I gotcha beat by about 3 issues. I started with the Roach.
I was working at a comic store and met him around the time #35 came out (give or take an issue) and he really made my week when he gave me a real, honest-to-gosh “Elrod Bunny” and "Cerebus Tree’ picture. (which I no longer have, dammit)
In my recent reread of the whole damn series, I only read some of the letter cols and some of the insane Torah interpretations, but one line (from the letter column sticks in my mind: (very close to an exact quote) “I’ve got an arraingment with my penis: I leave it alone, it leaves me alone”. Ick.
I would strongly recommend stopping at the end of “Guys”. If you do, there’s a good solid ending and none of the characters have been screwed up. Plus you won’t ruin your eyes with 20 issues of insane Torah commentary in teenytiny little print thatall kinda runs together
I basically have to agree with most of what Fenris wrote. The sad fact is that Cerebus is the work of a talented writer slowly going insane. The one point that I would dispute with Fenris is his statement that Sim can “function in society and hold down a job”. The fact is that Sim apparently can no longer do either. He has totally withdrawn from the public and will only maintain contact with the outside world through a small handful of people.
You have to understand: there was no time in Jaka’s life when she couldn’t have gone back to Lord Julius and lived in comfort. The reason she didn’t is because of what he did to her; she would rather have starved than put up with him any longer. After “Jaka’s Story” the Cirinists turn her over to her uncle’s government, and during that time it’s very likely that they glossed over her abortion and turned her into a Cirinist icon. So in essence, she can get pretty much anything she needs.
I’ve been reading Cerbus for years, but only in the big trade-paper collections. I recently re-read them, as far as they go (the last several issues aren’t in a collection yet.)
I still think that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th collections are among the best comic-book writing I’ve ever seen. That’s High Society, and Church & State I and II. the on-going parodies of (mostly Marvel) super-heroes, the grand design behind Lord Julius’ wackiness, Cerebus’ rise from warrior to politician to Prime Minister to Pope… it was ridiculous and hilarious and compelling. And there was always some element of satire in there that somehow made the whole thing almost… real.
But later volumes decended into misogyny, religion-bashing, homophobia and (worst of all) self-parody. There were still a few gems, and on re-reading them I found new appreciations for Melmoth and the F. Scott Fitzgerald arcs, but overall it was a pale reflection of earlier glories. It makes me think of the latter days of Elvis, pale, puffy and sweating, trying to recapture the fire of youth.
It came as a depressing suprise to me, when I put down the latest collection and realised that after about 280 issues of Cerebus, I might not bother with getting to 300.
Agreed, but that makes the fact that she put up with hardship and deprivation even more impressive–it woulda been so easy to give up on her dreams, her ambitions and her principles–and anyway it still doesn’t jibe with Sim’s idea that she was a pampered little princess who couldn’t handle any sort of hardship.
What’s kinda funny is that you can see this sudden train wreck shift of directions in the middle of “Going Home”. It starts with Jaka and Cerebus trying to learn about each other and going from the easy early part of a relationship to the trickier middle part. And the set-up is that just as Cerebus screwed up Rick’s relationship with the real Joannie(Joanne?) by bad advice, Rick’s bad advice (“Always keep her happy, don’t ever let her know you disagree”) was poisoning the Jaka/Cerebus relationship. Then, somewhere during the Ham part of the story, Sim switched gears to “Jaka is kinda shallow, isn’t she? No wonder it’s not working-RICK WAS RIGHT!!!” which morphed into the “Spoiled, pampered princess” thing he says is the only interpretation (from the lettercol and interviews)
And you’re correct, by the way: I meant “Rick’s Story”.
As far as I’m concerned, Cerebus learned his lesson from Dave in #200 and from his time in the bar in “Guys” and when he and Jaka leave, hand in hand, POOF the story ends. They live happily ever after, have lots of kids and enjoy life and, eventually when Cerebus dies, he dies, surrounded by family and close friends, he’s mourned for months and his tombstone says "Beloved husband, father and friend.
I read the onion article and was rather amused by his smugness. He spouts off all these essays in his comic where there is a distinct lack of peer review. Let him try these views at any univeristy department with feminists, leftists, or homosexualists. He would figuratively be torn apart.
I have all the bound volumes up to and including Melmoth, and haven’t read a thing of his since. I was quite upset to glean a few years back (not sure from where) that Dave had seemingly descended irreversibly into misogyny and madness. (I also have the originals from ~60 to 120 or so – I wonder if they have any resale anymore?)
How many vols exist between Melmoth and Rick’s Story? (as tempted as I am to get to the end, I think it’s more valuable in the long run to choke off the story in a good place, and I trust the opinions of the folks here pretty well).
Antoher letters column bit I recall was when he started going over the edge he mentioned in some piece something like “And when you think about who takes advantage of whom in marriages just think about why the mans standard of living goes down after divorce.”
Strangely enough, I just read this interview on The Onion. My first thought was, “Wow, he comes off as a complete and utter self-important jackass, doesn’t he?”
Of course, depending on who you believe, many people believe that’s not too far off the mark.
I prefer to think of Dave Sim as an eccentric type that would prefer to fight than switch. He’s not always right about what he says or does, but you definitely have to respect the fact that he’s talented as all get-out, and a hell of a great businessman – he obviously has kept himself in paychecks for 26+ years in the industry.
Still, I’d say his career choices at this point are fairly limited, except as a mouthpiece for the comics industry. Chances aren’t good that he’ll launch a new title any time soon, or be offered an existing one with the Big Two. I’d wager he’ll end up in the place Peter David was for awhile – a “guest commentator” in Comic Shop News, or another similar publication that won’t mind publishing his wildly random thoughts on politics and such. I mean, let’s face it…you don’t give this guy a chance to write Spider-Man after all the things he’s said about Marvel and DC.
Measured on its own merits, “Cerebus” is pretty good reading. I choose to separate the man from his art in this case, since I feel (and have always felt) that Sim is a holier-than-thou jackass with too much to say about too many things that don’t concern him. But that’s neither here nor there.
I think 6–lessee:
[ul]
[li]Flight (excellent)[/li][li]Women (one of his best. Possibly his best post #100 volume. Lots of stuff is explained)[/li][li]Reads (Yuk. This arc sucks-more of Sim pontificating instead of telling a story, and using teenytinyblurryprint to do it, but it’s necessary. Just skip the whole “Victor Reid” crap. It sucks and it’s not necessary to understand what’s going on with the little grey bastard.)[/li][li]Minds (Per Sim, Cerebus’s story ends in “Minds” and everything else is the epilogue. You could stop here, but it’s an ambiguous ending rather than a happy ending[/li][li]Guys (Not my fav, but some funny bits. Very, very, VERY um…realistic portrayal of homophobia. Or Sim’s true feelings shining through. But given the context (Bear and Cerebus talking), it’s also an accurate portrayal of how those characters should react.[/li][*]Rick’s Story (eh–it’s so-so, but the ending is so damned upbeat that, IMO, it’s worth getting. If you stop here, it will leave a question unanswered but if you just assume that Girly-boy and Cerebus meet years later and show each other photos of their grandchildren, that clears up that loose end.[/ul]
Heh. Of course, the scene is made meaningless by a bit in “Going Home” where we learn that everyone in the world except Cerebus has seen rifles and one of the oldest Cirinist rules is that men can’t own guns anyway. Um. Then why are people so surprised by the cannons? You can’t invent rifles before cannons.
But if we’re talking about funny scenes in Cerebus, one of my favorites:
Lord Mick has given Cerebus a drink of his “special” whiskey (harf whiskey, harf codine) and Cerebus is stoned.
Cerebus: Sharing your whiskey with Cerebus…what a beautiful thing to…(reaches forward, arms extended)
Lord Mick: (frosty tones) Keep y’hands t’ y’self…Oy’ve ‘eard about you Powps…Carryin’ on wif young boys an ’ clowse relatives ‘n’ such–oy fink it’s qui’e disgustin’
Cerebus: (Trying to hug Lord Mick, but being kept at a distance by Lord Mick’s foot in Cerebus’s chest) "You don’t understand–You’re the most beatuiful person Cerebus has ever met…Cerebus wants to give you a big hug
Lord Mick: WOT? An’ Get some nimeless ‘n’ drewdfoe POWP disease? Oy should fink not. HERE! Wotta y’ doin?! STOP tha’…
(Cerebus has wrapped himself in an “arms and legs” hug around Lor’ Mick’s calf)
*Oh Lord luv a duck. (Buries head in hands Annuver four weeks sowkin’ me ya-ya’s in Kerosene. Oy cahn’t stan’ it."
Also, any time Baskin (Lord Julius’s secretary) shows up. Just the design of the character cracks me up.
When Sim is good, he’s in the Sheldon Mayer, Jack Cole ballpark for funny comics. Unfortunately, when he’s bad, he’s in the “Jack Chick” level of bad.
Must be nice to make arguments uncontaminated by facts.
Pity. I was a big fan of his work, coming in right at the start of “High Society.” I backtracked after that, got the old collections plus a few of the comics, and followed him until somewhere after “Melmoth.” Even picked up an original piece of art he did for a Philadelphia comic con around '84, and he even graciously signed a sculpture of Cerebus, remarking that he never saw any royalties out of the project.
He was an inspiration to me, watching him change his art style from a Barry Windsor-Smith knockoff to something that was more Him. I remember him telling the story about how he had put Cerebus in a position where he had no idea how BW-S would draw it, and the realization came that he had the ability to do it exactly as he saw fit. I love that moment when his mind opened and the possibilities seemed endless.
Then there was the moment when he was taken out to a club and he managed to see not only Eric Clapton, but Keef as well, and he wrote of how overjoyed he was; lucky to be alive.
Shoot, I’ll have to dig out those old issues and reread them now.
But I wish him the best. I’m amazed he was able to hold it all together for so long.
In his defense, few writers in comics are more peer-reviewed than Dave Sim. Check the Comics Journal message boards, or his extensive correspondance with Alan Moore (reprinted in Alan Moore: An Extraordinary Gentleman).
Lord Julius: “Send for a legion of pikemen to protect the presidential suite!”
Baskin: “You traded them for a giant bathtub in the shape of an octopus.”
Lord Julius: “Well…it certainly SOUNDS like something I would do…”
That’s brilliantly funny. To the point where I occasionnally use it when Lady Chance points out something I did that was spectacularly nonsensical.
Sim really was incredibly talented at both throw off comedy and dramatic tension. I think that during the part of Church and State where the Tower of Iest began to grow and Cerebus ended up climbing the tower was some of the best dramatic writing ever to be seen in comics. Far better than anything Moore or Miller ever pulled off.
In response to Fenris: When trying to describe the “what’s it about” to anyone (which comes up surprisingly often, with everyone from my girlfriend who read the entire series to a laborer for our firm (that was an interesting lunch hour)) after the fall-back “an aardvark who becomes pope” I switch to "well, the theme is a guy who has every opportunity to learn but doesn’t ever “get it.”
As for your list of boring male characters: I’m sure you understand that most, if not all of them are parodies. Elrond isn’t just Foghorn, he’s Elric the doomed albino prince of Melnibone, making him into Foghorn Leghorn was Sim’s way of showing how silly and over-the-top Moorcock’s gothic melodrama was. The Roach was the jab at the comic (read: superhero) zeitgeist. &c.
As for Cerebus’ interpretation of the Torah, Sim explains it somewhere in…(I had caught up to Latter Days in the trades and started buying the issues, but I can’t remember if the description was in the issues or commentary at the back of the trade) that Cerebus’ explication of the Torah was someone who had absolutely no knowledge of Judaism/Christianity and went at it from purely textual differences, even reconciling errors that were handed down via translations/recopying and who didn’t understand how the story worked in the culture it was conceived in.
And as understood by someone as dense as Cerebus.
As for your interpretation of Issue 300: interesting. To be honest, I skimmed the Torah commentary and the Book of Rick so I’ll have to go back to check those out(if you have issue/trade page references I’ll get to it quicker), but Jaka’s hand being a claw I think is you reading too much into a poorly drawn hand. I was going with the identity path, being that Cerebus finally finding peace (as it so happens, according to the story, peace can only be with God), but…I dunno how you want to read the Rabbi; worshipping false idols? Wanting to be something he’s not (feminist escapism?)?
Oh, I should like to point out that the story of naming Cerebus as related by Sim in The Onion is at odds with Deni’s interpretation from the editorial in Cerebus #1 (which some kind soul scanned and put on a history of Canadian Comics site. According to that, aardvarks were inexplicably all the rage among the local high schoolers despite no one knowing what they looked like and someone had the idea to call their magazine Cerberus, but Deni misspelled it and Cerebus it was.
One thing about Cerebus that has always held it back from more widespread popularity, in my opinion: it’s extremely inaccessible.
Unless 1) you are an old-time reader of the series, or 2)you have an extraordinary amount of patience, chances are you’re not going to just pick up Cerebus and give it a chance.
I would loooooove to get my girlfriend to read the thing, as I’m sure she would find parts of the series brilliant. She’s seen me chuckle over parts of it for years, and I’ve got all the phone books, a good number of the originals, and many of the reprints. She knows this series is important to me for some reason. I’d like to show her why.
But my God. How do I hand her the first phone book and say, “Yeah, this is all one-shot crap that doesn’t consistently bear on any of the rest of the series, but there’s enough stuff in there that shows up later that you’ll have to wade through the whole goddamn thing.” I mean, when Thrunk shows up in Church & State, what the hell is she going to think if she hasn’t waded through the early “funny animal” shit?
Then, not being a comic reader in general, I can’t imagine what she’d think of the Roach. “Hey! What the fuck? Moon Roach? Wolveroach? Sgt. Preston? This sucks.”
Then there’s the late spin into dementia. Man, I love the series. I just can’t share it with anyone uninitiated and expect it to stick.
