The year that I graduated college, I regularly visited the library of my school. I didn’t have a great job and I wasn’t at the point where I could just blatantly impulse buy things and charge them to a credit card, so a lot of my reading got done by pulling books out and giving them dedicated time from my day on a weekend. Plus, the library had a great selection of books that I couldn’t find elsewhere at the time, like Dave McKean’s “Cages” (since reprinted by Dark Horse) or Bendis’ “Fortune and Glory” (since reprinted by Icon). And one of the books I had taken out and started reading was “Cerebus.”
I never finished it, though. It was one of those things; a 300 issue series that I had wanted to read, but obviously couldn’t fit into my schedule when balancing school work, a real job and some semblance of a social life. At least, not with something that was as dense as “Cerebus” is. And while I made a dent in the series, I did ultimately stop following it in favor of things that were a bit easier to read.
So when “Cerebus” came to Kickstarter for the purposes of making a digital version, it kickstarted (I’m so sorry) my interest in sitting down and reading through the series finally. I had actually picked up the majority of the books during a sale at my local shop (got more than half of the series for $5 a book), and they’ve since been sitting on a shelf making it look like I’ve read so much more than I actually have. Now seems as good a time as any to correct that, and what better way to keep my motivation for doing so by writing about it on this website?
So join me while I get a bit self-indulgent and read through the entire run of Dave Sim’s seminal work throughout the year, accompanied with some thought pieces about each volume as I go. I know this isn’t exactly a novel concept or anything, and others have already done this (notably Tim Callahan, who is a much better writer than myself). I’ve sworn myself off from reading others works on the subject until I’m done, though, and hopefully I’ll be able to provide some sort of insight into something of anything.
Or, if nothing else, maybe one or two of you will just get interested enough to check this series out yourself and read along with me (see: the bottom of this post).
As a final note, some spoilers for the first volume are discussed.
So, without further ado…
In looking at ‘Cerebus’ as a completed piece, one thought dominates: this is essentially a beginners guide to Dave Sim’s magnum opus. Similar to how one would take a 101 class during Freshman year to orient themselves to the basics of whatever it is they’re attempting to study, ‘Cerebus’ is essentially a book that lightly lays the grounds for all that is to come without actually giving any major clues towards what that will eventually be. All of the things that “Cerebus” would eventually become well known for aren’t exactly present within this first volume, only ever so slightly peppered in over the course of 25 issues in a way that’s barely noticeable on a first glance. Yet even with this book’s more simplistic nature in comparison to what will come, it doesn’t change the fact that this is a strong start to a grand adventure.
The first thing truly noticeable in the book is the evolution of Sim’s art. When the book begins, Sim seems to play with aspects of photo-realism with the human characters, while Cerebus remains awkwardly cartoony amongst them all. It’s sort of like watching an old Disney cartoon like “Steamboat Willie” and then looking at modern day Mickey; the way that Sim is able to bring the character to life more towards the end of the twenty-five issues is arguably the greatest achievement this book contains. It stands essentially as proof positive of how to develop a skill, and Sim put it all out there on the page as he went. This makes the read even more interesting to read, as you’re actually watching an artist evolve throughout the page; what might seem a bit hokey or unrefined in the beginning becomes increasingly better with every issue, to the extent that at a certain point it stops being noticeable. It’s like watching a child grow – one day it’s a baby, the next a teenager. So even if you didn’t like the stories within the book (which seems unlikely anyway), just looking at ‘Cerebus’ as a reference for how to develop a skill makes this tome a great tool.
Continued belowBeyond that, the book’s evolution in terms of story-telling also evolves at an interesting rate. What begins as one-and-done stories of a barbarian archetype attempting to find work slowly turns into a more sprawling saga for the character. The earliest issues of the book are particularly interesting in comparison with the latter half of the book, as the first few seem like they would fit into your average Conan comic, which very much seems like the point (truth be told, they read a lot like Brian Wood’s current “Conan” books over at Dark Horse). As the series progresses and Sim’s focus begins to become much more pointed towards specific areas of interest, this diminishes, and where once you could read any issue of “Cerebus” relatively out of order, things begin to flow and add up as characters return and stories start holding a bigger purpose. Both have their merits, though, although I can’t help but wonder what the book might have been like if it had stayed a bit more free-form throughout the first 25 issues.
The only real complaint I could throw in here is that the issues are on occasion quite stuffy. It’s not that they’re hit or miss, mind you; Sim writes in such a fashion that certain characters can become annoying after a while (Elrod and his Foghorn Leghorn speech tactics) or others drone on in order to explain aspects of politics within the book (Weisshaupt, President of the United Feldwar States). This isn’t something that Sim ever really figures out a way to rectify, either; some issues read easier and more enjoyable than others, particularly the early issues that are focused on Cerebus as a brute rather than someone playing at a larger game. The only character who seems to have a major change in how he’s presented is Cerebus himself, who evolves beyond a more stoic/closed-off character to someone who seems lightly interested in the affairs of others, although he never loses his particular third-person narrative.
Yet, in spite of it all, the other thing that remains prevalent throughout “Cerebus” is its off-key sense of humor. The book isn’t a comedy by any means (although there is something known as the Cerebus Syndrome, in reference to something comedic becoming dramatic), but the book is full of this dry humor that revels in a mix of the irreverent to things much more situational. Elrod is a prime example of a character used for humor, as when paired alongside Cerebus the effects are quite charming, even if Elrod’s shtick does end up a bit overdone. This formula remains constant throughout, as Cerebus’ cartoonish existence within an otherwise dark world is constantly used as a tool when other characters fail to really recognize him as out of his environment. That’s actually the most amusing aspect of the book – the women that fawn over him, the men that fear and idolize him, none seem to actually offer up any major recognition that he’s not the same species nor does this seem to be a factor, despite him being the only thing like himself within the entirety of the first book. There are no other walking talking animals, just Cerebus, and how this never ends up phasing anyone ends up as an amusing tool quite consistently.
Not only that, but rather quickly the book becomes full of pieces that offer up parodies or satire of various characters, tropes and ideas. The earliest I can recall seeing it is the Red Sonja parody Red Sophia, but it continues throughout, such as the above Cockroach/Captain Cockroach, a figure who comes into clash with Cerebus. His first appearance allows Sim to lampoon the Batman-archetype of a character seeking justice within the night whose secretly a rich man by day, and Sim plays up Cerebus’ inherent greed in the issue for quite a few laughs. Later Cockroach comes back as a Captain America-type goon (complete with sidekick Bunky) who is molded and used by the aforementioned President Weisshaupt, and through this Sim gets to have his kicks at Marvel/DC’s expense long before it became a popular storytelling mechanic in modern day comics. And, honestly, it’s a lot more funny when Sim does it, because not only does he act 100% less subtle about it (going so far as to actually draw Swamp Thing and Man-Thing together at one point) but he uses the parodies to actually say something, rather than simply using it as a device for readers to instantly connect with a “new hero.”
Continued belowThat’s one of the things about modern day comics that pales in comparison with the examples in this book. You pick up a book like “Invincible,” which is great on its own, but it features a Justice League parody in the second arc that is very little more than a parody of the Justice League. There’s really nothing more to it than that. The use of a Captain America pastiche in ‘Cerebus’ gives Sim an issue or two to criticize several things, the most obvious two of which are the depictions of costumed crusaders and how foolish/unrealistic they are – both in the terms of their general ethos and their builds – and how they’re used, or can be used, as propaganda tools. Issue #21 is filled with this pseudo-racism against an nonexistent group of people, yet what Sim is calling attention to is not even remotely subtle within the books depiction of characters and the reflection of cultural tension in a post-WW2 environment while taking stabs at cultural tension during WW2. Sim does more with one issue and a few elements than most writers bother to do today, because it’s a lot easier to just throw in a character who is like Batman or Captain America into your book than to actually do anything of meaning or worth with.
Granted, whether or not Sim says anything to you in this subject beyond just calling out racist tendencies comes down to the reader. In the instance of the Red Sophia character where Sim makes reference to the buxom female archetype that dominates comics, it’s really just more of a casual statement than it is anything else. It’s never the less an interesting approach to the material.
Another aspect that becomes increasingly prevalent in the book is how often Sim puts real people into it, in a similar fashion to the parodies he offers of various characters. This will eventually become a mainstay of the series as Cerebus interacts with various figures, but ‘Cerebus’ lightly dips its foot into this pool here. Groucho Marx, for example, has a recurring role as Lord Julius that speaks very true to Marx’s on-stage personality, and we even get an Alan Moore-esque character during the final Swamp Thing/Man-Thing battle. (I’m also aware that Moore shows up again later in the series in a less satirical fashion). While nothing too on the nose is done with these yet — some general humor, a light tease here or there — it sets the stage for an aspect of the book that grows significantly throughout. This is one of those things that you only really catch on a second read-through; the first time I ever read ‘Cerebus,’ Julius didn’t strike me as noteworthy in the same way as Captain Cockroach. While I haven’t read all of “Cerebus,” the distance I did go on my first travel makes instances like this stand-out more as Sim really beginning to form into the creator he’d be by the end of the 300 issue saga.
The Groucho thing actually caught me a bit off guard, if I do say so. Perhaps I just didn’t pay much attention the first time (I also hadn’t read any of Groucho’s books at the time, nor did I own every Marx brothers movie yet), but when Lord Julius began speaking with a certain rhythm it became intensely noticeable. That’s one of those where I actually found Sim’s work quite masterful, because he was essentially able to master a personality that is just so singularly Groucho. Many people try to imitate Groucho’s mannerisms or quick wit to varying degrees, but Sim, in a written/visual medium no less, managed to bring in some of Groucho’s inflections perfectly (see: above). While the Julius character becomes 100% less subtle as time goes on, those first few interactions were pretty great work on Sim’s behalf.
Of course, the pinacle of this book and the first instance (to me, anyway) that sees Sim really going outside the stereotypical comic box is issue #20, ‘Mind Game.’ The Mind Game idea eventually gets repeated at later points in the series to different degrees, but in the first instance its an issue that can catch you quite off-guard if you’re not expecting it (and, truth be told, if this is your first instance reading ‘Cerebus’ it most certainly will). Set in the middle of a story, Cerebus spends an issue walking a strange voice within his own mind, speaking to two different parties in a Yojimbo-esque fashion. What we eventually discover is that Cerebus is traveling over himself, as shown above, in a rather clever and generally out-of-the-box moment of the series, and its the sort of thing that guys like Moore and JH Williams will replicate in “Promethea” twenty or so years later (although this issue is not nearly as poignant as the religious odyssey they gave us). Given that this book came out in 1980, the ethereal nature of the issue stands as particularly noteworthy in contrast of what came before (barbarian stories) and what comes after.
Continued belowThat’s probably a bit of a cop-out answer of why this issue is so great, but it’s never the less true. ‘Mind Game’ is really noteworthy because of how different it is. Sim had essentially been leading us along a path that felt rather linear in terms of storytelling, and this issue swept the rug out from under the reader and tried something new out ostensibly just because. The repeated motif of the ‘Mind Game’ will give this more importance later, but in terms of having an issue like this sprung on you after all that we’d had in the past is straight out of left field. Yet it doesn’t feel like something that came out forced or disingenuously; rather, this was Sim taking the book to a new place and feeling out a space for himself as an artist. It’s really rather impressive to see it all happen, and when you see the issue close-up (as opposed to the image I’ve provided here) as Cerebus uses Cerebus’ body and the negative space around him for different forms of storytelling, the whole effort becomes are rather ingenious and creative way to use the comic medium to tell a sequential story.
All of which is to say: this book is quite good, and this issue in particular is quite great.
So ‘Cerebus’ as a single graphic novel phone book is quite an interesting book all on its own. No, it doesn’t really reflect how intense or deep the book will eventually become (hence the aforementioned Syndrome), and yet it stands as noteworthy for so many reasons in spite of that. Here is a book where a creator sat down and just made comics, a work ethic that’s recently spouted its own popular hashtag among creators on Twitter, yet here is the perfect example of what that work ethic can accomplish long before Twitter existed. The Sim that illustrated Cerebus in the first issue is a remarkably less talented illustrator than the one who illustrates Cerebus in the last, and watching that talent grow both in terms of artistic level and storytelling is truly remarkable throughout these 25 issues. While the book will continue onto much loftier topics than a satire piece later in its life, the first few years of “Cerebus” comics remains contained within ‘Cerebus’ stands as a must-read piece of comic fiction for anyone even remotely interested in making their own comics. While those books may never be remotely as good as this, there’s still quite a lot you can learn from Sims in just 25 issues.
If you’d like to join me in reading the series throughout the year, here is the breakdown I plan to (try and) follow for the rest of the year in order to give me both time to read, digest and write about each volume. We can make a Book Club thing out of it. Obviously I have a head start of sorts for not “announcing” this in any way, but truth be told I think you can hop in with ‘High Society’ and do just fine in following along. Or just take a weekend and power through 25 issues.
- January – CEREBUS (1-25)
- February – HIGH SOCIETY (26-50)
- March – CHURCH AND STATE I and part of Cerebus Number Zero (51 – 80)
- April – CHURCH AND STATE II (81-111)
- May – JAKA’S STORY and part of Cerebus Number Zero (112-138)
- June – MELMOTH and FLIGHT and WOMEN (139-174)
- July – READS and MINDS (175-200)
- August – GUYS and RICK’s STORY (201-231)
- September – GOING HOME (232-250)
- October – FORM AND VOID (251 – 265)
- November – LATTER DAYS (266-288)
- December – THE LAST DAY (289-300)
Comixology has all of ‘High Society’ online now, with the first issue of the book available for free. If you read a single issue/chapter of the second book every day for the rest of the month starting February 1st, you’ll be able to keep up the pace with no trouble at all! That it’s free on Comixology should only be extra incentive.
I welcome all discussion in the comment section, but please keep it to the book in question.
