“The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Bookplate Sketch)” by Carson Grubaugh

“The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Bookplate Sketch)” (2021)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
drawing in pen
Coppola Collection

In The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, Dave Sim, legendary creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, and Carson Grubaugh, talented and creative artist across multiple media, explore and examine the line-making techniques of some of comics' greatest photorealist creators.

The art is impressive. And thanks to work of master production designer and line-smith, Sean Michael Robinson, the integrity of the printing and reproduction is truly unmatched.

“The Strange Death of Alex Raymond” (SDOAR) is self-contained in a 320-page, 8.25x12 inch oversized hardcover book.

From April 28 – May 22, 2021, the book was available at a pre-sale Kickstarter, a S/N limited edition sold out on May 10. Original art is available from Carson.

Kickstarter.com, search for “The Strange Death of Alex Raymond” for the rest of the history.

I enjoy Carson’s art and really like having the pieces that I’ve picked up or commissioned. He is also a terrific person to work with, and we share a real-life connection as academics.

There was one reward tier in the Kickstarter, a 1/1 edition that included the original art for the bookplate affixed to the book along with a few pages of original art (called the “morbid” level because the tier price of $906.56 is the date of the titular death).

Yes, yes… that was me who got it. I also picked up some other art that I liked from the book.

During the campaign, Carson posted the draft for an earlier version of the bookplate, one where he and Dave were locked in a cosmic battle, swirling in a fray while a Rip Kirby character reassures us that all is swell. Dave rejected it as an idea. I did not. So, for an extra dollop of money, I commissioned Carson to complete the art and to attach it to the inside back cover as Bookplate #2 for the 1/1 edition.

The big reveal waited until the book was in my hands.

This book has the full page of original art for the actual bookplate pasted in as the inside front cover.

And this book has the full page of original art for the unused bookplate, completed, as the inside back cover.

And the standard, signed bookplate with #183 was mistakenly stickered into the book before Carson realized it needed to be the custom 1/1 numbering, so I still requested the 1/1 bookplate.

How to customize it?

Then Carson told me the story about how Dave customized Carson’s Rip Cerebus print, “where he took what I did, whited out parts of my face, and made me uglier. Hahaha. The nose on that last one looks like it was done by a man who wishes violence on another man...”

So, I suggested to Carson that he could return the favor and do a quid pro quo /quote/portrait/unquote of Dave for the bookplate (bwah hah hah hah). He liked that idea and selected an image where Dave had been under medical care and signaling his good health while hooked up to a breathing tube.