The Final Ascension

The first chapter of the 6th book of Church & State II is a short one. There are no words spoken in the actual panels. The story is told by the drawings and text placed somewhere on the page to explain what is going on in the panels.

Cerebus is rising, while still clutching his golden orb. Everyone else is watching. When I say everyone, I mean everyone.

From the far away Cirinist Abbess by means of a mechanical device, to Astoria in the cathedral, still awaiting sentence. From the dead Bran Mak Mufin in the hotel and the people frozen in the courtyard at Cerebus command, to Blakely wandering the streets of Iest. From Bear in a forest somewhere outside the city, to Jaka in a tavern located in the lower city.

Cerebus is clinging to the bottom of the Black Tower as it rises upwards at tremendous speed.

It was an interesting way of presenting an issue, something I'd never seen before. It's bloody hard to read, though. Dave couldn't just put the text at the one angle in the one place every page he couldn't just make the panels all the one size. Noooo! He had to stick it everywhere, all angles, slant it, make the panels irregular. To read it you're forced to turn the book over and over again, you forget what page you're up to and at times it makes you dizzy. Dave had to be an independent, back then no major publisher would have even considered doing what he did in The Final Ascension.