Issue 8
From CerebusWiki
| Feb 1979 / Mar 1979: Day of the Earth-Pig | |
| |
| Issue 8 | |
| Writer & Artist | Dave Sim |
| Publisher | Deni Loubert |
| Circulation | Unknown |
| Cerebus | |
| Previous | Next |
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Contents |
Issue Summary
Cerebus suffers hallucinations thanks to a wound that he received in the Black Tower (last issue) and that has become infected. Although he was heading for the coast, the Conniptins have captured him. They are confused as to who and what he is but respect his strength and fighting ability. They bind him with rope, which Cerebus sees as webbing while he struggles against it.
Captain Turl and a Conniptin commander plot against the prince who leads the group. As the first step in this plot, Turl tells Cerebus he was drugged; he releases Cerebus, gives him back his sword, and sends him after four Conniptin men. Cerebus easily dispatches them but then collapses. When he recovers, he finds that Turl has embellished the body count and dressed the victims as Hsifans. They want Cerebus to take over as leader of their army. They can't kill the prince outright, because King Hezzreth, his father, commands a larger force. With a few victories on the way to Iest, however, they can establish a Conniptin Empire and make the king irrelevant.
Cerebus makes an appearance before the army and announces that their next target is Imesh. That night, realizing that the commander is using him as a figurehead, he prepares to leave the camp. He reconsiders and stays. As he climbs back into bed, he thinks, "If Cerebus is supposed to lead these loonies, someone is going to have to explain all that gibberish to him."
Characters
- Cerebus (last seen in issue 7; next appearance in issue 9)
- Captain Turl (only appearance)
- unnamed prince
- unnamed commander
Locations
a Conniptin camp, somewhere north or northeast of Imesh
Artist Notes
According to the introduction to this issue in Swords of Cerebus #2, pages three through six and pages eight and nine (when Cerebus is hallucinating) were a preview for issue 20, Mind Games.
Annotations
- (page 7) The doctor keeps saying "I'm a doctor, not <another profession>," like Dr. McCoy of Star Trek.
- (page 9) While killing the four Conniptins, Cerebus sees two of them as Elrod and the third as Red Sophia; the fourth killing is not shown.
- (pages 11-12) Cerebus is apparently ignorant of "doctors", "infections," and "fevers," but has no problem with thinking that crazy people are put in a rubber room.
- (page 13) First appearance of the Conniptin war cries: "Might makes right! Might for right! Might for might! Right for might! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
- Cerebus's kidnappers are Conniptins; note that the Pigts from Issue 5 spoke a Conniptin dialect.
- "FIN" ends this issue, after a three-issue absence.
- The odds of the Conniptins actually taking Iest were probably slim at best, according to the letters page of issue 26. Sim goes on to say that his main point was to show the gulf between Cerebus's desire for an empire and his capacity to create one.
- Contrast Cerebus's decision to stay with a similar situation in issue 5, when he refused to lead the Pigts.
- The letters page includes a comment by Sim that he can't see himself working for major comics firms until they are "interested in solid storytelling and parallel development of art and story by the same creator." There are a letter and a cartoon by Fred Hembeck.
