with me). Being pussy-whipped is a lot more the fault of men than it is of women. What a number of women have woken up to is that their boyfriends and husbands never disagree with them. Since they know that I will give my honest opinion if they ask me for it, the topic has become a recurring theme in recent years although the implicit tone accompanying it has shifted. For a vast majority of women the issue is a basic one: 'if he lets me push him around, it's his fault.' Most of them test the boundaries of what they can get away with (particularly the young ones, who are new at the game) much as they did with their fathers when they were growing up. Of course this falls into the category of 'you can get what you want and still not be very happy'. They know (most of them - some, I'll grant you, don't even suspect) when they are making unreasonable demands, intentionally slapping a guy in the face (metaphorically or in actuality). Pussy-whipped guys have basically adapted the traditional female role for their own: peace at any price, roll with the punches (metaphorically or in actuality), be understanding, be submissive, be whatever you have to be to keep the relationship intact. This does not work over any extended period of time. One of the highest accolades a woman can bestow upon a man is 'he's a real challenge'. The male world has become very unchallenging for women. Strong people admire strength and deplore weakness. The mistake that pussy-whipped men make is in thinking that strength involves 'slapping her around' or 'being macho'. that's not the kind of strength that I'm talking about; strength involves standing your ground in an argument, holding on to a contrary opinion if you believe in that opinion, setting boundaries to your own behaviour which are reasonable to you and having inviolable lines drawn in the sand of behaviour you will accept in a girlfriend or lover. One of the easiest of the glib defences of the pussy-whipped male is that 'it really doesn't make a difference to me'. Whatever makes her happy makes me happy. If this is the centrepiece of your thinking when it comes to making mutual decisions in a relationship, you have already taken the first step on the road to dissolution. If she makes all the choices, great and small, of what the two of you do or don't do, you really are little more than a housepet. If it REALLY doesn't make a difference to whether the two of you do 'a' or 'b', it's a good policy to make sure that at least half the time you are the one to make the arbitrary choice... and make it stick. If she says 'do you want to do x or y' and you say 'x' and she says 'let's do y' and you say 'whatever you want, it really doesn't matter to me', you have failed a very simple test. Someone who evinces no outward sign of having free will is an impossible person to respect. If a woman doesn't respect you, she doesn't love you. You might be a comfortable companion at that point, a whipping boy, a house pet or a surrogate son, but you are clearly not a lover in the female sense of the word. Women, whether consciously or unconsciously, are looking for a long-term scenario - 'commitment' is a camouflage for the actual goal: finding someone who remains interesting to them, who is his own person and who is aware enough to know when his psychic territory is being infiltrated or devoured. There is no greater status for women among their peers than to have a long-term relationship with a guy who - even after months or years - still has his own opinions, has his own house in order, who controls himself and stands his ground without abusing her mentally or physically. One of the commonest complaints of pussy-whipped males (or, even more deplorable, males who ASPIRE to being pussy-whipped) is that the best women pine after men who are uncaring, unfaithful and brutal. See, those guys are the longed-for 'challenge'. Implicit in this is the obvious tendency to excess. There are 'challenges' and there are 'impossibles'. Since it has become rarer and rarer for women to find men who will set any limits or boundaries on behaviour they will tolerate, who might well stand their ground and disagree even on the most cursory level, a man (as opposed to a male) is going to look pretty attractive. He passes all the tests when it comes to resisting her manipulations, and so earns her respect and interest. In the interests of achieving one of the 'impossibles' (so to speak), she becomes penis-whipped - setting no limits on the boundaries of behaviour she will tolerate.

Seth , I have no idea what your life situation is like, so I can't comment on whether I think you have been co-opted or if you are pussy-whipped. I certainly don't think that all men have been co-opted or are pussy-whipped but, from my own experience, most are. We return to percentages. From the vantage point of what I would view as pussy-whipped males, the world is moving gradually in the direction of balanced relationships between men and women where gender becomes meaningless; boy-friends with many feminine traits, girlfriends with many masculine traits; the more feminine traits a male has the better a male he is, the more masculine traits a female has the better a female she is. This philosophy enters the whirlpool at the centre where traits are no longer described as masculine or feminine - we're all just people, indistinguishable from one another and some manner of paradise beckons at the end of the road.

I think that view is full of shit.

Cerebus #213 (December 1996)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

Cerebus #1 - Rebooted!

Cerebus #1 Rebooted (2011)

Art by Kevin Mellon

COMICS ALLIANCE:

The warrior aardvark of legend returns in an all-new series that catapults Cerebus into a dark, dystopian future to face the most terrifying enemy he has ever known: The Voids. A parasitic race of creatures driven only by base emotions of fear and hunger, the Voids have infiltrated the city at nearly every level, binding men of power and influence to their vampiric will. Can Cerebus stop the Voids before they consume every man in Iestopolis with their unspeakable hunger, or will they continue their rampage unopposed until the very last Male Light goes out?

Sim on Ditko

Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 (Marvel Comics, December 1961)
Art by Steve Ditko

DAVE SIM:

(from a review of Amazing Adult Fantasy #7, Blake Bell's Blog, 15 May 2012)

This batch of five stories, all from the same issue (sporting one of the greatest pre-super-hero Ditko covers in Marvel’s history – even the colouring is great!) interested me because they’re all in the same category as “There It Is Again!”

All are scripted by Stan Lee and it’s as if he cracked the Ditko code and figured out the exact overall story tone that was required to get a Ditko Iconic job. I suspect there’s a story behind all of these ending up in the same issue.

Looking on the bright side, I can envision Stan Lee, as I say, cracking the Ditko code and writing four High Iconic Ditko stories to appear in the same issue. Looking through a more jaundiced lens, Stan Lee had no idea what was going on and over a period of time just ended up with four High Iconic jobs and decided What the hey! And put them all in the same issue. The job numbers that appear on the splash pages aren’t completely sequential (V-391, V-392, V-393, V-395, V-396) but pretty close. It might be something as simple as a deadline crunch and Ditko picked out the five scripts that he thought he could draw the fastest.

If we assume (as I do) that solo Steve Ditko is the REAL Steve Ditko, I suspect these stories gave him his first taste of iconic story-telling and told him this was where his creative heart was and where he needed to go when he opted for a smaller audience and complete creative freedom.

“Why Won’t They Believe Me?” actually delivers the goods. Good build-up, good red herring on the second to last page and good actual twist ending. “The Last Man on Earth”, nah, “Witch Hunt”, nah, “Journey’s End” yeah.

I’ve just spent the last half hour flipping through all of them, admiring the artwork, the composition, the story-telling, the pin-stripe suits. If you’re a major league Ditko fan, you couldn’t go wrong bidding on a reading copy of AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #7 on eBay.

Dave Sim reviews 1950s and 1960s Steve Ditko comics at Blake Bell's Blog, and you can read more Steve Ditko comics for yourself in the Blake Bell edited Steve Ditko Archives series published by Fantagraphics Books (Vol 4 due in May 2013!).

DitkoMania

DitkoMania #77 (2009)
Art by Dave Sim

BLAKE BELL:
(from Blake Bell's Blog, 6 May 2012)

...Dave Sim [read his] review of my 2008 Ditko bio/art book, Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko... in a phone conversation that was one of the most emotional comic-related moments in my memory.

I had hit upon Cerebus in 1987, just after issue 105 (of 300) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Easily moved to my favourite current comic, easily moved Dave into that trinity alongside Ditko and Everett.

Dump me on a desert island with nothing other than Ditko's run on Spider-Man, and Cerebus #11 to #136, and I'd be entertained for life.

And Dave was the 1980s equivalent of Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols: a legit, street-cred, no-nonsense rock star/shepherd. He was the Jack Kirby equivalent of his generation; the "Godfather" of the indie movement, influencing and inspiring too many creators to count. That all changed when Dave let his point of view on gender relations all hang out in Cerebus #186.

I bring this up because the consequences of that POV informed my 2008 phone conversation with him. Dave didn't look fondly upon the Deni Loubert/Dave Sim chapter of my first book, I Have To Live With This Guy!, from 2002. Still, two subsequent meetings had buried the hatchet. That led to various exchanges including what was this whirlwind of a conversation re: Ditko.

Dave felt (correctly so) that Ditko had been consistently belittled, insulted and relegated for his Randian viewpoints mainly because the whole world just wanted Ditko to roll over, do Spider-Man and Dr. Strange again, and have his blood sucked for where "all the bodies are buried" at Marvel.

This 2008 conversation started well. Hey, when one of your heroes says about your book, "I think that Strange and Stranger is probably the best book of its kind that I’ve read," it's tough not to feel a sense of accomplishment. But as the reading of the review unfurled, and Sim clearly was empathizing with the arc of Ditko's career that had been deeply informed by the expression of his philosophical viewpoint, the tone began to change, and my momentary sense of joy sank with each passing word out of Dave's mouth.

When Dave finished reading the review, there was a prolonged silence. Ever been caught in the ocean's undertow, spun upside down? Was I offended? No, not really. Had my balloon burst? Maybe a little, but it certainly gave me pause to think and re-examine my motives based on this new perspective (especially when delivered in such a heart-felt manner).

It was the follow-up that I won't forget. Dave elaborated on how he felt Ditko had been treated by fans, the press, and the industry, and it became increasingly clear that he was talking about himself too. A wave of sadness came over me as Dave became choked up, especially while relating my "tip of the cap" to him in the Acknowledgments section.

I had put in there that my admiration was unending for Cerebus #11 to #136, in a similar fashion to Ditko's Spider-Man run, and he questioned if that was not read as a back-handed complement - similar to how Ditko views people who like his corporate comics vs. that from his own independent mind. I stood up for myself on this point, saying that my love for that part of Cerebus was an objective fact and that it was unfair to categorize my comment as a negative commentary on his personal beliefs that came out in full force in issue #186. Just as I had criticized Ditko's later work for being too didactic, for letting the message overwhelm the story, I believed the same had happened with Cerebus to the extent that my enjoyment, while never stopping me from buying the book to #300, did decrease in a comparative sense. I also opined to Dave that I don't think Ditko would appreciate people buy his Objectivist-heavy work just to support him because "he was Ditko". An acquaintance of Ditko once told me that Ditko had said he'd rather read a review of someone who hated his work than someone licking his boots, and I think that stuck with Dave as an appropriate counterpoint to his argument offered in the review.

I must have been channeling the Holy Spirit because I think the way that I conveyed myself broke through his defenses, in terms of sobering him up to the fact that he was being judged solely on the merits of his work, and not on his socio-political beliefs, and that this was rare for him in the past 10 years. It was clear to me that this had taken a toll on him: going from likely the most "he's my guy" figure in alternative comics to pariah/outsider.

I think we left the conversation with a better understanding of the other person's point of view. What else can you ask for? We've had some interactions since, but none for awhile and I wish I had the time to sit down and re-read Cerebus from start to finish for the first time in a decade. My other "dream book" to write would be Dave Sim and The Rise of the Independents just because I'd get to read those books again and bask in the glow of that era where everything seemed possible if you were an indie creator. We were going to triumph en masse over Goliath. Sim proved you could make it all on your own: a complete artistic vision, and business model, from start to finish, no interference in that vision from anyone (including a dwindling fan base). That's why comics are #1 for me. Can any other medium allow a creator the ability to get their vision across in such an unfiltered manner, from concept to consumer...?

Full details of how to purchase Steve Ditko books can be found at Ditko.Blogspot.com. Strange & Stranger by Blake Bell was published by Fanatagraphics Books in 2008. The Ditkomania fanzine has just published its 90th issue and is essential reading for all Steve Ditko fans.