Cerebus: The Narrative And The Controversies

Comments · 451

• GU

  @guyfawkes938 · 6 years ago (edited)

  Here in Italy we had a similar, very popular comic called &quot;Rat Man&quot;, by Leo Ortolani, which certainly took more than a page from Cerebus&apos; book. Started off as a superhero parody in a fanzine, became a parodic series under the publisher Panini but progressively built itself up into an increasingly dense narrative and character exploration. It even developed its own version of Sim&apos;s self-indulgent authorial soapbox two thirds of the way in, albeit mercifully more focused on the comics industry and its characters rather than Dave Sim&apos;s own rabbit hole.<br><br>It never really reached Sim&apos;s highs in art and writing, but it also didn&apos;t quite lose sight of itself either up to its recent conclusion. It never fully dropped its parodic humor or metatextual elements either, even during very character-focused arcs; rather, it would blend its (often bizzare) interpretations of another comic or pop culture parodied with the series&apos; overarching plots and characters. There&apos;s a very odd arc in which the protagonist&apos;s &quot;darkest hour&quot; is triggered by the (real life) failure of the comic&apos;s own, short-lived and mediocre cartoon adaptation. This is tied into the main narrative, is played almost entirely seriously and has lasting major consequences on the character throughout the rest of the series.<br><br>Unfortunately, as an odd Italian comedy comic its humor is often near-untranslatable (it&apos;s no Corto Maltese), which in my opinion is a damn shame to know it will never be more than a local, though popular, oddity.

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• TO

  @tonebone7449 · 6 years ago

  Remember the good old days, when the most controversial thing about Cerebus was that he threw a baby? &nbsp;Good times.

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• TH

  @TheJohno95 · 6 years ago

  You have to give Dave credit for one thing....He took that acid trip vision and made it real! Not saying it&apos;s all good, but he did get it done.

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• JL

  @JLRoberson · 6 years ago

  Well, dang, that was thorough and much better researched than other videos I&apos;ve seen on this. Those tend to sound like they just discovered it a few months ago and feel they need to apologize for it. This is balanced and the criticism of how Dave drove the book into a narrative ditch is all the more tragic for it. <br>I usually put the break from Cerebus proper to Dave wearing a Cerebus skin at 200 myself, the end of MINDS. Till after that, you actually can exclude the READS text stuff from the narrative and lose nothing. But from GUYS onward(with brief respites like FALL AND THE RIVER, his last truly great arc) the Tract Dave comes to the fore and warps characterization and retcons HIS OWN WORK to make it fit his current opinions. I guess you could say this begins with FLIGHT, though. It just gets sadder and more psychodrama later--in MINDS he&apos;s interestingly self-critical, and there&apos;s the vision of how bad he&apos;d be for Jaka if they reunited(which they, though, did).

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• AL

  @all_watched_over · 6 years ago

  would&apos;ve like to have heard more about Gerhard (the scenery illustrator)<br><br>once he came aboard, he really took the art to the next level. and as far as I know, he stuck it out and never got involved in the controversy. I don&apos;t know if that was dedication to art or a paycheck, but impressive nonetheless.

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• MU

  @muttjones222 · 6 years ago

  I had always heard about Cerberus as one of the “true” comics out there, one of the greatest ever published, but I never bothered with it. This video is so great in summing up what the big deal is as well as why I’ve heard about Cerberus but why no one actually recommended it to me.

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• BE

  @Belowone · 6 years ago

  &quot;dave decided to drop acid everyday for a week&quot; lmfaaooooo talk about being dedicated to working and finishing the comic. In theory I can see why he did it, acid doesnt make you go to sleep you will be up for 12 hours or so, that means more time for drawing, making more chapters and finishing your comic while i guess maybe being inspired by other ideas during the trip.

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• AL

  @alexiuspereira8672 · 6 years ago

  Thanks very much for this overview and analysis. I was 20-ish when there was a buzz about Jaka&apos;s Story. I completed that series but couldn&apos;t afford to go get those that came before, which people say High Society onwards are masterpieces. Unfortunately, I tried to follow from Jaka onwards and the aardvark totally alienated me. After your explanation, I now understand. It&apos;s Dave&apos;s fault, not mine.

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• CL

  @Clarence_Oddbody · 3 years ago

  Simm was apparently advertising his omnibus editions for direct sale to his readers in the comics, (bypassing all the local retailers)which pissed off all the comic shops who had helped build his readership.

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• JA

  @jacob_ian_decoursey_the_author · 6 years ago

  This channel deserves more love.

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• NE

  @neildorsett3225 · 6 years ago

  I started on #79 monthly and stuck with it into the 200&apos;s although by then I was kind of barely glancing at it. The only notes I would add, casually, are that it&apos;s worth remembering that CEREBUS had one of the largest female readerships in North American comics--to the degree of flaunting--before READS, and that he spends considerable effort in that screed trying to distinguish his &quot;male&quot; and &quot;female&quot; conceptions from individuals (success is up the the reader, but the attempt is in there several times).<br><br>I really think Sim&apos;s great mistake was tying himself to the single project. Had he not done that, there would have been outlets for venting. But CEREBUS wound up being a walled garden for his ideas, and thus is an illustration of them overtaking him.

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• DU

  @duhdeedee · 6 years ago

  re: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e0okB5imP4&amp;t=1230">20:30</a> I haven&apos;t brought myself to read Cerebus past 200 but skipped to the end of &quot;Going Home&quot;. &nbsp;Before he leaves Jaka, she expresses a lack of concern about the Cirinists who imprisoned her and broke up her marriage and Cerebus thinks to himself how clueless she is. &nbsp;But in &quot;Jaka&apos;s Story,&quot; she was astute enough to cite the neutrality agreement between the Cirinists and Lord Julius and claim diplomatic immunity. &nbsp;Sim clearly made her an idiot just to further his point.

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