“Uh, Guys, I’m Right Here” (2018)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
22 x 17 in., brush and ink on 2 Bristol boards
Coppola Collection

January 2018 Commission to go with the Take On Me comic

One of my favorite comic book sequences EVER appears on the last couple of pages of Cerebus #200, which is by some accounts the actual end of the story followed by a 100 issue epilogue. The sequence shares a great deal in common with the iconic music video for the A-Ha hit “Take On Me,” in the depiction of comic art pages as a dynamic narrative in which the action of the world is being captured.

Carson Grubaugh is a young artist whom Dave Sim has been working with on some of the art chores for the (as of this writing) upcoming “Strange Death of Alex Raymond” and “You Don’t Know Jack” books.

With Carson entering the artistic world of Dave Sim, who (with Gerhard) is certainly mainly known for the decades-long work on Cerebus, I thought it would be fun to have Carson being (quote) drawn into the world (unquote) of Dave and Ger’s creative work using the established gateway between worlds represented by those last few pages of Cerebus #200.

I am only taking inspiration credit, here, as the visualization and details are all Carson’s. I am super-pleased to have this 2-page spread in my collection.

The drawing is on two 11″ x 17″ 2-ply Strathmore 500 series Bristol boards taped together, ink over the top of a blue-line print.

Carson notes: I don’t have any of the Letratone tapes Ger used for the greys, and from Sean’s posts it sounds like they aren’t anywhere near archival, so I tried to mimic them by hand. The noise ones are easy enough, but boy! – that even pattern over Cerebus was a beast. Not perfect, but it works well enough from viewing distance. Same with Ger’s toothbrush effect for the cover of #200: too hard to re-create using the original method, so I just stippled the thing.