| High Society | |
|---|---|
Wraparound cover to Cerebus Vol. 2: High Society. The Regency Hotel drawn by Gerhard, though his art does not appear within the book. |
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| Publisher | Aardvark-Vanaheim |
| Date | 1986 |
| Number of issues | 25 |
| Series | Cerebus |
| Page count | 512 pages |
| Creative team | |
| Creator(s) | Dave Sim |
| Original publication | |
| Published in | Cerebus |
| Issue(s) | 26-50 |
| Date(s) of publication | May 1981-May 1983 |
| Language | English |
| ISBN | 0-919359-07-8 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Cerebus |
| Followed by | Church & State |
| Cerebus novels |
|---|
| Phonebooks · Characters |
| Cerebus |
| High Society |
| Church & State |
| Jaka's Story |
| Melmoth |
| Mothers & Daughters |
| Guys |
| Rick's Story |
| Going Home |
| Latter Days |
High Society is the second collected volume, and first volume-length story, of Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim's Cerebus comic book series. It focuses mainly on politics, including Cerebus' campaign for the office of Prime Minister, in the fictional city-state of Iest in Sim's world of Estarcion. It is generally considered the best book for beginning Cerebus readers to start with.[1]
The story is considered a turning point in the Cerebus series, as Sim moved from the "Conan pastiche" of the stories contained in the Cerebus, to making a "piece of political satire,"[2] the beginning of Sim moving away from individual issue-focused stories and short, two- or three-issue story arcs, to "longer, far more complex 'novels'"[3] lasting hundreds of pages, that were the focus of the rest of the series.
The storyline became the first of the Cerebus "phone book" paperback collections to be published. Its success led Sim to abandon the Swords of Cerebus series of 4-issue collections in favour of the larger collections for the final format of the 6000-page Cerebus saga.
Contents |
In Cerebus #12, Sim announced his intention to continue Cerebus until December 2003, which, at a bi-monthly pace, would take the series to issue #156.[4]
In Cerebus #19,[5] Sim announced that Cerebus would last 300 issues, and that it would chronicle the life of Cerebus up until his death.[6] Further, the book would be subdivided into "novels". The first of these novels would be High Society — one self-contained story that would nevertheless be only one storyline in the larger Cerebus story.
Cerebus arrives in the city-state of Iest, where he checks into the high-class Regency Hotel (whose design was based on the Chateau Laurier) and becomes embroiled in political machinations as the Chief Kitchen Supervisor to Lord Julius.
Cerebus is kidnapped for ransom by Dirty Drew and Dirty Fleagle McGrew. Cerebus soon arranges with the kidnappers to split the ransom money, but when the time comes to pick up the ransom, Cerebus is betrayed by the brothers and knocked unconscious, and he enters a long dream sequence where he speaks once again with Suentius Po.
When he comes to, Cerebus finds himself back at the Regency Hotel, where he is told that he is expected to pay back the ransom that was paid for his release. He discovers the Regency Elf in his room, who informs him that the brothers have been captured. He goes to talk with them at the prison, but finds out they never got the money — all they got was a statue of a "duck".
With the help of the Elf, Cerebus contrives to get the money to repay his ransom. At the moment that he seems to have schemed the money out of Holland M. Hadden, Hadden is assassinated by the Moon Roach (a new guise of the Roach; a parody of Moon Knight), who is under the control of Astoria. Cerebus is under the Inquisition's suspicion for Hadden's murder, and is only safe due to his diplomatic status — a situation which is complicated by the Moon Roach's assassination of two members of the Inquisition. Astoria takes Cerebus under her wing, telling him she will make him "embarrassingly wealthy".
...
Lord Julius puts forward a goat to run against Cerebus as Prime Minister. Election night ends in a draw, with one vote uncounted.[7] Cerebus sets out with Astoria and the Roach (this time in a caricature of Sergeant Preston of the Mounties to find Lord Storm'send in snowy Northbell to secure the last vote. After talking with Cerebus, Storm'send lights a beacon indicating who he has voted for, but refuses to tell Cerebus whom he has decided on. Cerebus, Astoria and the Roach head back through the snow, but eventually are stopped due to a bridge being out. They check into an inn located by the bridge, where they find out that Cerebus has won.[8]
(Cerebus #45-50)
Originally published in issues #26-50 of Sim's monthly Cerebus series between May 1981 and May 1983, High Society was published as a 512-page paperpack "phone book" collection in 1986, originally with a print run of 6000, printed by Preney Print & Litho Inc. of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Its tenth printing came out in 2005.
Between 1985 and 1988, Sim underwent negotiations with DC Comics, in which DC offered $100,000 and 10% of licensing and merchandising. During this time, Sim set up a dedicated 800 number and announced in Cerebus #86 (May 1986) that he would put out the first printing of the High Society "phone book" through mail order.[13] The book sold out in less than a year,[13] and grossed $150,000, which made DC's offer seem "kind of puny by comparison", according to Sim.[14]
Sim's artistic partner, Gerhard had not yet joined him when High Society was being made, but had joined him shortly before the High Society "phone book" was first published, and so was able to provide the drawing of the Regency Hotel on the wraparound cover.
The collection was dedicated to Barry Windsor-Smith, Neal Adams and Mike Kaluta.
The book was initially not available through traditional comic-book Direct Market distributors, who felt that Cerebus' success until then had been largely due to them,[15] and put up "a lot of resistance"[13] to Sim selling direct. As a result, in 1987 Diamond Comic Distributors chose to drop Puma Blues, which was being published by Sim's Aardvark One International. Diamond's orders accounted for 33% of Puma Blues' sales. In order to get out of the dispute, the book's creators moved publication to Mirage Studios.[16] Sim didn't relent on having the "phone books" distributed by the Direct Market until well into the 1990s.
Sim had long disallowed foreign-language editions of Cerebus, saying couldn't be sure of the accuracy of the translations since he couldn't read any language other than English. In 2010, he finally allowed a number of translations.
| Language | Title | Publisher | Date | Translator | ISBN | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Alta Sociedad | Ponent Mon | April 2010 | Andrés Moon | 978-8-492-44449-6 | Hardcover |
| French | High Society: "Une Histoire de Cerebus" | Vertige Graphic | August 2010 | 978-2-849-99080-3 | softcover with flaps on the inside front cover[17] | |
| Italian | Alta Società[18] | Black Velvet Editrice | November 2010 | Francesco Matteuzzi | 978-8-896-19717-2 | Hardcover with dustjacket |
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