Cerebus - final thoughts

I have finally finished the last collection of the Cerebus series - The Last Day.

  While it was good to have read the whole series, I still feel that where I had originally stopped was probably a good spot for me.  I had originally read Cerebus, High Society, and Church & State 1 + 2.  I stopped before Jaka’s story.

I liked the parody parts in the first two, and loved the supporting characters of Lord Julius, Elrod, the Roach, and even Red Sophia.  I feel that he had nailed the look and character of Groucho Marx for Julius.  I hadn’t read Elric but knew of him, and thought he was sufficiently mocked as an overly serious character by giving him the speech pattern of Foghorn Leghorn for Elrod.  The Roach was the parody of the then-current comic industry, and Red Sophia was Cerebus’ Red Sonja.
Even though everyone raves about Jaka’s Story, when I finally read it, I wasn’t as impressed.  Heroes are defined by their struggles.  When they have achieved their goals, their story becomes less interesting.  I was never as smitten with Jaka as most of the readers seemed to be.
Cerebus becomes a series where the footnotes are as important as the regular story.  The research clearly shows.  I can’t compare the Oscar Wilde, Hemmingway, or Fitzgerald likenesses, but the Stooges, Woody Allen, and Marty Feldman are spot on, and even the young Mick and Keith are recognizable.
  Sim’s outlook and views have changed during the course of the series and it spills into the series.  Some people lose their minds about Sim writing the character Dave into the series and espousing ‘his’ views, but Sim is very meta about it, Dave is clearly a character.  Any resemblance to the views held by the character are carefully controlled by the author.  Some people have trouble separating the character Dave from the author Dave Sim.
Granted, I read these all after the fact, collected safely into tradebacks.  On a month-by-month basis, Sim was very interactive with his readers through the letters’ column.  Remember, this was in the pre- and early-internet days, and being able to speak and argue directly with the writer was an oddity.
The writing was often daring.  In the midst of the stories, with it spinning off on a tangent, the readers weren’t sure where it was going.  Collected, you can flip ahead to see where the threads lead, but as issues, the monthly wait must have been both exciting and frustrating.  I mean, we knew how it would end as that was foretold to Cerebus back in but the path to that destination left a lot of room for wandering.

My final thought on the series?  I’m good with it.  Even though I didn’t enjoy it as much after the Church & State storyline, I don’t mind buying and reading through the rest of the series.  At the very least, to help support a Canadian artist who was at the forefront of creator owned, and published books.  He may not have always been likeable but he was a champion for creator rights.
A 300 issue epic, written and drawn by the same creative team is not something that we are likely to see repeated often, if again.  To publish it as well, and keep all of it in print, is a milestone that will not often be passed.  The entire series fits nicely onto a shelf or into a short box if you’re tight for space. You can follow along with what he’s currently doing, like the Cerebus In Hell project or the , on the website A Moment of Cerebus.

Thanks, Dave Sim, for Cerebus, and letting us get to know you on this journey.  And thanks again for the sketch from 1994 at the Central City Distributors trade show in St. Louis.  I wish you good things on your way.

The ‘phone books’ are:
Cerebus – covers issues 1 - 25
High Society – covers issues 26-50
Church & State volume 1 – covers issues 52-80
Church & State volume 2 – covers issues 81-111

Jaka’s Story – covers issues 114-136
Melmoth – covers issues 139-150 (Oscar Wilde)

There is also a comic Cerebus Zero which collects the ‘missing’ issues which are not collected above – 51, 112-113, 137-138.

The Mothers and Daughters storyline is broken up into four smaller books.
Flight – covers issues 151-162
Women – covers issues 163-174
Reads – covers issues 175-186
Minds – covers issues 187-200

Guys – covers issues 201-219
Rick’s Story – covers issues 220-231

Going Home – covers issues 232-250 (Fitzgerald)
Form and Void – covers issues 251-265 (Hemingway)

Latter Days – covers issues 266-288 (Stooges, Woody Allen)
The Last Day – covers issues 289-300

Iron First - no longer Essential - now Epic

I was always a bit of a fan of Marvel’s Iron Fist since I first came across him in the Marvel Team-Up books. Apparently I’m not enough of a fan to collect his series or the Power Man Iron Fist series but still a fan of the character. I finally decided to get the issues and put the Essential Iron Fist on my wish list but never got it. It was also a good example of early John Byrne art. When I decided to buy it myself, The Essentials line had been discontinued.

Marvel had started collecting back issues in books with the Masterworks line back in 1987. They are beautiful hardcover books in full color and used to be about $30 each when they first started. They only cover about 10 issues at a time. I do have the first two Uncanny X-men books as those back issues were pricey. They did print two Iron Fist books – in 2011 and 2012 but they are very expensive now.

They also came out with an Essentials line in 1996. These are similar to the Cerebus phone books in that they contain 20 to 30 issues in black and white for about $30. They released one Iron Fist edition back in 2004 but that is no longer in print.

While I was looking around on the secondary market (Amazon and ebay), I came across the info that Marvel is replacing the Essential line with an Epic line. The Iron Fist book is one of the first set and came out in July so I was able to pick it up. It has the Marvel Premiere issues, the entire Iron Fist series, and the Marvel Team-Up issues. It’s softcover but in full color.

Cerebus committed

While out on Free Comic Book Day, in addition to our free comics, we always buy stuff at each of the stores. I managed to pick up three more of the Cerebus phone books for about $15 each. Even though I didn’t find any of the 4 books in the next arc, I did get Guys, Rick’s Story, and Going Home, which are the next three books in the series after that arc.
That means I need the 4 books before that set (Flight, Women, Reads, Minds), and the last 3 books (Form and Void, Latter Days, and The Last Day) to have the entire series. So I suppose that pushes me over the edge into getting the back half.

Cerebus - finally halfway

I met Dave Sim back in the early 90s at a comic book trade show in St Louis. Arlene Sorkin was there as the voice of Harley Quinn (debuted 1992) and The Crow movie wasn’t out yet (1994).

Two people at a time could go in his booth and ask questions and get a sketch by him. At the time I was always carrying my sketchbook so he did a nice sketch of Cerebus in it for me. At the time I had only read the first phone book and part of High Society. Luckily the other person I was with was a solid reader of the series and was able to talk about the newest issues.

I have the first four ‘phone books’ – Cerebus, High Society, Church & State volumes 1 and 2. These are called phone books because they collect about 25 issues each. I’ve had Jaka’s Story on my wish list for several years but finally just bought it and Melmoth and read both of those.

This brings me up to issue 150, or about halfway through the 300 issue series. That’s quite the accomplishment for a single writer or artist to have that kind of a run on a book, but to have one person write, draw, and publish a 300 issue series is a feat we will not soon see duplicated. A small note on this run was that the fantastic backgrounds were being drawn by Gerhard since 1984.

Now I have a bit of a decision to make. Do I stop here or do I press on to the end?

Some people have listed Jaka’s Story as the high point of the series and others list the Church & State arc as the best, but I really prefer the original sword and sorcery of the original Cerebus going into High Society. The next arc – Flight-Women-Reed-Minds has a reputation as being more misogynistic than the rest. The series up to Melmoth has also been described as the first half of the series being written in a female voice, with the back half repeating the themes but being written a male voice, and then the final two books being the coda.

If I push on, I almost have to commit to reading the next arc. I’m pretty certain I will, as I would like to see how it ends up, and do want to support Dave Sim, both as a Canadian comic book artist, and as an independent publisher. Unfortunately, he is not in the best of health, and as an independent publisher, if he goes, I’m not if sure if anyone else would print them. You can keep up with his progress on this blog about him.

Darths & Droids - a New Hope

Those of you who have been following along with the Darths and Droids comic strip already know that they have moved on to the First film - A New Hope.

For those of you who haven’t been following, it is a good time to jump in.

Turn Signals on a Land Raider

This comic strip was about a 40K army – the Emperor’s Pointy Sticks. If you play 40K and haven’t read this yet, you really should. He’s stopped making new ones so you have a finite amount to catch up on.

He did start a new series called Proxy Wars but didn’t get more than three strips so far.

In which the Sith have Revenge!

Darths & Droids has made it to the third film. If you haven't been keeping up with it, you can catch up now.

Again, it takes the movies as a RPG gaming session - which helps to explain some of the decisions therein. And it's often quite clever.

Free Comic Book Day 2010

It’s a busy weekend for us. In addition to everything else, it’s Free Comic Book Day! Be sure to swing by your local comic book store and see what they have. This site has a store finder as well as previews of what is being offered this year.
While not as much cool stuff as in previous years, it’s usually a fun time.

DDR - the 10K Commotion

If you are or were into DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) or, like me, aren't that into it but still like Magna-style comics check out the 10K Commotion.

She's got the entire story up now so it is much easier to read than when I was waiting for the weekly-or-so updates. She has a nice fresh / clean style and I realy like how she did the lettering. It would be nice to see it as a graphic novel but this is a good, fun read - even if you don't fully understand the game.

Was Superman a Spy?

I've been spending a bit of time going through this site lately.
It's got a bunch of comic-book based urban legends - which have recently been collected into book format as 'Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed!' by Brian Cronin. It's been a fun read - I've been on the fringes of what's been going on in comics in the last decade or so, so I've missed a bit, but it's still a good read. I highly recommend taking a look to see if any catch your eye.

The other good site that my kids are enjoying is Marvel's Create your own hero site - which has a bunch of templates you can use and color to create a super hero. It's also a good way to kill an afternoon.

FCBD - post game

We did partake in the Free Comic Book Day on Saturday. We only went to 2 stores this year – Galaxy comics and Comics Factory IV.

We didn’t make it over to Comics America this year. Last year they were pretty sticky about only 1 comic per person so we didn’t bother.

We went to Galaxy first. They usually do 1 comic per adult and 2 comics per child so that’s much better. Plus I picked some Monsterpocalypse boosters from the new I Chomp NY set to get the Shadow Shinobi Unit.

Then we went to Comic Factory IV. Jarett’s always pretty good about FCBD comics – as long as you don’t go crazy, he’s pretty soft about limits. Plus, he usually has a bunch of stuff on sale. We picked up a bunch of mini-graphic novels and I got the Marvel Universe RPG and the Hulk/Avengers book for $2 each.

All-in-all, another sucessful year.

FCBD - you had me at Free

Saturday, May 2 is Free Comic Book Day.

Once a year, the industry gets together to try to get more comics in the fans of potential fans. Current, uber-fans take advantage of this day to try to score as many copies as they can. Even still, it's a good excuse to try and make it in to your local comic book store and check it out.
With the economy as it is, I am sure they could use the new faces. Since most of the stores have diversified over the years, and now carry toys, games, videos, as well as other lines, they should have something that you are interested in that they would be very happy to sell to you.

The link above has a part where you can find which stores are participating in FCBD in your area. Hopefully a few of our local ones missed the listings as we don't seem to have too many this year.

We'll try and hit a few. I can look for Monsterpocalypse figs at the same time.

The Silence of the Clones

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up, Darth and Droids have finished their rendition of the first movie as an rpg and have started on the second movie.
It’s still good fun.

You'll have that

Drat! One of the online comics strips I'm following has ended. It actually ended at the beginning of January but I usually only catch up every couple of months. Wes Molebash has had a pretty good series about a young married couple. You can check it out from the beginning here.
He says that he'll start a new series in Feb about a man and his dog. Look forward to it.

dark future

I recently read the Essential Marvel Team Up volume 2 (as well as the Essential Dr Strange volume 1). They are basically tradebacks reprinting about 25 issues of the old comic books. They are in black and white only to keep the cost down and they are good value – about $20 each depending on your exchange rate. I have some of the MTU issues starting at the end of this volume until the end of the run.
The Ditko Doctor Strange art is pretty neat – the stories seem to have paled a bit by the time lapsed and the lack of color. Most of the stories have him fighting Baron Mordo again and again. It might not have been so noticeable on a monthly issue, but read together, seems a bit repetitive.

The MTU had a story arc where Spidey gets shunted through time to the past and then flung into the far future. Since these stories had been published in 1975, their idea of the future differs from what we are now experiencing.
He first went ahead to 2019 (issue 45) and teamed up with Kilraven in fighting in a New York devastated in the Second Martian Invasion of 2001. He then hopped back slightly to a then-future 1990 (issue 46), where he teamed up with Deathlok to battle mutates.

Your experience with the future may have varied.