1. Dave Sim was born on 17 May 1956 and is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, known for his comic book Cerebus, his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political and philosophical beliefs.
Dave Sim initially conceived it as a parody of Conan the Barbarian and other sword and sorcery comics, but after two years he began to consider the series a self-contained work that would run for 300 issues and be subdivided into novels.
Dave Sim worked on Cerebus Archives afterward, and he produced the comic books Glamourpuss, which examines the history of photorealistic comics, and Judenhass, about the Holocaust.
Dave Sim co-founded the small press publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim with his wife-to-be, Deni Loubert, in 1977.
Dave Sim helped create the Creator's Bill of Rights in 1988.
Dave Sim has criticized the use of copyright to restrict creators, and has arranged for his body of work to fall into the public domain following his death.
Dave Sim has already released one of his works, Judenhass, to the public domain.
Dave Sim's father was a factory supervisor at Budd Automotive and worked as a labour negotiator.
Dave Sim became interested in comic books when he was eight.
Dave Sim found inspiration in Mad magazine, particularly Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood's "Superduperman" parody, as well as underground cartoonist Jack Jackson's Conan parody.
Dave Sim wrote and drew comics throughout his adolescence, and he began submitting work to fanzines.
Dave Sim's first published work was some articles in the comics fanzine Rocket's Blast Comicollector.
Dave Sim had submitted artwork as well and, although it was rejected, Sim struck up a relationship with editor Gabe Quintanilla, who encouraged him to continue submitting material.
Dave Sim produced another issue in 1973, but he had begun devoting his time to John Balge's Comic Art News and Reviews, another Canadian comics fanzine.
Dave Sim then pursued syndication, pitching The Beavers to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.
Dave Sim wrote or drew stories published in anthologies such as Phantacea and Star*Reach.
Around this time, Dave Sim's work was published by Charlton Comics and Warren Publishing.
In December 1977, Dave Sim began publishing Cerebus, an initially bi-monthly, black-and-white comic book series.
Progressively, Dave Sim shifted his narrative style to story arcs of a few issues' length.
The sword and sorcery elements in the series, prominent up to that point, were minimized as Dave Sim concentrated more on politics.
In 1979, during a time when he was taking large doses of LSD, Dave Sim was hospitalized for treatment of schizophrenia-like symptoms.
Groth took issue with a 1992 speech Dave Sim had given to Diamond Comic Distributors, which, at the time, was the exclusive distributor of most major US comic book publishers.
Dave Sim has called the complete run of Cerebus a 6,000-page novel, a view shared by several academic writers and comics historians.
Dave Sim purchased Gerhard's stake in Aardvark-Vanaheim and has made arrangements for the copyright of Cerebus to fall into the public domain following his death.
In 2009, Dave Sim began publishing Cerebus Archive, a bimonthly presentation of his work before and surrounding Cerebus.
Dave Sim was often the primary feature of the shows, either interviewing comics legends or showing behind the scenes at Aardvark-Vanaheim.
In 2020, Dave Sim ceased work on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond.
Dave Sim has criticized the use of copyrights to restrict the use of creations which would have more quickly become public domain under earlier copyright law.
Dave Sim has stated that other creators are free to use his characters in their own works, which he characterizes as an attempt to be consistent with his own appropriation of others' works.
Dave Sim characterized Voids as "without a glimmer of understanding of intellectual processes" and declared that "Light does not Breed".
When Smith contested this, Dave Sim accused Smith of lying and challenged Smith to a boxing match, which Smith declined.
In 2008, Dave Sim sent out a self-written form letter to individuals who had sent him mail, detailing his disagreement with being called a misogynist and disenchantment with what he perceived as a dearth of support in refuting those claims to his character.
Groth took issue with a 1992 speech Dave Sim had given to Diamond Comic Distributors, which, at the time, was the exclusive distributor of most major US comic book publishers.
In September 2018, Dave Sim publicly voiced support for Ethan Van Sciver, a leading figure in the Comicsgate movement.
Van Sciver hired Dave Sim to write a story for Van Sciver's creator-owned book Cyberfrog.
On February 27,2015 Dave Sim suffered a wrist injury, and was physically unable to draw.