Sunday 23 October 2016

Cerebus In Hell? #1

Cerebus In Hell? #1 (of 4)
by Dave Sim & Sandeep Atwal
Aardvark-Vanaheim, $4.00

In Shops: 25 January 2017
Diamond Order Code: NOV160995


Featuring Sandeep Atwal's "It’s Not Scary Because You’re Not Wearing Any Pants." And you thought EC homage covers were passé! Virgil and Dante! Sex and The City Fandom! Frank Sinatra! And 20 – count 'em, 20 – more epic-length four-panel strips loaded with dated Baby Boomer cultural references complete in this issue! Exclamation marks! Comiccraft's Joe Kubert computer font! Funny biographies! Funny house ad!

13 comments:

Jeff Seiler said...

I have hesitated to do this, because of my respect for Dave and Sandeep, and I truly hope that that issue of CIL? has not yet gone to press, but..

But...

You're missing a comma.

Jeff Seiler said...

Now, some would say that one doesn't have to insert a comma where one would pause, while speaking the sentence but, here, I disagree.

Jeff Seiler said...

"Scary Because" begins (implies) a completely different sentence, which seems much scarier than it turns out to be. With a comma between Scary and Because, we are less frightful.

Jeff Seiler said...

Oh, and also, the "Any" before "Pants" is superfluous.

Just doin' my job.

JLH said...

Jeff, I think it works better for conversational flow. "Any pants" is a common manner of saying the term. It's not perfect grammar, but would a barbarian aardvark in Hell really be choosing his words carefully?

But, with you on the missing comma.

Travis Pelkie said...

I disagree. Cerebus isn't pausing there, so a comma is not needed for "It's not scary because you're not wearing any pants!" It might help, but I don't think it's necessary.

And don't do that where you don't say in your first comment WHERE you need the correction, Jeff! If they didn't include the comma in the first place, it's because they didn't think it was necessary, so if you're not saying where it is that the correction is needed, you cause unnecessary confusion! It's like that Starbucks "they're" coffee from a month ago -- the person didn't say what "they're" they were referring to, so they confused Sandeep until you and I pointed out the one that needed correction.

al roney said...

I'm with Travis. Read it out loud. It's funnier without the comma.

Jeff Seiler said...

Well, it was just eight minutes later but, point taken.

I guess...

Unknown said...

Yes, you are obsessive about proofreading, Jeff to the point where ALL you're concerned with is how YOU read it. Your proofreading is great where you're correcting typos, but I tend to side with al and Travis. There are a lot of occasions where punctuation -- accurate as it is -- kills the gag. You are definitely a completely humourless proofreader. Which isn't the best idea with a humour comic. I haven't commented on any of your corrections to each week's worth of strips, leaving it up to Cory or Benjamin to decide if your correction is needed. If anyone wants to discuss those corrections and "corrections" that would be the place to do it: in the comments section for that week's strips and Cory and Benjamin can mull them over.

It's Sandeep's gag so I'm leaving it up to Sandeep. But, personally, I don't think the comma would serve any purpose.

No offence. :)

And your corrections for V1 arrived today. THANK YOU!

Jeff Seiler said...

Well, actually, Dave, I do let some things go because I get the humor. And, I am the first to admit that I am obsessive about proofreading AND that I tend to overemphasize punctuation. But, you'll notice, I hope, that I have almost always layed off of the lack of periods at the end of sentences that end word balloons. That was because, as I hope you might recall, you once told me that you had just spent 30 minutes debating with yourself whether or not to end a word balloon with a period, and then chose not to.

Trust me, when I'm proofreading pages of Cerebus (or most anything else, for that matter), there is definitely a fair share of looooong pauses, tapping my pen on the pad, and debating over commas, periods, semi-colons and colons, and their placement.
(Apostrophes, brackets, parentheses, dashes, ellipses, hyphens, question marks, quotation marks and, finally, virgules, are no-brainers.) ;)

But, thank you for the feedback. Feel free to take another 10% off of the bill. ;)

Jeff Seiler said...

Oh, and, I forgot to add that, as a proofreader, I like to err on the side of being punctilious (for lack of a more accurate word) and then let the Deciders...um...decide.

No offence. :)

Jeff Seiler said...

Oh, and pardon my impoliteness, regarding the V1 corrections:

YOU'RE WELCOME!!!

Unknown said...

Just my two cent's worth: when I first read the line, without the comma, it came over as Cerebus making the comment to himself, in a hurried affirmation styley; with the suggested comma, the line reads as I believe it's meant to: Cerebus chiding his headless hellion regarding his failure to inspire fear based on his lack of penile covering.
Oh, it probably doesn't matter, when all's said and done.

Peace. Out.