Here's the first group of questions and Dave's responses to them. 
They appear in the order I received them, with only headers and 
other e-mail/fax junk edited out. I enjoyed having the first crack at 
reading them. Thanks to you and Dave for such positive and prompt 
interest in this experiment. 
 
This is the first of three groups of the first round of questions. 
Dave gave very detailed responses, so I had to split the posting. 
More to follow soon. 
 
Dave has mentioned that he would like to make this interview 
"democratically existential or existentially democratic." So follow-up 
questions are welcome. If any of these questions or answers trigger 
new questions in your mind, please send them to me (jim 
[o--v--i] at [um.cc.umich.edu]) and I'll pass them along. 
 
Finally, I apologize to the 80 column terminal users out there. I 
thought I had the original posting (I) formatted correctly, but I was 
wrong. Sorry about the word-wrap problems that resulted. 
 
                                               *** 
 
Alexx Kay ([a--y] at [isis.cs.du.edu]) -- Are their musicians in 
Estarcion? We've never seen a band playing around Jaka, and there 
didn't seem to be room for one to be hiding at Pud's. We've heard 
people singing, but I can't recall *any* reference to musical 
instruments (discounting the fiddler from the Barry Smith "Cerebus 
Dreams" story). Is this an oversight, or are musical instruments 
something that hasn't been invented yet? 
 
Dave Sim -- Musical instruments are something that I've 
intentionally left out of the Cerebus story-line, although not many 
people have noticed. A part of it is that comics is a "mute" medium 
and I like to reflect that. It would be impossible to do Jaka's Story in 
any other narrative form because you would have to have musicians 
to accompany the dancing which would spoil the balance of the cast. 
Part of it is that I despise music unless I'm drunk or stoned. I 
stopped listening to it while drawing several years ago and I think 
this has brought a definite improvement to my work. I get a lot of 
music tapes in the mail, I think because people figure that with all 
the bands getting mentioned on the letters page that I must be a really 
big fan of music. Call it wishful thinking; that at some point in the 
distant past music didn't exist and never evolved. My own personal 
heaven. 
 
 
Arthur C. Adams ([a--d--s] at [aplcen.apl.jhu.edu]) -- Do you have all 
of the Cerebus story outlined in detail up to #300, or do you just 
have some broad ideas? 
 
Dave -- This is the second most commonly-asked question, although 
the phrasing leaves something to be desired. Obviously there is a 
world of difference between "outlined in detail" (Cerebus number 
267. Page one panel two...adjustment...suggest changing Jaka's 
bracelet from left arm to right arm) and "some broad ideas" (Cerebus 
#114 to 136...Jaka's Story...Jaka and husband...and dead fat 
poet...Thatcher...improvise the rest). No matter how I answer this 
question, people don't listen to the answer, so my patience has been 
wearing thin with it. I know the Cerebus story-line. It was 
conceived in 1979, which was thirteen years ago. Some of it is very 
very detailed and I know exactly how I want to draw it and I can't 
wait to get there. Some things are upside down and backwards and I 
think they fit in Mothers & Daughters, but they don't actually appear 
until much later on. It's a lot like doing a jigsaw puzzle. I have all of 
the pieces on the table in front of me and month by month I fit them 
together. I don't write anything down about the current story until I 
begin it; although I had almost all of Jaka's Story written in my 
mind through the course of Church & State I hadn't put anything 
down on paper until I was ready to start it. Melmoth was originally 
conceived as a series of monologues; each of the characters taking a 
turn at "spilling their guts" while Cerebus sits in a catatonic trance, 
but primarily just Oscar going back over his life "where did it all go 
wrong" De Profundis kind of stuff. Once I actually re-read the 
Epilogue to Collected Letters and I got to the actual description of 
Oscar's death, I knew that that was my story. The previous notion 
of it was evading the actual death and since Death was the theme of 
the story, I switched it quite happily. The idea of the Cerebus and 
Oscar story-line inter-weaving through Jaka's Story and Melmoth 
with the two never actually meeting I was very pleased with, 
particularly in Melmoth where you have the virtual death (Cerebus) 
and the actual death (Melmoth). Also there is something that invokes 
a death consciousness in me about "ships passing in the night". 
How much of our lives are spent brushing up against people who 
might have become a profound and positive force in our existences 
if we had only turned around and said "hello" instead of just 
thinking about it or ignoring them entirely. Death by omission? 
 
At another level I am being told the story as I'm working on it. 
Sometimes the telling is as clear as a bell and if it wasn't for the 
limits of my stamina (severe) and focus, I could write and draw the 
next five issues without stopping to eat. Alas, the next day the glass 
is fogged and everything that was so clear is now covered with 
gauze and the side of me that doubted this whole enterprise from the 
first page is firmly in command and I seriously  consider suicide or 
retreating to a tropical tourist environment to pass my days drawing 
caricatures of tourists in exchange for beer money. I have come to 
realize over the last fourteen years that that doubt is shared by the 
majority of my readership and is universal outside of it.  Those who 
said I'd never make it to issue one hundred haven't changed their 
minds and merely increase the number to accommodate my progress 
(What issue is he at now? One fifty-five? He'll never make it to 
issue two hundred). These, of course, are the same people who 
have bought a hundred copies of every first issue produced by 
Byrne, McFarlane, Liefield, et al., secure in the belief that they have 
arrived at the onset of a dynasty. 
 
The short answer is that there is no way I can answer your question 
without disappointing you completely or sounding as if I'm evasive. 
It's impossible to describe what it all looks like from my vantage 
point. Each of the novels is constructed in the same way...a playing 
out of a line; a seemingly random series of events and introduction 
of ideas and characters for the first half of the story; followed by a 
winding, weaving, connecting process for the last half of the story. 
The structure of the whole 300 issues is the same; the first half 
consisting of the developing of multiple unrelated elements as 
mystifying to the readership as it is to Cerebus himself (one of the 
things that makes him sympathetic to the reader us that he shares 
their mystification) followed by revelation and reaction. Church & 
State functions as a compressed allegory of the entire revelation part 
of the story; Jaka's Story and Melmoth the reaction part. The four 
books of Mother's & Daughters function as an allegory of the First 
Half; Flight (book one) is Cerebus, Women (book two) is High 
Society, Reads (book three) is Church & State and Minds (book 
four) is Jaka's Story/Melmoth. One of the things I want to bring out 
is that explanation/revelation brings no relief. One of the saddest 
elements of arts/entertainment in the 20th century is that it has 
nothing to do with the nature of existence. As Orson Welles once 
said "A happy ending is dependent on stopping the story before it is 
done" i.e. Cerebus 44, Cerebus 88, Cerebus 129. 
 
 
Arthur -- Is there any reason Cerebus is an aardvark (story-wise), or 
is it just a neat idea? 
 
Dave -- The original idea was to capitalize on the success of Howard 
the Duck. There was an explosion of funny animal material in the 
mid-seventies, but is consisted mostly of all funny animal casts. I 
decided the success of Howard could be attributed to the "funny 
animal in the world of humans" motif. Of course by the time I was 
working on High Society, the larger issue seemed to be alienation 
and its nature. Each of us has to see ourselves as unique. We are all 
the single funny animal in the world of humans. Each of us has 
something that sets us apart or makes us feel as if we are set apart. 
Consequently there is, again, a ready identification with Cerebus by 
the reader. Most particularly since Cerebus is not a "winner" and 
most people don't think that they are "winners" either. John Lennon 
did not write "I'm a Loser" in a whimsical frame of mind I don't 
think. The guy who used to come on stage with a toilet seat around 
his neck and got into rock n roll because he couldn't figure out how 
they DID that to Elvis probably got a clearer look at the nature of 
karmic forces that I'm trying to document in Cerebus than anyone 
else in living memory. "Instant Karma" "No one, I think, is in my 
tree". Death must have come as quite a relief. 
 
 
Chris ([x w ba 10] at [ucrmath.ucr.edu]) -- How much does it cost to put 
out Cerebus, and how many copies are printed for each issue? 
 
Dave -- The human cost is rising all the time, as well as the spiritual 
piper demanding payment compounded hourly. This is a difficult 
question to answer any other way than facetiously, since most 
people think I get every penny spent on Cerebus comics. It costs 
thousands of dollars to print the regular monthly title; tens of 
thousands to print the reprint volumes. We usually over-print by a 
few hundred copies which has meant that we always have copies in 
stock of the current story-line, with the exception of Mothers & 
Daughters which has sold out within a week no matter what we 
over-print by. We're waiting to see what the orders are like on the 
second printings. 
 
 
Andrew Weiland ([aw 1 s] at [andrew.cmu.edu]) -- Where did [you] get 
the idea for Weishaupt's bowl cannons in Church & State I? 
 
Dave -- The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the guy who penciled 
that brilliant run of Ghost Rider in the late nineteen seventies. 
 
 
Andrew -- Is that K'Cor on the 2nd page of Cerebus #155? If not, 
who is it? 
 
Dave -- Yes. That is K'Cor. He is the first move in the chess game 
between Cerebus and Suenteus Po in Cerebus #158, which I would 
be working on right now if I wasn't answering these questions. 
 
*** 
 
A reminder about upcoming tour dates: 
 
  April 12 
  Denver, Holiday Inn -- I-70 at Chambers Road (Time Warp in 
Boulder on April 11) 
 
  April 26 
  Chicago, Hyatt Regency -- Woodfield Road, Schaumburg 
(MoondogUs in Mt. Prospect on April 24, MoondogUs in Lincoln 
Park on April 25) 
 
  May 3 
  Miami, Park Plaza Hotel -- Palmetto Expressway & NW 103rd St. 
 
  May 31 
  Kansas City, Marriott -- Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park 
 
 
Again, send your new questions to me and I'll pass them along. I'd 
also appreciate any comments you have on how to do this better. 
 
jimO