Dave Sim's blogandmail #229 (April 28th, 2007)

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Fifteen Impossible Things to Believe Before Breakfast That Make You a Good Feminist

1. A mother who works a full-time job and delegates to strangers the raising of her children eight hours a day, five days a week does just as good a job as a mother who hand-rears her children full time.

2. It makes great sense for the government to pay 10 to 15,000 dollars a year to fund a daycare space for a child so its mother - who pays perhaps 2,000 dollars in taxes - can be a contributing member of society.

3. A woman's doctor has more of a valid claim to participate in the decision to abort a fetus than does the father of that fetus.

4. So long as a woman makes a decision after consulting with her doctor, she is incapable of making an unethical choice.

5. A car with two steering wheels, two gas pedals and two brakes drives more efficiently than a car with one steering wheel, one gas pedal and one brake which is why marriage should always be an equal partnership.

6. It is absolutely necessary for women to be allowed to join or participate fully in any gathering place for men, just as it is absolutely necessary that there be women only environments from which men are excluded.

7. Because it involves taking jobs away from men and giving them to women, affirmative action makes for a fairer and more just society.

8. It is important to have lower physical standards for women firepersons and women policepersons so that, one day, half of all firepersons and policepersons will be women, thus more effectively protecting the safety of the public.

9. Affirmative action at colleges and universities needs to be maintained now that more women than men are being enrolled, in order to keep from giving men an unfair advantage academically.

10. Having ensured that there is no environment for men where women don't belong (see no.6) it is important to have zero tolerance of any expression or action which any woman might regard as sexist to ensure greater freedom for everyone.

11. Only in a society which maintains a level of 95% of alimony and child support being paid by men to women can men and women be considered as equals.

12. An airline stewardess who earned $20,000 a year at the time that she married a baseball player earning $6 million a year is entitled, in the event of a divorce, to $3 million for each year of the marriage and probably more.

13. A man's opinions on how to rear and/or raise a child are invalid because he is not the child's mother. However, his financial obligation is greater because no woman gets pregnant by herself.

14. Disagreeing with any of these statements makes you anti-woman and/or a misogynist.

15. Legislature Seats must be allocated to women and women must be allowed to bypass the democratic winnowing process in order to guarantee female representation and, thereby, make democracy fairer.

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Long-time reader and Yahoo

In good standing, Larry Hart

sent me a sneak preview of his contribution to Cerebus Readers in Crisis #2, "Following Larry" which speculates on his own Afterlife experience. He's asked me to use discretion so as not to give it away, so I'll just say that it's pretty good. He's going to be at SPACE as well! Oh, uh, I mean, he was at SPACE last week. Very nice…uh…seeing him again.


A nice letter from Alex Robinson dated 18 February:


Dear Dave,


I hope this letter finds you well. I was sparked to write (or more accurately write back) after stumbling across your blog on the internets and reading about how you have been ill. You've obviously made it to the post office and picked up this letter, so at least there's that.


I was also surprised and saddened to read about how Gerhard has decided to end your long term partnership, since you had seemed like the ideal team, both artistically and creatively. I'm sure I'm not the only one who envied the idea of having a background artist as good as he was. It would be nice to think of you guys parting amicably after all you've been through together, but given the pattern of departures at A-V I have my doubts.


Hey, Alex! Well, on my part "amicable" or "not amicable" didn't really enter into it. As I wrote earlier in the week, there were and are larger "creator's rights" issues at stake once Gerhard made it plain that he was leaving, so my only real concern is that it be done properly and ethically in case anyone in the future is in need of a template of the best way of doing these things. I don't think we were the ideal team but I definitely worked very hard to make sure that the professional relationship was structured in as close to an ideal (that is the most highly ethical) way that I could manage. I like to think that the fact that Gerhard stuck it out for the duration and for three years after meant that I did at least a tolerable job in that area. Also there's the fact that I got through more than two decades without the extremist left wing Comics Journal even once suggesting that I was exploiting him as A Comic-Book Worker. Considering they've accused me of virtually everything else, I'll take that as a credential.


I'm sure I've mentioned that my first issue of Cerebus was Gerhard's too (and it was called "Anything Done For the First Time Unleashes a Demon!" which definitely seems like the kind of coincidence [Coincidence?] you'd like, especially considering what an impact you guys had on my life and art).


It's somewhat belated, but I'm enclosing the latest issue of HUSKY for your reading pleasure. The odd part is that I always seem to send you these right before the new issue comes out (we plan on having #3 ready for the New York Comicon next weekend). If I was a more frequent correspondent this wouldn't be a problem, I suppose. Anyway, it's the next three chapters of my new graphic novel 2 COOL 2 B 4GOTTEN. I've actually gotten distracted from it, lately, with what is probably the equivalent of your drawing-cute-girls-in-Al-Williamson mode. I got stuck on 2 COOL so I decided to do something fun as a break: hot barbarian girl fighting various monsters in dark caves (using my patented "blackgrounds" technique). I haven't had this much fun drawing since I was twelve. I have a rough idea where the "story" is going to go but it's pretty simple (and no talking!) so it's pretty much just drawing for drawing's sake. I'll make sure to send you one when it's done (if you like).


I LIKE, I LIKE! 2 COOL is coming along nicely as well. Did you and Tony decide to do the tandem package to force each other to work? I mean, you'd sure hate to be the guy holding up the works if the other guy was finished a week ago. Of course, if you've gotten stuck on 2 COOL that sort of gives him license to get stuck (or "stuck") on Titanius. Early on, that would happen with Ger and I where I'd be looking at the pages on the wall and see that I was, say, four pages ahead, so I'd slow down figuring that I didn't have to get any more pages done until I saw that Ger was only a page behind. But Ger would be looking at the pages and going, "Well, I'm still only four pages behind, so I don't really need to pick up the pace until Dave is, say, six pages ahead." Also, he could futz around on two pages for a week and then suddenly rip through four pages in four days so I learned never to think of myself as having a comfortable lead. Even when I was two issues ahead, I'd still keep producing pages and sure enough by the time we got to issue 300 it was all I could do to stay a page or two ahead of him.


Yeah, I have to work on that cute-girls-in-Al-Williamson-mode thing on my next project after my secret project. I've already figured out how to incorporate it and I've started pulling pictures out of magazines when I run across them. I've got a great shot of Avril Lavigne. It's really true that drawing comics is so time-consuming you better make sure you enjoy what it is that you're drawing a good percentage of the time.


Monday: More Fun With Alex Robinson!

Tomorrow: SUNDAY!

THERE'S MORE FOR YOU

IN TODAY'S BLOG &

MAAIIILLL

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REPLIES POSTED ON THE CEREBUS YAHOO! GROUP
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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

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