Cerebus the Aardvark No. 24 is an issue of Cerebus published by Aardvark-Vanaheim.
Stories[]
"Swamp Sounds"[]
Cerebus, recovering from an accident in Beduin, remains a guest of Madame duFort and her young students at an isolated boarding school. With the arrival of spring, the surrounding marshland has become impassable, so the Sepran soldiers (see last issue) are no longer a threat. To kill time, he plays cards with the three girls and drinks, while they practice flirting with him. After duFort calls the girls away, Cerebus hears a sloshing sound.
The next night Cerebus hears the sound again and has a nightmare about it. When he awakens, he realizes the sound is now inside the house. He limps downstairs, bursts through a door, and finds duFort and the girls. The girls are in a trance, while duFort reveals herself to be Professor Charles X. Claremont, a sorcerer. He tells Cerebus how, by decoding a book of children's stories by Suenteus Po, he found the formula for creating the fabled Apocalypse Beast. All he needed was three young minds to focus the spell, so he set up his school and disguised himself as headmistress. In shambles Claremont's achievement--Woman Thing.
Characters[]
- Cerebus (last seen in Cerebus No. 23; next appearance in Cerebus No. 25)
- Madam duFort (last seen in Cerebus No. 23; next appearance in Cerebus No. 25)
- Janette (last seen in Cerebus No. 23; final appearance)
- Theresa (last seen in Cerebus No. 23; next appearance in Cerebus No. 41)
- Katrina (last seen in Cerebus No. 23; final appearance)
- Woman Thing (first appearance, next appearance in Cerebus No. 25)
- Suenteus Po (mentioned only)
- Prince Rashazar of Eshnosopur (mentioned only)
- King Andros (mentioned only)
Locations[]
Story Notes[]
- According to the cover, the title is "The Beguiling, part two."
- According to Sim, he was working on this issue when he heard John Lennon was shot (December 8, 1980). That night he decided to end Cerebus after two hundred issues rather than three hundred.
- Cerebus has his first of many dreams in this issue.
- (page 4) Theresa uses the oath "ma Dieu" twice. See last issue.
- (page 6) According to Cerebus, he has already spent four weeks at the school.
- (page 9) Theresa tells Cerebus that Katrina's uncle, Lord Julius Tavers, vanquished the rebel leader in Palnu (not quite true--see Cerebus No. 16). They got the story from Katrina's sister, who may or may not be Jaka (also a niece of Julius).
- (page 10) Theresa repeats a story that Elrod told them, that he killed a hundred city guards in Serrea to protect a boy in a bunny suit (not quite true--see Cerebus No. 4). It seems unlikely that Elrod was there after the events of Cerebus No. 22, since Elrod would have passed Cerebus leaving Beduin (on the other hand, Cerebus had a leg wound).
- (page 15) The images of the door smashing are similar to those in Cerebus No. 130.
Publication Notes[]
- Reprinted in Cerebus Bi-weekly - October 20, 1989
- "Swamp Sounds" is reprinted in Swords of Cerebus Volume Six and the Cerebus phonebook.