CEREBUS thee AARDVARCK. When did it stop being good? Was it ever actually any good in thee first place?

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I am thinking Cerebus is the ronnie james dio sword & sorcery metal band ov comic-dom. I am thinking that "High Society" is good, and the rest of it just might be a bit smelly. The two vols that came after High Soc might be good, I'll have to re-read them....What to you think?

WARNING BLATANT ADVERT!!!!!

I am also thinking that my six volumes of "Swords of Cerebus" (incl 1st printing ov vol.1) and "The animated Cerebus Portfolio" might go to feed my modular synthesiser habit, if there are any cerebo-completists out there.

xoxo

― Norman Phay, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think it was very much good up until about melmoth. high society = classic. and good chunks of church and state and jaka's story are great too. (making egotistical, barbarian aardvark the pope = classic.) melmoth is very fine indeed, but for reasons which have little to do with cerebus story itself. went sour when: a. sim began taking the whole thing a little too seriously (original conceit: aardvark barbarian whose existence no one else comments on who becomes prime minister, pope, etc. plus many, many comics in-jokes, even up to and including the "serious" bits = unable to support any great claims to literature or elevate itself out of the "comics ghetto.") when he could have just established himself as one of comics great satirists. b. he became poster-boy for a DISASTROUS and largely aesthetically bankrupt self-publishing movement. c. he began to incorporate his looney tunes ideas on male sexuality and the uh, "female void." too bad. he coulda been a contendah.

― jess, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

is high society a porno?

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

isnt he some sort of misogynist crank ?

― anthony, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

isnt he some sort of misogynist crank ?

This is putting it *very* mildly. Wait till I dig up some links...

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the first phonebook, "High Society", "Church & State" vols. 1 & 2 and "Jaka's Story" are all GRATE.

"Melmoth" is tiresome, the first no good story arc.

The first bits of "Mothers & Daughters" are good, but when Dave Sim starts ranting about women in the pages of the comic (as opposed to the lettercol) and, worse, when he discovers postmodernism the thing really really goes up its arse.

― DV, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ronnie James Dio ROCKS! Are you saying Cerebus ROCKS! and is godlike?

― toraneko, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Given the general consensus re: Sim's mysogyny, I think I'm glad I didn't actually read the issues of Cerebus I actually bought. (I'm always late when it comes to jumping bandwagons.)

Regardless, though, Gerhard's backgrounds are amazing.

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sim's assets are as such:

an incredible command for body language, facial nuance, and exaggerated character acting (all sorely/sadly lacking in most comics.)

a damn fine satirist when he wants to be.

a top-flight letterer.

he writes the best damn grouch marx this side of the real thing.

hired the last of the rennaisance masters to do his backgrounds.

his weaknesses:

misogynisitic twat.

one/nothing, the matriarchy.

― jess, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Weakness also = plot of Cerebus increasingly tiresome even on Sim's own terms and making no sense. The Zappa of comics and a testimony to the unsuitability of the serial form for producing really long-form work. The equiv. would be if Dickens had written one really really long book which started with the knockabout observation of Sketches by Boz/Pickwick and ended with the dust and gloom of Our Mutual Friend. A fantastic individual artistic development to be sure but the actual finished work would have been inconsistent and monstrous. Not that Sim has a hundredth the talent of Dickens.

― Tom, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

just in case anyone cares: sim on women and a lot of other crap from a creepy, paranoid perspective.

― jess, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blimey. What a disturbed individual.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He did a signing up here abt 10-12 yrs ago. Reputedly, he tried to cop off w/one ov our local charvettes by saying "I am a famous canadian comic book author". Failure ensued, I'm afraid.

― Norman Phay, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A lot of Dave S' problems stem from the fact that he's a minger.

― Tom, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do you have proof of this Tom?

― Magnus, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

thats cause canucks cant pull

― anthony, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dunno, you seem to be doing quite well for yourself Anthony. David sounds like a great bloke.

― RickyT, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Magnus - proof is on the back of early 100s issues of Cerebus. As I recall he HAD actually pulled somebody no doubt with his champagne lifestyle and enlightened conversation and displayed his trophy bird all over the back cover of his mag until she finally ditched him.

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the word "finally" suggests the affair was more dragged out than it was. Then he hired a woman publishing manager who (his side of the story) ripped him off or sold him out or let him down or (hem hem) turned him down. Dave S*m is surely gay.

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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