Cerebus No. 7

***Cerebus the Aardvark No. 7*** is an issue of *Cerebus* published by Aardvark-Vanaheim.

## Stories

### "Black Sun Rising!"

Having learned of a secret treasure, Cerebus travels to the Temple of the Black Sun to recover it. Elrod appears from nowhere and claims to have come for the Festival of the Black Sun. To avoid the possibility of Elrod alerting the priests to his presence, Cerebus is forced to take Elrod inside with him.

Inside the temple, the priests prepare for the Rites of the Third Phase, which apparently include human sacrifice. Meanwhile, a Black Sun priest named Mit has plans of his own. After much research, he has made himself a costume of a "Nameless One," with which he intends to awe the other priests into serving him. The costume has a definite aardvarkian flavor. In the temple's dark pit, an unseen creature anticipates the rites.

While Cerebus locates the treasure, Elrod wanders off. He learns that the priests have discovered signs of intruders, and when he finds Mit behind the pit preparing for his "entrance," he assumes Mit is Cerebus and pulls him away. The priests will be busy with their ceremony, but they tell Lyran the Death-Dealer to find the intruders.

Elrod, still dragging Mit with him, runs into a group of priests. Mit, as a Nameless One, orders them to seize Elrod. Elrod, still thinking Mit is Cerebus and Cerebus is a "kid in a bunny suit," pulls off Mit's hood. They flee in opposite directions. Lyran follows Mit, but he runs into Cerebus, who injures Lyran severely. Lyran runs into Mit but thinks he's Cerebus, and they flee in opposite directions. Elrod runs into Cerebus, who injures him, and he flees.

Cerebus has found the treasure and looks for an exit. He finds the pit and climbs into it to look for a tunnel. Losing a hold, he falls into a giant spider's web. The spider wounds Cerebus in the back. The rite begins at the rim of the pit. The spider tries to find and consume Cerebus's soul but fails. The temple collapses. The last thing Cerebus remembers is a white light.

Mit and Elrod escape the temple before it explodes/collapes and head south. Cerebus regains consciousness an hour later and stumbles away, discouraged. He fails to see the treasure laying a short distance away.

## Additional

* "A Short Note" by Deni Loubert
* "The Aardvarkian Age" map
* "Aardvark Comment"

## Characters

* Cerebus *(last seen in* issue 6; next appearance in issue 8)
* Dark Majesty *(only appearance)*
* Elrod *(last seen in issue 4; next appearance in issue 12)*
* Lyran the Death-Dealer *(only appearance)*
* Mit *(only appearance)*
* The Black Sun Priests *(only appearance)*

## Objects

* Cerebus' medallions
* Cerebus' sword
* Cerebus' vest

## Locations

* Temple of the Black Sun
* Boreala, mentioned
* Red Marches, mentioned

## Story Notes

* In the introductory note, Deni announces that she and Dave are married. Included is a photo of the pair toasting the marriage with apricot brandy.
* Also in the inside front cover note, is mention of Henning Kure of A/S Interpresse in Demark preparing to translate *Cerebus* into Danish, within an eighty-page magazine with stories by Frank Brunner and Steve Leiloha. It's unknown if this ever happened.
* (p. 1) As in issue 3, there is a splash page.
* (p. 1) *The Book of Stot*, quoted from here, is never mentioned again.
* (p. 4) Elrod is carrying apricot brandy, dark ale, and Borealan whiskey to make a Black Sun cocktail.
* (p. 9) The "Nameless One" from the Black Sun's past resembling Cerebus isn't a coincidence, as it's later revealed (in issue 196) that the Black Sun religion spun out of the Pigts.
* (p. 13) Though according to the claims of E'Lass last issue that the Black Sun treasure was gold, Cerebus reveals that having discovered the treasure, it's actually "twenty pounds of uncut diamonds".
* (p. 14) "these humans", another rare bit of Cerebus thinking himself as alien to the rest of mankind.
* (p. 17) Despite losing his sword to The Pit here, Cerebus will have it back in his possession by next issue.
* (p. 17) The wound in his back will trouble Cerebus for some time.
* (p. 20) "the creature probes seeking a soul" -- another suggestion that Cerebus has an inaccessible soul or none at all (see also issue 2).
* (p. 21) Mit's fate following this appearance is unknown.
* (p. 22) No direct explanation for Cerebus's survival is ever provided. The narrator says, "Was he hurled clear by the blast? Rescued by a priest? He neither knows nor cares!"
* In "Aardvark Comment", Dave announces plans for a book called *The Aardvarkian Age*, on which Michael Loubert will collaborate with him. The book never appeared.

## Publication Notes

* There is a "variant" cover which does not have any blue on it and it also has a blank inside cover.
* Republished in its entirety in *Cerebus Bi-weekly - February 24, 1989*.
* "Black Sun Rising!" republished in the *Cerebus* phonebook.

## Dave Sim on Cerebus No. 7

* "The Return of Elrod."

This story was another small step forward. Having managed to sustain two (count 'em two) plots in No. 6, I was ready for some experimenting... this time the developing of a mistaken identity segment, timing it so that the overlapping action follows plausibly. It wasn't a new idea, but it is a lot more difficult to do on paper than it is to watch develop in a movie or on a television sitcom. This was still primarily an intimidating time period, as far as stretching my abilities. My tendency was toward this kind of trade-off in the writing stage -- if I'm going to do a mistaken identity scene, which required thought for accurate pacing, I better put Elrod in this issue, since his dialogue and pacing were easy for me to work with. I resolved to stay away from these "Cerebus as Messiah" stories when I was done with this one. It *is* an aspect of Cerebus' future, but it by no means influences his present actions to any large degree. Issues 5 and 7 were intended as complimentary stories. "Aardvarks have been around for a while and they tend to do highly noticeable things" was the message. Just file it away for now.
As for the art, this issue was my first radical departure from my intention to be a major Barry Smith sequal [sic] -- the cross-hatching on the splash page. I was trying to find a Barry Smith-style texture that would allow me to render the webbing in two different shades. I broke down and did tight weave cross-hatching even though Smith had never used it.
Suddenly I was free.
Why -- I bet I could do anything I wanted!
I mulled that over while I opened the story on a snowy expanse of flatland. I mulled it over for four and a half pages of white flatland. I mulled it over for three panels of priests lighting candles.
And then page seven.
BAM!
A pseudo-art nouveau background design, cross-hatch shadows, warped bricks drawn with short parallel strokes, two wall decorations of differing sizes, a stuffed polar bear, two bird's eye view panels, one of which has a genuine checker-board bird in it.
I *could* do anything I wanted.
Reverse lettering, borderless panels, high contrast partial silhouettes.
Hey, this is *neat-o*!
I bet if I call up Frank Thorne, tell him I'm sending him full size xeroxes of the first ten pages, that he'll even draw a cover!
And he *did*, too!"