Issue 300
From CerebusWiki
| March 2004: Latter Days 33 | |
| |
| Issue 300 | |
| President | Dave Sim |
| Vice-President | Gerhard |
| Latter Days: The Last Day | |
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Contents |
Issue Summary
Cerebus dies. Alone. Unmourned. Unloved. Well, kinda. Jumping off the bed to kill Shep Shep, the stairs fall over and take Cerebus with them: breaking his neck in the process. One last fart, and Cerebus dies. Cerebus sees his life flash before his eyes, a light comes out from above, and a voice, and a hand beckon Cerebus to come into the light.
Once Cerebus sees it is Jaka and all his friends (and some other acquaintances) he changes into Rabbi and jumps into the light. To realize all too late that Rick isn’t there, so perhaps this is not where he wants to be going. He calls out to God, but it is too late and the hands drag him into the light.
Characters
Locations
Artist Notes
From a post on the Cerebus Yahoo!Group, #37270
Steve Otte: Okay... in 300, the scene in the light. There's two schools of thought on who the three people are who beckon him last.
Dave (without prompting): It's Ham, Jaka and Bear.
Steve Otte: (catching myself a bit, since I had prepared this whole schpeil to tell him the two opposing theories): Aha. So... It's the first one that people were wondering about. So those people who thought it was Ham thought that these three are the three that best represent the risks of merged permanence.
Steve Otte:: (silence)
Steve Otte:: Or, is it because they're the three most important people to Cerebus?
Dave: They're the three most important people to the *wrong side* of Cerebus.
Steve Otte:: Meaning the side that (gets distracted and makes bad choices)?
Dave: Exactly.
Steve Otte:: 'Cause there are those who thought it was Rick.
Dave: Well, yeah, this time it is definitely a right-and-wrong situation. This time I'm not going to say "let's leave it up to the reader to decide." They'd hate me for that. But no... I didn't even think that there would be a question about that until Shawn O'Hearn called asking the same thing. (Snipping a bit asking about who Shawn O'Hearn is... apparently he's a frequent caller, who is probably not on our list.) I didn't even realize how much Ham looks like Rick until he brought it up.
Steve Otte:: So as not to inject my own theory about what it means, can you tell me in your words what it means when Cerebus thinks about Rick two pages later.
Dave: That comes from my own concern in terms of, we're all going to go through it, this is all such a universal experience, the near-death experience. My first question is, who is it I'm seeing, these people, who'll be making it into Paradise? That's the assumption, [we all assume we're going to get into Paradise, especially back when we were all going to church, and so] when you see these people, these are the people you expect to go into Paradise. But of all the people I know, [all the people I've met in my life,] unless God has set the bar really, really low where almost anyone can get in, I can't think of anyone I know who's going to get in.
Steve Otte: (thinking to myself "Yep, he really does believe this stuff..."): So,the people who thought it was Rick, they thought that Cerebus thinking of Rick and his rejection of it meant that this was Heaven and that Cerebus didn't want to spend eternity with Girly-Boy. That this was a funny ending.
Dave: (silence)
Steve Otte:: ...and, the ones who thought it was Ham thought that his thinking of Rick was realizing that Rick wasn't there...
Dave: Yeah, because I'm going to be thinking about who's not there.
Steve Otte: (trying to steer him back to Cerebus): ...and therefore if Rick wasn't there that this wasn't Heaven.
Dave: Exactly!
Steve Otte: (not expecting such a brief and definitive answer after that long bit about Paradise): Ah! Well, good. 'Cause that was my theory.
Dave: Well, you're batting 1,000 so far! (chuckles)
From the Q&A session for The Last Day:
Q5. Upon realizing that Rick is not among those Cerebus believes to be waiting for him in Heaven, Ham, Jaka and Bear's hands transform into strange two to three fingered appendages. What is the significance of this? (i300/TLD pp236-237)
DAVE: Ham, Jaka and Bear were atheists. What I’m suggesting is that atheists are basically host beings which are wide open to being made use of by malignant spirits whose only job is to lure the God-fearing to destruction. It’s a cautionary note struck for the half dozen (that may be optimistic) or so readers I have who believe in God—and for the first generation of Cerebus fans (as opposed to readers) fifty or a hundred years after I’m dead for whom the Next World will be something more than a concept for a Twilight Zone episode. When you die and you go towards the light, look who is there and remember what they were like when they were alive. I don’t think anyone will heed my advice but that doesn’t stop me from giving it. As I told someone in Columbus, my own reaction to seeing dead relatives and “friends” will be to go down on my knees and close my eyes and begin reciting my prayer. I plan to continue reciting my prayer from that point until Judgement Day. The Koran assures us that when we awake on Judgement Day we’ll believe that we have been dead “for a day or part of a day.” Muhammad in his later years used to spend the better part of the night reciting Suras instead of sleeping so I’m going to try to bear that in mind and deal with the Afterlife as one long night that needs to be prayed through until Judgement Day dawns.
From the Q&A Session for Rick's Story:
03/04: Q: Was the runed sword in that dream (note: issue 227)was coincidental with the one in 299/300? Or were you trying to make a connection. Same question with respect to the dream slice to the neck, and Cerebus' broken neck. If it was intentional in 300 - was it intentional foreshadowing in Rick's Story?
DAVE: You guys are so lucky that Ger is here as support staff. I would be so lost. Anyway, he just said that when he put the rune markings on the dagger at the end of 299 (I had roughed in a short sword, but all of my short swords look like BWS short swords, aka Cerebus' old sword, so I thought, if I put it in, it's going to look like the old sword and everyone's going to be asking, How did he get his sword back. AAAAGH!) So, I just told Ger to put a different sword/dagger in. Whatever he wanted. He just tells me now that he thought that: it looks like Cirin's sword in the dream/fantasy sequence in RICK'S STORY. I had no idea. If you live long enough you will find out everything.
Collected Letters 2004 p. 428
"In showing all the characters that I did in the afterlife, I was attempting to portray what I think might we be a hard truth of reality: very few of us make it. I mean, in a society like we have now very few. Remember that the neutrino analogy/metaphor/reality postulated that only two out of every hundred make the grade. That still makes for trillions and trillions to the exponential power of trillions of “saved” “elect” souls but means that you, personally, probably only know one person who might be saved and it might not be you. How exacting is the standard? How high is the bar set? Pretty high is my guess. Out of all the characters drew over twenty-six years, I could conceive of a reality where only Rick made the grade. Maybe Bishop Posey. I don’t think just plying a solitary path is going to get you in. I think it goes much deeper than our conscious awareness which is why it’s so difficult to make the grade. I’ve eliminated virtually all of my vices I pray five times a day, I fast for four days every three weeks, observe a Sabbath, etc. etc. and there are very few days I feel remotely saved. More like I’m hanging on by my fingernails. I may be the only one I know who is, but it still feels as if it’s by my fingernails, not as if I’ve got a solid grip on redemption."
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