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| Comicverse #1-3 (Awakening Comics) by Steve Peters & Bianca Alu-Marr |
(from Kickstarter Update #167, 6 December 2013)
Steve contacted me a few months ago to ask if I was up for a commission for his AWAKENING COMICS. "No way, Steve. I can't afford the time to draw ANYTHING besides STRANGE DEATH." He was ready for me. "What about a script?" No one ever asks for a script. Uh. Yeah. I could do that. Drawing I have to do at the drawing board and the drawing board is full of STRANGE DEATH (there's a song title for you). A script I can write in the shower, on the way to the grocery store, taking out the garbage. So we agreed. He wanted it for his new title, COMICVERSE, which I imagine many, if not ALL of you have already seen. Maybe a delusion on my part. I had seen, I think, the first half of the first issue in photocopy form. Turns out he and his co-plotter, co-creator Bianca Alu-Marr have done four issues so far. So I asked him to send me the four issues so I knew what I was supposed to be doing. "This is the comic book store on the space station a thousand years in the future in a galaxy far, far away, right?" That's the one. "And it was something about a Steve Peters stand-in having a discussion with someone in the store about CEREBUS and the Steve Peters stand-in was pro-CEREBUS and the person he was talking to was anti-CEREBUS." That, too, was the one. Okay, yeah, I can write that. How many pages? He figured anywhere between four and eight. How much would I charge? Pay me whatever you think is fair after you read it. Okay.
So that's what I did.
At first just thinking about it during non-STRANGE DEATH moments and then eventually typing the dialogue I pictured into my MacBook. Then breaking it down into pages and panels, pacing it. Boom. Done. Six pages. Sent it to him two weeks ago. Today I got the cheque from him. He paid for the new motor for my furnace! The bill for which just came in today as well.
So, I thought. Well, okay. I'm doing this Update, so let's give the HIGH SOCIETY Kickstarter people the news first? And, what about this? What if Steve offers all of you a deal on the four COMICVERSE issues? No, wait! What if he offers you a deal on the COMICVERSE issues AND a package of every AWAKENING COMIC that has my work in it? Uh. I tell you what, Steve, I'll leave it with you. Just leave me a message before Friday night and I'll pitch them the deal. (Figuring, what? $15, $20. Knock a third off of that. Everyone goes home happy.)
$58. You're kidding me.
No, he wasn't kidding me. All the Dave Sim stuff (and he's getting low on some things) and COMICVERSE, a COMICVERSE button, COMICVERSE trading cards, an AWAKENING COMICS SKETCH CARD with a Steve Peters CEREBUS on it (mail it to me when you get it and I'll put a Dave Sim CEREBUS headsketch on there if you have a self-addressed envelope and send me $5 to help with postage), a copy of CEREBUS #146 with Steve's SINGLE PAGE in it (signed by both of us) (I forgot I gave him those).
I realized that I've done more work for AWAKENING COMICS than for Marvel and DC put together.
So, he's knocking it down from $58 to $45 (plus $5 to help with postage) while he still has ALL the Dave Sim stuff. Including, like, Jeff Seiler's CEREBUS READERS IN CRISIS #4 which I did the cover for of me and Steve over the last decade or so and which contains his story, "ME vs. Dave Sim" about our dust-up back in the 1990s. All my letters to him and his letters to me. THE ORIGIN OF SPARKY (his main title before COMICVERSE). The only song I ever wrote part of. Steve's a musician so I just made my lead-off tier of panels the first line of "The Musical Origin of Sparky". And then he did the next tier with the next line. Until there was a song. And then he recorded it. I realize I've never heard it. Never had a way to play music in those pre-MacBook days. So, that's part of the deal: the comic book with the story/song in it and a CD of Steve's music with that on it. (Steve's going to jump into the comments section after this if I'm getting any of this wrong).
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| Cerebus Readers In Crisis #4 (2009) by Steve Peters & Dave Sim |
Which is why it's kind of important that you are finding out about this first. Because Tim of A MOMENT OF CEREBUS is going to announce the deal whenever he decompresses from his High! Intensity! New! Job! (which he tells me now takes until sometime on Sunday) at which time it's the KICKSTARTER/A MOMENT OF CEREBUS DEAL.
And then Steve starts making a smaller package every time he sells out of something. ALMOST COMPLETE DAVE SIM AWAKENING COMICS. That kind of thing. But as of 7:37 pm Friday as I'm typing this, he still has all of them.
Which reminds me: STEVE! (sorry, didn't mean to be that loud). I went through the short box, PERIODICALS/COMIC BOOK/SIM/SIM-GERHARD/NON-AARDVARK VANAHEIM 1992 to 2006 and I'm missing some Dave Sim AWAKENING COMICS stuff. I need AWAKENING COMICS #1 and 2, 3 copies each (the ones with panels by Rick Veitch, THE James Kolchlka, Matt Feazell and Greg Hyland). So, if you've only got three of them, DON'T sell them to ANY...(ahem)....of these very nice Kickstarter people...until the Cerebus Archive has three each of them. I've got 3 EVERWINDS SHROOMS (which, you know, I better -- only comic book EVER with a panel by me and by Moebius) (and Terry Laban did one, I think) (Yes, yes he did). I also need 3 of the CD's with the "Musical Origin of Sparky" on it. I've only got TWO TAILS OF SPARKY #1-- they ended up hiding between my three COMIC EYES and the SPIDER-MAN hardcover I did a SPIDER-MAN for. But only two of them. I've got 3 of the CEREBUS READERS IN CRISIS #4, but if you've got three SPARE copies of CEREBUS #146 we both signed, I'll take three of those. Otherwise I'll just send you 3 more and get you to sign them.
And if I'm missing anything from off of the COMPLETE DAVE SIM AWAKENING COMICS list, uh, the Cerebus Archive can use three of those. :)
$45 is a lot of money, though. So if you were to ask ME which SINGLE issue to get, I'd say either CHEMISTRY (Steve's Day Prize winning comic book/music CD combo) or THE ORIGIN OF SPARKY (which I find inherently funny: basically he just improvises as many Origins for Sparky as he can fit into 32 pages. Some of them are jam stories, some are collaborations and the lead story is actually how Steve came up with Sparky. Very "re-readable".
Links:
Awakening Comics
Steve Peters on Facebook
Comicverse on Facebook
UPDATE #1
STEVE PETERS:
Thanks so much, Dave, and thanks to everyone who scooped up the package deal so quickly! The full set is GONE! So nobody buy any further sets please, until I can change it to the "ALMOST COMPLETE DAVE SIM AWAKENING COMICS" package. I will also be adding shipping costs to Canada and a few other countries (it's a bit steep, but it IS a lotta books). Look for another comment from me below to see if I have the new package deal ready.
UPDATE #2
STEVE PETERS:
O.K., so I'm sold out of Cerebus Readers In Crisis #4, so I've posted a new "ALMOST COMPLETE DAVE SIM AWAKENING COMICS" package without that issue and priced accordingly. So now it's a $53 value and I'm offering it for $40, plus $4 shipping in the USA, and I've added shipping rates for Canada, the UK, and Australia, the three other countries that I most get orders from. If you get this package let me know if you want something specific for your Cerebus sketch (take a look at my Sketch Card Comic to see what I've done for others.
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