The sixth (of six, so far) installment of Dave's answers. If 
after reading these you've got that burnin' desire to ask 
Dave a question or two, send them to me (jim 
[o--v--i] at [um.cc.umich.edu] OR [bv 446] at [cleveland.freenet.edu] -- I 
check this one much less frequently though) and I'll send 
them on. 
 
As usual, upcoming tour dates are listed at the end of this 
posting. 
 
                           *** 
 
kreme ([k--e--e] at [isis.cs.du.edu]) -- Why don't you have access to 
the Usenet? I would think it would be amusing for you to read 
all these posts, especially if no one knew you were there! 
:-) 
 
Dave Sim -- I really don't think computers are possible, so I 
don't own one. It's already getting to be quite a chore just 
to get through the morning mail every day. I'm sure you guys 
will let me know if I miss anything important. 
 
 
David Wald ([w--d] at [theory.lcs.mit.edu]) -- Are there any plans 
to (or definite reasons why you won't) release the Cerebus 
phone books in a more solid, hardback form? 
 
Dave -- We are a very small business entity and it costs just 
about every penny we make above and beyond our salaries to 
keep the reprint volumes in print as is. If we ever became 
big enough to invest in hardcover printings, I'm sure we 
would do it. I only do those things with Cerebus which won't 
jeopardize the book's financial health. Hardcover 
reprintings, colour reprintings of the Epic stories and 
reprintings of the covers would constitute an enormous and 
risky expense. 
 
 
Hector Lee ([h k lee] at [magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu]) -- Do you plan 
to have extra printings of the issues that are in between the 
phone books, like issue 51 or the prologue to Jaka's Story, 
etc.? 
 
Dave -- At this point, I am planning a slim reprint volume 
which would reprint the "in-between" stuff. Issue 51, 
112/113, 137, 138, Demonhorn, the Silverspoon strips, "What 
Happened Between Issues 20 and 21". 
 
On the other hand, maybe it won't be _that_ slim. First we 
have to get all of the "phone books" to the distributors by 
the end of the year, so it would be 1993 at the earliest. 
 
 
Hector -- Will you be at MARCON? I would put you up in my 
living room. Only Jim, me, and Carla would have heard of you, 
so you can talk non-shop easily. 
 
Dave -- I'm afraid not. Only the Tour this year. Twenty-one 
cities in 12 months is about enough for anyone's plate who is 
still doing a monthly title. Also, when I go to another town, 
I go to talk shop EXCLUSIVELY. One of the reasons we're 
losing the battle to Marvel and Image and what-not is that 
the people who care about the medium and who can make a 
difference have been slacking off (myself included). 
"Conditions are too bad to be hip any more; It's time to 
start working again." (Randy Newman). 
 
 
Jeremy Holstein ([j--ls--i] at [skidmore.EDU]) -- You and Gerhard 
seem to work well as a team on the drawing board (strike the 
well, your work is fucking great), but outside of that we 
hear much from you as the guiding force of Cerebus, but 
little from Gerhard. A few questions about him: Has he made a 
commitment to stay with the project until #300? 
 
Dave -- You're very kind. 
 
Gerhard and I are very firm believers in freedom as an 
absolute. 
 
He's free to walk out at any time, maintaining his fifty 
percent ownership of the work we've done together. I would no 
more ask him to make that commitment than I would ask him to 
sign a contract. 
 
 
Jeremy -- How much input does he have into the storyline? 
 
Dave -- None. He's a good audience and he knew the direction 
and ending of Church & State, Jaka's Story and Melmoth ahead 
of time. Mothers & Daughters  I'm just springing on him one 
page at a time. 
 
 
Jeremy -- And when are we going to hear from him in his own 
words? For Gods sake, when does Spunky SPEAK? 
 
Dave -- Our situation has evolved to the point where Gerhard 
is very much the background guy on the book and in the 
business. What he has to say, he says in his art, which is a 
damn sight more eloquent than any five volumes of opinions. I 
would imagine he would be happy to do an interview if asked, 
he just doesn't get asked. Mmm. Scratch that. He'd probably 
do an interview if forced to, but it would just be another 
damn thing on his desk he'd have to pay attention to. 
 
 
Jeremy -- How long is Mothers and Daughters planned to run 
for (approximately)? 
 
Dave -- Approximately fifty issues; to issue 200. 
 
 
Jeremy -- After Mothers and Daughters has run its course, how 
many more books are planned? 
 
Dave -- One long one, which will probably get broken up into 
two or three small ones, but which will be one long one for 
all of that. 
 
Jeremy -- How are your relations with Diamond these days? 
 
 
Dave -- My relations with Diamond are fine and have been for 
the last several years. I am in regular communication with 
Bill Schanes about ways to improve Diamond's orders and our 
immediate plans. They're giving me a half hour to address the 
Diamond Trade Show in Baltimore in June, which is really 
pretty generous of them. I'm hoping to be able to talk about 
all the things I've learned at the warehouses and stores on 
the tour. 
 
 
Jeremy -- Goddammit, Dave. Are you ever going to explain 
those fucking fire-sneezes? (In Church and State, remember?) 
 
Dave -- I've been explaining the fire-sneezes for about two 
years now, but I promise to continue to do so, until everyone 
understands. Stay tuned. 
 
 
Jim Ottaviani (jim [o--v--i] at [um.cc.umich.edu]) -- Are there 
any writers that you would like to draw for, or any artists 
that you would like to write for? Not necessarily on Cerebus- 
-in 2005, perhaps. Are there any past writers/artists that 
you would have liked to work with had you been able (or even 
aliveI)? 
 
Dave -- I was thinking of offering to do the last issue of 
_Sandman_ if Neil promises never to work for those Infernal 
Bastards again. I haven't because I almost definitely 
couldn't find the time and I'd probably develop a painful 
rash and locusts would devour the back yard of the Off White 
house. After 2004, I'd like to do a story with Alan Moore or 
Neil Gaiman. I wish I had done more stories with Gene Day 
when he was alive; you never know the clock is ticking, do 
you? We always meant to have a picture taken of us together, 
as well, but never got around to it. 
 
 
Jim -- A related question: What, if any, collaborative work 
have you enjoyed the most (besides working with Gerhard)? 
 
Dave -- Doing the Jam stories, most especially with Colleen 
and Will Eisner. The Flaming Carrot cross-over; doing twenty 
pages in ten days after having my heart broken by the same 
chick for the third time (stupid, stupid, stupid) was very, 
very rewarding. C'mon, Bob, shake a leg, we're a page and a 
half behind schedule. 
 
 
Jim -- Who wrote "And his shadow on the border of the 
pond...triumphant reassumption." that the Jules Feiffer 
character quotes as "one of my favorite authors" (page 1197 
of Church & State)? 
 
Dave -- That was whatsisname from "Sons and Lovers". Not 
Steinbeck. Ooh, fuck. WHAT IS HIS NAME!? I hate this. The 
book is in the apartment, too. Blanking on a name that makes 
me look like an illiterate boob. Anyway it's in "Sons and 
Lovers", unless I've got the title wrong too. 
 
 
Jim -- Will we be seeing Jaka's sister ("The Beguiling") 
again? 
 
Dave -- Probably between issues 200 and 300. 
 
 
Karen Williams ([b--n--n] at [cerebus.ras.amdahl.com]) -- I have a 
question for you. Given your views on feminism, and the 
current storyline in Cerebus, I was wondering what your 
relationship was/is like with your mother? any sisters? your 
girlfriends? 
 
Dave -- Oh no. It's YOU again. Well, Karen, I owe you one for 
being one of a handful of Persons who kept me from getting 
hanged from a Metaphysical Feminist Lamp-post in the last 
couple of years (Are You Not Now, Or Have You Ever Not Been A 
Member of the Feminist Party, Mr. Sim). 
 
Here goes... 
 
WAS -- I was always my mother's favourite; she always 
encouraged any interests that I had and certainly went out of 
her way to accommodate and make allowances for my interest in 
comic books. I was left pretty much to my own devices, which 
was good. She used to print up fanzines for me on the copier 
at the school where she worked, typed up my Marvel Universe 
Bio stuff I used to write by the ton when I was a kid. She 
also threw out my Zap comics when I was about thirteen years 
old. I retrieved them and hid them. That was a major rift. 
 
IS -- I have dinner with my parents once a month or so, 
sometimes less often 
 
 
D.H. LAWRENCE!! Yahoo!! I did it!!. D.H. Lawrence. 
 
 
My mother and sister are both rhetorical feminists. Not 
nearly as bad now as they were a couple of years back, but 
that's true of most of Them. Retrenching probably. When my 
father was in the Emergency ward a couple of years ago, I was 
instantly in charge. Dave, you call and see how he's doing. 
Dave, you talk to the doctor. What do you think, Dave. The 
moment the crisis stage had passed it suddenly turned into a 
little feminist collective again. Well, _I_ think we should 
do this. Well, we decided we're going to do such and so. I 
told them the next time they're on their own. Send me a 
postcard. I firmly believe that feminism can only be fought 
within the family, because it's the only place you can really 
hurt them. They need that One Big Happy Family shit tucked 
right next to their We Get To Do Whatever We Want Because 
Anything Else is Discrimination. Consequently the only 
Achilles Heel is the One Big Happy Family. Like the fourteen 
dead feminists in Montreal. Call men every name under the sun 
for three weeks and then have A Big Happy Family Dinner Where 
We All Love Each Other. (Christmas, I mean.) Psycho. Mondo 
psycho. My sister keeps making little overtures that we 
should be Good Buddies again. I can't think of a thing I 
would have to say to her. She's got Margaret Thatcher's false 
joviality down pat. 
 
Girl-friends? Sex. If the sex is good, I can put up with 
anything, like most men. They're all Too Young For Me. 
They've only got three tricks to assert control; causing 
jealousy, withholding sex and beating you over the head with 
their fan club (TYou'd really like my friend, Steve.' I loved 
the line on SEINFELD when Elaine says that, and Jerry says, 
TI don't like anybody, why would I like Steve?'). They also 
all want to be liked for something besides their physical 
attributes. I wrote a line for Oscar in Jaka's Story that I 
ended up not finding a space for. "Men want to be loved for 
their bodies, which is funny. Women want to be loved for 
their minds, which is funnier." 
 
 
                           *** 
 
Upcoming tour dates: 
 
  May 31 
  Kansas City, Marriott -- Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park 
 
  June 7 
  Minneapolis, Marriott Bloomington -- I-495 at Cedar Ave. 
 
  June 21 
  Albany, Holiday Inn -- 205 Wolf Rd. 
 
  July 12 
  Indianapolis, Sheraton -- 7701 East 42nd St. 
 
  July 26 
  Detroit, Marriott -- 200 W. Big Beaver in Troy, MI 
 

jimO