Fighting Censorship

Swoon Commission (2004)

Art by Dave Sim

JAMES GUARNOTTA:

(from Comic Art Fans, 2010)

Commisioned piece for CBLDF auction. The design was to be used for t-shirts but something went wrong. Doubtful it will ever be used at this point.

Tribute Art Round-Up #16

Inktober 2017

Art by Tim McEwen

"Inktober Day 21 is Dave Sim, as I continue inking over the pencils of some of my all-time favourite comic artists... If I had to choose a single comics creator that was the single biggest influence on my own work it would surely be Dave Sim. I discovered his epic comic Cerebus at just the time I was starting to absorb material outside of the mainstream, and it stuck with a vengeance. He’s definitely my all time favourite comics creator and Cerebus is my all time favourite comic. With that in mind I approached this sketch with a little trepidation. It was an absolute ball to do though, and by the end of it I was pretty comfortable adding in a few of my own stylistic touches as opposed to what is so obviously Dave’s style. I think in the end it’s a good amalgamation. This one took me just under 30 minutes as it’s a reasonably simple sketch to begin with. I’ll be digging around for some humans that Dave’s drawn so that I can have a crack at those as well. I think that’s where there’s the most to learn for my own practice."

Cerebus The Barbarian (2017)

by Kyle Hotz

Cerebus x3 (2017)

by James Smith

"I am gifting my entire cerebus trade collection to a new cerebite in Cali, so I have had the ol aardvark on the brain when drawing the past couple days... Two reasons, 1. To spread the magic 2. to get the remasters."

Cerebus Commission drawn at Forest City Comicon 2017

by Rodrigo Bravo

Lego Cerebus (2017)

by Greg Hyland

Modern-Day Cerebus
by Tyler Boss

AMOC amuck: Behind the scenes of your favorite blog...PART TWO!!!

Hi Everybody!

When last we left our intrepid Interim Editor Matt Dow, he was about to respond to Dave Sim's response to his fax to Dave about becoming our intrepid Interim Editor (THIRD BASE!).

And that went...THUSLY: 

11/15/17

Hi again Dave,

At your request (via Sean,) I’ve posted my message and your response on AMOC (or rather, it’s scheduled to be posted sometime tonight, or tomorrow morning. Ah, the wonders of the internet…)

Anyway, I’ve posted the announcement of the Editorial take-over to AMOC. Here it is for your amusement: 

And then I inserted the announcement post.   I continued:

Anyway again, regarding your fax of 14 November:

It’s not so much “stressing”, it’s more of a mental coping mechanism I’ve developed. If I assume the worst, I can be pleasantly surprised when things don’t go wrong.

A.      Yeah, I’ve kinda assumed the arm’s length part. It IS my show now, but it’s a show that defers to the President of A-V. I’ve been trying to come up with a better analogy, but nothing seems to fit. (Batman/Commissioner Gordon?) But as Tim told me, the mandate is: to celebrate Cerebus and Hopefully drive some money to A-V.  (I can’t find the direct quote right this second…)

B.      No Dave! You’re doing it wrong! It’s SUPPOSED to go: “Oh Man! NOT Matt! Anybody but MATT!!!” Digression: Back in the early 2000s, right before Grant Morrison took over writing one of the X-Men books, I sent in a pitch to Marvel (along with a box of cookies), when I told my Dad about it, he said, “The worst they can do is say ‘no’” to which I replied, “No, the worst they can do is say ‘yes’. Then I’d have to write the damn thing!”

C.      I’m gonna shout “FEED THE BEAST!” every time I hit the “post” button now… And I know they’re finite. Technically EVERYTHING is finite. But when a feature reaches its natural conclusion, I’ll (hopefully) have a new feature. (Or quit. Ya know, just keeping my options open…)

                                 I.    So, that’s a “NO” on me using them? Just asking for clarification. Also, what about the Blog and Mail? Is that stuff “fair game” or should I hold off on raiding it? (I’m mostly thinking of the Mr. Meaty drawing…)

                               II.   I dunno about a “wiki,” but I can start organizing that stuff on my computer and either burn it to disc, or copy it to a flash drive and sent it “up Nort’ “ when it’s full/needed. (I plan to start this whatever your response. It’s too good an idea.)

                             III.   

[redacted by the "None of your damn business" Police. For further inquiries on this matter, please direct all communications to momentofcerebus {at} gmail {dot} com. We apologize for the inconvenience.  We here at A Moment Of Cerebus know you have a many options for daily doses of Cerebus the Aardvark related conten...wait a minute, no you don't. We're it. Ha ha suckers!]

D.      1. That’s ME: “Matt Dow: Problem Maker!”

                     I.  And that’s when that feature ends. Also, that’s two-years-from-now-Matt’s headache…

                   II. Well, not really. I kinda assumed you had copies of them somewhere in the Archive. I mean, it’s The Beavers. Not IDW’s Rip Kirby reprints. Nobody is gonna bitch about them not being in Hi-Def 1080p super deluxe awesomeness (or at least, I’M not gonna CARE if they do. It’s like they taught Janis in Pre-school, “You get what you get, and you DON’T throw a fit.”) (Also, while I totally understand where you’re coming from and absolutely don’t question your position on this, I kinda wanna press the point just because I find the idea of “The Great Dave Sim Beaver Hunt” hilarious. I can see the online article headlines now: “Dave Sim Searches For Beaver!” “Dave Sim Wants Your Beavers! Only High Quality Images!” “Help Dave Sim Find Beaver!” Heh.)

D. 2. “Blight”? Okay. It was an idea. To paraphrase Groucho Marx: “These are my ideas, if you don’t like them I have others.”

“Welcome to the Jungle”? Wait, you DO know the next line in the song is “You’re gonna die!!!!” (okay, near the end of the song, but still…)

Paula, Janis, and Rocky all say, “Hi” (Well, not really. Paula’s at work, Janis is doing homework, and Natasha just says, “Phbbt.” and “credibles” (she’s into The Incredibles right now.))

I’ll put George on the list of helpers.

Thanks for the wishes, good luck with the Kickstarter,

Matt Dow

And now Dave Sim's response (via Sean R.) to the above:

17 November 17
Hi Matt!
I'd describe it as "less extreme" than Batman and Commissioner Gordon, but that's not a bad analogy: the Commissioner of Police working secretly with a masked vigilante is "not on" in any conventional real-world sense. And Dave Sim, non-feminist, is "not on" in our society as constituted. Which leaves you, as Commissioner Gordon, with an unenviable balancing act.
Which I don't participate in. I'm not a feminist and the 15 Impossible Things To Believe Before Breakfast are among the reasons why I'm not a feminist. Which, in 2017, makes me the metaphysical equivalent of a masked vigilante outlaw. And I'm as fine with that in 2017 as I've been with that since 1994; Completely fine;
It makes my life very straightforward. Everyone else is a feminist and I'm not and neither of those things is going to change in our lifetimes so there's really nothing more to be said.
All I really want to do is get STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND finished and A-V's entire history preserved. I'm assuming I die "in harness", the only question is "when". And then everything keeps going exactly as it's going now except I won't be here, Which leads to:
A greater AMOC emphasis under your editorial administration on "drive some money to A-V" would be nice. Not to the point of the PTL CLUB when that ship was sinking but a kind of on-going "reality check": this is really about one societal outlaw hoping to preserve 40 years -- and counting -- of his outlaw history and the history of his outlaw intellectual properties.
(It's not a "monument to myself'' as the naysayers on AMOC keep saying, it's the whole enchilada of the chrysalis I'm leaving behind when I blow this pop stand somewhere up ahead. "Me" is leaving. This is the "not me" I left behind. Anything in physical form in any way related to Dave Sim is all there in one tiny little Off-White House. Make of it what you will, future generations. I did the best I could to preserve it as close to intact as possible.)
As the old joke went, "don't applaud, throw money". Patreon, Kickstarter, the donation button at cerebusdownloads, cerebus downloads itself, going to the comic store the last Wednesday of every month and buying the new CEREBUS IN HELL? #1. It's been a completely unlikely fan-driven, fan-financed 40 years and that part never gets easier. We're within 1 ,400 copies of dropping to the sales of CEREBUS #1 in 1977.
Apart from that, the best advice I can give you is the advice the aliens gave to Woody Allen, "Tell funnier jokes."
Anything YOU can find ANYWHERE or someone else can find for you is "fair game" in Feeding The Daily Beast. I have never stopped anyone from publishing anything of mine and I can't picture a situation where I would. Since you know where all of the BLOG & MAIL is stored that makes it "fair game". Likewise THE BEAVERS: whatever you can find on your own or someone finds for you, you're welcome to print. 

Well, except without the links, I put those there...

And now, our intrepid Interim Editor responds to that:

Hi Dave,

Of course YOU would wanna be Batman...

(I kid. It's like the T-Shirt says, "Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then be Batman".)

Well, more money to A-V means more A-V, which means more A-V product available to me to shamelessly swipe and put on the internet, which (hopefully) leads to more money to A-V...(talk about your snake eating its own tail...) So, ya know: THAT'S the plan.

"Anything YOU can find ANYWHERE" is "fair game"? Really, anything? ANYTHING? Even that photo of you with my smiley-face umbrella doing "Gene Kelly" at SPACE that one time?

REALLY?!?

Dave Sim with my smiley-face umbrella doing "Gene Kelly" at SPACE that one time.

Heh.

Well, feel free to respond to this on the weekly update, or not at all. I'm pretty sure "deal with Matt Dow and his inanity" is on your "to-do" list right below, "restore The Beavers".

Take care,
Matt Dow
PS: I already posted this to AMOC with your response to my response to your last response (third base.)

Next time: Dave Sim responds! Or not. Or he does! Or doesn't. Ya know what, I don't know what happens next, and neither do you...

SNORT

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.

In last week's column, When Your Life Flashes Behind Your Back, we started looking at Dave Sim's 9th notebook pages for Mick and Keef from Cerebus #85. Skipping forward a few pages - that had very little to no Mick and Keef, we get to page 90 of the notebook.

Notebook #9, page 90

The entire  thumbnail doesn't appear to be a page from Cerebus #86, but the bottom panel looks like page one of Cerebus #86. The dialogue on the top of the page is from page 2 of issue #86.  The text along the bottom half of the page is Bunky Roach, Elrod that is, but isn't part of the issue. For instead of going from 'audio visual that is...' to 'well barbecue mah kneecaps an call me gimpy', Bunky roach goes into the Secret Sacred Wars.

On page 91 of the notebook, we see a couple scenes from issue #86: Keef inhaling the stash and also Mick with Cerebus on one leg and Keef being dragged by Mick on the other side.

Notebook #9, page 91

Cerebus #86, page 5 panel

Along the right of the page Dave wrote a quick synopsis of some points he wanted to touch upon in the issue. There is more Bunky Roach dialogue along the bottom of the page.

Weekly Update #209: OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!!!!!

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

Kickstarter ends 2 December!

AMOC amuck...Behind the scenes of your favorite blog...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled A Moment Of Cerebus to bring you...this:

Hi Everybody!

Your friendly neighborhood Interim Editor Matt here. It's supposed to be Margaret with a couple of pages from Dave Sim's notebooks (I BELIEVE it's the ones where Dave goes into intricate detail about Sir Gerrick and all the conspiracies and secret societies of Estarcion. Or his grocery list from Mid-April 1987, it's kind of a crap-shoot...)

Anyway, Dave asked me to post this. So I'ma doing it NOW. 

Cause I can...

"It's GOOD to be the King!"-Mel Brooks, History of the World, Part 1

When our esteemed Editor Emeritus Tim W. chose me to be his replacement, I sent Dave a fax to let him know what was up:

Dear Dave,

Hey how’s it going?

So, I don’t know if Tim W. has alerted you yet, but I guess I’m taking over A Moment Of Cerebus, as Interim Editor. (I refuse to be Editor-In-Chief as that sounds like too much responsibility.) Tim is going to become Editor Emeritus.

And the whole crap-shoot is gonna go down in flames (probably.)

Anyway, I’m sending you this fax to:

A.      Let you know what’s up.

B.      Let you object as strenuously as possible.

C.      Let you know my plans for AMOC. Which is basically to fill four days’ worth of posts a week (as Tim says you and Margaret and Sean Robinson take care of the other three.) Which I think I can handle between a series of “Cerebus in My Life” posts detailing my history with the character, the book, and you and Ger (strangely going back to 1982 when I was four…). "Hey, I know that Aardvark!" Showing Cerebus appearances in other books. (And hopefully, I can get the creators of those works to comment on why they used Cerebus.) "Kevin Reads Cerebus" my friend just got into the book big time, and he’s gonna blog issue by issue (he's been buying singles to get a run), which should run for three hundred weeks. And your answers to the “Five” questions we asked during the Great Cerebus Re-Read on the Yahoo group (L nny and Margaret said I could run those.)

D.      And to ask about a couple of ideas I had for AMOC. Two regular features for Sundays. 1. “Sunday Funnies” where I’d like to run The Beavers strips. Or 2. Dave’s Gospel commentaries. I’d need copies of both, if you think there’d be interest/value in running either.

So, that’s what’s up. I don’t know if Tim wants to announce the switch over yet or not (you’d have to check with him,) so I don’t know if you can talk about this on the Weekly Update or not. (I don’t even pretend that I’m in charge.) But if he does and you want to, I say, “go with it!” It’s not like I can stop ya.

Here’s to failing spectacularly upward!

Matt Dow

(I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into, but it’s either gonna be titanic or like the Titanic…)

And Dave responded (through Sean R.):

14 November 17 
Hi Matt:
I don't think the "whole crap-shoot is gonna go down in flames". The worst that happens is you have a short tenure as Interim Editor and "pass the baton" in a lot shorter a period of time than Tim W's six years. So, I recommend that you not stress about that.
A. Thanks for that courtesy on your part, although my own policy has always been to maintain an arm's-length relationship to AMOC. My political and social views are too much at variance with the general population for that, I think, to be otherwise. The closest analogy I can think of is President Trump and the New York Times. Like "Love and Marriage" " ... you can't have one without/the other".
B. So, no objection on my part. I think AMOC is Tim W's to dispose of as he wishes and if he's chosen you as his successor then I will respect that as I would imagine President Trump would respect any decision to change the editorial leadership at the New York Times.
C. All very good suggestions and I hope you'll follow through on them. They're also finite suggestions so I would warn you, personally, that a daily blog like this devours material like a California brush fire -- the name of the online news site, The Daily Beast, sums it up nicely. Ask TimW here at the end of his three hundred weeks and I'm sure he'll tell you that 300 weeks is a lot more like an eye blink and lot less like "forever" that it seems at the outset.
i. I had forgotten the Five Questions during the Re-Reads. I'm going to suggest that those be organized as post-mortem "Notes" for my successor as Aardvark-Vanaheim president in future CEREBUS ARCHIVE PORTFOLIOS after I'm dead.
ii. This illustrates the distinction between the AMOC editor and the· president of Aardvark-Vanaheim. A central concern of the latter is always going to be What can we sell to the core A-V readership in order to maintain Aardvark-Vanaheim in perpetuity? The central concern of the former is always going to be What can we use to feed The Daily Beast?
It would be very helpful -- speaking current president to current editor -- if some sort of "hidden Wiki" could be developed into which my observations, trade paperback by trade paperback, could be "dumped'', engineered in such a way that if the observations already exist on the site, the "dumper" is notified when they attempt a "dump" -- "We already have these" or "We didn't have these until you 'dumped' them, so thank you for that".
The prime source would be period letters and period introductions and period AARDVARK COMMENTS and Notes from the President.
If an inventory of this material could be made available that would mean that after my death the CEREBUS ARCHIVE PORTFOLIO series could continue with whatever-the-next-trade was that I would have been commenting on and instead of "the next ten pages in sequence" it could be "any ten pages that best relate to the Notes on hand". Making the job of my successor in the office of president that much easier.
iii) In terms of "feeding the Daily Beast", a snake eating its tail is always going to be the best solution so I would suggest AMOC's own history: begin reprinting the AMOC posts from the beginning on the -- I think, safe •• assumption that no one remembers 1/10th of them and none of them with any specificity. Which means each post effectively fulfills both its "then mandate" -- here"s an interesting Moment from the History of CEREBUS -- as well as a binary "now mandate" •• here"s an interesting Moment from the History of AMOC. Particularly if TimW is willing to comment from time to time about whatever he remembers going on when he did that post.
D 1. A couple of problems with running THE BEAVERS strips:
i) there's only 104 of them so that's two years and two years will go by in an eye blink and you have nothing to replace them with.
ii) they would require scanning and restoration by Sean and a parallel BEAVERS ART HUNT program trying to track down the original artwork 'and (the president of Aardvark-Vanaheim speaking here) there's no money in it Sean's aptitudes -- scanning, restoration and pre-press-· really need to be allocated to (in descending order of importance) a) CEREBUS IN HELL? b) STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND and c) other stuff with THE BEAVERS at or near the bottom of the list.
2. I'd be hesitant to run my Ton:ih/Gospel commentaries as a Sunday feature since I think commentaries  at the expense of Scripture is one of the great blights upon our worldwide civilization and I don't really want to contribute to that.
As an alternative, I could rustle up my readings of the Torah, starting from Genesis 1 and provide you with those. The question that raises is:
a) What is a sensible amount of Scripture for AMOC to run on any given Sunday? I originally did 10 chapters -- what I actually read in my own Sunday observance -- but that's up around two hours. A chapter? Ten verses? I think it would have to be along the lines of "A Moment" so it aligns with the spirit of AMOC and the modern attention span.
b) I would be willing to read and record John's Gospel and Revelation and Suras from the Koran if you want to do a "rotation" -- again, mirroring my own Sunday observance where I read the Torah in the morning, John's Gospel or Revelation at noon and the Koran at night. Rinse and repeat.
c) I think you would have determine how much this encroaches on the largely secular AMOC audience, But, that would be your call as Interim Editor to make: "this is the compromise position between representing Dave Sim and what I picture AMOC as being!'
Welcome to the jungle, Matt!
Best wishes to Paula, Janis Pearl and Bullwinkle.
PS: I had a phone message from George Gatsis, offering his services in running AMOC. I'd suggest that he would be a very good technical advisor for you -· here's what's POSSIBLE in the technical side of AMOC -- and a content provider and sounding board. But, just as there's only one president of Aardvark-Vanaheim at a time, there's only one AMOC editor at a time. I'm sure he'll be happy to give you his advice, as I'm happy to give you my advice, but at the end.of the day, the decisions are yours to make.
Good luck!

So, here we are.

Will Matt take Dave's advice? Will Matt just say, "F--- this noise! I'm Audi 5000!"? Will there even BE A Moment Of Cerebus this time next week?!? What the Heck does, "Audi 5000" EVEN mean?!?!?!?!?

Find out next time on SOA...er, when Dave responds to my response to his message...

(Probably some time next week...)

Ghastly Christmas Glamour

Sean Michael Robinson:

Well howdy everyone...

And a special greeting to new A Moment of Cerebus Editor-in-Chief/Wrangler/Domain Master/Legally-Responsible-Party Matt Dow! I for one can't thank you enough for stepping into the wide gulf left by founding AMOC blogger Tim W's departure. Truly, thanks to both of you for making this happen, and for such a quick and graceful hand-off.

Okay, to the business at hand!

I've spent most of my Cerebus-related work time the past two weeks on getting more Cerebus in Hell? issues in the can and in the solicitation queue, work that I'll continue once this post is complete...all the while pitching in just a bit on the ongoing FLIGHT Kickstarter.

Right before launch, Dave sent a fax to myself and fellow Cerebus in Hell? stevedore Benjamin Hobbs, detailing plans for, what else? A Christmas in Hell? card, to be completed in time for the Kickstarter launch.

I thought you all might enjoy a peek at the process, as it's pretty close to our work flow for Cerebus in Hell? For those of you wondering how the book gets put together, read on...

Here are the faxes for the exterior of the card, as they came through the fax machine. (I won't picture the interior of the card here, because, spoilers, eh?)

And Benjamin went to work! Here's what he sent me a day later:

The background of the image is a segment of the unbelievable Cerebus in Hell? crowd scene Benjamin created specifically for Cerebus Woman #1, coming soon(!) in, uh, May 2019. Dave also requested flames on the image, a la Cerebus in Hell? #1. After some back and forth, he clarified:

"Flames should be covering the line art. If you can do some Photoshop tricks to make them look like they're IN the flames, so much the better."

I started by grabbing a few images of all-encompassing flames from Google Images, knowing that the result would be so obliterated in the finished version that there would be no legal issues with working with someone else's photo. 

I popped one of the flames on top of the whole shebang and started playing with the different blending modes.

But because the line art is mono, the different blending modes that would normally be go-to for this kind of task were not really very useful. Just a bit of time later I settled on "Lighten" as the blending mode, with a lowered opacity.

Here's how it looks--

Well, isn't that lovely? I think what it loses in clarity, it makes up for with a certain... ghastly... Christmas glamour.

Or something!

Want a personalized Christmas Card in Hell? all of your own? Check out the FLIGHT Kickstarter, live right now!

No Vacancy...AMOC Editor-in-Chief -- Position filled!

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS
Matt Dow:

When Tim announced his egress from managing A Moment Of Cerebus, I threw my small metal helmet into the ring and said, "If nobody else steps up, I'll do it." Which was apparently all he needed to throw the keys at me and say, "Sure, sure that's fine." And jump into his 1956 Corvette and drive off into the sunset at high speed.

It was all a bit like the part in The Money Pit when Tom Hanks and Shelley Long buy the dilapidated house...

But I Digress...

Is somebody else's column. Anyway, I'm Matt Dow, the new Interim Editor of A Moment Of Cerebus. Tim's title has changed from Editor-In-Chief, to Editor Emeritus. And I'm supposed to be running this show...

So, 

All About Me:

I was born in the wagon of a travelin' show, Mama was a dancer for the money they'd throw, Papa would do whatever he could... Wait, that's somebody else.

I'm just a humble Cerebite who's gonna try and do my best to entertain you rabble with the best Cerebus/Dave Sim/Gerhard/glamourpuss/Judenhass/Strange Death of Alex Raymond/You Don't Know Jack!/Cerebus In Hell?/whatever related content I can find.

Yeehaw! are you excited or what?

Yeah? Well I didn't go looking for you guys...

So stay tuned for Really Exciting Things...about an Aardvark. Who's been dead since 2004. But has a new book coming out next month!

For Auction:

Matt Dow:

So awhile back, I set up an alert through Heritage Auctions about any Dave Sim related auctions they have. This is the latest one: 

Fantasy Quarterly #1 (Independent Publishers Syndicate, 1978) CGC NM+ 9.6 Off-white to white pages. First appearance of Elfquest. Wendy and Richard Pini story. Wendy Pini art. Backup story with art by Dave Sim. Overstreet 2017 NM- 9.2 value = $150. CGC census 11/17: 56 in 9.6, 49 higher. 

Link here
Bidding ends this Sunday, November 19th

Cerebus Archive Number 7: FLIGHT (issue #12)

Kickstarter Now Live!

CEREBUS No.162 (September, 1992)

FLIGHT issue #12

"Reality as we perceive it
is more of a product of our minds
than it is of our bodies, although
the physical seems to us more real
than the mental."

 ~ Dave Sim

IT FALLS TO CEREBUS FANS TO PRESERVE CEREBUS.

AND, WITH EACH PASSING DAY, THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER CEREBUS FANS.

YOU CAN ASSIST PRESERVATION BY PLEDGING OR DONATING ON KICKSTARTER.

CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER 7: FLIGHT

Kickstarter ends 2 December!

KICKSTARTER COMPLAINTS:

call Dave Sim at 519-576-0610

Cerebus Archive Number 7: FLIGHT (issue #11)

CEREBUS No.161 (August, 1992)

FLIGHT issue #11

"Bran Mak Mufin -- the tadpole
who feared becoming a frog. An astute
observation on Suenteus Po's part (although
I think his belief in successive transmigrations of
human souls was delusional)."

 ~ Dave Sim

IT FALLS TO CEREBUS FANS TO PRESERVE CEREBUS.

AND, WITH EACH PASSING DAY, THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER CEREBUS FANS.

YOU CAN ASSIST PRESERVATION BY PLEDGING OR DONATING ON KICKSTARTER.

CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER 7: FLIGHT

Kickstarter ends 2 December!

KICKSTARTER COMPLAINTS:

call Dave Sim at 519-576-0610

My Visit To Escape Pod Comics

ESCAPE POD COMICS

302 Main Street, Huntington, NY 11743

MICHAEL RAGIEL:

On Friday, September 29 I was able to visit Escape Pod Comics comics store for the first time. If it wasn't for Dave or Gerhard mentioning the store I would have never even thought about coming here. It also happened to be by chance. We live in Pennsylvania. My wife and I were going to a wedding in Huntington, Long Island, New York.

It was discussed that she would go shopping and I would go visit. It worked out perfectly. It was about 20 minutes from the hotel we were staying. When I arrived at the shop, I took a few photos outside and went in. I recognized Menachem immediately. I flubbed my introduction trying to explain who I was and why I came. I think he sorta recognized me. If you go to Gerhard's Blog and search at the end of April/May when Gerhard visited Escape Pod Comics and his trip to the East Coast Comic Con, I was the one with a beard with Gerhard.

The store is small and we walked around a couple of times focusing on the Cerebus wall. Even though the store is small, it is super packed and has something for everyone. Even children. It was hard for me to focus on everything. Menachem is extremely knowledgeable on all things comics, books of comics, creators of comics and even comic book stores. He knew about some of the comic book stores where I'm from in Pennsylvania.

Despite our pleasant and rapid conversations and me possibly interrupting Menachem constantly. Sorry Menachem. I don't always get a chance to speak with someone about Dave/Gerhard/Cerebus. Menachem did give me a brief history how Dave came became involved with Escape Pod comics.

I couldn't stay as long as I would have like, but I am grateful that I did have the opportunity to go. If anybody does get a chance to go, do it. You won’t be disappointed. There really is something for everyone.

Does your local comics store go that 'extra mile' to support Cerebus?

Get it featured on 'A Moment Of Cerebus' by sending your photos/text to:

momentofcerebus [at] gmail [dot] com

Help Drew Ford Save His Business!

Drew Ford's Go-Fund-Me Campaign

DREW FORD:

Please allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Drew Ford, and I publish comic books and graphic novels under an imprint I own called It's Alive!  Before starting my own business, I worked as an editor at another publisher for several years, where I brought to publication over forty graphic novel reprint collections, earning two Eisner Award nominations along the way.

A few months ago, I sent several international wire transfers to a printer outside the USA.  Initially, they told me everything was fine.  But recently, they told me they never received any money.  Obviously, I was in shock!  I immediately contacted my bank, who confirmed that the funds were sent and received months ago.  After taking a closer look, my bank believes the printer has nothing to do with this, and that it is their bank who "lost" my money.  I would replace the word "lost" with "stolen", but that's me.

Anyway, my bank has opened an official investigation, but has made it clear that I will probably not get my money back.

Sadly, without recouping at least a portion of these "lost" funds, I don't know if I can keep my business afloat.  I have several freelancers who need to be paid for current and upcoming projects, and of course the biggest bill will be the cost to print my books.

The amount I am asking for does not cover everything I lost, but it will go a long way to keeping me in business.  I don't expect to recoup everything I lost.  I am just looking for a little help to keep me going during this difficult time.

Thank you so much for your time.  All donations are greatly appreciated.

Drew Ford was the editor of the recent Puma Blues collection.

Vacancy -- AMOC Editor-in-Chief -- Apply Within!

Cerebus #300 (March 2004)

Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

TIM W:
(via fax, 8 November 2017)

Hi Dave. I appreciate that my timing isn't great given you are in the middle of the Kickstarter for Cerebus Archive 7, but I wanted to give you as much notice as possible of my decision to (reluctantly) wind down my involvement with 'A Moment Of Cerebus'.

I have really enjoyed working on AMOC over the last 6 years and I sincerely hope that it has helped in some small way to help promote Cerebus and your work, but... I'll be starting a new job soon. It's a big deal for me (promotion, more responsibility -- and stress!) and I really need to be focused on that 100%.

Could you give some thought as to what you would like to do with AMOC in the future?

One option is that you simply make AMOC your own official web-site and have Dave Fisher run it under your supervision. Alternatively, I could put out a request on the blog for another fan to take it over, but that route has obvious risks attached.

I'll keep the wheels on everything until after the Kickstarter campaign, but it would be good to hand AMOC over to somebody soon after that.

Be in no doubt that I will always have the deepest respect and admiration for your work and integrity.

Kind regards,

Tim

DAVE SIM:
(via fax, 8 November 2017)

Hi Tim. Congratulations on your new job!

I would suggest that you do a post to AMOC explaining what, exactly is involved in running the website. Be brutally honest about what the impact on your life has been. Has it gotten easier? Are there easier ways to do it? Are there pluses to it and what are they? What personality type is needed? See who's interested on that basis.

Fisher isn't a possibility right now with the volume of work needed to get the Cerebus Archive ready for when I'm dead and I want to maintain an arm's length relationship to AMOC. An official website leads to too many potential legal problems down the line and the impression that this is how you can get ahold of Dave Sim.

Let me know what you come up with and congratulations again!

Dave

AMOC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JOB SPECIFICATION

The Role:

Assuming the goal remains to provide daily AMOC content to promote awareness of "Cerebus", the main time-consuming challenge is being able to generate ideas and blog content for 4 days a week (Dave, Margaret and Sean currently provide the other 3 days content). Additionally, there is a need to 'own' the AMOC site (eg updating the right-hand side-bar every so often, quietly fixing errors in the background, adding links as necessary etc). Also, the associated Twitter feed takes a little work too if it's potential is to be maximised.

Skills Required:

While Blogger itself is pretty user-friendly, a beginner's knowledge of HTML code would be helpful. The ability to manipulate / optimise images for the web (via Photoshop, Fireworks or similar) is pretty essential. An ability to spell correctly, while helpful, is not essential I find (!).  Saint-like patience, good inter-personal skills and the ability to ignore emails without feeling guilty are all useful life skills which will be tested to the full.

The Ideal Candidate:

The position would ideally suit a borderline-obsessive personality type, looking to fill a void in their life.

Rewards:

None to speak of really (other than the satisfaction of "doing a good deed for Dave"). No fame. No fortune. It literally is 'a thankless job' where you are guaranteed to please pretty much nobody. It'll probably get harder over time as you alienate one-by-one the very fans it is designed for. You will soon begin to question your own sanity and regularly ponder how your life went so badly wrong.

Applications:

Interested candidates are invited to make their 'pitch' in the comments section below.

Weekly Update #208: How's Dave's Wrist & Other Questions...

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

Kickstarter ends 2 December!

Cerebus Archive Number 7: FLIGHT (issue #10)

Kickstarter Now Live!

CEREBUS No.160 (July, 1992)

FLIGHT issue #10

"Cerebus incarnates
above -- becoming the cause of -- and
the witness to -- the martyrdom of Archbishop
Posey. Some metaphysical chessboard squares are
more perilous and -- even for someone as terminally
dull-witted as Cerebus -- more sobering than others."

 ~ Dave Sim

IT FALLS TO CEREBUS FANS TO PRESERVE CEREBUS.

AND, WITH EACH PASSING DAY, THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER CEREBUS FANS.

YOU CAN ASSIST PRESERVATION BY PLEDGING OR DONATING ON KICKSTARTER.

CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER 7: FLIGHT

Kickstarter ends Saturday, 2nd December!

KICKSTARTER COMPLAINTS:

call Dave Sim at 519-576-0610

When Your Life Flashes Behind Your Back

MARGARET LISS:

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

The last time we looked at Dave Sim's ninth Cerebus notebook was in August of this year in Total Control.  There were 118 out of 200 pages scanned and the notebook covered Cerebus #80 through #86. We're looking at it this time because I saw a comment on a previous column on some notebook pages from Jimmy Gownley - yes, the creator of Amelia Rules! - who asked if there were any pages of Mick and Keef that we hadn't seen yet. Sorry it took me so long Jimmy - I must've missed your comment. So to make up for it, we'll be seeing some Mick and Keef stuff for the next few weeks.

So if there is something you are interested in seeing if it exists in the notebooks - let me know. The notebooks are broken down by issues, so let me know an issue number.

The Mick and Keef bits in the notebook start with some sketches of Mick on page 58. If anyone wants to see them, let me know, we're starting with page 80 of the notebook as it starts off with bits of the dialogue, character sketches and some thumbnails from Cerebus #85:

Notebook #9, page 80

The thing about this page that jumped out to me is in the top right hand corner. Some Mick dialogue "Ttat's lovely, really it is. Now would you moind lettin' gow of me..." But as you can see - part of it was crossed out. Dave originally wrote 'mind' and then changed it to 'moind' so we can hear the character's accent.

Then on the next page, we have more dialogue and some more thumbnails.

Notebook #9, page 81

The blue pencil along the top of the page says "when your life flashes behind your back" and "immaculate misconception". Not only do we get the blue pencil notes, but the usual pen and one line in pencil - "tike ole of it?"?

Cerebus Archive Number 7: FLIGHT (issue #9)

Kickstarter Now Live!

CEREBUS No.159 (June, 1992)

FLIGHT issue #9

"It was, for me, a personally monumental moment
in the creation of the 6,000-page graphic novel. K'cor, the Hermit
King of Imesh revisited: separated from his first appearance in issue 9
by 150 issues. It was now possible to encompass
half the totality of the project within the framework
of the contextual narrative timeline. Not
something easily explained or understood."

 ~ Dave Sim

IT FALLS TO CEREBUS FANS TO PRESERVE CEREBUS.

AND, WITH EACH PASSING DAY, THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER CEREBUS FANS.

YOU CAN ASSIST PRESERVATION BY PLEDGING OR DONATING ON KICKSTARTER.

CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER 7: FLIGHT

Kickstarter ends Saturday, 2nd December!

KICKSTARTER COMPLAINTS:

call Dave Sim at 519-576-0610

FLIGHT In the Wild

Sean Michael Robinson:

Greetings F.O.C.!

As you may have noticed, Cerebus Archive Number Seven, the Kickstarter for FLIGHT featuring the first ten pages from Flight that the Cerebus Archive still owns along with a 10,000 word illustrated essay by Dave, is live right now!

With that in mind, I thought I'd take a look at some of the original art for FLIGHT that I've seen up close and personal. Although neither Dave nor Gerhard have scanned their pages yet for the restoration effort, as A/V and Diamond still have copies of previous printings, we have received a few pages of original art from "In the Wild", not surprising considering Dave and Gerhard went on tour during the production of the book.

And despite the dour and blood-soaked tone of the first few issues of FLIGHT, the book seems to be a fan-favorite, perhaps owing to the parody elements and the return of several fan-favorite characters.

The Roach and Elrod both show up, contributing some of the same "everything but the kitchen sink" vibe as the early parts of Church and State II. Here's a look at a page from the collection of Michael Ragiel, a long-time Cerebus (and Cerebus Kickstarter!) supporter. You can see from the inscription at the bottom that he purchased it on the '92 tour in New York City.

And here's one of the most infamous (and eminently quotable) pages from FLIGHT, from the same sequence. 

Also from the same sequence, and possibly sold at the same tour stop-- a page from the collection of Dagon James. 

I don't know why this sequence cracks me up so much. Part of it is undoubtedly the lovingly-rendered postcards. The front card and Elrod's descriptions are hilarious, but the feet poking out from the back card push the gag over the edge for me.

Here's a page that's changed hands a few times. Thanks to both owners who've sent it in!

Interesting to see the consistencies and differences in the rendering from the cover we looked at last week.

Lastly, here's a page that was scanned by IDW during their Cerebus cover hunt for the "Cover Treasury" book, and kindly sent to me by Justin Eisinger.

Most of the pages we've looked at so far are in pretty good shape, as they make pretty minimal use of mechanical tone, and thus will require a lot less cleanup. But this page is suffering some from an aged PMT--photo mechanical transfer--which was stuck to the page by a generous heaping of rubber cement, which is now eating away at the page.

Hope to see you all soon on the Kickstarter page, where Dave has been conducting a Q + A with backers, via relayed faxes. Make your pledge and post your question now!