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Printheads: Cerebus by Dave Sim & Gerhard

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  1.  (3456.1)
    just wanted to pop in and add: to everyone who is upset at dave sims asshole views on women in general, i believe a few years back he stated he celebrates valentines day by 'celebrating my over-a-decade long celibacy'.

    so i think he punishes himself quite enough/appropriately.
    • CommentAuthorJim Moore
    • CommentTimeFeb 23rd 2011
     (3456.2)
    @tmcd02, you don't have to read the first one, though it does set up High Society, and that's where Sim starts to come on strong. Church and State are a 2 vol set, so you don't want to read that out of order, but I suppose you can read it without High Society. Jaka's Story and Melmouth are stand alone, and I would say that Flight, Women, Reads, Minds and Guys are a single story. Can't speak for much afterwards, as I left off at Minds. I have no problem letting the Cerebus end at Minds, though I've been meaning to get the rest of the books to see how Sim manages to finish it all off.

    Gerhard's backgrounds are well worth the price of admission alone.
  3.  (3456.3)
    LATTER DAYS had some high points. The one where Cerebus briefly becomes a sports star, Dave really was on when he did that one.
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      CommentAuthor-3-
    • CommentTimeFeb 23rd 2011
     (3456.4)
    Cerebus had a profound impact on me over the years. To date, i still can't watch politics without the urge to scream "The President sucks wet farts out of dead pigeons!"
    (Not just the current president, and not just the president)
    •  
      CommentAuthoriaviv
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2011
     (3456.5)
    Nothing new to add. I love Cerebus, despite some parts that were not so brilliant (to say the least). It was a bit misleading with the Conan parody in the first volume, but I'm glad I kept on reading. I don't really care for Dave's philosophy and criticism so I haven't read much of that (just enough to know he's crazy). I'd say it's best to leave that part out of your Cerebus reading experience.
  6.  (3456.6)
    I don't know that it's quite right to say the Conan parody is 'misleading.' That's what Cerebus was. He evolved from that once Dave got a taste for making comics.
    •  
      CommentAuthorscs
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2011
     (3456.7)
    @tmcd02 - I'm gonna disagree with @Jim Moore here, and say reading in publication order is best. In particular, the ongoing character development of Jaka, Rick, and some of the guys is really critical for fully appreciating what Sim is doing in the later stories. All IMHO, of course.
  8.  (3456.8)
    I don't think anyone has mentioned the lettering in Cerebus, but I think Sim did some of the best in comics.







    the pages that Cerebus is drunk always have some great lettering work.
  9.  (3456.9)
    I always thought Sim's lettering (and, after a while, his figure inking, particularly on Cerebus) was inspired by Will Eisner -- or, perhaps more correctly, Eisner's original letterer, Abe Kanegson. Anyone else see it?
  10.  (3456.10)
    @warren - oh yeah, definitely! I would say how Sim handled rain was also very Eisner-ish. Will Eisner rendered rain like it had weight.
  11.  (3456.11)
    There are also a few sex scenes which take place in great detail off-camera, carried entirely by the word balloons. In the Jaka-and-Rick one, it's just a series of '"Oh"s and grunts, but it's perfectly timed and the word balloons completely encircle the despondent Cerebus' face. In the Mick Jagger and 'Rilly Hose' one, her 'ooh's are depicted as a series of ocean rollers. Very funny, and very very effective and evocative.
    • CommentAuthorJim Moore
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2011
     (3456.12)
    @scs, oh, i do agree, it works best read in order, but if you wanted to pick up a book to see what it's about, you could get away with reading High Society, or C&S vol 1, or Jaka's Story or Melmouth without feeling completely lost.
    •  
      CommentAuthoriaviv
    • CommentTimeFeb 25th 2011
     (3456.13)
    @Carla Speed McNeil - It is misleading as long as you don't know anything about the comic - which I didn't, so I suppose you'd just have to take my word for it. I could have read a bunch of spoilers or reviews before diving in, but that's not how I roll... I just heard it was a really good comic. That's good enough for me! It paid off. In this particular case, anyway.
  14.  (3456.14)
    It’s not about agreeing or disagreeing with Sim. The author (and artist)’s life is irrelevant. It’s about the work and the work on Cerebus is astounding. It lives, it breathes, it makes you laugh and it pisses you off.


    this is how I feel also, very nicely put. The project itself is an incredibly unproduced auteur examination brilliant in it's existence maybe more so than in it's content or values ... but I hate the fact that my large volumes always fall apart! church and state is scattered in chunks throughout my book shelf right now.
  15.  (3456.15)
    I honestly doubt I would be as interested in reading Cerebus if not for the fact that Dave Sim went completely bonkers by the end of it. It would like Nietzsche without the syphilis or James Joyce without... the syphilis or Syd Barrett without the acid damage or any of those things. It adds this other lens to look at the genius elements of it, like the whole Campbellian monomyth idea of a hero/genius bringing something back to society from the edge and sometimes slipping over. Then again, the whole story of Hunter S. Thompson going a wee bit mad when he let his character override his mind offers a kind of counterpoint to that. But yes, the way works like Sim's offer an interesting dialogue on the relationship between genius and batshit goatfucking insanity.
    •  
      CommentAuthoralexwilson
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2011
     (3456.16)
    While I stopped reading in the mid-100s (maybe by the sheer weight of reading huge chunks of the collecteds in one sitting; I need a Cerebus-a-day desk calendar to pace through the whole thing in a year, maybe), yeah, I remember the lettering and backgrounds compelling me to continue even when the stories weren't speaking to me.

    It's funny that, once Sim moved to lettering digitally, he picked Comicraft's Joe Kubert as his go to font. It's great, it plays well with others, and it's one of my defaults, but it's also almost designed to not draw attention to itself... the opposite of his dynamic hand lettering.

    Judenhass ached for more interesting, noncomputer lettering, I thought.
  17.  (3456.17)
    Joyce didn't have syphilis. He was just a dick.

    I love Cerebus and I think it's one of the highest achievements in comics. If and when (because it's already starting to happen) comics are given serious study in the academic study, Cerebus will be one of the required reads, so I think a serious lover of comics would do well to read the whole thing, even if they don't like it.

    I for one do find that there are slow spots and parts that I don't like, but overall think it's beautiful...and fucking funny.
  18.  (3456.18)
    I picked up the first phone book about a year ago from the library knowing a) the series was an amazing achievement b) his um, "views" (I read a few of his writings and interviews). I got a fair way into it, but after awhile I just had to put it down. Knowing what he later became put a bit of a pallor on my enjoyment, and I kept thinking I saw signs of it from the get go (I don't think it was actually there- it's like if you watch a horror movie you start jumping at shadows). Ultimately I decided that there are soooo many worthy and under-read writers out there I would be better off supporting them, rather than spending hours of my life studying the work of somebody who probably wants me Suffering For All Eternity.
  19.  (3456.19)
    from wikipedia " (Sim) made arrangements for the copyright of Cerebus to fall into the public domain following his death.["

    thought this was neat (if it's true), Cerebus is a wild entity
    •  
      CommentAuthorRantz
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2011
     (3456.20)
    Dave changed comic storytelling... how we use a page, panels, text... in ways no one else could (being that he had no editor, 'cept himself).

    However, being as he had no editor, the work loses the 'thread' at times, wanders around in the weeds, then comes back and reminds you for 10 issues what a powerhouse Dave can be.

    Dave as a person is "complex". There are times he has been incredibly kind, gracious, and giving to me, and times that I've seen him display behavior that is in direct contradiction to the public perception of "That crazy Dave Sim guy". It doesn't, however, remove the things he's said/done that has caused people to draw that conclusion.

    Cerebus though, for it's flaws, is an unmatched work. Both historically (what it did, when it did it) and as a complete work. It (and one of Scott McCloud's pages from Zot) are the only pages from a comic that I've ever purchased.

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