Note From The President, Cerebus 139, October 1990

Copyright 1990 Dave Sim

Hmmm.

Seem to be running into some turbulence, sir. Today is August 28 and I'm just finishing up two days of answering the mail. Now part of the problem is that we had a week off at the beginning of the month (well, Ger and Monique did - I sort of hung around taking phone orders and buying furniture for the second floor Office of the Vice-President, nothing more depressing than a vacation for someone who really enjoys his job) so there was a six week accumulation and Jaka's Story ended so there were a batch of letters about that. Not an avalanche mind you, but frequent squalls and scattered flurries. I told Monique last time that I was going to try to answer the letters more often and now here she is with eight pounds of letters and yellow note pad answers on her desk. Sorry. Sorry. Quite sorry.

So here we are starting Melmoth, the shortest of the Cerebus volumes at a puny two hundred and forty pages (aww. Isn't it cute? Id's dust a 'iddle one!). Which is why it's designated as Melmoth a short story in the black box that never leaves the side of the Note from the President over yonder. This is sure to piss off all the artistes in the biz with (in Howard Chaykin's immortal phrase) the backs of their hands nailed to their foreheads, but hey around here two hundred and forty pages is a cake-walk, not a magnum opus.

This one I like a lot because it serves the dual function of distant epilogue to Jaka's Story - a kind of echo you can scarcely hear - and prologue to Mothers & Daughters (which clocks in at a hefty one thousand pages and could probably last a few rounds in the ring against Church & State). It also ends at the half-way point of the Cerebus story-line which is the finish of the Male Cycle in the story-line which switches gender (in a thematic sense) in 151. Um. What else? It's. ..pardon?

Is who in it?

Cerebus?

Jeez that's a good one. Let me check my notes here. Mm. Nothing in 139. Nothing in 140. Dum da da da dum. . .

Ah.

Yep. Cerebus definitely appears in this one. We just hope he doesn't hurt sales too badly.

There's a whole bunch of interesting people I can't wait to get to (including normalroach in this issue. Valentino - excuse me JIM Valentino called when he saw the sketch in CBG to say he was looking forward to seeing this one. Normalman might even be optioned by Touchhole Films - excuse me TouchStone Films by the time this comes out which could possibly make us targets of a Disney's Magic Castle Lawsuit. Well, blow me, Michael Eisner) Dino, Janice, (that's Janice in this issue. Hi, Janice) Sebastien Melmoth, Robbie Ross, Reggie Turner and uh ...what's his name. I just said it a minute ago.

Cerebus!

That's right.

Dig in folks and I'll see you next time.

**********

Having attended the San Diego Comic Convention in 1981 (solo) and having attended (with Gerhard) in 1986, it's almost time for our once-every-five-years visit. That's right! Gerhard and I will attend the 1991 San Diego Con next August. We haven't worked out any details but right now we're kind of partial to just bringing a couple of lawn chairs and sitting out front of the convention site, so as to avoid the Cigarette Gestapo (Ger still smokes) that made 1986 such an adventure in fascist living. If the Marvel and DC parties are as lame as usual, it'll probably be time for another 'Aardvarks Over San Diego' or 'Riot at the Hyatt' or maybe 'Armageddon III' with Dan and Gino.

Remember! Only two more appearances before issue 300 (1996 and 2001).


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