Hi, Everybody!
The GREAT a Moment of Cerebus 2019 Re-Read
of the whole 6000+ page, 300 issue, 16 volume, 26 year, gee I'm going on WAY 2 much... SAGA! (No, I'm not re-reading Saga, I'm re-reading Cerebus!)
Okay, so I'm doing the re-read of the SEVENTEENTH printing of Volume 1. (Which you can get a digital copy for $9.99 here
,) BUT I'm posting images from the SIXTEENTH printing, because that's what I got.
Let me talk about the Seventeenth printing for a minute.
This is a beautiful book. I had to e-mail Sean after I read the first issue to let him know how much I like this printing. It truly feels like this is a new book, as opposed to a new version of a book I've read a hundred times.
I like it so much, that I've taken my favorite panel from issue one:
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| This one. Man does it make me laugh. |
And asked Ben Hobbs and David Birdsong to turn it into the new "Matt Dow's A Moment of Cerebus" Logo.
Okay, so thoughts on the first 140 pages of Volume 1:
This is the first six issues. Story-wise, the Conan/Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy parody elements are on full display. Knowing that the first three issues were Dave's "try-out," (if he could sell these, he'd carry on, but if it bombed, he'd just have 66 more pages for his portfolio) they read fairly crisply.
It was at the end of issue 3 (page 74 in the book) that I realized the first motif: Cerebus walking away in silhouette.
Here:
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| Page 30 |
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| Page 52 |
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| Page 74 |
Now, these WERE the "try-out" issues, so I'd cut Dave some slack, except:
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| Page 95, issue 4 |
He does it again at the end of issue 4.
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| Page 96, issue 4 |
Okay, he doesn't QUITE have Cerebus walking away in silhouette as the end, he has Death walk away in silhouette at the last page, but Cerebus is last seen walking away in silhouette.
"But Dave doesn't end issue 5 that way, right?" you ask. Wrong, he does:
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| Page 118, issue 5 |
Now, to be fair, Issue 6 is the game changer:
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| Page 140, issue 6 |
Here it's Jaka walking away towards us. Although, from Cerebus' point of view, I bet she's walking away in silhouette...
The next thing that struck me right with issue one, was "You can get what you want and still not be very happy..." Now, this line doesn't show up until the baby-throwing bit in
Church & State Volume 1 (page 296), but:
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| Click for full size |
Cerebus gets his sack of gold, and the thieves get the "flame jewel" (actually a walnut), but they're not very happy.
One of the things I DON'T get is why pages 48 and 49 were restored the way they were:
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| Page 48 |
Why not digitally remove the tone from around Cerebus' head? Sean? Reasoning?
Okay, last thing. Somebody said something in the comments a few days ago about "Dave." Well he first appears in Issue #4. Seriously:
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| Page 92. See, says so right up there... |
One of the other motifs I'm watching out for is "Unreliable Narrators" So far, all the narration is of the "Know ye O Prince" Conan variety, so I trust it. We'll see what the next few issues bring...
Matt Dow
Interim Editor
A Moment of Cerebus
Next Time: Dave does this kind of thing for the
Genesis Question and the Bible.
