Cerebus No. 267

Cerebus No. 267
Latter Days 2
Writer	Dave Sim
Artist	Dave Sim Gerhard
Published	June, 2001
Publisher	Aardvark-Vanaheim
Publication order
Previous	Cerebus No. 266
Next	Cerebus No. 268

Cerebus No. 267 is an issue of Cerebus published by Aardvark-Vanaheim.

Stories

"If Five-Bar Gate Be My Destiny"

Cerebus wanders north from Isshuria in Northern Isshuria until he "runs out of north". He eventually settles into life at McBee's Tavern becoming a professional Five-Bar Gate player under the name Fred Hammer for thirty years. He comes in second-place almost every season, always losing to Paul "Coffee" Annan. He wins the Jakirbee Cup once when "Coffee" has a broken leg, and then another time when "Coffee" dies of old age, leading to Cerebus being laughed out of the game.

Additional

• "Aardvark Comment"
• "About This Issue"
• "Shortlist: The First Annual Howard Eugene Day Memorial Prize"

Characters

• Cerebus/Fred Hammer (last seen in issue 266; next appearance in issue 268)
• McBee's Owner (only appearance)
• Paul "Coffee" Annan (only appearance)
• Mr. Van Hellemond (only appearance)
• Mrs. Annan (only appearance)
• Paul "Coffee" Annan Junior (only appearance)

Locations

• McBee's
• Moosehat
• Moosehat Gardens

Publication Notes

• "If Five-Bar Gate Be My Destiny" is reprinted in Latter Days.

Dave Sim on Cerebus No. 267

• Q1. "Wildcard" Question: Cerebus' blankouts: He has them . . . (7) After his last game with Annan (a few months/years?) (i267). Why do we only see it in this short span? Why after his last game with Anan? Are they just stress related? Or is there a deeper meaning to them?

Dave: (7) was the loss of the ambition. If he could just beat Paul "Coffee" Annan, then everything would be okay. Well, he beat Annan and Annan died, again, he loses both of things that he's been using to keep himself going. Pretty tentative handhold gone. And, of course, ultimately, he's rolled all of these into one big ball called Latter Days and made them the custody of you-know-who.

That's the whole point of the story. I see that a lot in the people around me and I've had bouts of it myself. You're not actually living your life, you're enduring it and keeping track of all your hardships so that when S*H*E finally comes along, S*H*E will understand when you dump all of them on her. There are a lot of people who get married a second time so they'll have someone to take their side against their ex-wife. They're just not comfortable until they have that two-against-one thing happening and they'll do anything to get it. It's a choice, I guess.