Pud Withers
From CerebusWiki
Appears in issue #115 - 127, 129 & 130.
Tavern owner and employer of Jaka. He also rents them a small apartment. He was killed by Cirinists for hiring a dancer.
His mother's name was Speranza Withers. She gave Pud a journal which was read by Mrs Thatcher.
Dave Speaks About Pud Withers
From The Comics Journal #184 & 192 interview
SPURGEON: One thing I want to follow up on: I look at the character of Pud Withers in Jaka's Story and I see him as a commentary on fanboy mentality.
SIM: Oh, yeah.
SPURGEON: But that seems more seamlessly placed within that work than, say, Moon Roach in High Society.
SIM: Well, yeah. There was a level of maturity that Cerebus as a character had achieved in the course of Church and State that I wanted to portray in that story. Not very much of what the Judge told him had stuck, but enough hat that he really wasn't back to Square One. That's the surface impression that he has because he's mostly "conscious-minded," There's very little "unconscious mind" to Cerebus. So he comes back and maturity is possibly around the corner. Let's present him with a situation that requires maturity and see if maturity is possible. Consequently there is no Roach in Jaka's Story. You're exactly right: Pud Withers was the comic book presence in that story. Cerebus has moved -- however temporarily -- from having a superhero serve as an allegory of his state of mind, the state of his existence, to having a superhero fanboy type serve as the appropriate allegory of his state of mind, state of existence. The next allegory is normalroach, signifying an intermediary step between the "real" world Pud Withers and the next Roach incarnation, Punisherroach -- my way of indicating that Cerebus has slipped back from the potential of maturity to a situation where maturity is very much removed from him.
