Dave Sim's blogandmail #114 (January 3rd, 2007)

TOGETHER. YESTERDAY THE BLOG & MAIL

ACCIDENTALLY TYPED "GOTETHER" WHEN THE

BLOG & MAIL WAS PLEDGING ITS UNDYING LOYALTY

TO YOU AND TO WORK TO MAKE THIS THE GREAT RELATIONSHIP WE BOTH KNOW IT CAN BE AND, NO, THE BLOG & MAIL REALLY, REALLY AND SINGSURLY DIDN'T THINK THAT WAS A FREUDIAN SLIP.

SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR.

IT'S A NEW YEAR AND THE BLOG & MAIL IS HERE FOR YOU.

ALWAYS REMAINDER THAT.

ALWAYS.


Sean Robinson writes from Seattle


Thank you for your very kind reply regarding my band's recent coaster [my strange sense of humour: anytime someone sends me a CD or DVD I write back and thank them for the attractive coaster since I have no way of playing it. I actually took the DVD down to Toronto with me and gave it to John and Siu and suggested that we listen to it but there are only so many hours in the day and we ended up doing different things, I'm afraid: it's still down there at their place somewhere] . Of all the copies I sent to people, both friend and stranger, yours was the only written reply I received. This meant a great deal to me.


As I am writing this, it is snowing outside, which is probably not a big deal in Canada, but is a bigger deal to a lifelong Floridian who transported himself to Seattle a little more than a year prior. I find it (snow) a strange and vaguely menacing phenomenon and so I am inside where it is safe, writing this letter, instead of walking the dog or cleaning the basement or any of the other things I should be doing instead.


I hear that. To a degree you get over that in Canada, the only difference being a serious snowfall where you can see it piling up outside and you get to wondering when it is going to let up and how extensively it's going to shut things down. Particularly in my electronics-free lifestyle in which I also don't keep great quantities of food on hand, there have been one or two occasions where I went upstairs and dug out the television which only gets channel 13 to see if the rest of civilization was still out there somewhere under the blanket of white or if it's time to start doling out the soda crackers to myself one at a time. But there's no question that there is a very ominous quality to all forms of snow which is, presumably, why the Inuit have so many names for the stuff.


I wanted to write this to you specifically because of your recent Blog and Mail in which you asked "Who is reading this?" and "Is this working?" Well, I am reading this. Me, a Cerebus fan whose interest waned towards the end due to life circumstances, who had never read the last two books in their entirety until two months ago, who only recently purchased the collected editions of Rick's Story, Going Home and Form & Void. And, although it probably involves several factors (one being my now-regular paycheck for teaching the youth of America two-point perspective) it definitely involves Blog and Mail. Simply, reading what you've been thinking about on a daily/weekly/depends-on-how-busy-I-am basis is a similar experience to cracking open a new issue and reading over the Note from the President and the letters page before gorging myself on the comic. As to whether this is sustainable, if I will still be as interested to read a blog or an editorial written by you without some eventual injection of new material in the form of a comic or short story or whatever—who knows? I would guess yes. I've been reading your writing in one form or another for a long time and I am certainly enjoying the blog now. And, at least for me, it's probably "working".


Hope all is well with you. Thanks again for all the years of challenging entertainment.


PS: Just think—if you do the blog thing for another seven years or so, you'll get to have people lament over the virtues of your earlier, funnier Blog and Mail! Is that incentive to continue or what??


That's the motivation that I was looking for all right. I noticed when John showed me the Blog and Mail on his computer that Jeff's been numbering them. Maybe the Blog and Mail will hit a peak of viewership at issue 100 and then begin a slow precipitous drop from there and, after a slight upsurge at around issue 160 and—with no arbitrary cut-off at #300, this time—we can find out what issue I have to get to where this time I really AM just sitting here talking to myself. Issue #365 would be coming out September 12, 2007.


Anyway, I'm putting your purchase of Rick's Story, Going Home and Form & Void in the Blog-and-Mail-Related Sales Boost file even though you might have gone out and bought them on your own at some point.


THREE MONTHS EYELIDS HEAVY OF DAILY BLOGGING!

THREE VOLUMES OF CEREBUS FROM GETTING SLEEPY THE STAR

SYSTEM!

THREE WAYS TO EXPERIENCE DEEP SLEEP, LOVE, DEEPER SLEEP, RESPECT, DEEPEST SLEEP UNDERSTANDING AND FAST, FAST, FAST RELIEF

FEED THE ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE THAT

IS

TODAY'S INTERNETTHERE'S MORE FOR YOU RICK'S STORY STARO8468E

IN TODAY'S GOING HOME STAR10981E

BLOG &…FORM & VOID STAR13500E

MAAAILLL!

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This may also be viewed at http://davesim.blogspot.com/

___________________________________________________

If you wish to contact Dave Sim, you can mail a letter (he does NOT receive emails) to:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674
Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2

Looking for a place to purchase Cerebus phonebooks? You can do so online through Win-Mill Productions -- producers of Following Cerebus. Convenient payment with PayPal:

http://spectrummagazines.bizland.com/cerebusgn.chtml

Or, you can check out Mars Import:

http://www.marsimport.com/display_series.php?ID=142

Or ask your local retailer to order them for you through Diamond Comics distributors. Here are the Diamond Star System codes:

Cerebus #1-25 $30.00 STAR00070

High Society #26-50 $30.00 STAR00071

Church and State I #52-80 $35.00 STAR00271

Church and State II #81-111 $35.00 STAR00321

Jaka's Story #114-136 $30.00 STAR00359

Melmoth #139-150 $20.00 STAR00431

Flight #151-162 $20.00 STAR00543

Women #163-174 $20.00 STAR00849

Reads #175-186 $20.00 STAR01063

Minds #187-200 $20.00 STAR01916

Guys #201-219 $25.00 STAR06972

Rick's Story #220-231 $20.00 STAR08468

Going Home I #232-250 $30.00 STAR10981

Form and Void #251-265 $30.00 STAR13500

Latter Days #266 - 288 $35.00 AUG031920

The Last Day #289 - 300 $25.00 APR042189

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REPLIES POSTED ON THE CEREBUS YAHOO! GROUP
___________________________________________________
If you wish to contact Dave Sim, you can mail a letter (he does NOT receive emails) to:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674
Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2