Friday 24 June 2016

"Cerebus In Hell?" - Comic Strip #8

CEREBUS IN HELL? #0 ships 28th September 2016
(Diamond Order Code: JUL161105)
Read CEREBUS IN HELL? daily at CerebusDownloads.com

CEREBUS IN HELL? strip #8 - 
This one was prompted by our -- quite late -- discovery of the fact that there is an amputated arm climbing up the front of Dante's cassock in Gustave Dore's print of the scene. 

An oversight attributable, we think, to the wise old adage "The infernal shades of 'decapitees' waving their severed heads attract disproportionate attention to themselves". 

Had we -- as a society -- not allowed that wise old aphorism to fall into popular disuse in recent years, arguably, we might have been spared all/most of/a good deal of Donald Trump's largely-inexplicable-but-altogether-riveting campaign for President. 


Oh, well. Too late now. 

8 comments:

Jeff Seiler said...

Wow! Just two hours in, and you guys are already resorting to the lowest form of humour?

Pretty sure Dante hasn't yet made his way even close to the seventh circle, which I beieve is reserved for among others, punsters.

Unknown said...

No no. Literalist Limbo. Absolutely nothing to do with puns.

Stephen R. Bissette said...

Actually, I've got a theory about that arm... it was (1) the engraver's misinterpretation of the pencil art by Dore, or (2) Dore's premonition about the eventual making of THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS.

One of the two.

Anonymous said...

Either that, or (3) it was handy, or (4) Hemingway had this illustration in mind when he wrote A FAREWELL TO ARMS, or (5) this was the inspiration for the novel and film IN ARM'S WAY.

Unknown said...

Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

Unknown said...

Steve - Actually, there are a lot of places where you really have to wonder if a) one of the engravers just completely missed the point of part of Dore's drawing b) Panemaker (sp?) was fixing Dore a lot of the time and the other engravers just didn't have his chops.

I've got to find a way to do a FAREWELL TO ARMS gag for this plate, now!

Stephen R. Bissette said...

Dave, I couldn't believe you didn't go for A FAREWELL TO ARMS gag for this one.

BTW, Curious in rereading CEREBUS how your frequent intensive research and biographical arcs (i.e., Wilde, Hemingway, etc.) informs the eventual completion of your Alex Raymond project. Time will tell. It was great chatting with you last night briefly about the pleasures of research in and of itself; it's a devotion of mine, and re-engaging with TYRANT® after so many years is reasserting those infinite pleasures, and the fruits of same.

PS: That FAREWELL TO ARMS gag was mine. I couldn't see through the "Prove You Are Not a Robot" test quickly enough to get that post up promptly, so decided, "Fuggit" and there ya go.

Drew Ford said...

Pun overload! haha