Anyone still read Cerebus? I got a question

Cafe Society
1

…

What the hell is going on in the story?

I’m serious. I’ve been reading the book since 1978 or so (issue 5 was the first one I bought off the stand) and I’ve been reading it ever since. I have all five “Swords of Cerebus” collections (for the back-up stories), I’ve got the issues of…um…Epic(?) that have a couple of Cerebus stories…I’ve even got (somewhere) an Elrod bunny that Sim drew me at a convention once.

But somewhere…after Cerebus ditched Jaka (who got a personality transplant somewhere), the story totally became incoherent. Something about the Three Stooges keeping Cerebus locked up because of a prophecy of Rick(?) and then suddenly (?) Cerebus got free but became old and now has a son (?) “Shep-shep” and there’s a comic-book he’s reading about a super-powered Rabbi?(???) Woody Allen was running around too (and not in the same way that Groucho Marx was. Lord Julius made sense in the context of the world and was a person in the comic who just happened to be a whole lot like Groucho. This is Woody Allen as such (I think the name is different, but…)

And I can’t reconcile the world Cerebus is in now with the world from the first 225 isssue (give or take) of the comic. When he met up with Hemmingway, they were using rifles. But everyone was suprised when Weisshaupt’s cannons were unveiled and used against the Giant Stone Thrunk posing as the Epop. What happened to Tarim and Terim? How does Judiasm even exist? When he brought in Oscar Wilde, he did it within the context of the world. Now, he’s bringing in people and things and changing the world to fit them.

What happened with Cirin? Last I saw, she was taking over and creating a matriarchal tyranny. That’s the sort of thing someone should mention from time-to-time.

I don’t understand anything that’s happened in the last, say, 50 issues at all. (At least since the Three Stooges showed up and maybe even earlier when Jaka left)

Yeah, I know. The temptation is to say “Sim has gone insane” and based on a number of his lettercolumn comments, perhaps he has. But if we could resist turning this into a Sim-bashing fest, I’d appreciate it. I know his views on politics/religion/women are < cough > out there. But please put that aside. I’d really like to know if the story make sense to anyone, or is it just me that’s completely lost?

Um…and if anyone does understand it, I’d really appreciate a summary of what the hell’s been going on, say…since Cerebus dumped Jaka.

Thanks,

Fenris

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I plan on picking up Cerebus #300 only because, well, it’s Cerebus #300.

I suspect Sim HAS gone insane. He’s publicly stated that, following publication of #300, he intends to spend an entire year living as a woman just to shut up his feminist oppnents (what…all 3 of them?).

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Yeah, I’ve been reading since issue 15 and have all the stuff, too.

I even once got Sim to draw a BAD sketch for me. I told him a pal of mine hated Cerebus because I liked it. So he draw a really half-assed profile of Jaka. The wrote ‘intentionally bad sketch’ and signed it ‘To Will…because you hate Cerebus I’m coming to kill you. Dave.’

See, he had a sense of humor at one point.

But things are completely fucking out of control nowadays. Sometimes I’m just stumbling through it out of dogged determination not to stop. But like a train wreck these days…I want to stop watching but I can’t…it’s too fascinating.

As for the feminist stuff…he seems to think he’s still somehow relevant.

And I did ask a while back if Sim had actually flipped.

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Uh oh, I didn’t read the OP because I just got the latest Cerebus volume myself (Latter Days issues 366-388) and I didn’t want to catch anything like a spoiler. If you pick this up, it should answer your questions.