Dave Sim's blogandmail #54 (November 4th, 2006)

ALL THIS WEEK THE BLOG & MAIL IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

FOLLOWING CEREBUS No.10

That's right! Even though we've been ragging on you all week to tell your retailer to order you a copy, we're back here again TO DO THE SAME THING! And WE'LL BE BACK MONDAY AND TUESDAY TO GET ON YOUR CASE ABOUT IT AGAIN! THIS IS THE HARD SELL! ALL IN CAPS! ITALICS! EXCLAMATION MARKS!

FOLLOWING CEREBUS No.10!

And the other NINE ISSUES as well if you haven't got THEM yet!

www.followingcerebus.com

WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME!

10:35 pm – Come what may, you can always count on the Bus Station to have a fresh plastic wrapped egg salad sandwich this time of night. I would be seriously remiss if I didn't mention Officer Phil who was also there at the private party and wanted to know if I would do a sketch of Cerebus, incorporating his Homeland Security badge. Oh, hey, no problem. He even offered to trade me a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement coin for the sketch (which, of course, instantly made it a much better sketch). Had a great time talking to him about the current security situation although I think I threw him for a loop when I told him that I was pretty much an observant Muslim, that I had just finished fasting in Ramadan, etc. I had always wanted to talk to someone connected with Homeland Security to tell him that I think they're missing a good bet not planting more spies on the other side. The natural assumption is that they have to find some Arabic Muslims willing to come over to their side and, as I explained to him, I don't think that's the case. The real extremist wing-nut Muslims like Osama Bin Laden are pushovers for converts. They're so sold on Islam themselves that they can't believe that anyone who has been exposed to Islam even indirectly isn't immediately willing to convert. If you ever review Bin Laden's speeches in the aftermath of 9/11 they all center on that: that he really expected 9/11 to create this stampede to Islam all across Europe if not the United States. Literally—you give any CIA agent a translation of the Koran to read once and if he retains enough to sound even remotely familiar with it, there isn't a fundamentalist imam who wouldn't take it at face value if he said he wanted to convert to Islam. To doubt the conversion would be to doubt the Koran and to doubt the Koran is to doubt God Himself and that's just completely off the Muslim radar screen.

I don't think Officer Phil believed me, but, to me, that wasn't really the point. The point was that I felt obligated to point out something if I ever got a chance to talk to Homeland Security that I was reasonably certain about and which I thought could spell the difference between success and failure in the War on Terror. If it doesn't go anywhere from there, it's not as if I didn't, you know, TRY. As the Synoptic Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." The same as I don't think he believed me when I said that the biggest danger that I could see was that the faked conversion would turn into a real conversion in a number of cases. If you practice Islam for any length of time, you are very apt to turn into a Muslim.

I had forgotten to bring my coin that Claude Flowers had gotten for me from General Abizaid and was kicking myself. "Who on earth at a Night Flight signing is apt to care about a coin from General Abizaid?" Fortunately Mimi had a copy of Following Cerebus 8 with the letter from Claude and scans of the coin, so I was able to show off to Office Phil that way. He was mighty impressed. At Pearson airport, there had been two guys wearing US Military garb, one of whom had a jacket with sewn-on badges from his various tours of duty like "I Crossed The Line of Death" with a map of North Africa, Libya and the Line of Death clearly marked. It was all I could do to keep from showing off then. "Hey, boss. I couldn't help admiring your badges, there. Hey, you ever see one of THESE?" If I had gotten the coin through some legitimate military method instead of a whim on the part of General Abizaid, I might have done it.

Anyway, Mimi did a scan of the drawing and took photos of Ger and I with Officer Phil (I don't have his full name since Ger I think put his contact info in with the rest of the "to be shipped to us later" box that rapidly filled up at the signing) So, the photos should be here somewhere along with a scan of the drawing. Unless we're hanging onto it for Following Cerebus. In which case it will be just the photo.



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If you wish to contact Dave Sim, you can mail a letter (he does NOT receive emails) to:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674
Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2

Looking for a place to purchase Cerebus phonebooks? You can do so online through Win-Mill Productions -- producers of Following Cerebus. Convenient payment with PayPal:

Win-Mill Productions

Or, you can check out Mars Import:

Mars Import

Or ask your local retailer to order them for you through Diamond Comics distributors.