Cerebus phonebooks listing
May 6th, 2012So 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:
| Phonebook | Vol # | Printing | Notes | Month | Year |
| High Society | 2 | 1 | Not signed & not numbered, (per issue 91: limited to a print run of 6,000 copies) | June | 1986 |
| Church & State I | 3 | 1 | 525, 1st printing, no page numbers. | June | 1987 |
| Church & State I | 3 | 1 | 1st print, not signed nor #ed, has page numbers | June | 1987 |
| Cerebus | 1 | 1 | Not signed & not numbered. | August | 1987 |
| Church & State 2 | 4 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 435 | July | 1988 |
| Cerebus | 1 | 2 | Hero S&N of 24 (+Nate+ O owns one) | January | 1990 |
| Cerebus | 1 | 2 | Diamond S&N of 167 (see blog post here) | January | 1990 |
| Cerebus | 1 | 2 | signed & numbered limited to: 250 (see post) | January | 1990 |
| Jaka’s Story | 5 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 435 | October | 1990 |
| Melmoth | 6 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 410 | October | 1991 |
| Flight | 7 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 5000 | March | 1993 |
| Women | 8 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 3500 | April | 1994 |
| Reads | 9 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 3500 | April | 1995 |
| Minds | 10 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 2100 | June | 1996 |
| Guys | 11 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | September | 1997 |
| Rick’s Story | 12 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | November | 1998 |
| Going Home | 13 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | March | 2000 |
| Form & Void | 14 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | May | 2001 |
| Cerebus | 1 | 11 | different from printings #1 – 10: silverspoon | July | 2003 |
| Latter Days | 15 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | November | 2003 |
| The Last Day | 16 | 1 | signed & numbered limited to: 1000 | June | 2004 |
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?
