May 28, 2010 Cerebus is Mr C-

As seen on CerebusTV...

eBay item no.

270582531707
Seller: tatteredjeans42 on behalf of DVS
Buyer:comicartboston
Price:$888.00

Everyone's weighing in, so I will, too. In the end, the bigger picture of LOST is a commentary on people and the ways they live their lives: getting caught up in the minutae of ultimately meaningless activities, believing that assigned meaning is the same as actual meaning.

What two things turned out to be true?

1. Dead is dead.

2. Whatever happened, happened.

Sounds like nihilistic existentialism to me. All the stuff we think is so important because we have created value around it... then you're dead: it really don't matter all that much, no matter how much you thought it was (except, in the view of the writers, the community and harmony of human relationships and self-actualization).

And so the writers understand this about humans, and we all got sucked in by an endless array of complex and ultimately valueless questions.

Give the MIB a name! Um, OK, his name is Fred. Next?

Rose and Bernard were right: "What is it with you people, anyway?" ... everyone who is making long lists of questions (about the island... about life) they want answered, questions to which there are no answers, only stories.

If we only knew why the time distortions took place... if we only knew who was in the other outrigger... if we only knew what the smoke monster's sounds meant... if only...

In my interpretation, the writers were brilliant: everyone fell into it.

I now think it would have been a much stronger show if the 'sideways' universe was never introduced, because it hangs out as gross contradiction to the hard-line 'dead is dead' and 'whatever happened, happened' philosophies.

All that happy ending stuff.

What a better lesson, to me, if self-actualization was not tied to the external reward of your joyful concert in the afterlife, but to the intrinsic value.

May 24, 2010 Cerebus Archives #4 (unpublished Zombie variant cover)

eBay item no. 270579645980
Seller: tatteredjeans42
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $835.00

I don't like zombies. I don't get zombies. I don't get why people have ever purchased the various zombie-variant books that Marvel put out. I just really don't get it.

So why get this cover?



Because it was such a nice thing to have alongside this one:

May 23, 2010 - j(ay)'s sketch card

eBay item no. 310220455915
Seller: comics2games
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $26.46

Cerebus doesn't love you... he just wants all your money.

Drawn by most frequent commentator - the keen j(ay):

May 19, 2010 - Inquiring minds, and the answer!

Rosebud is the sled.
Jack is the Candidate.
Darth Vader is Luke's father.

Thanks to Ger, another mystery is solved.

All three of the watercolors that ultimately gave rise to the images in Epic are originals... but not the originals that were published (Cerebus on the throne, young Cerebus, and the recently sold Prime Minister Cerebus); well, kinda sorta.

The story of the color mismatches is the mirror image of the Moon Roach story, which I guess places it in the ALT universe.

In each case, the pre-coloring black and white version was copied, and those copies were then colored, in particular, for their appearance in Epic. Those original production versions are... somewhere. Maybe tucked away in a file drawer at the off-white house, maybe in some Epic editor's file cabinet.

The black and white original drawings, once copied for their Epic coloring, were then independently colored, and these are the ones that we all have. So in the Epic spread, it is otherly-colored photocopies of the original art... so these ones that we have did NOT appear in Epic, but they are the best originals to have.

Voila.

Everyone thank Ger... and wish him well as he hauls the boat out from its wintertime berth and launches the 2010 sailing season.

May 16, 2010 - Another one from Epic #32 (1985)

eBay item no. 120568598949
Seller: saviorfaire1984
Buyer: headcold (whose last eBay purchase is listed as 12/12/08)
Price: $1,136.11

This was something of a surprise, although things that have been published do generally go higher than one-offs, for whatever reason.

This is the third of five images from Epic Illustrated #32 (1985).

Here is the piece that just sold:


Here is the image from Epic:


Now for the slight caution: note that the coloring is different, so it might be nice for an insider to get some info on this. Did the Epic people do some color enhancement?

Note that the same is true for the other two images... I would know, I have them in the collection.

Here is the published image:


Here is the original:


Here is the published image:


Here is the original:


Vive la difference!

Now, I would like to remind you that it was about this time that Dave and Ger were making nice copies of the black and white originals of some pieces, and then using these as convention pieces - adding color and extra drawing to the copies as a way to have some more complete artwork, and (in their words) "to make it look like we were busy."

I have one of these pairs, in proof.

The original (copied before coloring):


The modified copy:


And so I have always wondered about these watercolors I have from the Epic work: live or memorex? The differences are stark.

Ger? Any input or recollection on this one?

ADDENDUM

J(ay)'s comment reminded me that I was going to pull up a nice comparison - the Epic pages that I know are authentic, from "His First Fifth" - here I would say: no question that the printed pages came from these originals.

As published:


The Original:


As published:


The Original:

May 15, 2010 Another Ditko-esque cover

eBay item no. 270575687307
Seller: tatterjeans42 for DVS
Buyer: unknown
Price: $255.00



Once upon a time there was an incredibly innovative and well-written television show. Everyone who watched was intrigued about how it worked on so many levels. A surface story about an adventure, and underneath it all, a great deal of mystery, symbolism, and allegory. As the series ended, and everyone thought they were going to get the answers that they so desperately craved, they forgot why it was they loved this show in the first place: it actually made them think, and it hurt their widdle feelings when the writers stayed the course and made them think some more.

No, I am not talking about LOST, yet. I am talking about The Prisoner. The real Prisoner, not that pale imitation that ABC Family, or something, did last year, or was it earlier this year?

OK, I am talking about LOST, too. But if you really like LOST, then you will also like The Prisoner. It only lasted 19 episodes, so you can devour it pretty quickly. It might be a nice curative to LOST withdrawal, in a few weeks.

Except, I suppose, that re-watching LOST will be the first thing on everyone's list.

May 8, 2010 Elf.. Elf.. Elf..

Elf-mania!

OK, OK... I'm the one who got this...

eBay item no. 220597232411
Seller: tatteredjeans42 for DVS
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $511.00



And this...

eBay item no. 220597237273
Seller: tatteredjeans42 for DVS
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $697.88



Because, you might recall, pp 19-20 from this issue are two of my faaaaaavorite pages, evah... they are the ones that Dave and Ger did such a faaaaaaaaabulous job on, in these re-creations, which were among the last pre-split collaborations...



A re-creation of this page (mine-all-mine)... the first page of original comic art I ever bought, for $50, back in 1982:


not to mention the fate of that darn wickets-ball:



And page 20, too...



A re-creation of this page (mine-all-mine)... originally owned by Richard & Wendy Pini (dedication is written to them):


Not to mention these three pages... first appearance of the elf... and a scene depicted on the cover...

(mine-all-mine, koffkoff...sorry... I just got carried away...)

May 3, 2010 Guide Cover

April 16, 2010
eBay item no. 220587098645
Seller: tatterjeans42 for DVS
Buyer: Albert Moy
Price: $2302.77

May 2, 2010 Cerebus 300 p 9

March 30, 2010
eBay item no. 170465870000
Seller: comic_beast
Buyer: someone involved with CerebusTV
Price: $1000



the buyer is looking to flip this, in case you want it

May 1, 2010 Cerebus 1 p 1 re-imagined

eBay item no. 220594862464
Seller: tatteredjeans42 for DVS
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $1,802.77

As seen on CerebusTV*... the re-imagination of Cerebus #1 p1. I'm guessing that the owner of the original page (Hi Darren... did I ever mention I was the one who set up that $11,000 sale? So I know who had it and I know who has it) might not have been watching this, because he can buy and sell me a few hundred times over.



*which, if you click on the streaming feed, and for the mere investment in a good screen capture program like Screenflow, you can watch at your leisure. If Dave is going to treat CerebusTV like TV, then you can use screen capture video as a VCR. And you could, whaddyacall, upload it to youtube. So all things being equal, why not just ... oh, wait... we've been through this before.