I'll be leaving in a few minutes to head up to Chattacon. If you happen to be going, come say hi.

Cerebus, still employed as Lord Julius’ “Kitchen Staff Supervisor”, has discovered evidence of a continuing conspiracy against Julius. As Cerebus and Julius review the records of their prisoners’ interrogations — “Aaagh.”; “No. No. No.”; and “Aieeeee.” feature heavily in the transcripts — they find one reference to “the Pits.” Though most Palnuans (Palnuites? Palnubians?) consider the Pits to be a myth, Cerebus’ is able to track down their origin and with “a cursory glance through the material” is able to confirm their existence.

“The Pits” is the original city of Palnu, swallowed up by an earthquake, that lies beneath the current city. The original masters of Palnu “untapped mysteries of the ancient world! There were rumours of strange unholy experiments...alchemy and other forbidden disciplines.” It was apparently so bad that the Church of Tarim forbade its priests from even approaching the city. Doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of place where you’d want to spend your week off. And even though they consider it myth, most residents of Palnu are quite afraid of it. Lord Julius, though, seems completely oblivious to the threat of the place. He’s much more interested in whether it would be a good location for his Festival of Petunias.

Cerebus, Lord Julius, and Baskin, one of Julius’ scribes, descend into the Pits and are quickly trapped by the leader of the “Eye of the Pyramid”. Cerebus is forced to fight the Shadow Crawler, a giant, enchanted snake. Unable to defeat it by sword, Cerebus realizes that the snake can be directed by holding torches right next to its eyes — the snake had always followed a corridor lit with torches on both walls to find its prey. Cerebus crashes the snake into the wall, dislodging the leader and freeing them from the trap. Unfortunately, this damage causes part of the ceiling to collapse, cutting them off from the Pyramid leader, and leaving them apparently trapped in the Pits.

One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve read these last two issues is that I’m appreciating Julius as a character much more than I did when I first read Cerebus. Back then I pretty much just considered him as a vehicle for comedy or as someone who was there just to create comedic roadblocks that Cerebus (and other characters) had to overcome.

Oh, I did enjoy him and the absurd persona he projected when I originally read the comic book. But this time I not only enjoy the madness of Lord Julius, but I appreciate the method behind the madness, as it were. As another of Julius’ retainers notes to Cerebus: “Lord Julius does not permit his employees to speak together except through him....” If I’d thought about this before, I probably would’ve just seen it as more silliness from Julius, but now I can see it as an effort to further his control over the bureaucracy and the city.

It’s much more rewarding, reading through this time, to try to figure him out as a person, to watch his machinations and try to figure out just what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. Is this ridiculous persona simply a means to an end? Or is it simply who he is? Is power his ultimate goal or is there more? I’m looking forward to finding out.

Ah, Lord Julius. Another fantastic character from Dave Sim. He’s not really a parody of Groucho Marx. It’s more of a...personification. What if Groucho were the head of the most bureaucratic nightmare you can imagine?

Issue #14 begins with Cerebus riding into Palnu in the company of Lord Julius, having saved Lord Julius’ son from pirates. As a reward, Cerebus is put in charge of Julius’ security forces — the title of this job being “Kitchen Staff Supervisor.” When he asks why the job title isn’t “Director of Security Forces,” Cerebus finds out that that title has been given to the Secretary of the Navy. Though thoroughly confused and obviously annoyed, the offer of free board and “all the food, wine and ale you can consume” is too much for Cerebus to refuse.

We’ll get little glimpses throughout the issue of the morass of bureaucracy that Julius has created. As he explains to Cerebus: “When you’re running a bureaucracy, the best way to safeguard your job is to make sure you’re the only one who knows how the whole thing works.” We also see just how ruthless Julius can be. When representatives of “satellite cities” refuse Julius’ demands for troops to fight off an invasion, Julius simply tells them that he’ll have to send them to the front instead. He gets his troops.

After Lord Julius survives an assassination attempt through his long-windedness, Cerebus sets out to find the perpetrator. (You know, quite a few of Dave Sim’s characters seem to have dumb luck as their prime survival characteristic, though I think that Julius cultivates this more than he appears to.) Cerebus is eventually able to track the poison to the merchant that supplied it and then is able to penetrate a meeting of conspirators against Julius. Cerebus chases one of the assassins and ends up fighting him on a high ledge just outside Lord Julius’ bedroom. The two struggle while Julius utters many Groucho-like comments. Cerebus does, of course, defeat the assassin, sending him hurtling to his doom.

Dave has done a wonderful job with Lord Julius, both and as a representation of Groucho and as a character in his own right. I’m pretty sure that as the series progresses, Julius will develop more as a character than Elrod, Sophia, or the Roach. But my memories of the comic are at least ten years old so I’ll have to pay attention as I keep reading.

I watched a couple of Marx Brothers movies recently and Dave’s gotten Groucho’s mannerisms and tone just right. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the movies as much as I thought I would. I think their comedy grew a little old as the movies went on. But I didn’t find myself growing tired of Lord Julius. Perhaps it’s a comedy styling that I just need to take in smaller doses.

And, yes, Cerebus does realize just how mad things are in Palnu. He just doesn’t care. As Cerebus explains when the assassin asks why he’s working for Lord Julius: “Because you’re both idiots! The only difference is that he’s filthy rich and you’re dirt poor!”

This issue starts out with Cerebus, having escaped from Beduin, being captured by some rural farmers and taken for judgement by their priest. Deciding that he is a creation of the evil sorcerer Necross the Mad, the priest orders one of the farmers to take Cerebus to Necross’ castle to turn “his magic against him.” The priest tells one of his followers, Despuess, that because Cerebus is “grey and furry” and the mold on their crops is “grey and furry” and because Necross caused their crops to turn “grey and furry”, Cerebus must be a creature of Necross. With logic like that, what could possibly go wrong?

Was there really any doubt? Once inside Necross’ castle thing do go rather badly for Despuess — the only thing left of him are smoldering bits on the floor. While the priest flees to find reinforcements, Cerebus has a nice little chat with Necross, who it turns out is rather mad. Though he does deny causing the farmers’ problems. Seems he is too busy trying to figure out how to destroy the universe. He also shows Cerebus Thrunk, his greatest creation. Thrunk is a 16-foot-tall stone statue that looks an awful lot like another guy made of stone that we all know….

The priest returns with more farmers and quickly kills Necross with an arrow to the chest. “An arrow?! He always used incantations before!” Necross mutters as he’s dying. “What a time to start operating on a physical plane!” A little tribute to Wizards, perhaps? As the farmers begin to storm the Castle, Thrunk comes to life, inhabited by the spirit of Necross. Much stomping of farmers occurs until only the priest remains. The priest brandishes a sacred amulet only to have it brushed aside by Thrunk. In a nice twist to Cerebus’ usual endings, the golden amulet literally lands right on top of Cerebus. And then, you guessed it, the priest gets stomped. As Cerebus walks off into the distance, Thrunk realizes that he is standing on the only reinforced floor in the tower and is trapped.

This is, I think, the most thoroughly humorous issue so far. One of the things I really enjoyed was that the comedy is not just the parody of the Cockroach or Elrod. It comes from the interactions of the characters and their reactions to the situations they find themselves in. Don’t get me wrong, I have most definitely enjoyed Elrod and the Cockroach — both are brilliant characters — I’m just saying that I also appreciate this more…natural, character-driven comedy.

From Necross’ mad rantings, to the farmers’ quickly shifting alliances and their arguing over trivial matters while they’re getting stomped, to the illogical dictates of the priest, there are plenty of laughs throughout this issue. While people being crushed to death is not generally considered to be all that funny, the stomping of the farmers is definitely done for laughs and I think it works because we don’t actually see it. We only hear it from Cerebus’ point of view as he’s climbing out of the castle and contemplating the madness of everyone in Lower Felda.

One of my favorite bits is when, after being accused of “consorting with dark demons,” Cerebus is asked how he pleads and he answers, “Cerebus demands that you release him or he call upon his dark masters to turn you into a flock of pious pink toads…” One of Cerebus’ accusers turns to the other and says, “that’s not a half-bad defence.” Maybe more people accused of witchcraft should take that approach.

And in a nice little zing against the priest and the small-minded farmers, one of the crimes Cerebus is accused of is “not looking like one of us…”

I said in my last review that I was looking forward to seeing the Cockroach again. I just didn’t realize it would be the next issue.

Cerebus heads back to the merchant’s house to retrieve the gold that might still be there. The gold is gone, but Cerebus does find a tunnel leading off from the hiding place. Following it, he quickly finds himself in the Cockroach’s prison cell, with the Cockroach sitting on a pile of gold. In an effort to placate the Cockroach’s anger at him, Cerebus tells the Cockroach that his parents had been killed. Cerebus tells him: “Mom and dad were circus performers, acrobats. The red claw cult cut through their trapeze ropes…the ropes snapped in mid-air and they fell…then one of the red claw climbed up to the safety net and beat them to death with a club.” Sound familiar? Well most of it anyway….

Cerebus convinces the Cockroach that they need to move the gold, saying “Elrod of Melvinbone plans to come and steal your gold tomorrow.” (Can you see what’s coming?) As they’re moving the gold to the boat, the Cockroach says at one point, “Thank you, old chum!” I swear I heard that line in Adam West’s voice. When the Cockroach decides that the job is too dangerous for the “short, grey wonder”, Cerebus gives chase and there is much running and shouting. Then, of course, Elrod shows up.

The Cockroach attacks, or at least attempts to attack, Elrod for trying to steal his gold. The normally clueless Elrod is even more lost here. There follows much comedy with the Cockroach and Elrod. These two are a perfect fit for each other and will, in fact, spend much time together in future issues. Eventually the guards show up and everyone gets knocked out except for Elrod and Cerebus. As Cerebus is rowing away with the gold, Elrod just has to add, “Some day, I say, some day, son, we’re going to have a long talk…and you can explain what in the heck just happened here….”

Just as Cerebus seems triumphant, just as he exalts in escaping with a boatful of gold, the boat splinters and all of the gold falls to the bottom of the river. Cerebus is surprisingly more resigned to his loss than bitter. He focuses more on getting out of the city than dwelling on it. Though Dave Sim can’t resist adding a little extra pathos for Cerebus at the end. As he’s floating off down the river, the narration adds: “All things considered, muses the earth-pig, it’s been one hell of a lousy twenty-seventh birthday….”

Looking back on the issues so far, we do seem to have a recurring theme of Cerebus rarely getting what he’s after in the end. He’s only truly triumphed in two of the twelve issues so far. In issue #4, he collects the sack of gold Henrot promised him for making Feras suffer and he does get the Black Blossom Lotus in issue #10. Interesting that they’re both Red Sophia stories. I wonder if that means anything or if it’s just a coincidence. I’ll have to think about that one a little. In all the other issues so far, Cerebus has only gotten a small fraction of what he is after or nothing at all. And while I do like ironic or unhappy endings, I think it does run the risk of becoming too much of a downer for many readers.

Issue #11 begins simply enough, with Cerebus meeting with a merchant to sell the Black Blossom Lotus he stole last issue. But, of course, things don’t stay simple for long. As he is leaving the merchant’s house Cerebus hears something strange and, though he knows better, he lets his curiosity get the better of him and he goes to investigate. What he sees is the merchant standing there wearing tights, a cape, and a mask with antennae. This is our introduction to the Cockroach, Dave Sim’s other great parody character.

Cerebus follows the Cockroach through the dark streets of Beduin as he assault first one, then another passerby, claiming that each is responsible for the death of his parents. He also sees the Cockroach taking some gold from his victims. Following him back home, Cerebus realizes that the merchant doesn’t know what he does as the Cockroach and doesn’t know that there is 30 years’ worth of gold stashed in his house.

Cerebus manipulates the merchant/Cockroach to try to get the gold out of the city. But like so many of his plans to date, the aardvark achieves little success. The merchant eventually comes to his “senses” and alerts the city guards, perhaps unaware that they are also hunting the Cockroach. Cerebus barely manages to get away, but at least this time he manages to hold on to a couple of pouches of gold for his troubles.

Dave will use the Cockroach to great effect in future issues to parody superheroes and comics in general. And not just Batman, as he does in this issue. Some that spring into memory are WolverRoach, PunisherRoach, Swoon, and I think I remember him in a giant spider costume as well. Oh, and I think he parodies The Tick at some point. There are probably others I’m not remembering and I’m guessing there are even more in the issues I hadn’t gotten to before I stopped reading.

We don’t learn a whole lot about the Cockroach in this issue other than the fact that he’s apparently being doing this for 30 years. We don’t even find out his name in this issue. I think we later learn that it’s Artemis. Is that right?

One significant thing we learn about Cerebus is that he just can’t help himself when his curiosity is aroused. When he first hears the strange noises in the merchant’s house he tells himself, “Cerebus is just going to walk away. What is going on is of no concern to Cerebus...Cerebus is going into the first tavern he comes to and...” And yet he can’t resist peeking in.

Even as he recognizes the foolishness of his actions — “There’s only one thing more idiotic than running around in a mask after dark in a snowstorm...and that’s following someone in a mask after dark...one flight up on an ice-covered ledge...” — Cerebus still continues to follow the Cockroach. He “doesn’t get it” when the Cockroach continues to act so crazily and has to keep following him. This eventually does lead to the discovery of the stash of gold, but Cerebus doesn’t know this at the time. The Cockroach’s behavior doesn’t make sense and Cerebus can’t let that go.

Such behavior is somewhat surprising from someone who is so self-centered and so concerned with his own skin — Cerebus dumps some of his gold in an attempt to slow down the pursuing soldiers, thinking, “there is no sacrifice too great for keeping one’s fur intact...” And yet he keeps letting his curiosity get the better of him. And I’m fairly confident that he’ll continue to let it get the better of him.

Like the first Elrod issue, this was a fun and quick read and I was surprised when I reached the ending. And, like Elrod, it’s good to know that the Cockroach will be back.

Yay! And I think I speak for many, many people when I say: it's about frakking time.