Time for another one from The Fifty - Dave Sim Mars Attacks variant cover featuring Cerebus

Dave Sim Mars Attacks variant cover

I really love this piece.

But Dave Sim has gone nuts. No, I am not talking about his mental state, which seems to me to be just fine. I am referring to his penchant for the brush and jar of ink of late. Dave Sim wants to draw like Alex Raymond and is doing his best to learn how to do so. It seems a truly maddening pursuit, even for one as talented and accomplished as Dave Sim. He was documenting the process in one half, the more accepted half, of his groovy comic Glamourpuss. Glamourpuss only ran about 33 issues (that is off the top of my head, but I think I have about 33 issues) and was a beautiful book. I never completely warmed to some of the model shots myself; I always disliked the faces (even though Dave encouraged this with his model's facial expressions) while I loved the fashion. The fact that the model/fashion part of the book suffered was only in relation to the strength of the history of photo-realism comic style half of Glamourpuss, which was fascinating to this reader at least. I ate it up.

But then Glamourpuss ended.  Dave has since entered into a deal which requires re-working some of the Glamourpuss stuff into The Strange Death of Alex Raymond. Or at least it started out that way, even if he may have had to re-draw it all anyway. In any event it has apparently gotten complicated and proven to be a lot of work for Dave, and is far from ready for print. Which means it is far from ready from producing significant revenue for said Mr. Sim. Which brings us to the cover pictured above, auctioned at Heritage, and purchased by yours truly. See Dave needed capital, and IDW and Ted Adams proved smart enough to get some work out of him at that point in time. No surprise there as IDW is just killing it publishing wise in my opinion. The first, and perhaps best, of this arrangement was this Cerebus Attacks cover, a variant for Mars Attacks which had something like 20 variants for some sort of celebration/promotion.

Look at that thing closely. The degrees of depth conveyed from the front of the figure though the destroyed portion to the back of the figure and beyond is masterful. Its' Homeric is what it is. Homeric.

Dave Sim, welcome to my permanent collection. Welcome to The Fifty. This makes 19 pieces revealed. We're getting there, and that is a bit scary. Comiclink has about 40 pieces of mine coming off in the next few auctions. I was deleting them from my CAF today and was wondering what the fuck I am thinking. I was so happy getting some of these pieces over the last 20 years. But in the immortal words of Robin Harris...if you gotta go, you gotta go. This is getting real, real quick.

Also, I think I am re-arranging the list a bit. Somethings seemed out of place, perhaps ranked more out of perceived importance rather than pure unadulterated love. This may change again, but today the list looks like this.

The Fifty
1  BWS Storyteller Young Gods page 4
2  Tony Harris / Ray Snyder Dr. Strange WIRED Magazine cover
3  BWS Weapon X page
4  JHW3 Milestone Forever pinup

5  Simon Bisley Dr. Strange vs The Mindless Ones
6  Paul Smith Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom
7  Dave Sim Mars Attacks variant cover
8  Gene Colan / Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula 44 page 1 splash
9  Dan Green Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa splash
10  Tony Harris 1994 Starman pinup
11 Bill Sienkiewicz Superman 400 pinup recreation

12  Ted McKeever Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom in Hell  

13  Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman

14  Dan Adkins Dr Strange 170 page 11

15 JH Williams 3rd / Mick Gray Promethea 24 double page spread

16  Rudy Nebres - Dr. Strange, Dracula & The Scarlet Witch
17  Anna Merli Clea
18  Mitchell Bretweiser Dr. Strange watercolor
19  Jae Lee Dr. Strange

New Art Day - Dave Sim Mars Attacks Cerebus variant cover

I had a lot of fun going to the Heritage auction in NYC (Central Park West, ooh lala!) and one of the reasons it was so enjoyable was that Dave Sim was there. Say what you will, and most older comic fans have something to say about Dave one way or the other, but I have always enjoyed Dave Sim's work. I loved Cerebus and started reading it in the 70s or so.  And it was an important part of my courtship of a lovely young college thang, the mater familias missus fedres420. We even went to Washington D.C. and then NYC in 1992 to buy Cerebus pages and see Dave and Gerhard. So seeing Dave at the heritage auction was fun, and he gave me a nice Cerebus head sketch at one point.

Dave was there because Heritage was selling some Cerebus pages, 10 I think, from his personal stash. Dave's lots were among the very last of the auction and as we sat in the small auction room I engaged in cautious surveillance. You see, my mission that day had multiple objectives and bidding on BWS and PMS pieces was the main objective but not the only one. I was there to sandbag Dave Sim as well.

Dave obviously has been falling on hard times cash-wise. Glamourpuss failed despite its' greatness, and Judenhass never had a chance if you ask me. A Kickstarter campaign generated some cash but now takes up huge chucks of Dave's time. He was selling Cerebus pages through Heritage and had entered into a few different deals with IDW comics. One involves some money associated with the digital Cerebus at the heart of the Kickstarter campaign, so that is fairly nebulous at this point. Another deal involves Dave producing covers for IDW comics. By the time of the Heritage auction the first of these had appeared, one of many alternate covers for a Mars Attacks comic. It featured Cerebus in a classic Sim sound effect joke. But this Cerebus is a Mars Attacks alien variation and is drawn in Dave's current style, maniacally cross-hatched and fabulously lush in the brushwork. I loved it right away, and at the auction I waited for my moment and then pounced in the aisle. Would Dave be willing to sell me that cover? I had cash in hand today in the form of hundred dollar bills, which as I learned on Pawn Stars have their own power. Alas, Dave informed me it was part of his Heritage consignment. They had other art but it just was not in this auction. The Mars Attacks cover would be in a Sunday auction in March.

Well, at least I had a fair shot at it. And you know what that usually means.

Mars Attacks variant Cerebus cover Dave Sim (all)

I was really pleased to get this. I am still in the market for some of the Alex Raymond / Stan Drake stuff Dave has done, definitely. But between this, my two Cerebus pages, and my Dr. StrangeRoach commission this itch is almost scratched.


Here are some closeups. First the top of the page. Not as exciting at the rest, but Dave's lettering is always fun and it is worth mentioning this is all on the page with no stats. You can also see the detail on the top of the alien helmet and Cerebus' cerebrum.

This next section is pretty impressive. All the different angles of crosshatching must have been pretty intensive to work out, and dave really impresses with its' use. Look how he delineates between the glass helmet, reflection and shadow on the helmet, and the wounded brain within. Then check out the splatter on the broken glass at the back of the helmet.

Here is the bottom part. I included a full shot from above the eyes becuase it is so impressive. The anatomy, and lack thereof, in Cerebus' mouth is wonderful. Again, all the different types of stroke utilized really make for a strong image.

Here is a closer look at the face. The eyes and mouth show so much thought and then to execute the vision so well really makes this piece stand out to me. Goo, tissue, vitreous and aqueous humour, blood, gore, teeth, gums, this one has it all. In fact that kind of makes it right in line with the classic Sim pieces, the ones that have the artistic execution of a master with content that satirizes society like a precision torch, burning off the refuse and cauterizing the wound so clearly as to reveal the ridiculousness of the underlying structure. Sim's Cerebus out zombies the zombies.

DAVE SIM Digital Cerebus Project

HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL, the graphic novel project that raised $63,000 on Kickstarter in June to finance its conversion to A/D (Audio Digital) format is almost here.  Graphic novelist Dave Sim brings his classic best-selling black and white 1982 graphic novel (FIVE STARS in most graphic novels guides) to life reading all of the narration AND performing the voices of his entire cast of dozens of characters.  All 500 pages have been digitally remastered from the original artwork, original negatives and reconstructions (the original negatives for 130 pages were destroyed in an apartment fire in August).  The first 20-page installment is a FREE download starting October 10 at www.cerebusdownloads.com.  VIEW "TRAILER" AT {KICKSTARTER URL} FOR A SMALL TASTE OF THIS AWESOME PROJECT

That last part should be higher up, so I will say it again: the first 20-page installment is a FREE download starting October 10 at www.cerebusdownloads.com.. Dave is really going all out for this project, which I heard about due to the Kickstarter campaign. I pledged some money on that campaign, and I have to say I am happy with my reward level. One of the things I got was this, which arrived yesterday - 

Dave Sim draws Cerebus as Dr. Strange, just for me!

Dave also posted 4 of the full figure pieces he did for those who paid more than I did, and they are spectacular. But I have to admit that I am happy with this one, which was done just for me. I got a Ditko-esque commission from Dave Sim about two years ago (it was Dr. StrangeRoach) and I am glad to see Dave was able to tap that same vein for this one. Well done sir, well done!