Like-a-Looks

Like-a-Looks are people of Palnu who are hired by Lord Julius Tavers to pretend to be him by dressing like him and taking on his appearance.

Appearances

• Cerebus No. 79
• Cerebus No. 125
• Cerebus No. 137
• Cerebus No. 138
• Cerebus No. 233

Dave Sim on Like-a-Looks

• Well, it wasn't Lord Julius. It was one of the better Like-a-looks; a concept that I had introduced towards the end of Church & State and never really had a chance to explain it until now.

Stories have circulated since World War II that Adolf Hitler had a number of look-a-like imitators that the Nazis used for public appearances when it seemed that there was too great a chance of danger to send the real Adolf. Much of the Illuminati mythology concerns itself with the fact that General George Washington was replaced by Adam Weisshaupt some time before he was made the first President of the United States. There have even been reports that Winston Churchill and FDR did the same thing.

Altogether unlikely, but it does make a great theory. Since I have far too much time on my hands, I started thinking that that would make a very neat explanation of why the Grandlord of Palnu would have painted on eyebrows and a mustache. As can e seen from the 'mirror scene' in Duck Soup, anyone wearing the right clothes and having painted on eyebrows and a mustache is going to look like Groucho. What if that was Lord Julius' plan, so that he could always have a look-a-like and if they keep up with him verbally so that by the end of the interview he can't figure out whether he or they is/are the real Lord Julius they've hired.

I found it interesting in doing this story that Lord Julius plays off of Lord Julius very well (as opposed to the problems I had with Elrod). It just becomes a series of competing realities; one-liner on top of one-liner in an on-going effort to grab the spot-light.

The up-shot of the whole enterprise was to show people that the Lord Julius in a dress was not the real Lord Julius. The first three letters I got on the 'Like-a-Looks' all said, 'Loved the story; but why was Lord Julius wearing a dress at the beginning?'

You can't win.