scroll down to the entries for Dec. 24th to find the link
For anyone who's ever read the comic book Cerebus, it's an article about how Dave Sim, over the last 25 years writing and drawing the 300 issues of the comic book Cerebus, has slowly gone mad and turned into a reclusive, misogynistic fundamentalist. Strange and scary.
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Dave Sim's descent into rambling, vicious incoherence has been a frequent topic among comic book geeks; most of the last 100 issues of Cerebus have been increasingly unreadable. While I know a lot of people -- myself included -- who picked up Cerebus in the early days, I don't know a single person who still reads it.
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I remember getting into comics when I was in fifth grade; I started with X-Men and Spider-Man, and quickly started devouring anything I could get my hands on. I remember reading a feature on Cerebus and being awed by the magnitude of what Sim was planning to do . . .
. . . I picked up a copy and had no idea what to do with it. I was a suburban middle-schooler and I didn't get any of it. I guess I'll have to pick up some back issues.
Good thing I was planning on going to the comic shop tomorrow anyway, right?
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I have tried reading Cerebus every couple of years since I was about 14 and have never gotten into it. I still think Sim is one of the best comics artists out there in his ability to draw truer to life people. Certainly he is better than anything Image has currently.
I read his last manifesto(I even mentioned it on this forum) and wasn't that shocked. As the article mentions, it's nothing but recycled religious misogynism and that's been around pretty much forever. That Sim actually speaks his hate honestly rather than painting his misogyny up in ways that attempt to prove it's good for women and society, speaks well of him in my book. It's refreshing to see a hater honest in his hate. I wish there were more people like Sim. O.K., maybe not with Sim's views, but at least honest that they believe what they believe regardless of the consequences.
/rant
Don't get me wrong, I think misogyny is awful, but women are the worst perpetrators of feminine misogyny on the planet. Sim's not even a blip on the radar. No one listens to people like Sim, but haus fraus crush everything in their path in their desire to depersonalize and desexualize women. After all, misogyny is that which refuses to see women as whole people, isn't it? It's that which put merit after sex, isn't it, and assumes women should do certain things because society or culture believes that women should do those things strictly because they are women?
Women do it to themselves. All the rage and glee and madness is sucked out of so many women by the time they hit 18, and by 30? Forget it. Wild hellions hanging upside down from trees one day and nice girls sitting with their legs crossed the next. They have to wait until they're 90 and close to death before they start remembering that they have their own lives to live.
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I still read it. I just don't read anything in the back.
Been picking them up since #39 or so, but once he stopped running letters and started ranting I just let that part go. I've been having problems reading them lately, not because of the rants, but because of the type face he's been using that makes it a chore.
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Some comics stores don't carry the individual issues anymore, since Sim started getting so weird and not many people buy them any more.
Best way = look for a trade paperback collection. The first paperback collects 1-20 (some of the early issues are uneven and not too interesting), the second paperback -- "High Society"? -- collects 20-50 and is more representative.
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I was just asking because I thought I might look for it for my 16-year-old son. He likes comic books, but more importantly, he would probably be intrigued to find comics written by someone with the same name as his.
there are a whole lot of comics out there, farmgirl. a lot that i am sure your son would like other than cerebus. i am not discrediting cerebus, i am just a little confused by the rhythm of this thread.
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This is a comic that has gone on for decades, 300 issues all written and drawn by the same man, about a character that lives, grows (or doesn't) and dies in the final issue. The artist has also gone through a great many changes, including a marriage, a divorce, a period of intense partying and implied womanizing, and ultimately celibacy with bouts of mysogeny. His books are still worth reading, and the first 50 issues are as good as anything ever done in comics.
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"His books are still worth reading, and the first 50 issues are as good as anything ever done in comics."
And the other 250, sadly, are pretty marginal. *sad sigh*
Farmgirl, if you MUST buy something for your son, get him an EARLY trade -- from before Sim went bloody nutzoid. IMO, there are considerably better comic series out there that you could be getting, instead, especially if you're willing -- as evidenced by your interest in Cerebus -- to look at adult comics.
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quote: Farmgirl, if you MUST buy something for your son, get him an EARLY trade -- from before Sim went bloody nutzoid. IMO, there are considerably better comic series out there that you could be getting, instead, especially if you're willing -- as evidenced by your interest in Cerebus -- to look at adult comics
Well, I was looking at the paperback collections of his early work, as recommended by Plaid (above).
However, if you really think these comics are too adult for him, I'll drop the idea. It was just a novelty. As I said above, the only reason I thought about getting them is because my SON'S name is David Sim(s) and I thought he would get a kick out a reading something with an almost-namesake. I've never heard of the guy before, so I wouldn't be necessarily buying them for content -- it was just the novelty of it.
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FG, read them first. You may not consider them too adult, but it depends on your sensibilities -- and your son's. IMO, there are a number of adult themes that make Cerebus an unlikely gift from a parent -- but, then again, I'm a fan of most Vertigo comics, so clearly my tastes are questionable anyway. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Farmgirl, if you haven't already, you may want to read the article I linked to. Depending on your son's sense of humor, he might find it unsettling that someone with the same name as him has turned into such a weird jerk...
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i think Bone by Jeff Smith is a great series for a teenager (or anyone else, actually.) and most if it is already out in compilations, too. i also really like hellboy, by mike mignola. i started reading the sandman by neil gaiman when i was in high school, but then didn't start up again till i was 21. eh, i would hold off on that one, but that's just me. i used to have a subscription to legion and legionnaires by dc
i honestly haven't read any cerebus since i was about thirteen, and it wasn't that much. i know my two older brothers were into it for a while.
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Akiko (whimsical fantasy -- young Japanese girl's adventures in space) Bone (second porcelain girl on this!!) Elfquest (early volumes -- paperbacks 1-9) -- good elvish adventure that has serious themes Girl Genius -- alternate 19th century Europe featuring feisty brilliant young inventor, fun slapstick humor
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(hugs Elfquest) Definitely look into this one. They're releasing it in graphic novel format now for ridiculously cheap! But they're not doing it in order... DC...
I want to read Bone again, too. I loved it when it was in Disney Adventures...
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Plaid - Ha! I just now came from visiting the Girl Genius website. I'm on their mailing list, and they just sent out word about a bounty for old Phil Foglio work they no longer have copies of.
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I really haven't followed Cerebus as I would have liked to. I own the TPB for High Society - it is, indeed, an utterly brilliant piece. I intend to start with the other TPBs and read until I canna take anymore. Posts: 2945 | Registered: Apr 2000
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oh yeah -- another good comics for kids/teens = Castle Waiting -- a mix of different fairy tale characters and elements. (Unfortunately, it's on hiatus right now...)
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OK, I just picked up issue #300, the first one I've really READ in, what, 10 years? (aside from skimming an issue every year or so)
***SPOILERS***
Cerebus is all old and decrepit, he falls getting out of bed, breaks his neck, muttering "Thank Go---" as he does. His life passes before his eyes. His spirit rises from his body. He looks up and sees light falling on him and tons of characters from the series beckoning to him. Cerebus starts to rise up to meet them, then changes his mind and tries to run away, yelling "Help God! The Light has got Cerebus!" He's dragged backwards towards the Light.
And that's the end...
Chris, have you read this one? You said you'd kept up with the series... am I missing anything? What's the bit with the Light?
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Now that the last one is out I'll have to go back and read the last 20 or 30 to get the story straightened out.
In a discussion group with Sim after #300 someone asked if the light was supposed to be Heaven or Hell or what. Here's his answer:
"Actually, that's an interesting speculation. What I tried to do (and this goes way, way back to when I first started thinking, right, now how do I end this thing. And what I came up with was, basically, what we know about the death experience from the near-death experience accounts that we have been given. Given: our life will flash before our eyes, we will all feel ourselves rise up out of our bodies, we will find ourselves drawn towards a bright light like a tunnel. And, at the end of the tunnel will be everyone we knew who died before we did. Well, the more I thought about that... particularly after coming to belief in God...the more I thought, "I'm really going to have to take a look at who's there." I mean, virtually everyone I know and did know is or was an atheist. So, unless they've set the bar so low that everyone gets in, there's a good chance that it is hell at the end of the tunnel of light. I'm going to be looking for my cousin Chris who is a minister. If Chris ain't there, I might just sit down and wait it out til Judgement Day. "
Which doesn't necessarily tell us anything, and ends the series on a pretty depressing note if you believe it.
Personally, when I read it I figured that Cerebus suddenly realized facing his Judgment was going to be trickier than he thought and he panicked. That leaves his actual outcome up in the air (so to speak) and I prefer that.
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