Dave Sim
Dave Sim (born May 17, 1956 in Hamilton , Ontario ) is a Canadian comic artist and author. His main work is the 6000-page graphic novel Cerebus .
Life
Sim was born in Hamilton and has lived in Kitchener , Ontario since he was two . He took an early interest in comics and published a fanzine called The Now And Then Times . He has also worked on other fanzines such as Comic Art News And Reviews , Gene Days Dark Fantasy and National Advisor , where he interviewed comic book makers such as Barry Windsor-Smith and Neal Adams .
His first published comics were newspaper trips. The Beavers was published in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record , and other early works appeared in Jim McPherson's Phantacea . In December 1977, Sim began publishing the black and white comic series about the aardvark Cerebus . Cerebus the Aardvark was published by Sim himself, he founded the publishing house Aardvark-Vanaheim , which was run by his wife Deni Loubert . Sim met Loubert in 1976 and married her in 1978. The two divorced five years later.
In 1979 Sim suffered a nervous breakdown. Shortly after recovering, he decided to turn Cerebus into a three hundred booklet series, something no comic book writer and illustrator had done before him. The series would fully tell a character's life, including his death in the final issue, which appeared in March 2004. The style of Cerebus changed with the story High Society (third volume of the paperback edition), Sim reduced the fantasy elements and parodies previously found all over Cerebus and focused more on politics and religion.
In the 1980s, Cerebus became a huge success. Sim traveled extensively promoting the series and sold at least 30,000 copies of a booklet. From 1984 the Canadian draftsman Gerhard started helping out at Cerebus , he took over the drawing of the backgrounds. At this time, Aardvark-Vanaheim published other series, including William Messner-Loeb's Journey and Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot .
Sim used its popularity to promote self-publishing and comic book rights. He has given speeches on the subject at comic conventions and published The Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing . He also promoted the work of other artists in Cerebus .
Sim finished Cerebus as planned. The series had changed his life, in the course of working on it he developed a worldview that was critical to hateful towards feminism , materialism and left-wing politics. Sim posted his views in Cerebus # 186, which caused great turmoil in the 1980s comics scene and resulted in a mass exodus of Cerebus readers. His most famous essay against feminism is Tangent , which appeared in Cerebus # 256. Sim also changed his personal lifestyle, quitting alcohol and smoking, and banning TV and radio from his living quarters. Sim's religious beliefs are based on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures that he finds equally valid and that shape his life.
Sim is currently working on the Cerebus Archive Project, a planned database of materials related to Cerebus , the Following Cerebus magazine with Win-Mill Productions. In addition to covers and pin-up pages for various independent comic artists, he is now publishing a new ongoing comic series under the name glamourpuss , which deals with the fashion business.
Publications
- with Gerhard: Cerebus Cover Art Treasury . IDW Publishing, San Diego, California, USA 2016.
Awards
Sim has been nominated for numerous awards and won the following:
- Comic Book Legal Defense Fund : Defender of Liberty Award 1996
- Diamond Gemmie as the pioneer of the small publishing business
- Eisner Award : Best Graphic Album, 1994, for reprinting Cerebus: Flight (together with co-artist Gerhard)
- Harvey Award : Best Cartoonist, 1992, for his series Cerebus and Best Letterer, 2004
- Ignatz Awards : Outstanding Artist, 1998, for Cerebus
- Inkpot Award 1981
- Joe Shuster Awards : Award for completing the series Cerebus , 2005, to Dave Sim and Gerhard and inducting the series into the Canadian Comics Hall of Fame, 2006
- Kirby Award : Best Black and White Series, 1987 and 1985, for Cerebus
- Squiddy Awards : Best Collaboration, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 for the Dave Sim and Gerhard team; also best letter, 2001, for Dave Sim.
- SPACE Lifetime Achievement Award 2004
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sim, Dave |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian comic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th May 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamilton, Ontario , Canada |