Elfguest

From CerebusWiki

Story & Art by Wendy and Richard Pini, and Dave Sim.

4 page story, guest starring the Pini's Elfquest characters, Cutter and Skywise.

Summary

Cerebus is awoken from a drunken stupor in an alleyway by a pair of elves wondering if the aardvark is one of them, due to the similar ears and cuteness. Cutter and Skywise have come through a dimensional warp, and don't have long here before it closes. Skywise asks Cerebus how someone who looks like them could live among humans, and he slurs out a reply that it isn't bad if you don't breathe deeply. Cutter suggests he come back to their world with him, how they can challenge each other to battles, defeat giant monsters and ride wolves, which concerns Cerebus, but the elf promises they're almost as cute as him. Skywise shows off his rock compass necklace, the aardvark just wants to go back to sleep, which leads to the elves telling him about the Dreamberries, and the perfect 18-15-18 sized girls in halter-tops, sarongs, and maidenforms. Finally, as the warp is getting smaller, the pair depart, with Cutter extending Cerebus a welcome to their world if he ever finds a warp of his own. The elves decide to frolic when they get back, since it makes them feel cute. Cerebus hears the warp close with strange sounds, prompting him to walk offy and throw away his bottle of Apricot brandy, vowing to never mix it with ale again.

Annotations

• Skywise's name is misspelled as "Slywise".
• This story was first announced in the Aardvark Comment for issue 12, as being in Gene Day's Black Zeppelin #1, which ended up not being published until 1985.
• According to the same article, this story takes place between issue 11 and issue 12.
• The first page was previewed in the Aardvark Comment for issue 16.
• Could that bottle of Apricot brandy be the one given to him by Jaka in issue 6?

Artist Notes

Notes From The President

One of these stories, "Elfguest", is a special one to Dave and I. Richard and Wendy have accomplished with Elfquest a very unique kind of success. Even though we keep in touch as much as possible, it's not always easy to find a way to show our applause for both the book and the creators behind it. The only natural thing to do, for a writer/aritst (with an acute sense of humour) was to do this story. It was to appear in an anthology title we were planning to do with Gene Day, and, after his death we quietly put it aside until the right moment. The decision to do an issue of short stories made it possible to finally print Elfguest. One of the advantages of publishing your own book, is that from time to time the opportunity presents itself when you can do a special story. Althought I feel that every story in Cerebus is special, this one is for Richard and Wendy, and all of us who have come to care for Cutter, Skywise, Leetah and all the tribe.

Dave on why this story will not be reprinted again

"ElfGuest" I tend to leave out because Wendy and Richard just aren't "that way". Like just about everything else about me, they consider it an insult. I'm sure they considered it an insult when I congratulated them on their DC deal in my comp space in Diamond Previews and I'm sure they would have considered it an insult if I neglected to mention them. They seem to me to epitomize the comic-book field in that way.

Cerebus Archive Report #4

"Iconic", "Elfguest", "(1983/07) Cerebus 52, Bi-Weekly: Church and State 2", "n/a", "Happens outside continuity. Dream sequence/Cross-over. (1412 <per Alexx>)", "Features characters from Elfquest.", "1412.2"

Disagree – Dave Sim – High iconic. The actual significance is the relationship between Cerebus and Elfquest as intellectual properties.

Printings

First printed in issue 52.

Reprinted in Cerebus Biweekly: Church & State #2.

Note: Not reprinted in the Church & State I phonebook