"A Well-Equipped Bar", Plate 1
"A Well-Equipped Bar" is a short story by Dave Sim told across sixteen portfolio plates. It was published as a part of The Animated Cerebus.
Summary[]
Cerebus is sitting at a table in a tavern with a mug beside him. He spots a glass filled with a red substance on the bar. He looks left, then right and then tiptoes up to the bar. He grabs the glass and drinks the substance. Cerebus gets back to his chair, and reacts to the strength of the potent liquid. A man approaches the bar and spits into the glass, refilling it with the same red substance as before. Realizing he just drank from a makeshift spitoon, Cerebus literally melts in his chair into a big pile of goo.
Characters[]
- Cerebus (last seen in "His First Sword"; next appearance in "The Applicant")
- Spitting Man (only appearance)
Locations[]
- Unknown bar
Dave Sim on "A Well-Equipped Bar"[]
- "I started sifting through the Earth-Pig's past (he does have one, I just haven't spilled the cat all over the bean bag yet) going over locations and incidents. Naturally the one that came up the most frequently was "the bar", "the tavern", "a corner table".
- "I had heard a joke some years ago (like, when I was ten) about two fellows having a bet that no one in the bar would dare drink the contents of the spittoon nearby. There is an elaborate description of each patron of the bar having a try. So and so tries and he barely tilts it up before he gets sick. So and so tries, etc. etc. Finally, one guy drinks it all down. And one of the first two fellows says "that's amazing. How can you do that?" The answer is the punch line and for the life of me I can't remember it. But it was this story that my mind strayed to (as it is wont to do when forced to write pictures). I had this over-riding feeling that if I could just remember the punchline, I would have the ideal vignette. After twisting my limited grey (sic) matter this way and that I had a sudden burst of insight. The punch-line wasn't the key element. The key element was the profound chord that the words "drink the contents of a spittoon" strike in the human animal. I did a quick sketch of the first frames, then jotted down little notes like (2) looks left (3) looks right (4) tiptoeing. The next day I went in drew it. One down."[1]
Printings[]
References[]