David Victor "Dave" Sim is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, best known for his comic book Cerebus, his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creator's rights, and his controversial political, philosophical and religious beliefs.
Sim dropped out of high school to pursue a career in comics, and rose to prominence after he began Cerebus in December 1977. Initially, Cerebus was a parody of Conan the Barbarian and other sword and sorcery comics, but after two years Sim came to conceive of the series as a self-complete work, which would run for 300 issues and be subdivided into "novels". By the time the 6000-page work was completed in March 2004, Sim had delved into politics, theology, metaphysics, and a controversial examination of feminism and gender, while becoming progressively more sophisticated and experimental in his storytelling and artwork. Sim worked on Cerebus Archives after completing Cerebus, and produced the comic books Glamourpuss, which examines the history of photorealistic comics, and Judenhass, about the Holocaust.
Sim co-founded the small press publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim with his wife-to-be, Deni Loubert, in 1977; most of the titles it published moved to Loubert's Renegade Press after their divorce in the mid-1980s. The publishing company was later co-owned by Sim's creative partner, Gerhard, who dissolved their partnership and sold his stake in the company to Sim in 2007.
Sim is a pioneer and advocate of self-publishing as an ideal, and was one of the key figures in the creation of the Creator's Bill of Rights in 1988. His relationship with his readers, colleagues and friends has often been strained, sometimes by the content of his work, and often by his expressed opinions and personal interactions. Most prominently, Sim is often characterized as a misogynist, though he denies the charge. This has resulted in a break with many of his former friends. His idiosyncratic religious conversion in 1996 has coloured his work and writing since, including the later Cerebus novels. He has criticized the use of copyright to restrict creators, and has made arrangements for his body of work to fall into the public domain following his death.
“Reality is reality. It is the way things are, not the way you want them to be in your head.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus/message/108250
Dave Sim's Collected Letters Volume 2 (2007)
“Cerebus: The valuable lesson is that you can get what you want and still not be very happy…”
Source: Church & State volume I (1987), p. 296
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus/message/100634
“[A]n attractive lie is always going to be more popular than a hard truth.”
No. 11, p. 27
Following Cerebus (2004-)
http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/artists/tangent1.php
“Because I say what is empirically true: nothing exists except God, I am deemed to be insane.”
ibid, p. 28
Following Cerebus (2004-)
#2, p. 9
Following Cerebus (2004-)
http://cerebusfangirl.com/artists/0306talk.php
Usually quoted with "Anything" unspaced (as in the title p. 7), sometimes quoted spaced (as in the art p. 273, as<!--variant requoted in full to be googlable too--> "Any<!--spaced--> <!--here-->thing done for the first time unleashes a demon.") because the cover art http://www.comics.org/issue/175338/ piles "Any" and "thing" (though they are joined, the leg of the "y" being also the bar of the "t").
Compare to a quote misattributed to Emily Dickinson: "Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon." (origin and date unknown, also attributed to Dave Sim<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=q4D2Xz5N3xkC&pg=PA66 -->)
Church & State volume I (1987)
Source: Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing (1997), p. 27
“Anything done for the first time unleashes a demon.”
Cover and title of Cerebus #65, August 1984, collected in Church & State I, p. 7 and 273
Usually quoted with "Anything" unspaced (as in the title p. 7), sometimes quoted spaced (as in the art p. 273, as "Any thing done for the first time unleashes a demon.") because the cover art http://www.comics.org/issue/175338/ piles "Any" and "thing" (though they are joined, the leg of the "y" being also the bar of the "t").
Compare to a quote misattributed to Emily Dickinson: "Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon." (origin and date unknown, also attributed to Dave Sim)
Church & State volume I (1987)
Source: Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing (1997), p. 21
“I'd rather live in the gutter embracing reality than live like a king embracing unreality.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus/message/104999
“I'd rather take a major financial hit being honest than get rich by lying.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus/message/105562
Source: Melmoth (1991), p. 41
Source: Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing (1997), p. 20
“No companies are ever going to pay you enough money to sue them successfully.”
Source: Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing (1997), pp. 50-51
http://cerebusfangirl.com/artists/0805talk.php
Source: Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing (1997), p. 21
