Cerebus Archive #8 (June 2010)
Art by Dave Sim
DAVE SIM:
(From Cerebus Archive #8, which reprinted "Oktoberfest" by Dave Sim & Gene Day from 1976 )
Kitchener stages an annual Oktoberfest that is reputed to be the largest outside of Munich so what could make more sense than to link this enormous beer festival to a children's comic, modeled on the work of Carl Barks... particularly his legendary "The Golden Helmet" storyline from Dell Four Color #408, of which I had, then, recently obtained a coverless copy?
You can all put your hands down -- it's a rhetorical question.
It was basically an act born of desperation for paying work, originating in one of those comic-store jokes: "Hey, Harry, you should publish Oktoberfest Comics!"
Harry was Harry Kremer, owner of Now & Then Books who had already been roped into publishing the money-losing Now & Then Times #1 in 1972 and #2 in 1973.
The way I looked at it, he was overdue for another money-losing publication...