If you don’t follow my twitter feed you’ve might have miss these:

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CerebusTV is on summer hiatus, but Dave Sim did a quick skit of voices: Lord Julius and Cerebus the most notable. It is just an audio file, but pretty fun to listen to (watch out though, it starts automatically and there are no volume controls for the segment so have your speak volume controls handy):

http://cerebustv.com/audio/SimCerebus.html

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No compare that Cerebus with this Cerebus voice. The Cerebus Animated film crew has gotten their voice for Cerebus, played by John DiCrosta (who played the Doctor in the 2nd Transformers movie):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsydjgpvTuE

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Cerebus has been making a guest appearance in the webcomic Weird Crime Theater. Cerebus is being drawn by Dave for the webcomic, and Cerebus is sporting a smoking jacket and a large pipe. I don’t know if Dave is doing the writing for Cerebus (though it looks like he is lettering the writing), but it is pretty fun stuff. Cerebus is due to appear in three days worth of comics. Here is Day One, Day Two and day three should be Monday.

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Have you been to the CerebusWiki lately? Thanks to Gilgamesh, a lot of updating is being done. . .he even inspired me to reread Minds and update the issue summaries for that phonebook. We even put this picture up for issue 4:

Thanks to the eagle eye of a Cerebus Yahoo!Group member (hi ekhanna!) who pointed out that a character in issue 4 looked a lot like Dave. So I dug out that picture of Dave from 1982 and put the panel with the character on top. They do look similar. . .

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I got this sweet piece of Bob Burden art of an ashcan edition of Cerebus #104 guest starring Bob’s creation Flaming Carrot:

Always interesting to see Cerebus as drawn by other artists.

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Over at the Cerebus the Original Aartvark blog, Brian has been showcasing the Six Deadly Sins portfolio, as colored by Gerhard! Originally Dave drew the Six Deadly Sins of Cerebus portfolio back in 1981, it was the first Cerebus portfolio to be issued, back before Gerhard was part of Cerebus. You can also read more about t he portfolio (along with the First Fifth portfolio) here on the Beguiling comicbook store website)

So the biggest news out there is that there is an expanded edition, a revision of the 1997 version, Cerebus Guide to Self Publishing. Dave included all the stuff from the 1997 edition, and expanded upon those bits and also added new sections, i.e. Part Five Print on Demand, Web Comics, etc. For $18 you get the standard cover edition with 120 pages of Dave’s thoughts on self publishing. There is an alternate cover, no change to the contents inside, but the cover looks pretty cool, it is the top one in the picture below:

The standard cover is the bottom one in the above picture. The alternate cover edition is $25 from what I can find on line. The regular cover can be purchased via CerebusTV here, or both covers can be purchased via MyComicShop.com here.

Cerebus Archive #8 came out on the first of July and can be purchased from ComiXpress for $4 plus shipping. Be advised that Dave and ComiXpress are doing something different with Cerebus Archive’s covers starting this month. So all you collectors out there that must have one of every cover be forewarned: there are three different covers. Well, the covers are the same but the three letters in the issue number box are different:

So on the first day of the comic being offered for sale, July 1st, anyone purchasing the comic would get the cover with FDC for “First Day Comic”. If one purchases the comic any time in July, the month of release, they will get the text “JUN” (Yeah, don’t ask me, I thought that was for June too). Anyone ordering the comic being August 1 will get the POD, print on demand, text. Nothing else is different about these covers. A nice way to get two times more money from the dedicated Cerebus fan one would think – though I did get a slight discount for getting all three covers in a special package deal on July 1st: $9.25 for the three issues, as opposed to the standard $4 per issue.

This particular issue wasn’t as good as the all of the rest of the issues – mostly because it reprints in its entirity the Oktoberfest comic that Dave did with Gene Day for Harry of Now & Then Comics. I didn’t enjoy reading that when I originally won a copy off eBay, and I sure didn’t read it a second time. Dave does annotate it as he does with the other issues of Cerebus Archive, but it was still slow going for this Cerebus fangirl as Dave’s annotations this issue are scarce compared to past issues and the material he has to talk about doesn’t help at all.

Another Dave Sim item that is sure to be a rarity is a small interview with him in Comicgate magazine #5 now on sale. The magazine is a German magazine, but if you use the contact form and ask about shipping to the USA they will get back to you (they did for me). You can get more information on the issue at this link.

There was also an announcement via the Superpouvoir website that High Society is being translated to French and will be released August 2010 for 35 Euro. It will be a softcover unlike the Pontent Mon’s Spanish translation which was a hardcover. 35 Euro seems pretty pricey for a softcover of High Society, which is $30 for the English edition. So converted into US dollars using today’s conversion rate, the French volume of High Society will be $45.69. Yoinks!

As always, I save all these links to my del.icio.us account using the Cerebus tag, you can see it and grab an RSS feed here.

According to the Strange Adventure’s twitter feed, it looks like Dave Sim will be appearing at their store on September 24, 2010:

just got off the phone (an old communication device) with Dave Sim. Mark your calendars, Dave’s coming to Halifax Friday, Sept. 24th

I’m sure as we get more details, you’ll be able to find them either on the twitter feed or at their website: http://www.strangeadventures.com/

So recently CerebusTV had on their auction section Cerebus head sketches by none other than, you guess it, Dave Sim. Since they were only $25 (!), I had to get one. I asked Dave for Cerebus as a hockey player:

A bit later, CerebusTV once again was offering Cerebus head sketches by Dave for $25 – again with shipping included – so I got a Cerebus as Nerd:

As I said, these sketches included shipping – they came in a large envelope with a couple comic book backing sleeves and Dave’s lettering on the enevelope: “Please do not bend of fold! Thanks!” And amazing enough, no bends or folds – near mint condition as the kids would say. The sketches were done on the new Aardvark-Vanaheim stationary in ball point pen. I don’t know which I like better. . .Nerdy Cerebus or Hockey playing Cerebus. . .

So a while back Dave gave his permission for Spanish, French and Italian translations of CEREBUS. The Spanish translation by Ponent Mon’s Andres Moon of HIGH SOCIETY is the first one to be published. ALTA SOCIEDAD will be a hardcover edition with the Ponent Mon name on the front, side and the ISBN on the back being the only other distinguishing marks on the cover:

The Spanish edition is a slightly bit smaller then the English edition, but neither the cover art nor the interior art lacks for this. The book holds true to the fonts used, and where the artwork was touched up for the lettering, it appears seamless. I don’t speak Spanish good enough to read ALTA SOCIEDAD, but it appears to be a beautiful book that is worth the 30 Euros being charged for it. Heck, I’d paid $30 for a hardcover of the English edition. When asked about the hardcover vs softcover, Dave stated that the book being in hardcover was Ponent Mon’s decision, not his, as he prefers the softcover “phonebooks”.

The bookmark is a special item given out to the comic book stores in Spain / Europe – not really an incentive, more like a promo item. I was told by several that it was limited to 100 bookmarks. The one I have is #8 of 99 signed by Dave Sim.

So a Cerebus fan out there is putting together a book on CEREBUS,  Dave Sim and Gerhard and he is asking for submissions:

CEREBUS / DAVE SIM BOOK – DEADLINE 30 NOVEMBER 2010

full name / name of organization: Eric Hoffman

contact email: lily_anselm@yahoo.com

cfp categories:

cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches

gender_studies_and_sexuality

journals_and_collections_of_essays

popular_culture

religion theory

twentieth_century_and_beyond

DEADLINE: November 30, 2010

Call for papers for a collection of critical essays on various aspects of or approaches to Dave Sim’s comic book Cerebus, both a scholarly and popular, though coherent, companion
(and introduction) to the series.

Any subject matter is welcome, so long as it pertains to Dave Sim and/or Cerebus.

Some recommendations of subjects that in which I am most interested:

Discussion of 1970′s comics scene in which Dave first started to contribute together with a discussion of the various influences on Cerebus (Howard the Duck, Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja)

Cerebus as satire of the comics medium (The Roach, “reads,” etc)

Cerebus as social satire (political and religious satire)

The shift in tone from earlier and later Cerebus as a result of Dave’s conversion

The influence of Cerebus on the comics industry

Cerebus and the graphic “Novel”

Dave Sim as self-publisher and his feud with Gary Groth and the Comics Journal

Dave Sim and the CBLDF

Comics fandom and Aardvark Comment (& the Yahoo Group)

Narrative structure in Cerebus

“Mind Games”

“Something Fell” (Yes, I know Craig Miller wrote something on this in “Following”)

Dave Sim as magpie (Barry Windsor-Smith, Mort Drucker, etcetera)

Gerhard’s impact on Cerebus

Sim’s use of literary characters (Wilde, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc)

Sim’s use of public personas (Elrod, Mick and Keef, Lord Julius, Konigsberg, The
3 Stooges, etc)

Meta-narrative in Cerebus (Viktor Davis/Reid in Reads, Sim in Minds and Guys)

Cerebus and Religion (both pre-and post-conversion)

Cerebus as a critique of feminism

Gender issues in Cerebus (male/female light/void, he/she/it, YHWH, God, “Tangent,” “10 Impossible Things,” etc)

Any suggestions this group might have about other forums that might be useful in soliciting submissions would be most appreciated. I would also be grateful forthe names and contact information of any potential contributors. And I welcome any suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your kind attention to this matter.

Respectfully yours,
Eric Hoffman

Along with the latest issue of Cerebus Archive from ComiXpress and the latest issue of glamourpuss that came out last week (#11 for those keeping track), Dave has also done a few other side projects:

Ultimate Lost Kisses #11 from Silber Media, written by Brian John Mitchell with art by Dave Sim. This is a micro comic, pretty tiny as you can see:

Dave did a series of pictures, of which he used different pieces from for the comic:

The story itself is very engaging, a tale of loss and forgiveness. It leaves you feeling a bit queasy and angry. Pretty amazing for a comic that is almost as small as a quarter and has single panels and a line of text under it on every page. The micro-mini comic is only $1 from the above link.

Dave did the cover to Rob Imes’ Ditkomania #77:

Ditkomania is the fanzine about all things Steve Ditko.  This issue covers Steve’s independent creator owned work, so it is quite appropriate the Dave Sim did the cover for it. The issue is only $1.50 plus shipping from the link above.

So this year marks the 9th annual Cerebus Yahoo!Group’s get together at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (aka SPACE) in Columbus, Ohio this April 24th and 25th.  The first year it was just Tony P and myself and it grew and grew. Always a great time to get together with other Cerebus fans. We’ve been doing “Cerebus Live!” readings for the past couple of years. Dave Sim did it first at a TCAF (Toronto Comics Art Festival). So the next year at SPACE we did and have been doing it since. To me, when I hear Cerebus, I hear Jeff:

Remember that scene in Guys were Cerebus is talking to himselves? Jeff did an amazing job of it a year back or so, skip to the 9 minute 10 second mark:

You can go to Jeff’s YouTube page and find all of the Cerebus Live! performances the group members did. Dave Sim even a couple of them with us, performing as Lord Julius.  If you’re a fan of Cerebus, feel free to join up with us. We’ll have a table there  for Friends of Cerebus, so come check us out!

From a fax from Dave Sim to Rick, originally posted at the Cerebus Yahoo!Group:

Hi Rick: Nice to hear from you and thanks for the compliments.

I think the answer to the complaints is: go to cerebustv.com and watch some of
it. If you don’t like it, it’s probably not your thing but you should know that
inside of about two minutes or so.

If you do like it — if it is your thing – then keep watching for as long as
you can and come back whenever you have a few minutes.

Once you’re caught up – and I think there’s about nine hours of content there –
then just make a point of checking it between Friday at 10 pm and Sunday at 3 am
(ET) for the new episode.

See: I think you have to separate it into two groups. The casual, only vaguely
interested at best people. For them: Hey! Here’s nine hours of content on
different aspects of comics. Check in from time to time and watch a segment.
When the segment’s over, do something else. If you check once a week and watch
15 minutes, say, at the rate we’re adding new content you’ll never run out of
content and the odds will be in favour that every time you “tune in” you’ll see
something you haven’t seen before.

For those who get “hooked”: put aside a larger block of time. An hour or two
hours, as you would going to see a movie. You have to go when the movie starts
and stay until it’s done. And it costs you money. This doesn’t. If you don’t
want to watch some stuff you’ve already seen to get to what you haven’t seen,
well, then you’re not “hooked”. So go back to plan A.

But if you do watch one to two hour blocks, right now you can be caught up in
two or three days just watching in the evening.

I appreciate that internet people WANT content NOW and they WANT absolute
control over that content.

Right now I’m losing money on CEREBUS TV, so I’m not really concerned with what
people WANT. What I’m concerned about is making it function. I would say we’re
about 20% of the way there in making it function. Once we’re at 100%
functional, then I can start looking at how to make it work…that is, how to make
it commercially viable. That might be a month from now or it might be two years
from now. All of the problems we’ve had have resulted from setting arbitrary
deadlines for things we didn’t know how to do, yet. So, now we don’t have any
deadlines. I repeat: we’re working on making it function (and to keep everyone
from killing each other behind the scenes).

It would be nice if there were more donations. Even if you are an absolute
Internet Totalitarian about Free Content, I would hope you could maybe afford to
pay, say, $1.00. Or, if you really, really, really like what we’re doing, go
Completely Rogue and contribute $2.00. Use a pseudonym so no one knows it’s you
breaking ranks.

Feel free to circulate this. I have to get back to making my additions to THE
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING.

– Dave Sim, January 14, 2010

So the word from Dave Sim on last Friday’s episode of CerebusTV, is that as of Monday, October 26 (tomorrow!), Cerebus Archive will not be carried by Diamond Distributors due to Diamond’s recent requirements change, but it, along with back issues of glamourpuss will be offered through the P.O.D. publisher, ComiXpress.

Yup, you heard right – the new issue of Cerebus Archive, issue #4:

Will be offered tomorrow at ComiXpress. I’m hoping they have the zombie variant cover, a homage to issue #4 of Cerebus:

For more promo pictures of Cerebus Archive click here.