Benjamin Hobbs:
Welcome to 2020! This year is going to be filled with excitement, laughs, and of course, 12 ALL NEW CIH? #1s!
The current line-up for the year is:
JAN- The House of Cerebus
FEB- Silver Cerebus
MAR- The Varking Dead
APR- Green Dante/ Green Virgil
MAY- Vark Wars: Walt's Empire Strikes Back
JUN- Attractive Cousins
JUL- The Amicable Spider-Vark
AUG- Spider Whore
SEP- SUPER SECRET BATVARK TITLE
OCT- The Vault of Cerebus
NOV- The Amazing Batvark
DEC- Flaming Cerebus
All these books are in the can and waiting to go to print!
Check out the covers for the first three month's books!
Next Week: A Brand NEW post in a Brand NEW year!
9 comments:
I think I know what the super secret title will be in SEPTEMBER 2020 but I won't divulge how I might know it.
Really? Dave signed off on the title "Spider Whore"? I mean, I get the reference, but on the cover? On the shelf of your favorite LCS? Really?
Hell, I don't even call my regular date a "whore". 😉🤫
I wonder which cover the JUNE 2020 CIH? will parody, maybe an issue of Superman or Action Comics perhaps?
Ok, let me re-phrase that . . . I wonder which classic comic the JUNE 2020 CIH? will have a parody of when it is released? Still thinking it might be that of a Superman Family title. However, The Bat Family of comics had odd relations too, if I remember correctly. My guess is really as good as anybody's at this point in time.
Can I say that at this point I think CIH? is a dead end? The novelty has worn off, hasn't it? This isn't Cerebus, it's zombie Cerebus. Almost none of it is what attracted me to reading Cerebus decades ago. Does the series have a purpose? Is it fulfilling that purpose? I personally prefer that Dave be able to devote whatever energy he's putting into this project into creating SDOAR instead or whatever suits his fancy. Which may be CIH? after all, but I kind of doubt it. I'm at the point where I buy it out of inertia, but don't really enjoy reading it. I want to support Dave & A-V and can't afford the Archive portfolios, so it's this & Patreon.
This may just be me, but I can't help but think that this series is doing more to dilute the value of Cerebus as a viable property for retailers to stock in trade form. This ongoing series has zero relationship to the great original work, which is what should matter most.
I don't think CIH? is a dead end. It's really a commentary on the shibboleths of the day. Dave and his CIH? co-creators are cracking funnies about the absurdities of them. Yes, it's not "Cerebus." Even Dave admits that; however, he purposefully creates CIH? as single page gags, instead of a grand narrative, as "Cerebus" is, by design.
'As for Cerebus’ adventures in Hell, Sim suggested what happens in his Previews interview: “The assumption is that Cerebus is being punished so, instead of 500-page stories [the original dimensions of Cerebus], he’s stuck in 4-panel stories and instead of having a huge spectrum of reactions, he’s limited to one deadpan reaction, one angry reaction and one disgusted reaction. ‘You weren’t really very good at being Cerebus, so let’s try you out as the poor man’s Garfield and see if you’re any better at that.’ '
The mileage that any fan of Cerebus is willing to go with CIH? understandably varies. The mileage even varies within fandom about "Cerebus" itself. 'I LOVED Church & State II! But Dave lost me at Reads.'or 'The First Half was ok. But things really picked up for me with Latter Days.'
Still, it doesn't mean that CIH? itself doesn't have value or worth onto itself, in my opinion.
Link to quote mentioned above: https://gocomics.typepad.com/rcharvey/2016/11/cerebus-died-and-went-to-hell.html
As to cultural commentary I briefly alluded to: here's Dave commenting on that with CBR in 2016. link:https://www.cbr.com/dave-sim-is-back-with-cerebus-in-hell/
CBR: "Let’s get back on your strip a little bit. The online comics contain extensive discussion of and jokes about comics, current and past. I thought to myself that “Hell” serves, at least in part, as a satiric commentary on the status of comics publishing today."
Dave: "Yeah. The comic book industry, and the world in general. That was certainly one of my impressions, that you’re not all the way into the “Inferno” where all you’re really doing is burning. As it says in the Quran, as soon as the flesh burns away, all of your skin burns off, you’re issued fresh skin, so that it can burn.
I think that the more society erodes -- and I think that’s just something that you tend to see as you get older, you think that things aren’t really as good as they used to be -- almost everything fits in Hell. All of these really pointless discussions that they have and the fact that every day is a new premise, that one day this is who Dante is, he’s Cerebus’ boss and the next day, he’s Cerebus’ lackey. And it only lasts four panels, and then it’s over with and you have to go through a whole new premise.
Unless you find a more abiding way to live, I can’t really rule that out. That’s the ultimate destination for people, is if you live a pointless life on Earth, you’re going to live a pointless life in the afterlife."
So really there is a point to CIH? although it might seem pointless. Again mileage varies. But I think CIH? is very thought provoking and funny.
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