Hi Anthony! - To me, it doesn't really fit as an epilogue to CHURCH & STATE. That is, I think the end of 111 is much stronger relative to C&S in toto than 112-113 is. It's a NECESSARY story but in and of itself: what it's like to return to your previous context from a completely otherworldly context. But it really needs to be divorced from the previous context to keep from diminishing the otherworldly nature of that previous context. It has to be completely unclear how long Cerebus is just...absorbing...the whole thing before 112-113 gets rolling: and to have the inference that it was a while. Otherwise it looks as if he just went "Oh, well" and got on with his day. Which implicitly diminishes the contextual impact of what he went through.
In the same sense, to me, it doesn't fit as a prologue to JAKA'S STORY. The inference would be that JAKA'S STORY starts with Cerebus. When the opposite is true. Cerebus is far more "about" Jaka than Jaka is "about" Cerebus. Cerebus finds way more meaning being "with" Jaka -- even tangentially -- than Jaka does from being with Cerebus.
Consider how traumatic an event CHURCH & STATE was for Cerebus and yet he doesn't say a word about it once he's living with Rick and Jaka. He just becomes what Jaka wants him to be and forgets everything else about himself.
It doesn't really work to reprint 112-113 in ANY context, I don't think, although we did reprint it as part of NUMBER ZERO. The best way to get the actual effect of the context of the story is to finish reading CHURCH & STATE II, put it down, go and get your bagged and boarded copy of 112-113, unbag and unboard it. Read it. Re-bag and re-board it. And then pick up JAKA'S STORY and start reading.
The first issue I ever bought or read of Cerebus. I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I knew I had to find out.
From there I went from picking up back issues/phonebooks/swords volumes pretty much in any order I could find them, and it was a long time before I actually read the story in it's intended order. Didn't matter though, it was a blast!
8 comments:
Maybe this has been addressed before, but why was this story never reprinted in the phone books?
It serves as a nice little segue into Jaka's Story.
Favorite. Issue.
Ever.
A bit easier to proofread than Reads, eh Jeff?
Hi Anthony! - To me, it doesn't really fit as an epilogue to CHURCH & STATE. That is, I think the end of 111 is much stronger relative to C&S in toto than 112-113 is. It's a NECESSARY story but in and of itself: what it's like to return to your previous context from a completely otherworldly context. But it really needs to be divorced from the previous context to keep from diminishing the otherworldly nature of that previous context. It has to be completely unclear how long Cerebus is just...absorbing...the whole thing before 112-113 gets rolling: and to have the inference that it was a while. Otherwise it looks as if he just went "Oh, well" and got on with his day. Which implicitly diminishes the contextual impact of what he went through.
In the same sense, to me, it doesn't fit as a prologue to JAKA'S STORY. The inference would be that JAKA'S STORY starts with Cerebus. When the opposite is true. Cerebus is far more "about" Jaka than Jaka is "about" Cerebus. Cerebus finds way more meaning being "with" Jaka -- even tangentially -- than Jaka does from being with Cerebus.
Consider how traumatic an event CHURCH & STATE was for Cerebus and yet he doesn't say a word about it once he's living with Rick and Jaka. He just becomes what Jaka wants him to be and forgets everything else about himself.
It doesn't really work to reprint 112-113 in ANY context, I don't think, although we did reprint it as part of NUMBER ZERO. The best way to get the actual effect of the context of the story is to finish reading CHURCH & STATE II, put it down, go and get your bagged and boarded copy of 112-113, unbag and unboard it. Read it. Re-bag and re-board it. And then pick up JAKA'S STORY and start reading.
There. That's how Cerebus experienced it!
Cool! Thanks Dave.
I believe every copy of this issue I've ever seen or owned had that printing hickey below the 'e'.
Solid color areas like that are notorious for being hickey magnets!
Someone at Preney fell asleep at the press...
Steve
The first issue I ever bought or read of Cerebus. I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I knew I had to find out.
From there I went from picking up back issues/phonebooks/swords volumes pretty much in any order I could find them, and it was a long time before I actually read the story in it's intended order. Didn't matter though, it was a blast!
28-years? Tempus fugit indeed!
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