Long Story, Short Pier has an excellent take on the 300th issue of Cerebus – not on the issue itself, which Kip has not read, but on the occasion.
What’s Cerebus, you ask, and why is issue 300 an occasion? It’s a monthly comic book, written by Dave Sim and drawn by Sim and his collaborator Gerhard, which has been coming out more or less once a month since the late 1970s. But Sim has said for decades that the storyline would end with issue 300. So, just as a matter of dogged persistance, Cerebus is an impressive achievement. It was also one of the best-written, best drawn comics ever – until Sim seemed to go quite mad with misogyny. Oh, well, at least the cartooning is still good.
The impact that Cerebus has had on me as a cartoonist is immeasurable. I’m probably not going to comment on Cerebus critically, though, until I have time to purchase and read the whole thing – I’m currently several reprint volumes behind. (The entire thing is something like 17 or 18 volumes)..
Yes, but can James Bond strictly speaking be considered a superhero? And what about Buffy? Focus, man!
(But thanks. I think I’m pretty firm in my resolve not to go out of the way to read any further, which is no guarantee I won’t pick up a later phone book at a beach house someday and settle in for an afternoon. –Still. Sad.)
My husband bought the last issue, and had to carry it to the cashier himself, as I wouldn’t touch it. :)
More great writing on the end of Cerberus–the guy who wrote it’s been running a column called “Is Dave Sim Mad?”
Cerebus jumped the shark way back at the end of “Church and State” when the Cirinists (previously goofballs who’d been kept mostly offstage) conquered Iest and turned everything dull and humorless. I gave up after the end of “Jaka’s Story”, tried again later, gave up again, and have read only two issues out of the last hundred, both of which confirmed that I wasn’t missing anything. Sad, because much of the early work – “High Society” in particular – is just brilliant, best comics work I’ve ever read, better than “Sandman”, better than anything. Never has a mighty talent fallen so far, so fast.
Oh my good god, Emily, I just checked out the site you linked to . . . Dave Sim is insane. Literally, factually, certifiably insane. Reading that was really scary.
For the love of god, he avoids sexual thoughts while masturbating because the spirit world is TELEPATHIC.
No joke.
—JRC
Found a great comment on this on a message board:
Adam Berenstain sez:
I’m very glad this Cerebus stuff is supposed to end soon so Sim can get on to the most important phase of his career: documentary subject. I’d pre-order the DVD now if I could.
“For the love of god, he avoids sexual thoughts while masturbating because the spirit world is TELEPATHIC.”
So that explains all of the poltergeist activity. . .
I gave up on Cerebus back around the time of the 22-page (or whatever) whizzing scene. $1.60 for that ? Bleh. I lost track after awhile of how many times I’d be sitting there twitching and thinking, “Just get to the point !! Any point, you pain in the $#&!@ ! Grrrr !!” And that’s not even touching the subject of Sim’s legendary misogyny.
I don’t like Japanese comics, either. :p
Bring back Wolverine McAllister and Neil the Horse !! :p
The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists – two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.
“We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her.” The first man said. “You cant be serious. I could never shoot my wife!”The agent replies, “Then you?re not the right man for this job.”
The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. “I tried, but I cant kill my wife.” The agent replies, “You dont have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.”
Finally, it was the womans turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, “You guys didnt tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair.”
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