For readers who thought Red Sophia and Jaka were women with too much agency, Dave Sim introduces The Regency Elf.
I was going to write paragraph after paragraph about my love of The Regency Elf and then I thought, "I can't do that! That's my Lobo shtick!" I also thought, "Everybody probably loved The Regency Elf." Before Manic Pixie Dream Girls, Dave Sim invented Floating Short-Skirted Hotel Elves. The Regency Elf is the epitome of cute to dorks and dweebs the way the Succubus in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual is the epitome of sexy to dorks and dweebs. And I don't mean good looking popular people who love to say, "I'm such a dork!" I mean the kids who lived in fear of swirlies and wedgies and changing in the locker room.
Deni's "A Note from the Publisher" takes people to task for bootlegging Cerebus merchandise. It might sound scary now but don't worry: Dave has given us all permission to make any Cerebus products we want! I think. Didn't he? Anyway, back in 1981, Dave and Deni were struggling to make it and a bunch of parasites were out their feeding off their baby! I got the feeling this "A Note from the Publisher" was Deni being nice. I am really curious as to what kind of products they were seeing fans selling.
"Notebooks" has a few pages of Regency Elf sketches as Dave refined her look from goofy diva to new wave MTV vixen. I imagine Dave's process was drawing the elf and then seeing how aroused he got, finally settling on the full boner drawing.
Cerebus wakes up to find himself back in The Regency. He is immediately informed that he owes twelve thousand gold crowns for reimbursement of the ransom paid by the Prime Minister of Iest. The good news is Cerebus still has free room and board and, hopefully, he'll continue to have cash thrown at him by lobbyists. But before he wades into them, he needs to take a bath and magically create from his subconscious a cute companion to bounce his ideas off of. Or whatever she represents. His libido, maybe?
Deni's "A Note from the Publisher" takes people to task for bootlegging Cerebus merchandise. It might sound scary now but don't worry: Dave has given us all permission to make any Cerebus products we want! I think. Didn't he? Anyway, back in 1981, Dave and Deni were struggling to make it and a bunch of parasites were out their feeding off their baby! I got the feeling this "A Note from the Publisher" was Deni being nice. I am really curious as to what kind of products they were seeing fans selling.
"Notebooks" has a few pages of Regency Elf sketches as Dave refined her look from goofy diva to new wave MTV vixen. I imagine Dave's process was drawing the elf and then seeing how aroused he got, finally settling on the full boner drawing.
Cerebus wakes up to find himself back in The Regency. He is immediately informed that he owes twelve thousand gold crowns for reimbursement of the ransom paid by the Prime Minister of Iest. The good news is Cerebus still has free room and board and, hopefully, he'll continue to have cash thrown at him by lobbyists. But before he wades into them, he needs to take a bath and magically create from his subconscious a cute companion to bounce his ideas off of. Or whatever she represents. His libido, maybe?
The first clue she's just a figment of Cerebus's aardvark magic: she also loves whiskey. The second clue is her butt.
I was just kidding earlier. Cerebus doesn't have a libido. He's an incel with anger issues directed at women. Maybe that's what the Regency Elf represents. A woman he can view entirely as an object and/or a buddy.
The Regency Elf's plan to visit the McGrew brothers in Hobsgate Prison (since they were captured) is exactly the plan Cerebus would have come up with if he'd had the information about them being caught. Which he probably was told as he was regaining consciousness so he doesn't actively remember hearing it. But he did! Which is why the elf knows about it! And why the elf can come up with exactly the same plan Cerebus would have come up with!
Cerebus gets into prison and interrogates the McGrews. He learns there was no ransom on the raft, just a statue of a duck. The duck statue will be important later. More important than Weisshaupt's ankle.
The Prime Minister sends another letter requesting Cerebus pay back the ransom. So Cerebus needs to figure out how to get some cash quick.
The Regency Elf's plan to visit the McGrew brothers in Hobsgate Prison (since they were captured) is exactly the plan Cerebus would have come up with if he'd had the information about them being caught. Which he probably was told as he was regaining consciousness so he doesn't actively remember hearing it. But he did! Which is why the elf knows about it! And why the elf can come up with exactly the same plan Cerebus would have come up with!
Cerebus gets into prison and interrogates the McGrews. He learns there was no ransom on the raft, just a statue of a duck. The duck statue will be important later. More important than Weisshaupt's ankle.
The Prime Minister sends another letter requesting Cerebus pay back the ransom. So Cerebus needs to figure out how to get some cash quick.
Okay, Cerebus probably didn't subconsciously know this stuff about Greeley. I guess the Regency Elf is "real" in the sense that she's a magical apparition created by Cerebus's aardvarkian weirdness aura. The first clue is that the Regency Elf is an actual legend. The second clue is, of course, her butt.
Captain Cockroach should have advised Cerebus not to stare at the Regency Elf's butt. Who would ever stare at an ankle?!
Cerebus's blackmail of Greeley works in so far that the Prime Minister offers to speak with Cerebus at some duck hunt (How was Duck Hunt a Nintendo game? Somebody did that on purpose, right? To get thousands of kids to swear in front of their parents, right?). So that'll probably be next issue.
During the time this comic was published, there was a postal strike in Canada. So Aardvark Comment is one page of below par letters (all praising Cerebus, of course).
Cerebus #29 Rating: B+. I haven't been discussing The Single Page much because there's not much to discuss. Also it ruins the illusion that I'm reading actual copies of the initial printing of Cerebus! The Regency Elf makes her debut in this issue so it had to have rated B or better. But not much else happens. She helps Cerebus begin to get out of a jam that nobody would have expected him to be in anyway. Pay back his own ransom?! It's as if the Prime Minister ordered Cerebus to be kidnapped so he could pretend to pay a ransom to get him back after which the Prime Minister would demand the ransom from Cerebus. That's definitely what's going on, isn't it? The Prime Minister of Iest needs an influx of cash pretty badly.
Cerebus's blackmail of Greeley works in so far that the Prime Minister offers to speak with Cerebus at some duck hunt (How was Duck Hunt a Nintendo game? Somebody did that on purpose, right? To get thousands of kids to swear in front of their parents, right?). So that'll probably be next issue.
During the time this comic was published, there was a postal strike in Canada. So Aardvark Comment is one page of below par letters (all praising Cerebus, of course).
Cerebus #29 Rating: B+. I haven't been discussing The Single Page much because there's not much to discuss. Also it ruins the illusion that I'm reading actual copies of the initial printing of Cerebus! The Regency Elf makes her debut in this issue so it had to have rated B or better. But not much else happens. She helps Cerebus begin to get out of a jam that nobody would have expected him to be in anyway. Pay back his own ransom?! It's as if the Prime Minister ordered Cerebus to be kidnapped so he could pretend to pay a ransom to get him back after which the Prime Minister would demand the ransom from Cerebus. That's definitely what's going on, isn't it? The Prime Minister of Iest needs an influx of cash pretty badly.
Of course, how wild of a guess is it that a wealthy lawyer is getting it on with his secretary? Whether or not Cerebus is getting the details right, if such a lawyer got such a letter, he'd assume his goose was cooked. Really, the only way it fails is if it turns out that the lawyer isn't married.
ReplyDeleteIf Cerebus heard the legend of the Regency Elf, then it's entirely possible that's the form his aardvark reality-warpingness would take.
I still prefer to believe RE, Elrod, the Roach, etc are real. I probably have a couple hundred issues before I'm forced to acknowledge I'm wrong.