About this project
$63,634
1,140
~CEREBUS DIGITAL: 6000 (cd6k)~
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN SCRUDDER:
Cerebus is a unique creation in the history of comic books. This massive story, six thousand pages in total, has attained legendary status and widespread critical acclaim as one of the most artistically ambitious projects and dramatically powerful narratives in the history of the comic-book medium. Over a 26-year period From 1977 to 2004, Dave Sim (with background artist Gerhard) published 300 issues of Cerebus on a monthly basis, ultimately creating one of the longest works of fiction in the English language.
The story follows the title character, initially a Conan-parody barbarian, through the fictional world of Estarcion into the spheres of politics, high society and religion. Along the way, Cerebus earned numerous awards and accolades for its creator including Harvey, Eisner, Kirby, Ignatz, Defender of Liberty and Shuster awards. Cerebus was named the thirty-eighth greatest comic book character by EMPIRE magazine and has been cited as an influence by an entire generation of self-publishing and Indy comic -book creators.
The primary objective of this Kickstarter project is to introduce Cerebus to a new generation of comic book fans by turning the World's Longest Graphic Novel into the World's Longest Audio Book with (fingers crossed) the creation of digital versions of every page of each issue of Cerebus. Every digital issue will include front covers, editorials, essays, letters and back covers and be made available as a $0.99 digital download (If this project succeeds!) In addition to digital versions of the individual comic books, Dave Sim is also providing additional audio and video content, including:
• Sim performing all of the hundreds of Cerebus characters' dialogue as well as text and captions from the storyline for every issue
• Sim will also provide audio-visual commentary for every issue, looking back and providing his reflections and a look at all of the relevant documents in the chronological Cerebus Archive
• In addition, Dave Sim will also be shooting and narrating footage of his rough sketches and drawings (and translating cryptic entries) from his notebooks, as well as providing a never-before-seen "tour" close-up of the original art still in the Cerebus Archive (190 pages of the 500 page HIGH SOCIETY as an example) issue-by-issue.
With the additional audio and video content, The Digital Cerebus will enable a new audience, and those already familiar with it, to take the "closest look EVER" at this monumental achievement. An established classic in the medium will be introduced to a whole new generation of comic book fans in an expanded modern format.
But, at OVER 6,000 PAGES in the Cerebus storyline itself and almost as many pages in "back of the comic" essays, letters and editorials, this project is a massive undertaking.
THAT'S WHERE YOU COME IN!
All 300 issues of Cerebus have been collected in a series of graphic novels: Cerebus 500 pages, High Society 500 pages, Church & State 1200 pages, Jaka's Story 500 pages, Melmoth 250 pages, Mothers & Daughters 1,000 pages, Guys 400 pages, Rick's Story 240 pages, Going Home 640 pages, Latter Days 700 pages and The Last Day 240 pages. The goal of CEREBUS DIGITAL 6000 (CD6K) is that these graphic novels will, in a few years time, all be made available in universally compatible digital format.
The pages will be professionally scanned at high resolution from original artwork and film negatives.
Work has already begun on High Society, which will be available no later than the fall of 2012. Please pledge your support today and help make CEREBUS DIGITAL 6000 a reality!
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A MESSAGE FROM DAVE SIM:
EVERYone keeps telling me: KICKSTARTER! KICKSTARTER! KICKSTARTER! So, um, here I am as part of a event/partnership -- Cerebus Digital -- registered by John Scrudder in his home state of North Carolina. You GO, TARHEELS! Okay, so John tells me I just have to sign my name and personalize CEREBUS esoterica a few thousand times and mail out a few hundred packages...
(both of which I'm definitely up for since, fortunately, they don't require computer literacy -- I still use an electric typewriter, "escargot mail", a fax machine and landline telephone to communicate with the outside world, relying on outside help for anything Internet-based (my MacBook is only for typesetting and downloading photoreference: God Bless Google Images!!!) I have written instructions here from John telling me how to input this. I hope I'm doing this right)...
So: here's my pitch for the $6,000 that I'm trying to raise:
STEP ONE: CEREBUS DIGITAL HIGH SOCIETY
Continue to convert HIGH SOCIETY into digital files by producing a HIGH SOCIETY combination e-book, audio book/ digital graphic novel/ oral history/weekly serialization at (so far) iVerse, Diamond Digital and Comixology and hope revenues can help things along by the time I'm getting paid early next year (The "Hail Mary" Pass Scenario)
STEP TWO: CEREBUS DIGITAL 6000
If more than $6,000 is raised (this is where I suspect John is pulling my leg: MORE than $6,000???) then the money would be put aside to do e-books/audio books/digital graphic novels/oral history/weekly serializations of ALL OF THE CEREBUS BOOKS, Beginning with CEREBUS (500 pages), CHURCH & STATE vol. 1 (600 pages). CHURCH $ STATE vol. 2 (600 pages), and JAKA'S STORY (500 pages).
So, okay, John (I finally agreed). But make the pledges FUNNY.
FUNNY? he says (from which I gather than Kickstarter doesn't ordinarily, you know, DO "funny").
Yeah, you know -- our "crazy Luddite technophobe senile dinosaur hermit routine" we do on the phone.
He goes, Are you SURE?
Oh, definitely. If you want them to even READ all these pledge descriptions the LEAST you can is entertain them. Just think of it as $20 for writing stand-up if we pull in $6,080. (I knew exactly what would work on him).
And now. Heeeere's Johnny! (he gets funnier in the Rewards section, trust me).
Thanks for reading all this (assuming I actually saved it all by hitting that green button down there)!
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for those of you not familiar with some of the more esoteric pledge items, here's a rundown:
CEREBUS #0 (June, 1993) reprints the "in between" stories not reprinted in the 16 CEREBUS trade paperbacks: issue 51, "Exodus" -- Elrod (Foghorn Leghorn), Cerebus, Lord Julius (Groucho) and Duke Leonardi (Chico) locked in a closet, issue 112/113 "Square One" a 40-page silent sequence as Cerebus returns to the life he left behind and finds everyone gone, issue 137 - 138 "Like-a-Looks" Who is the real Lord Julius? cameo by John Lennon as a Groucho "like-a-look".
CEREBUS WORLD TOUR BOOK 1995 features self-contained Cerebus "jam" stories from SWORDS OF CEREBUS. Sim & Marshall Rogers, Sim & Joe Rubinstein, Sim & Gene Day, BONUS surreal jam story featuring Sim and Chester Brown on alternating panels -- Sim attempting to imitate Brown's distinctive brush inking -- can you guess who did which panel? (allocations may necessitate substituting "NOT the CEREBUS WORLD TOUR BOOK" reprint from the following year, same contents and cover, just the word "NOT" added to the logo).
SWORDS OF CEREBUS (Fall, 1984) (volume 6) A good pretty-much-self-contained early reprinting of CEREBUS issues 21-24 which lead in to HIGH SOCIETY. A good introduction to the character.
CEREBUS GUYS PARTY PACK (September 1996) Emergency reprinting of the first four issues of the GUYS storyline (No.201 to 204) when everyone under-ordered. Just to give you an idea of the extent of the 1996 emergency: Sim has 0 copies of 201, 203 and 204 and 2,000 copies of 202. Pretty much the only place you can get the issue 203 classic parody appearances of Eddie Campell's BACCHUS and RARE BIT FIENDS' Rick Veitch (with Rick lettering his own dialogue) outside of the GUYS trade paperback.
FOUR MORE YEARS POSTER - released to coincide with the publication of issue #252, 2000 -- with four years left to go to issue #300. CEREBUS as Bill Clinton hitting the campaign trail for the third time. PLENTY OF AUTOGRAPHING AND SKETCHING ROOM! Your choice of Cerebus as Bill or Cerebus as Hillary!
$10.00 PLEDGE!
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$25.00 PLEDGE!
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$30.00 PLEDGE!
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$35.00 PLEDGE!
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HEAD SKETCH OPTIONS ON AARDVARK-VANAHEIM STATIONERY!
$70.00 and above...You'll now receive the following items in your package
A Special Edition Kickstarter THANK YOU CARD (EVERY TIER LEVEL)
The Dave Sim / Kevin Eastman (Cerebus & Turtles Print)
A STRANGE ADVENTURES POSTCARD SIGNED BY DAVE
A SPAWN/CEREBUS PRINT SIGNED BY DAVE
A CEREBUS 0 WHITE LOGO SIGNED BY DAVE
A CEREBUS 0 GOLD LOGO SIGNED BY DAVE
A CEREBUS WORLD TOUR BOOK SIGNED BY DAVE!!!
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FOR THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH CEREBUS, HERE'S A LIST OF FAMOUS PEOPLE PARODIED IN CEREBUS IN ISSUES WITH PLENTY OF AUTOGRAPHING ROOM ON THE COVER:
OSCAR WILDE #120 (first appearance) #125 - (only 18 left), #122, #143 (on his deathbed w/ grotesque "ONE of us has GOT to go" wallpaper), #148 (on his deathbed overhead shot with Robbie Ross and Reggie Turner)
MARGARET THATCHER #134, #222
MARTY FELDMAN #206
RINGO STARR, GEORGE HARRISON #207
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD #241, 245, 248
ERNEST HEMINGWAY #251, 258, 259
WOODY ALLEN #280, 281, 283, 284, 287
FOR THOSE FAMILIAR WITH CEREBUS HERE ARE THE "KEY STORY POINT BOOKS" WITH PLENTY OF AUTOGRAPHING ROOM ON THE COVER:
#125 (Oscar Wilde vs. Groucho Marx - only 18 left)
#126 Jaka (adolescent)
#127 (Cerebus on the Berlin Wall 1989 (just before it was torn down) graffiti mural by Thorne fold-out inside back cover
#134 Jaka and Margaret Thatcher
#136 Jaka, Rick, Margaret Thatcher, Cirinist guard
#139 normalroach [EXTREME XXX LANGUAGE WARNING!!]
#141 Iest at sunrise
#143 Oscar Wilde on his deathbed w/ grotesque "ONE of us has GOT to go" wallpaper
#145 Cerebus, sword and Jaka's doll, Missy outside Dino's Cafe
#148 Oscar on his deathbed Robbie Ross, Reggie Turner
#150 HALFWAY MARK IN THE 300 ISSUES blood spattered Dino's Cafe
#152 blood-spattered running Cerebus with sword and Jaka's doll, Missy
#161 Bran Mak Mufin cadaver cover BONE Preview
#163 PunisherRoach in love (uh-oh)
#165 (second printing only) parody of (Dave McKean's painted and collage) SANDMAN covers: the Roach as SWOON (Dream), Elrod as SNUFF (Death). Neil Gaiman faxed Sim his reaction: "No one should ever laugh that hard and that long in a room all by himself"
#168 Astoria surrealist dream cover
#170 Bruised Cirin close-up
#172 Astoria/Lady Pope/Magician tarot card collage & painting
#173 Cirin/Empress tarot card, Babylonian fertility statue, Mary with Baby Jesus collage
#181 Blood spattered Cerebus on the attack
#187 Cerebus, Cirin and throne approaching planet Mars
#190 Cerebus in space contemplates Young Cerebus WORLD TOUR COVER
#193 Susan Alston/Jaka WORLD TOUR COVER
#199 Cerebus on the red ice of planet Pluto WORLD TOUR COVER
#202 Cerebus, Bear
#205 Cerebus "double amputated ears"dream
#206 Bear, Marty Feldman
#207 Ringo Starr (Harrison Starkey) and George Harrison (Richard George)
#209 Bear & "The Wanker" (Spider-man parody)
#210 Bear & Cerebus
#211 Cerebus & Bear catching some rays ("remember...jobs?")
#214 Bear, Cerebus a la Andy Warhol silkscreen
#215 Cerebus the bartender a la Andy Warhol silkscreen
#216 Cerebus & Joanne
#219 Cerebus & Joanne WEDDING COVER
#221 Cerebus Five-Bar Gate
#222 Margaret Thatcher
#223 Joanne as an angel
#225 2OTH ANNIVERSARY COVER Cerebus, Rick/stained glass
#228 Rick and "The Branch"
#229 "wine" and mysterious package
#231 LAST CEREBUS THE BARTENDER
#232 GOING HOME 1st issue, Gerhard photo cover, GOING HOME trade paperback cover first appearance
#233 Gerhard photo cover
#236 Gerhard photo cover "Jupiter-style sky"
#237 Gerhard photo cover
#238 Gerhard photo cover
#241 Gerhard photo cover F. Stop Kennedy
#248 Gerhard photo cover F. Stop Kennedy
#251 Ken Sim (Sim's father, 1929-2006) Ham Ernestway
#258 Gerhard photo cover Ham Ernestway
#259 Gerhard photo cover Ham Ernestway
#260 Gerhard photo cover Ham Ernestway
#262 Gerhard photo cover
#263 Gerhard photo cover
#268 drunk Cerebus first "Three Wise Fellows"
#273 Cerebus and long guns
#276 SPORE (Spawn parody cover)
#279 Tracy Reid photo cover (Sim's cousin 1972 - )
Cerebus in bunny slippers, fold-out back cover tribute to
Harry Kremer 1945-2002
#280 Woody Allen
#281 Woody Allen
#283 First movie poster cover, Woody Allen
#284 movie poster cover, Woody Allen
#288 movie poster cover, Woody Allen
#289-290 double-sized 2-movie-poster-flip-cover "Origin of EVERYTHING back to the Big Bang" explanation issue
#293 "Last Day" Old Cerebus "climbing" his chair
#295 "Last Day" Old Cerebus pacing his room
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DAVE SIM AND CEREBUS THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!
REMEMBER, THERE'S NO LIMIT TO WHAT YOU'D LIKE TO PLEDGE!
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"Cerebus is one of the top five most important works in funnybook history, and by setting the number at five, I suspect I'm being quite charitable to at least three entries in any given list. Try to imagine what our comic industry today might be like had Cerebus never existed and you'd have to envision an uncrossable wasteland, lacking hundreds of key oasis's inspired and nurtured by this one monumental work."
Bill Willingham, June 1st 2012
"WATCHMEN had a bigger influence on me than anything else, reading and rereading it a comic at a time as it was published, as did the HIGH SOCIETY and CHURCH & STATE sequences of Dave Sim's CEREBUS"
Neil Gaiman, (NEW YORK TIMES, May 2012)
"In my life, I never thought I would identify with an aardvark! And, reading CEREBUS, I do. Right from the looks on the character's face to the action, Dave Sim draws me in, literally. That this comic could be overlooked by anyone is a tragedy in itself. Thanks, Dave."
Peter Hook, bass guitar, NEW ORDER and JOY DIVISION (MAY, 2012)
"CEREBUS, as if I need to say so, is still to comic books what Hydrogen is to the Periodic Table and is still one of the only comics that I still read and enjoy regularly every month."
Alan Moore "Dialogue: FROM HELL" (June 1997)
"You conquered, Dave. You took the hill."
Frank Miller, FOLLOWING CEREBUS magazine (2005)
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Okay - Now Dave has to get back to work signing your books! Thanks for all the support so far!! You guy's have been amazing!!
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Funding period
- (32 days)