Dave Sim and Manly Matt Dow return for the third Please Hold For Dave Sim of 2026.

This time out:

• Matt discusses Dave objections to the 1982 Tour Book prototype
• Dave explains his objections
• Dave updates everybody on all the projects in the pipeline
• Matt (and David Birdsong) came up with Cerebus Eisner Hall of Fame Merch
• Dante Alighieri and his habit of hiding his work in walls?
• The Clint Eastwood film The Beguiled and Dave's Cerebus parody of it The Beguiling
• Cerebus in Absolute Wonder Woman?
• The worst best copy of Cerebus #1 you'll ever see
• Mrs. Tynsdale-Coyde's tea
• Dave answers a letter Al Nickerson sent
• Dave's favorite illustrators
• Writing the humor in Cerebus in Hell?
• Dave praises David Birdsong's work on CiH?
• How Dave pitched Cerebus #1 in 1977
• Dave's plans for getting help if he needs it now that he doesn't have a phone or fax anymore
• Two handed brush inking
• The really complex reason Dave wears the ring he does
• Dave's first drafting table
• Cheaper Cerebus in Hell? Kickstarter books

Woo doggie, it's a blast!

And now to get ready for next month's Please Hold For Dave Sim.

(If you've enjoyed this, or other episodes of Please Hold, please consider making a donation to the "Dave Sim Fund" to help support Dave since Diamond Comic Distributors have gone out of business, cutting of a key source of Aardvark Vanaheim's revenue.)

((Matt doesn't get paid either since Sp*t*fy took over. But he's living comfortably, so you don't gotta sweat about him.))

Dave Sim returns for the second Please Hold For Dave Sim of 2026

This time:

• Friend to the Blog Steve Swenson sent Dave something Margaret had and Dave didn't (not the obvious)
• Dave is getting inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame
• More discussion of Ernie Hemingway and his boxing
• Dave answers if the Varkdalorian will ever be in comic shops
• Dave discusses Tom Palmer Jr.'s idea of reprinting the Silverspoon strips
• Lee Thacker did a mock-up of Panther X, and Dave responds
• Dave answers to James Banderas-Smith's question
• Dave answers Anonymous' question about the unauthorized Citadel miniatures
• Dave answers April C.'s latest
• Dave got a fan letter
• Dave answer's MJ Sewall's question about the photo covers of Cerebus

We're back for 2026.

This time:

• Manly Matt Dow "cuts 'em off at the pass", and answers the question "How was your Christmas Matt?" before anybody can ask him...
• And Dave Sim gets indelicate...
• Dave Sim discusses the latest Tales From the Wedding Present Annual he received from Lee Thacker
• Dave Sim talks about a historical photo of Ernest Hemingway from 1953
• Dave Sim got a Christmas card from David L. Russell.
• Dave Sim discusses Christoph McNeill's 2010 Bill Sienkiewicz commission of Cerebus
• author MJ Sewall has a question for Dave about...rulers?
• Larry Wooten has a question about a con sketch he acquired
• author MJ Sewall has a question about Denis Kitchen and his role in the publication of "Dave Sim's Last Girlfriend", Susan Alston's (so far as I can tell) unpublished book on her relationship with Dave Sim.
• And Manly Matt Dow reminds Everybody about his "relationship" with Denis Kitchen
•  @creative_fey  has comments on last month's Please Hold, and new questions. Dave Sim has answers.

All this and more or something. Honestly, just listen to the thing. You ain't busy...

Cerebus creator Dave Sim returns for the last Please Hold For Dave Sim of 2025, and it's the Christmas episode!

In this Please Hold:

• I have no idea.
• Back when we recorded these things live over the phone, I'd take notes.
• But now that Dave doesn't have a phone, I send the questions and he records the answers.
• Usually I do the Audio after I edit all the videos, but this month I'm pressed for time and wanted to see how long the whole shebang was.
• An hour and thirty five-ish minutes.
• So I haven't listened to anything.
• I dunno if I was supposed to insert audio anywhere.
• It's a surprise for everybody!

It's the November Please Hold For Dave Sim, wherein Dave:

• Dave gets the missing bits from the October Faux
• Dave answers MJ Sewall's question about Music
• Dave discusses Tristan and Iseult and the Research I found on it
• Dave discusses why there's no print glamourpuss collection

Dave wanted me to record my bit from the Faux, but that involves more work than it's worth. Here's what I said:

"Well, the comic art stuff is basically The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, and the fashion parody material is essentially the humor in Cerebus in Hell?, so glamourpuss is (ya know, if you squint a little) continuing in the pages of those two books. In my opinion, your results may vary…"

and

"Ian!

 The sad answer is that the hardcovers don't bring in enough money to justify the cost (I think there are things that could be done to lower said costs, but since Dave isn't a "hardcover guy", it's a moot point...)

 Softcovers are losers too since Diamond is out of business, and them buying a significant chunk of the print run is the only way to finance the 17 to 20 grand printing bill.

Dave has said that he's open to printing expensive "one offs" of any of the out of print phonebooks through Studio Comix Press.

 But, I'll ask, things might have changed...

Manly

 So, there’s that to chew over while you munch your…wait, I already did that joke, didn’t I?"

• Dave discusses a technique he picked up from Little Annie Fannie
• Dave discusses a Fake Cerebus page
• Dave discusses new printings of the phonebooks

It's a hoot.

See you next month...

Hey, look Dave Sim's back answering peoples questions and comments and reminiscing about..."the good times".

Like:

• MJ Sewall wrote Dave a letter. He's also working on a biography of Dave. Jeff Seiler would NOT be pleased...
• Matt (that's me) asked Dave for status updates on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond and the Ninja High School crossover.
• Then Steve Bissette got into the Eisner Hall of Fame. I let Dave know.
• James Banderas-Smith tagged me in a thing about Jim Raymond, Alex's brother and the artist on Blondie dying. And I thought it was weird that both Jim Raymond and Stan Drake worked on Blondie. AND Dave drops some knowledge!
• Then Dave discusses an old WAP article James Bananarama-Smith found...
• and the Marvel "Cease & Desist" letter Dave got about the Wolveroach...
• and the Poster for The Towering Inferno...
• Mario said some nice things about me, Dave says some nice things too.
• And then things in the Faux went missing so Dave talks about his Mom throwing away his comics. (Which led Matt to track down an article from Playboy from December 1970. "I was googling Playboy for the ARTICLES, Ma!".)

Good times, good times...

Dave Sim (acoustically) and Matt Dow (spiritually/editorially/technically/not-actually) return for the...uh...eight, nine, SEPTEMBER Please Hold For Dave Sim. In this one:

• Dave and Matt need to change how they do these things.
• And then Dave discusses the Late Jim Shooter's remembrance of the Wolveroach affair.

• MJ Sewall (who's writing a biography of Dave Sim, I know, Jeff Seiler is spinning in his grave...) has a question that Dave has a sorta answer to.
• Dave remembers the late Jim Shooter and their relationship, including how Dave's portfolio of Marvel characters "Original Sim" appeared in Marvel Fanfare #25. And how the planned Cerebus/X-Men crossover came to be.
• Dave gets follow-ups to the July/August Please Hold from our resident transcriptionist  @SanctuaryofReality ​
• Dave answers questions and comments from  @creative_fey  .
• Dave answers Rodney Schroeter's question.
• David Birdsong has some questions, and Dave has some Cerebus in Hell? ideas...
• Dave answers a number of questions from MJ Sewall relating to MJ's upcoming biography about Dave.
• Dave's dramatic reading of a short story sent in by Byron Dunbar, which ties in to the last two pages of The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Dave has completed.

Geez, you thought it was over just because it was the first Saturday of the month?

Fool!

"Having no working phone or fax, the idea of recording these as a live conversation between Dave Sim and Manly Matt Dow on the first Thursday of the month has pretty much gone out the window. Now, Matt sends whatever questions he's gotten up to Dave once a week, and Dave records answers and sends those files back. And then Matt edits them into these things forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and..."

Dave talks alot about the things I sent him. I dunno, writing these synopsizes is a pain...

Having no working phone or fax, the idea of recording these as a live conversation between Dave Sim and Manly Matt Dow on the first Thursday of the month has pretty much gone out the window. Now, Matt sends whatever questions he's gotten up to Dave once a week, and Dave records answers and sends those files back. Which means it's easier to produce the video version on the YouTube then it it to make the audio version on the Spotify...

This month, Dave talks for around three and a half hours. And this isn't even all the questions, so there will probably be a part two...

So... Dave Sim currently has no working phone, or fax machine.

"That means no more Please Hold right?"

Sorry Imaginary Spotify listener, who I didn't even realize lives rent free in my head, as they say "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". Which means, Dave and I found a workaround. I email the Qs to the printshop, and they print them out, Dave's assistant picks them up, and then Dave records his As on his professional recorder (so the sound is REAL good!), has it sent to me, and I cobble it all together.

"Wait, no Matt-meandering-gobbledeygook? That's gotta make this pretty short..."

You'd think that, but the Audio runs two hours and thirty-five minutes...

This time: (I haven't listened to these fully, so I can only go by what I sent Dave)

• Dave discusses a box of stuff Matt Sent
• Then a PRE-Hold For Dave Sim, of things I would have just faxed up as they came across my desk, but I sent to be printed the same day as this month's questions
• Then the official questions:

1. Matt remembers Jeff Seiler
2. Dave remembers Jackson "Butch" Guice and Peter David
3. A message from Zolastraya
4. Fernando Ramirez's next Cerebus short story
5. @creative_fey AKA April C.'s next batch of questions
6. Jesse Herndon's Please Hold transcript for July 2024
7. Zombie Cerebus covers
8. "CEREBUS ARCHIVE - FIRST RELEASE" gold seals
9. the indicia on issue #6
10. the day Elvis and his mom died and Madonna was born
11. Strange Death of Alex Raymond original art portfolios?
12. This month's Please Hold strip

That's what I asked, but, again, I haven't listened to the whole thing, so no idea what Dave may have skipped/cut out.

Let's find out together!