Like-A-Looks

Like-A-Looks (Cerebus #138, September 1990)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

DAVE SIM:
(from the introduction to Cerebus #137-138 in Cerebus #0, June 1993)

Stories have circulated since World War II that Adolf Hitler had a number of look-a-like imitators that the Nazis used for public appearances when it seemed that there was too great a chance of danger to send the real Adolf. Much of the Illuminati mythology concerns itself with the fact that General George Washington was replaced by Adam Weisshaupt some time before he was made the first President of the United States. There have even been reports that Winston Churchill and FDR did the same thing.

Altogether unlikely, but it does make a great theory. Since I have far too much time on my hands, I started thinking that that would make a very neat explanation of why the Grandlord of Palnu would have a painted on eyebrows and a moustache. As can be seen from the 'mirror scene' in Duck Soup, anyone wearing the right clothes and having painted on eyebrows and a moustache is going to look like Groucho. What if that was Lord Julius' plan, so that he could always have a look-a-like on hand if he wanted to go away on vacation. I had even toyed with the idea of writing a story at some point in which Lord Julius is interviewing candidates for like-a-look and if they can keep up with him verbally so that by the end of the interview he can't figure out whether he or they is/are the real Lord Julius they're hired... The upshot of the whole enterprise was to show people that the Lord Julius in a dress [who appeared in Jaka's Story] was not the real Lord Julius. The first three letters I got on Like-a-Looks all said, "Loved the story; but why was Lord Julius wearing a dress at the beginning?"

You can't win.