Wednesday 31 January 2018

Yoohwhoo and the Little Yoohwhoos

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 overview of all the notebook entries at AMoC, I asked for what you'd like to see. David B mentioned Dave's notes for the biblical commentary. One would think there would be tons of writing for Cerebus' biblical commentary which we saw starting with Cerebus #280 when Konigsberg arrived with the Books of Moshe. So much tiny type. Just going on and on and on.

 Notebook #36 is the one notebook that covers Cerebus #280 through 287 which are the issues that Cerebus torah commentary is in. Looking through that notebook, I think there was more writing in the notebooks for Reads then there was for all that tiny type in Latter Days.

For issue #280 there are some sketches of Konigsberg and some quotes. Then there is a blank page for issue #281 (all it has is the issue # box), and then on page 49 we see the first page with some of Cerebus' torah commentary for issue #282:

Notebook #36, page 49
Similar to other writing entries in the notebooks, Dave writes the text right below it and marks it up. Yoohwhoo!

There is another blank page for issue #283, and then for all of the remaining issues in Cerebus' reading of the Torah, all we get are either empty pages or the writing is for Konigsberg's diary. I know Dave has mentioned starting to read the bible for Rick's Story. In fact, looking at the notes for Latter Days at the back of that phonebook, starting on page 491, Dave talks about getting his first copy of the 1611 King James Bible for Rick's Story. I also remember something about Dave mentioning notebooks that he used for biblical commentary. It would seem that he must've kept those separate from the Cerebus notebooks.




Tuesday 30 January 2018

Tribute Art

Hi, Everybody!
So your pal and mine, Sean Robinson, sent a big ol' batch of links to momentofcerebus@gmail.com, And I'm gonna be running them as I want.

Like today!

Now everybody say, "Thanks Sean!" and enjoy:
In a rich man's world by Alrealea from over at Deviant Art
Thanks again Sean!

Next time: What's tomorrow, Wednesday? Margaret posts on Wednesdays. So something from Margaret...

Monday 29 January 2018

Pencils to Pixels: The Process of Comic Art. Modesto Junior College Gallery art exhibition.

Hi, Everybody!

Your buddy and mine, Carson Grubaugh sent in the following:

Here is video preview of a show we just mounted for the gallery at the school where I teach. Lots of Dave Sim work on view for our students!




Thanks Carson!

Next time: Something Cerebus or Cerebus related, I'm sure...

Sunday 28 January 2018

Reading Cerebus #6

Hey look kids! It's "READING CEREBUS" time!
Kevin Kimmes:
Welcome back to “Reading Cerebus”, a new (some-what) weekly column here at A Moment of Cerebus. The goal of this column is to bring a fresh perspective to the 300-issue saga of Cerebus as I read through the series for the first time and give my insights into the longest running independent comic book series of all time. Think of this as part book club, part lit-crit, and part pop culture musing. Oh, and they told me Dave Sim himself may be reading this, so I hope I don’t screw this up. Let’s continue.

Issue 6 - The Secret

What is "The Secret"? I'll never tell, it's a secret...
"This is the story of a girl 
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And while she looked so sad in photographs

I absolutely love her, when she smiles"

- Some band from the early 2000's

This week our tale opens with a dying man, a secret, and two boobs who want to know that secret (and I'm not talking about Jaka...yet.) As opposed to previous issues, this one drops us right in to the thick of things with no summary from Dave regarding what Cerebus has been up to since last we saw him. Instead, we meet E'lass and Turg The Unduly-Tall who are on the trail of the curly-haired dying man, only to discover that someone has gotten to him first. That someone, is Cerebus.

Upon seeing Cerebus and his small stature, E'lass sends Turg to find out what the curly-haired man told Cerebus, but, "Careful, though! He looks kind of fragile..." While E'lass mentally starts putting a supply list together, Turg get's his head handed to him by Cerebus. Since raw muscle didn't work, it's time to move on to a more nefarious plan: Drugging Cerebus.

E'lass orders ales for the three of them, dropping three pills into Cerebus' mug. The pills, we learn from E'lass' internal monologue, should make Cerebus a bit more suggestible.

Enter Jaka

Fully under the control of the pills, E'lass turns Cerebus' attention to the girl dancing in the bar, Jaka, and explains:

"Jaka is said to be the most beautiful woman east of the Sofim. Her hair is like white silk...her movements are cat-like..."
There are other panels in this issue, I think...Maybe.

This is all Cerebus needs to hear. He is entranced. He is, dare I say, in love? Well, if not, it is safe to say that he at minimum is fully focused on Jaka, so much so that when E'lass tries to regain his attention, he receives a tail to the gut for his troubles.

We soon get our first interaction between Cerebus and Jaka in which Cerebus makes it clear that he is quite enamored with her, offering to kill a yak for her supper. Finding this cute, Jaka kisses the Earth-Pig Born, who floats away with her, fully under her spell.

Trouble in Paradise

Things soon take a turn for the worse for E'lass and Turg as The Brothers of the Black Sun enter the tavern, apparently having tracked the two. Realizing time is short, E'lass makes another attempt of prying Cerebus away from Jaka, resulting in a full blown bar brawl instead.

Cerebus could care less about the fight, until he inquires about Jaka's whereabouts from one of the participants, who calls her a whore and get's his ass thoroughly handed to him for his transgressions. 
People who're hit with chairs REALLY should have the good manners to fall down...
Never mess with an Earth-Pig born in love...

Meanwhile, a very battered E'lass has located Jaka and has threatened to make sure she never dances again if she doesn't get the information he is after from Cerebus.

Apricot Brandy

As Jaka attempts to get the information out of Cerebus, Cerebus has other things on his mind.

"Cerebus loves the little freckle on your elbow."
"I'd love to lick apricot brandy out of your navel..."
"If Cerebus had a navel would you lick apricot brandy out of it?" (The answer here should always be "NO" as we all know what a stink a wet Cerebus can be.)

Finding out that E'lass threatened to kill Jaka, Cerebus makes a direct trip to him and Turg, putting E'lass' head through that wall and warning in no uncertain terms, "And that's only a sample of what you'll get if you threaten Jaka again!"

Having found out about the gold in the Temple of the Sun from E'lass, and combining this with the information that he received from the dying man, Cerebus is now convinced that he knows the exact location of the treasure. He hatches a plan to make both him and Jaka rich beyond their wildest dreams, that is if she agrees to join him, which she does.
It's called foreshadowing kids...


All Good Things Come To An End

As Cerebus goes off for supplies, the pills wear off leaving him confused as to why he is looking at cloth when he has money for ale. Meanwhile, E'lass and Turg decide to find Jaka and deliver on their earlier promise, only to run afoul of The Brothers of the Black Sun.

When Cerebus and Jaka finally reunite, Cerebus has no recollection of who she is or what has previously transpired. Heartbroken, Jaka gives Cerebus a bottle of apricot brandy and tells him, "Some day...some day sweet Cerebus, you will remember why...and you will return. And Jaka will wait for that day, beloved. Even if it takes the rest of her life!"

And that, good reader, sounds a lot like foreshadowing!

Join me back here next week as we look at Issue 7: “Black Sun Rising”.

Currently Listening To: "Must've Been High" by The Supersuckers

Kevin Kimmes is a lifelong comic book reader, sometime comic book artist, and recent Cerebus convert. He can be found slinging comics at the center of the Multiverse, aka House of Heroes in Oshkosh, WI.
issue 7

Saturday 27 January 2018

Cerebus VS SDOAR VS YDKJ Comission

CARSON GRUBAUGH:

Cerebus original-art super-collector, and saintly patron of all kinds of great Gerhard work, including the World Without Cerebus series, Brian Coppola, reached out to me recently to commission a very interesting piece.

Brian's initial idea was:

"What I am thinking is a meta-perspective. It seems from what
I can see that there is a lot of activity around a comics
shop venue in which SDOAR figures as a comic book; one of
my favorite set of pages in the entire Cerebus story is
just at the end of Minds, issue 200, where Dave and Ger
are drawing at their boards, and that really truly
incredible sense of the story progressing in one
dimension and being captured by the artists.
It's really the most damned clever thing I think I have
ever seen depicted.

Think about 2 pp where these pages are being drawn and
the decision to not end Cerebus with #200, and some
connection to the sale/storage of the comic in a shop,
and/or the creation or imagining of SDOAR... I'm pretty
keen on seeing your interpretation of the Cerebus character,
and Dave, and Ger, even if in passing."

"Okay, have Jack reading those two pages and uhh, we will see...," was about all I knew I was going to do prior to cutting and pasting the images together in Photoshop for a mock-up. The way the overarching themes from all three projects fell into a seamless narrative with all kinds of symbolic resonances was wild. It all suggested itself as I went. The" CARunch" lining up right over the only place I could put the SDOAR logo literally sent a chill down my spine.


22" x 17" ink on Bristol board over blue-line print.

The real technical killer was recreating the look of the Letratone dot-pattern on Cerebus and the splatter effect on the cover by hand. Yowza!

Much thanks to Brian for the patronage and the absolutely killer inspiration. Hope you all enjoy.

More here: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1448220

Friday 26 January 2018

Love and Aardvarks, World's Finite Cerebus: Order Now!





JAN181085
(W) Dave Sim, Sandeep Atwal (A) Dave Sim, Gustave Dore (CA) Sandeep Atwal
Can Batvark, Homophobe, be coerced into have a boy sidekick like on the cover? Spoiler Warning: No. Features Super-Cerebus, Batvark and...Vark-Mite? (or whatever the kid's name is); Trick or Treat; Psychosomatic (1863); Cerebus' Self-Help Book; Cyclothymia (1923); Product Placement; Maxwell and Mortimer's Covers Band; "The Cerebus Foundation" and more!
In Shops: Mar 28, 2018
SRP: $4.00
Order now from your local comic book store!
 FEB180955
(W) Dave Sim, Sandeep Atwal (A) Dave Sim, Gustave Dore (CA) Lee Thacker
Jingles' 10 CGC-graded copies of Love & Rockets No. 21; if only Cerebus had married Maggie and Hopey; Jerusalem Crickets and The Crazy Catholics Hallelujah Chorus; An Ox's Nard;  Cerebus develops "Cerebus Go"; God vs. Tarim; Philosophers on Jesus' teachings; "Aardvark Amuck"; Epic-length "Satan the Closeted Gilbert & Sullivan Fan";  Infernal Realms Police Training; John Lennon in Hell?;  Drinking in Hell;  Infernal Intercontinental Wrestling Title.
In Shops: Apr 25, 2018
SRP: $4.00

Order now from your local comic book store!

Next month??!


The Truth Is Out There... par avion. (Dave's Weekly Update #219)

Hi, Everybody!

(I hope I'm not "telling tales out of school," but apparently Dave Fisher is in New Zealand returning the One Ring to the fires of Mount Doom. He told me he has to hike an hour, one way, to post the weekly update, in the scorching summer heat. So from all of us, Thank You Mr. Fisher! Hopefully he'll be back into the frigid cold next week. Anyway,)

Heeeeeere's Dave:



Wednesday 24 January 2018

Dave Sim's Notebooks: The Post Listing

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.

Here is an overview of the notebook posts done so far. If there is something from the notebooks that you'd like to see, mention it in the comments.

Preview of the Trailer for Strange Death of Alex Raymond.... Coming Soon!

Sean Michael Robinson:

Howdy everyone!

As I wrote last week, this will be the last month I'll be doing these posts as regular updates. I'll still be doing the Cerebus restoration project (currently collecting scans for Form & Void!), still doing the prepress and digital lettering for Strange Death of Alex Raymond, and You Don't Know Jack! and I'm sure many other A/V projects, but attempting to pass off the regular monthly deadlines (Cerebus in Hell? , these posts, working with Diamond) to other capable hands.

Next week's final post will be an addendum to my Paper to Pixel to Paper Again series, addressing working with color artwork. (Special thanks to Damian Lloyd for suggesting the topic, one I'd completely forgotten I'd promised to write about a year or so ago!) And I might pop in from time to time to share a post or two about a new book, or something that's been on my mind.

But! For this post. What I spent the last week putting together!

A Movie Trailer for a Comic Book

At the end of December I received a series of scans from Alfonso Espinosa, head of Studiocomix. The scans were a complete eight-page preview of SDOAR , put together by Dave with quick-cuts and headers, movie-trailer-style, using his all-in-one fax machine/photocopier, scissors, and a whole lotta glue.

 The files also included several scans of various additional elements that would be needed to put the pages together, including this impressive revised logo.


Lastly, there were copious notes as to how to actually put the things together, using the SDOAR scans I'd recently received.

Here's the second completed page, below...
For the most part I hewed close to the template, only deviating in a few places where I thought some unobtrusive bits of Photoshop fiddling could improve on the cut-and-paste original. For instance, the splash under the tires, especially where it interacts with Raymond's head in the lower panel. Changing the narration so that it followed (or close to it, anyway) the implied vanishing point of the card and speed lines. 


And many many many hours later, the preview is done, ready for the next stage of the Strange Death of Alex Raymond roll-out. So in a scant few months (cross your fingers!) you'll be able to see the trailer in print, and get an inkling of what the fuss is about.

(By the way, if this strikes you as an unusual way to put together a comics page, just wait till you get a load of You Don't Know Jack!)

Next week: Paper to Pixel to Paper Again... in Living Colo(u)r!

Tuesday 23 January 2018

The Death Of Alex Raymond... Or Was It Suicide?

Hi, Everybody,

So Tim found this too:


Hogan's Alley #3 (1996)

I have a bunch of Arlen's stuff that Jeff Seiler gave me around here somewhere...

Next time: I dunno. Tune in then and find out...

Monday 22 January 2018

Dave Sim's "Declaration Of Independence"

Hi, Everybody!

Look what Tim found:

The Comics Journal #105 (February 1986)

Next time: What did Tim find in the couch cushions?

Sunday 21 January 2018

Update from Dave

Hi. Everybody!

Reading Cerebus is on a hiatus until Kevin's computer stops being such a little bitch.

So what do I got for you today?

More remembrances of my early life with Cerebus?
What? Why not?
A link from Sean R.?
Really? No?

I know, an update from Dave about the pricing on future Kickstarters?
Oh, okay then...

So I sent Dave a fax wherein I included all the comments from this week's update about future Kickstarters. And Dave responded, thusly:
I faxed him about a number of topics, Kickstarter was #3.
And now you know.

The Cerebus Archive Kickstarters started at $8 a page for ten pages. That price didn't include the cost of the notes page. Which has expanded with every new Archive. And the price has stayed the same for four years.

Well, sound off in the comments, and I'll forward them to Dave.

Next time: Wanna hear what Dave said about your wife?

Saturday 20 January 2018

Cerebus in Matt's Life: Part the Third

Hi, Everybody!

We now continue the bold saga of how Interim-Editor Matt Dow came to know Cerebus The Aardvark... um...ya know, not biblically, or anything weird like that...(for that kinda thing, see Cerebus in Jeff Seiler's Life... If. You. Dare!!!)

When last we left young Matt, it was May, 1993.

And now we flip the switch on the Wayback Machine, and travel the Circuits of Time all the way to...January 1993.

Young Matt had started to groove on Spawn and Wizard Magazine.

Wizard, the Guide To Comics, had run a number of bits about Cerebus and his creator, Dave Sim.

(I remember at one point, Wizard had instituted a "this month in comics" feature on their last page. One December it was about the first issue of Cerebus in 1977. Dave told the story of him and Gene Day at Gene's studio. Dave drawing Cerebus #1, and Gene doing a story called "Days of Future Past" (no, not the X-Men one...). Both with horrific head colds. And they ended up back to back at their drawing tables, with a thirty gallon garbage can between them and they just kept drawing and filling the can with kleenex... Wish I still had that issue of Wizard...)

AND, in the January 1993 issue (#29) Wizard did a year in review. And part of their review, was a preview of the far flung future of 2003 (dun Dun DUN!)

Wait for it...
See? Right there? Ya see it right?

This becomes important much later in Matt's life.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Gee Matt, every episode of Scooby-Doo IS exactly the same. How DID it manage to last for so long?" 

Wha? You're NOT thinking that? 

Weirdos...

Anyway, it's a funny article. Funny, because as WE ALL KNOW, Cerebus DIDN'T end in 2003. It ended in March, 2004. And Cerebus didn't have a brother. 

But it planted a seed in Young Matt's little brain that grew into...(see Cerebus in Matt's Life: Part the Sixth(?), you'll see...)

Anyway, anyway, a few years later (I wanna say...199...8?), Matt's good friend, Nick AKA: The Comic Book Man (so called because he lends Matt comics by the foot. Seriously, by the foot. At one point, he lent Matt three feet of comics,) lent Matt the first five volumes of Cerebus.

And Matt read them all in a day and a half, returned them and said, "those were neat, got anymore?"

And Lo, the Comic Book Man haveth not more Cerebus, and Matt hadth to buyith his own Cerebusth, uh, Cerebus.

Yeah, and then Matt started to buy the monthly book.

And there was much rejoicing!

Next time: Matt Meets Dave! (And Ger!!!) WHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTT!?!?!?!?!?!?!


Wednesday 17 January 2018

Fascination with Gore

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

We looked at pages 1 through 5 of Dave Sim's notebook #30 just last week in Seemingly Lead a Charmed Life. It is the notebook of what Dave would say to Cerebus in Minds.

I figured we'd start back up with pages 6 & 7:

Notebook 30 pages 6 & 7
Notebook 30 pages 8 & 9

Notebook 30 pages 10 & 11
The dialogue doesn't appear to be used in Minds, not at least that I can see.  Dave talking about what a creator does to his creation.