So in the latest episode of CerebusTV, episode #112 (aka season 3 #28), started last night and plays for a week (with a stoppage on Sunday to observe the Sabbath) at SimTV on youtube:

There are a couple of big announcements - one is that he is shopping a digital version of High Society to Comixology, iVerse, graphic.ly and Diamond Digital and that the rights would be non-exclusive so it is possible that all of those digital publishers would carry it. The digital version appears to have some extras – like Dave talking about the creation of the book and using pieces from the Cerebus Archive to high light those talks, the digital versions would contain the front and back covers along with all the Aardvark Comment letters pages.

I already own High Society in single issue and phonebook editions, but I’ll be getting this also – for it is so much easier to carry around my phone or netbook then it is to carry around the phonebook. Plus those cool extras will be nice. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the letters pages will be searchable – but somehow I doubt it – though I do have hope.

Another announcement was that the Dave Sim Art website will have the CerebusTV episodes for download for 99 cents a piece as soon as the guy helping Dave gets it up and going. It was mid-April when he filmed the episode, so hopefully the episodes will be up soon.

The one other announcement was that Zootanapuss and bunny will be coming to an end with glamourpuss #26 – it was fun while it lasted, but I guess that is all Dave had in him for that concept.

There was also a non-announcement with the episode’s title “EPISODE 112: SECOND LAST EPISODE EVER!” Seriously? There was no formal announcement from Dave that I’ve heard of, but  it looks like season 3 will be it for CerebusTV. I’ll be sad to see it go – as I enjoyed the “weekly visits” with Dave, getting glimpses into his creative process and behind the scenes at Aardvark-Vanaheim. But I understand that he probably has a lot of work to do with glamourpuss, Cerebus Archive and now the digital High Society – and beyond hopefully!

So with some help of other Cerebites and eBay, I’ve been tracking down the first printing history of the Cerebus phonebooks. I think I’ve pretty much got it summarized here:

What we know so far:

• CHURCH & STATE II in July 1988 was the first “proper” signed & number limited edition
• CHURCH & STATE I in June 1987 had two “first printings”: the first had no page numbers so Dave asked who wanted to keep that edition, and then he signed and numbered that limited quantity and scrapped out the rest of the print run. A new first printing was done with page numbers, but not signed & numbered.

Questions remaining:

• Why did the S&N quantity go from the low 400s to 5,000 with FLIGHT?
• How did signing 5K not turn Dave & Gerhard’s hand to mush?
• Are there any other CEREBUS phonebook 2nd printings that were signed & numbered to specific distributors or others?
• Will I ever find a first printing of MELMOTH?

So in previous blog posts, here, here, and here I talked about the different prints of the phonebooks.  In the third part I had stated this:

But now we know C&S I has a signed / numbered but not limited first printing

I asked Dave about the Church & State I phonebook being signed and numbered with no page numbers but there also being a first printing with page numbers that wasn’t signed and numbered. His response was the signed and numbered edition was the actual first printing, but since it had the error of no page numbers, they had Preney scrap them out – so the first printing that is signed and numbered was actually the first printing, and it was limited as the rest of the print run was scrapped out, and the first printing that has page numbers is the 2nd printing.

Fast forward to a week or so ago when I won an auction for a bunch of 1st printings – the most interesting being a misprint of Jaka’s Story where the cover is upside down. There was also a letter from Aardvark-Vanaheim, inc in the first printing – #330 of 525 – of Church & State I. The letter:

Basically stating what Dave had said in his fax – but interesting to know that the letter was sent out with the phonebooks – as if I’d send it back for a copy with no signature but with page numbers. . .

So Ponent Mon released Church & State II translated into Spanish:

You can find a preview here and buy it for 36 Euro, they do ship worldwide, as you can see above, I just got my copy. Take a gander at the inside:

and the same pages in the original version:

And once again, Ponent Mon’s translation is a hardcover with no dustjacket.

The subtitle is “Essays on the Epic Graphic Satire of Dave Sim and Gerhard”.  From the publisher’s website:

About the Book
In December 1977, struggling Canadian comic book artist Dave Sim self-published the first issue of Cerebus the Aardvark, a Conan the Barbarian satire featuring a foul-tempered, sword-wielding creature trapped in a human world. Over the next 26 years, Sim, and later collaborator Gerhard, produced an epic 6,000-page graphic novel, the longest-running English language comic series by a single creative team. They revolutionized the comics medium by showing other artists that they too could forgo major publishers, paving the way for such successes as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bone. This work, the first collection of critical essays on Cerebus, provides a multifaceted approach to Sim and Gerhard’s complex and entertaining oeuvre, including their innovative use of the comic medium, storytelling and satiric techniques, technical and visual sophistication, and Sim’s use of the comic as commentary on gender and religion.

About the Author
Eric Hoffman, a poet and essayist, is the author of six books and lives in Connecticut.

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6889-8
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7864-9032-5
75 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
238pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2012

The website also has a table of contents. The book retails for $45, a bit steeper then a usual book, but it is from an academic publisher, so the print run is probably limited. I know I’m looking forward to reading my copy. Looks like Barnes & Noble has it for $37.89 right now, I’d think Amazon would lower it from the list price eventually as well (scuttlebutt is saying in a couple of weeks, if you can wait).

Ponent Mon has released Iglesia Y Estado I, Black Velvet has released Chiesa E Stato Vol. I and Vertige Graphic has released L’Eglise Et L’Etat I. The Spanish, Italian and French translations of Church & State I. The three publishers kept the same formatting they used on High Society with a few exceptions: Vertige Graphic’s French translation of High Society had High Society on the spine while Church & State is L’Eglise Et L’Etat I:

One other difference, which is probably something that they’ll be changing with every phonebook, is in the Vertige Graphic edition: the inside back cover has different art used and a different character:

All of the translations had a ‘what had gone before’ section, but now only the Vertige Graphic has a summary of High Society – no summarizes of the entire series thus far. But the main format that all the publishers used is the same. Ponent Mon is still a hardcover with no dust jacket, Vertige Graphic is still a softcover, and Black Velvet is a hardcover with a dust jacket and has maps of Estarcion in the front and back inside covers. Black Velvet still is using my picture of Dave Sim on the inside back dust jacket picture – pretty cool.

All of the translations used a different font for the Church & State I graphic on the front:

The translations are sticking to the same issue breakdown as the original phonebooks – in that issue #51 was left out of both phonebooks. I’ll be curious if the different publishers release a translated version of Cerebus #0. Next up on the schedule is Church & State II, though if the publishers are following the same schedule as Aardvark-Vanaheim originally did, they’ll publish CEREBUS next instead of Church & State II. However, according to Ponent Mon’s website, it looks like Church & State II is next.

That I’ve published so far of the fanzine Cerebus the Newsletter:

Issues #14 – 17 are 2nd printings – wherein I’ve corrected some typos and other errors and did something different for the cover – either different color cardstock or printed it out in color.  Issue #22 is going slowly – I’ve got a cover, and a fellow Cerebite did some awesome work for interior graphics – banner headers for the different sections – but I need some more contributions as I can’t do it all by myself. And half the fun of putting together an issue is getting to see everyone else’s takes on Cerebus and reading their articles and essays.

So if you have something to say about Cerebus or have a piece of Cerebus art, send it to me via email cerebusfangirl at cerebusfangirl dot com. You’ll get 5 free copies of any Cerebus the Newsletter issues I’ve published so far – either 5 of the issue that your piece appears in or any five back issues.

A bit a go a fellow Cerebus fan posted to the CFG forum regarding Cari Lekebusch’s EP “Son of Two” and how it has what looks like a Cerebus head on it. I managed to find a copy via eBay:

Yeah, that does look like Cerebus. . .I don’t know if Dave has seen this yet, but I’ll be printing a copy of the picture for him to see. I don’t know if the music has anything to do with Cerebus as I’ve  only listen to the preview of it – I have to be in a mood to listen to techno, and early on a  Saturday morning, I’m not in the mood.

It sounds like Cari is probably a fan of Cerebus as he has gone by the names Cerebus and Fred – I don’t know if the Fred is a reference to the many usages of Fred in Cerebus, but just maybe.

Dave has a pin-up in the Madman 20th Anniversary Monster HC which Amazon.com has for $52.60 (nearly half price). But if you can’t afford such a steep price for a single page, take a look see at it:

Cerebus makes another appearance in a pin-up of various indy comics characters by Michel Fiffe that you can check out at Michel’s site.

Without Cerebus in it.

So when World of Strange added two new tee-shirts to their Cerebus tee-shirt group, I ordered them. When they arrived, I had one #4 and a #3. . .but no #5, which is what I ordered. So I ordered another #5. I wasn’t concerned about getting a #3 instead of a #5. The way I go through Cerebus tee-shirts, I’d use it in no time.

Though not a day later one of the guys that runs the operation emailed me – he apologized profusely for the mistake, and asked me if I could have any cover on a tee-shirt which one would it be.

So yes, I asked for:

Issue #114. I had a some choices for the color of the shirt – and after thinking about it, I asked for the black you see above. It arrived today along with the shirt for issue #5. w00t!