Eddie Khanna: CHARIOT OF THE QUEEN, CHARIOT OF THE AARDVARKS

Hi, Everybody!

Your ol' Interim Editor "Manly" Matt Dow is still giving away free @#$%!

And this week's auction is at $101 (US) to Jeff Seiler.

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Heir to the Throne Eddie Khanna sent in:

Hi Matt, I did another post for AMOC about my visit to Kitchener, for your consideration. Let me know if you need anything fixed or tweaked.

-Eddie

Thanks Eddie! (But I edit stuff all by myself. You forgot an "L"...) -"Manly"
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EDDIE KHANNA:

During my visit, Dave took me on the “CEREBUS WALKING TOUR”; locations around Kitchener relevant to Dave Sim and CEREBUS…

(it had started off as a “weird day.” While ordering an iced coffee in the morning on my way to meet Dave, the barista had repeated my order (completely serious) as “a coffee, no ice.” The weather was also different; much more cloudy than it had been up to that point during my stay, and there was something in the air. I mentioned it to Dave when I met him)

…and the last stop was the Buena Vista Villa, significant for being where Dave first lived after moving out of his parents’ house, and where he created Cerebus , and also where he found his landlord dead the morning after a Christmas party (detailed in CEREBUS ARCHIVE #9 and #14). This is the transcript of the tour as we were coming to the end of the tour and wrapping up:

Dave: So this is the Buena Vista Villa, and this is new. I've never seen that inset sign before. This is where I was first living when I moved out. This is actually where I created Cerebus.

Eddie: You talked about it in one of the CEREBUS ARCHIVE issues.

Dave: Yep. Dave Dwyer owned the whole works, who was a local photographer, a local gay photographer, and the house went back further than this. It's all been redone and modernized. This used to be Dave Dwyer’s office on the side. That is where I discovered him dead after one of his parties. If you look at these four windows just about where…here I’ll let you get a better angle on it…

Eddie: Oh there’s somebody in there. I don't know if he's going to want us to…ahhh let's just do it …whatever…

(at this point Dave and I were standing outside of an office window, and you could see someone working at their desk inside. I figured I would just go ahead and take pictures, and stop if they came out to ask me to stop)

Dave: Just about where that drainpipe is, is how far over the house used to go.  It was actually, in terms of the original Buena Vista Villa, it was the pantry at the back that I lived, in which was actually large enough to be a one room apartment. And this used to be the Cameo Modelling school

Eddie: Sorry, the what?

Dave: The “Cameo Modelling School”

Eddie: (laughs)

Dave: And this was a carriage house and that was where Dave Dwyer lived, and you can see where the two walls are fused, that used to go past there, and like I say, the pantry was over on this side and this was just like a laneway going between the two of them. 

So that's pretty much the walking tour.

Eddie: It's interesting how [many of the locations on the tour] are on a line; like a lot of it is just here…here…here.

Dave: Yeah it was definitely a Chess game centering on the Queen, I think. It's Queen Street, and I moved in on Queen Street and then over to Weber Street, and then back to Queen Street. All of that took place after Now & Then Books started [on Queen Street].

A few seconds later, walking back through the parking lot of the Buena Vista Villa, a parked car caught Dave’s eye .

Dave: Look at the license plate. AV 3. It's the paint that's left. It's BAVM 319

Eddie: ..What does that mean…

Dave: (without missing a beat) Three is the number of the Empress, which would be the Queen.

Eddie: (…starts laughing)

Dave: There is some sort of weird texture today. The air isn't quite as heavy as it was, but it feels very very difficult to think today. Might just be the caffeine.

Eddie: Which is fine. We’re adaptable.

Dave: Yes, oh yeah. We're completely philosophical about all this stuff.

Eddie: (laughing)

*****

Of course, I thought afterwards, “AV 3” in a CEREBUS context would also mean 3 Aardvarks. Looking into it a bit further, I found that FIAT can mean “a command or act of will that creates something without or as if without further effort,” and is from the Latin meaning “Let it be Done”. Also found in the Latin translation of “Let there be Light” from Genesis as “fiat lux”.

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"Manly" Matt again,

Thanks again, Eddie!

(Of course you guys are missing the OBVIOUS clue that BAVM 319 is a reference to Uncanny X-Men #319, where Nightcrawler teleports after being attacked by the Reavers, and instead of his regular "BAMF" sound effect, they lettered it as "BAVM". That Fiat is OBVIOUSLY owned by Kitchener's #1 Nightcrawler fan...)

Next Time: F    You! That's TOTALLY TRUE about Nightcrawler! Why would I lie?!?