Cerebus No. 2

Cerebus the Aardvark No. 2
Writer	Dave Sim
Artist	Dave Sim
Published	February / March, 1978
Publisher	Aardvark-Vanaheim
Publication order
Previous	Cerebus No. 1
Next	Cerebus No. 3

Cerebus the Aardvark No. 2 is the second issue of Cerebus.

Stories

"Captive in Boreala"

Hearing that mercenaries are needed for the Blood Wars, Cerebus joins a group of soldiers going to Boreala. A band of marauders attacks, killing the other soldiers and taking Cerebus captive. They intend to sell him to a freak show in Gurann. Cerebus, however, insults the Chieftain in Paranian, his native language. Honor demands a duel. The chief chooses the large (but not particularly bright) Klog as his champion. With the assistance of his Earth-Pig Snout Punch, Cerebus wins. He joins the marauders.

After three days, the marauders are ambushed by about fifty soulless warriors. Cut off from the rest of the group by one of them, Cerebus leaps from a cliff and breaks through the ice into a series of tunnels with ancient writings and carvings. He soon realizes that the legend of the Eye of Terim is true and that he has discovered the lair of Khem. Cerebus braves the treacherous terrain and finally reaches the fabled Eye, a golden glowing sphere. His desire to sell it for a fortune proves greater than his fear of the dark demon.

Cerebus spies a distant exit and carries the (unexpectedly heavy) Eye towards it. The demon attacks him by sending ethereal tendrils into his brain in search of his soul. Due to the Earth-Pig's Aardvarkian nature, however, Khem fails. Cerebus breaks free and escapes. Without a fresh soul, Khem essentially starves to death. The souls of his warriors, all those who had fallen victim to Khem's trap in the past, are free, and the Eye is revealed as a worthless iron sphere. Too, during Cerebus's time underground, Khem's warriors wiped out the Borealans. Cerebus departs under the rising full Moon, hungry and poor, vowing to reach the nearest port before the next moonrise.

Additional

• "A Note from the Publisher" by Deni Loubert
• "Next Issue - Song of Red Sophia"
• "Aardvark Comment" - featuring illustration of Red Sonja and Cerebus by Frank Thorne

Characters

• Cerebus (last seen in issue 1; next appearance in issue 3)
• Chieftain (only appearance)
• Khem (first appearance; next appearance in issue 151)
• Klog (only appearance; dies)

Objects

• Cerebus' helmet
• Cerebus' medallions
• Cerebus' sword
• Eye of Terim

Locations

• Boreala -- location of the story
• Tansubal -- mentioned as being where Cerebus joined the expedition
• Gurann -- its freakshow and marketplace mentioned
• Temza -- the port that is Cerebus' destination at issue's end

Story Notes

• (p. 1) The introduction mentions countries north-east of Boreala, but there don't seem to be any such places listed on The Aardvarkian Age map.
• (p. 2-3) The layout of these pages is inspired by pages 2 and 3 of Conan No. 16. (Alexx)
• (p. 4) The ethnicity of the Chieftain, Paranian, is not one ever mentioned again, despite Cerebus's ability to speak the language.
• Three Clovis oaths are uttered by Cerebus ("By Clovis' Beard!" (p. 6), "Clovis' Beads!" (p. 14), "Clovis' Beard!" (p. 17), "By Clovis' Teeth!" (p. 18)).
• (p. 9) Khem's soulless warriors are said to wield blades "composed of some form of black metal," which sounds similar to the sword Stormbringer.
• (p. 13-15) The carved heads on these pages are reminiscent of those on/in the Black Tower. They are representations of Khem, carved by its captives. Presumably Khem had the ability to appear in many different (hideous) forms. (Alexx)
• (p. 13) It's implied that the deep sardonic laughter comes from the succubus; but Issue 151 appears to retcon this by having the laughter persist even after the succubus' disappearance.
• (p. 14) Though Khem is called a "he" here by Cerebus, later notes from Dave make it clear that he intended, either consciously or subconciously, for Khem to be female (hence the use of Terim instead of Tarim).
• (p. 18) The succubus is, indeed, the dark demon Khem, and the glowing motes (p. 17) are the souls that Khem has enslaved.
• (p. 19) Khem's failure to find Cerebus's soul implies it is not in an easily accessible place; he might not even have one. (Alexx)
• (p. 22) "even now, the succubus must be attracting new victims" Cerebus is incorrect, Khem is now powerless, according to Issue 151. (Alexx)
• (p. 23) The nearest port to the south is Temza, according to both next issue and The Aardvarkian Age.

Publication Notes

• Reprinted in Cerebus Bi-weekly - December 16, 1988 and Cerebus No. 2 - Remastered & Expanded with variant covers and additional material.
• "Captive in Boreala" is reprinted in Swords of Cerebus Volume One and Cerebus.

Dave Sim on Cerebus No. 2

• Dave stated in a fax that the cover to this issue was based on Jim Steranko's Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. No. 3 cover (August, 1968).
• Dave wrote that the success of issue 1 filled him with dread as well as joy; now he had to come up with something funny every two months. He decided to infuse a little more humor and tighten the story.

Regarding the "succubus," Dave wrote, "I'm not sure that I even knew what a succubus was at the time. My recollection of writing that segment was having the mental image of Cerebus' head surrounded by a lattice-work of energy-draining tentacles and then having to come up with the name of whatever it was that was doing that. It's actually interesting to me that I would have chosen "succubus" as a term, rather than coining a fantasy term like G'rikkha or something. 'Oh No! A G'rikkha!'"

• Q1: Did you deliberately choose the name "succubus" - a female demonic figure from legend - for your soul-sucking creature from #2 or was that a "coincidence" (acknowledging that you would of course see that later as a message regarding God and YHWH)?

DAVE: I'm not sure that I even knew what a succubus was at the time. My recollection of writing that segment was having the mental image of Cerebus' head surrounded by a lattice-work of energy-draining tentacles and then having to come up with the name of whatever it was that was doing that. It's actually interesting to me that I would have chosen "succubus" as a term, rather than coining a fantasy term like G'rikkha or something. "Oh No! A G'rikkha!"

Q1 continued: Also, the female succubus Khem is hiding out in "The Eye of Terim." Terim, of course, is later depicted as the female deity. Was the later use of the name Terim deliberately linked to the earlier use?

DAVE: I can't say with 100% certainty that that was the case. As I recall, the two different spellings of Terim and Tarim were accidental at first, in the same was that I had trouble bearing in mind that Cerebus was supposed to refer to himself in the third person and would later cover for it by saying that he referred to himself as "I" when he had been around the civilized areas too long. I was covering for not remembering how to spell Tarim by making it the masculine version of the deity's name.