How's 'The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond' Coming Along, Dave?

Glamourpuss #18 (March 2010)
by Dave Sim

Originally serialised within the pages of the self-published Glamourpuss #1-26 (2008-2012), The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond is an as yet uncompleted work-in-progress in which Dave Sim investigates the history of photorealism in comics, specifically focusing on the work of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and the circumstances of his death on 6 September 1956 at the wheel of fellow artist Stan Drake's Corvette. Dave Sim has recently announced plans for The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond to be serialised in a monthly comic-book published by IDW.

DAVE SIM:
(from Kickstarter Update #162, 20 June 2013)

...I got a package of CEREBUS COVERS concept stuff in from Scott Dunbier at IDW as well as a spreadsheet of all the stuff he has and all the stuff he still needs.  Sigh. It's around here SOMEwhere -- where IS it? Okay. Here it is. What's this?  What wallpaper is this a background for what cover?  I know I've got transparencies somewhere. Where are THEY?  Voyage To The Bottom Of The Giant Tupperware Container.  So I basically go from LIVING IN 1982 to LIVING FROM 1977 to 2004.  And I want to go back to 1956 -- when Alex Raymond died.  I don't spend a lot of time in 2013 as a result.  I also don't want another fire, so I'm getting John Funk to scan the stuff on the basis of: you pick it up at 10:30 in the morning and bring it back at 5:30. Whatever you don't get done you can pick it up at 10:30 the next morning. Psychotic? You bet!

Now, in the meantime, I managed to get the cover to THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND #2 done.  A bit of time here, a bit of time there.  But, that's ten days where all I got done was a cover on what is going to be (theoretically, some day, years from now) a monthly book.  A month and a half to do #1 and 10 days to do a cover.

"So -- how's THE STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND coming along, Dave? Dave? Why are you looking at me like that? Dave? Say something!"

And in the same mail that I got that package from IDW I also got a HUGE package from Eddie Khanna full of STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND stuff. And it's all amazing! I mean, just jaw-dropping stuff.  So as soon as I finished my White Paper on Technology and Comic Art for George and my six-page fax to the printer about PROOFS vs. PRINTED pages and my seven-page fax to Scott Dunbier on CEREBUS COVERS: QUO VADIS, I'm now in the middle of an eight-page letter to Eddie basically filling him in on as much of the STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND as I can. I mean, up until now I've wanted to surprise him: he's really the most devoted READER of the material, but no -- he's blowing my mind with what he's sending me not really knowing even what it is he's looking for. So now I have to tell him: Here this is what you're finding. Here's where it fits.

While still trying to keep SOME surprises for him. As he says: he figures he spikes the ball at me and then I spike the ball at him and then he spikes the ball at me.

"Captain! I dinna know how much more she can take!"