This is not a retcon, Cerebus remains very dead. However, he also is in Hell.
I decided to wait and post this until after Emerald City Comic Con when I would have a first chance to meet Gerhard, which was cool.
I also decided to wait until I got all five issues, zero through four equals five.
When I look at this as a collection of strips as opposed to a story it makes more sense, because the story really is the title. beyond that, the jokes are mostly funny, if not in a lot of cases basically the same joke told over and over.
Given that Dave has faced a serious health issue with his hand, coming up with this project was a good way to get the material out and into print. I hope he does get a full recovery and can go back to doing other projects again and variant covers, and because I hope the man gets healthy.