if
f
i
i
Page 10
Daily Nobraskan
X J s
4
K7 7 A V' x
JASON AND THE SCORCHERS
HIE Vc.X!DASlllE RJISTEJSTME FRONT
4 Bands Stages
Saturday, Sept. 13
Southwest Civic Center
2604 Park Blvd., Lincoln
6pm-1am
7 hours of non-stop
partying!
Must be of legal
drinking age.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
$9.50 in advance
$12.00 day of show
On sale at both Pickles
Records and Tapes in
Lincoln
Considering a serious involvement
with an IBM PC?
r v
Get the inside story
on the family!
...At the IBM-ON-CAMPUS PC Fair.
See what an IBM Personal Computer
can do to make your academic life
a lot easier.
Sept. 9th 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sept. 10th 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Nebraska Union Regency A
C7.1 Pcrscnc Computers On Campus
Aardvarks unite!
'Cerebus' powerful
By Chris McCubbin
Senior Reporter
You're 2 12 feet tall, you're
covered with short gray fur, and you
have a stubby tail, two long, pointy
ears and a big, big big nose. Vou
are, in short, an aardvark: A two
legged talking aardvark in a world
of six foot plus barbarians with small
minds, short tempers, and big, sharp
swords. What do you do?
Comics Now
First, you learn to be smarter
than the big goons (no great trick),
then you learn to fight. You'll never
be bigger or stronger than the goons,
but that doesn't mean you can't
stick their butts if you're good
enough.
Not everybody will hire an aard
vark, and your temperament doesn't
lend itself to steady employment, so
yourjobs tend to be . . . esoteric. You
start off studying the black arts, but
magic as a trade is only profitable
after years of tedious study, and you
have a yen for adventure and a taste
for the good life.
So you move on to more violent
occupations tax-collector, mer
cenary soldier, an odd bit of thievery
or freelance terrorism. It's a hard
life, but you're clever, with a gift for
fast-talk that borders on the mir
aculous.. Then, in your late 20s things get
v . , very strange. Suddenly you find
yourself thrown in among rich and
powerful people who want to give
you lots of money and lots of free
luxuries and who want you to do as
they say. Either that or they want to
kill you.
"Cerebus the Aardvark," by Dave
Sim, is unquestionably one of the
most important comics to appear in
the last 15years. Important in terms
of the development of the industry,
the development of the art and past
and present artistic and literary
excellence.
In the late 70s Dave Sim, strug
gling young artistwriter, and Deni
Loubert, his then-girlfriend, now ex
wife, decided to start a publishing
company. One of Deni's relatives
suggested "Aardvark Publishing,"
another suggested "Vanaheim Pub
lishing." Simm diplomatically decid
ed to christen the fledgling com
pany "Aardvark-Vanaheim."
Sim decided his company needed
a mascot. Since he didn't know how
to draw a "Vanaheim," he made the
mascot a mean-looking little bipe
dal aardvark.
Dave and Deni put out one issue
of a fun magazine. They wanted to
call it "Cerberus," after the mytho
logical Greek hellhound, but they
misspelled the name when they
sent it to the printers. Rather than
eat dirt and change the name on the
second issue, Dave decided to name
his little aardvark "Cerebus."
"Cerebus" the fan magazine
bombed, but a few months later the
first issue of the comic-book adven
ture of "Cerebus The Aardvark"
appeared.
Along with Jack Katz's "First
Kingdom" and Wendy Pini's "Elf
quest," "Cerebus" was one of the
first "independent comics" to
achieve any sort of popularity ("in
dependent comic" translates loosely
as "any book not being put out by
either DC or Marvel Comics com
panies"). These three books were
directly responsible for the inde
pendent explosion of the early '80s,
which, in turn, was directly respon
sible for the (comparative) plethora
of high-caliber adult books now
available.
"Cerebus" started out as asword-and-sorcery
book with an eye to
weird humor. Since then it's grown.
Sim deals with politics, economics
and religion with an eye for realistic
subtleties that have never been
seen before in a comic, yet when
need be, Sim will throw away both
reason and subtlety to the winds
and take off on a completely mad
cap slapstick romp or slide even
further away from reality into fasci
nating surrealism.
He's also one of the best caricat
urists alive today. "Cerebus" fea
tures regular characters who are
take-offs on Groucho Marx, Rodney
Dangerfield, the Batman, most re
cently Mick Jagger and Keith Rich
ards, and probably his most suc
cessful character next to Cerebus
himself an improbable blend of
Foghorn Leghorn and Michael Moor
cock's fantasy hero Elric, Elrod of
Melvinbone.
"Cerebus" is one of the most
sophisticated, funniest, most excit
ing works of adult entertainment
being produced today. It's perfect
for the college mindset. I honestly
don't understand why everyone
doesn't read "Cerebus."
The world is waiting.
Be an exchange student
V,
MP MINI lo
., v. 5 tprn i mm so i
V jT-"---i ! ON ANY
la -1 !K9;h ir
iI:SilverLights
V-V am - J rir.ARPTTF PAPFPC
v ul. i i ii n u Lij
RETAILER: You are authorized to act as our agent
for redemption of this coupon. We will reimburse
you 50 plus 8 handling providing that you and
the consumer have complied with the terms of our
offer. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by
law Good only in U.S.A. Cash value 120. The
consumer must pay any sales tax. Any other use
constitutes fraud Mail coupon to: Republic Tobacco
Co.. PO. Box 730335, El Paso. TX 79973. Limit one
coupon per purchase.
7033 100EH3
Monday, September 8, ,1986
Preserving
jazz music
is go al
By Julie Liska
Staff Reporter
With a gleam in his eye and a golf hat
firmly atop his head, Willie Thomas has
come from his home in Flagler Beach,
Fla. to Lincoln with hopes of reviving
jazz.
Thomas started playing jazz at age
10 and began playing professionally at
age M.He graduated from the Univer
sity of Alabama with a bachelor's degree
in music. After earning a reputation in
jazz, Thomas said, his interests slowly
developed into music curriculum. He
currently is sponsored by the National
Association of Jazz Educators.
As part of the second event in Lin
coln's celebration of the arts, Lincoln
Arts Alive, Thomas will work with stu
dents at the university and high-school
level during the next week with the
intent of rejuvenating interest in jazz.
Thomas said he believes it is important
to save jazz because it is the only true
American music.
"Jazz was formed from the fusion of
all cultures in the melting pot," Tho
mas said.
Thomas's emphasis on university
and high school students was not made
by mistake.
"I believe it is important to start
students out early with jazz so they can
become acquainted with some basic
traditions and origins of it right away,"
Thomas said.
Thomas said teaching jazz is a lot
like teaching language. For that rea
son, he begins by teaching the blues
because it is the most basic form of
jazz.
Initially, Thomas worked with Randy
Macquen, director of music for the dis
trict, and Rusty White, director of jazz
studies, with hopes of forming a pilot
program in Lincoln. The plan would
allow students with interest and ability
to come into schools and interact with
students at lower levels. However, Mac
quen said the idea will be put on hold
at present because it is too soon to
introduce such a program.
In addition to traveling the country
a jazz educator, Thomas owns his own
publishing company in Florida. He
publishes a text entitled "Jazz.. ..Any
one?" which acts as an aid to teachers
of jazz. The text comes with tapes, a
text, teacher's materials and other
aids.
With "Jazz....Anyone?" students can
play jazz along with the tape while fol
lowing notes at the same time. The text
is being used at UNL.
Thomas said jazz is a type of music
which allows a great deal of emotional
freedom. The implications of this free
dom became evident to Thomas after
his visit to Poland. "In Poland, freedom
is restricted in almost every way, but no
one cares what music they listen to.
Part of the reason jazz went over so well
in Poland was because it provided the
opportunity for people's emotional re
lease," Thomas said.
When asked about his opinion of
modern music, Thomas said, "I see
there being only two kinds of music
good and bad. I believe good music
involves some type of emotion or
thought."
Although Thomas has no scheduled
performances, he made unplanned per
formances at Chesterfield's Bottomsley
& Potts Monday and McGuffey's Thursday.
...ii. .
if fiAUiAn V
t 3 i. S'Vvam '
Remember family or friends
with Special Occasion,
Get Well or Memorial cards.
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR
VOUR LIFE
American Heart
Association
Nebraska Affiliate