Cerebus #152

The cover of this November 1991 Aardvark-Vanaheim issue presents a striking image: a massive, pale Cerebus looms impossibly large over a stone plaza, his bulk dominating the sky while figures in period dress react in the cobblestoned square below. Dave Sim and Gerhard's collaborative cover work is on full display here — Gerhard's richly detailed architectural backgrounds lending a grounded, almost painterly realism that makes Cerebus's towering, otherworldly presence all the more unsettling. "Flight 2" continues the Mothers & Daughters arc, and this image alone makes a compelling case for the ambition driving one of independent comics' most sustained creative endeavors.