• Cerebus (Aardvark-Vanahiem) February 25 - 1:59 am

For the continued nitting of the small, furry aardvark.

Guard yor valuables!

Me - Okay, then Dave goofed up in Cerebus Number Zero.
Noooooooo, actually I goofed up in interpreting the information given. *sigh* One of those weeks.

...........SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!..........

Okay. So. The basic plot of the final arc of Cerebus has the "One, True Cerebus" as an old man. A whole new religion has been built around him and the "Book of Ricke". However, in spite of becoming such a powerful leader, Cerebus, an ancient relic (possibly over 300 years old), is a virtual captive in his room. On the last day of his life, he's given news that his son, Shep Shep is on his way to visit his father. The visit is stymied by various factions, frustrating the aardvark. Then, finally, we meet Shep Shep in #299 -

And Dave Sim blew it.

So close and on the penultimate issue, Dave fumbled.

Y'see, it seems that Cirin is also alive and has been conducting crossbreeding experiments with plants and has found a way to make it work with animals. One such experiment includes cloning Shep Shep and crossbreeding the clone with a lion.

..........

Sorry, Dave. That's just plain stup1d. It ruins what reality there's been in the series. I think I could have forgiven the now cliched disfunctional father-son relationship. (Are they any functional ones in popular fiction any more?) But cloning in the 1700s?!? "Not so much of a grand finale, as a grand finally" indeed. It's just one anachronism too many for me.

Let's just get it over with. Please.

"Why does Cerebus feel like saying 'Rosebud' all of a sudden?"

The End is Here!

Issue #300 was released yesterday. I haven't gotten it yet. I'm hoping to get it tomorrow. As soon as I do, I'll let you know what I think of it, and what my overall impression of the series is.

"Attaboy -- He may be taller and stronger than you, but remember -- you're shorter and grayer!"

Congratulations Dave! Ya done it!

Next he buys Brazil.

They're not really getting the best of Cerebus. They think they are

Benn - Issue #300 was released yesterday. I haven't gotten it yet. I'm hoping to get it tomorrow. As soon as I do, I'll let you know what I think of it, and what my overall impression of the series is.
And the fact that posted nothing means... ;-)

BTW the magazine Edge (?) had a one page interview with Sim, apparently 10 minutes before he finished Cerebus 300. One interesting thing was a comment about how when he was young he thought he could do 300 issues, but now he wishes he had decided on 250 instead.

My silence means I haven't gotten the issue yet. I should have it Wednesday. (I wound up ordering it, and a few other issues of Cerebus from Lone Star Comics. According to the UPS tracking website, the order is due in on the 31^st. So by Thursday, I should be ready to make my comments on the series.

I've never heard of a magazine called Edge. Any idea how I can obtain a copy?

Did you ever see the Cerebus Companion series? If not, I heartily recommend the two issues of the series. The publishers, Win Mill Production, out of Arlington or Grand Prairie, Texas (I forget which), will soon be publishing a magazine called Following Cerebus. You can read about it and possibly order the two issues of Cerebus Companion (I'd recommend trying Lone Star or Mile High first, though) here: Following Cerebus.

"What exactly are these d4mn things."

I wondered if you hadn't gotten it yet or if you had but were so disappointed you didn't feel like posting.

I'm not sure if Edge is the correct title. It has the Wizard logo on it, but Edge in large letters like it was the title. The mag itself is thinner than the average issue of Wizard so it seems to be some kind of spinoff. Cover price was $4.99 & I saw it at the magazine racks of both Safeway & Fred Meyer. I considered buying it until I discovered the interview was just one page & most of the other articles didn't sound too interesting to me.

I think I saw the Cerebus Companion online. I think I tried downloading it years ago, but the text was messed up.

BTW using newurl instead of url in the formatting will prevent that trapped in frames situation.

Take a few days off, you said. Everything will be fine.

Okay, I just finished reading #300. I have a few comments to make. First of all, that was one of the fastest reads I've ever had. Couldn't have taken five minutes to get through it. I'm a bit ambivalent about the ending. (I won't say how Cerebus dies. You'll have to read that for yourself.) I do know I need to hurry up and get the rest of the series so I can read it all at once (more or less).

One nit: Years ago, Dave said the character of Death, seen in #1, would return in #300. He doesn't. Then again, Cirin is another major character (okay, so Death wasn't a major character) who doesn't appear in #300.

Overall, I've got a feeling this issue is going to read better after the previous 297 issues have been read in sequence.

I'll try to post some thoughts on Cerebus overall after work tonight.

"Help God! The light has got Cerebus! GOD! Heeelllpp!" (The final words of the series.)

Edge is a Wizard magazine dedicated to Independent Publishers.

On Saturday's Sinfest writer/artist Tatsuya Ishida referred to himself as "The Earth-pig born".

One nit: Years ago, Dave said the character of Death, seen in #1
I thought Death first appeared in issue #4?

Dash it all, KAM, you're right. I knew it was an early issue. But did I double check myself? Noooo! And all I had to do was pull out my trusty copy of Swords of Cerebus #1 to do so. Oh well, I screwed up. What can I say?

"I like the part about the butler."

Cerebus #68

At this point, Cerebus, having not only been reinstated as the Prime Minister of Iest, is now the Pope of the Eastern Church. As Pope, he has decided to terrorize the people of Iest into giving him all of the gold they have. This has the effect of bringing about a near economic catastrophe to Iest. President Weisshaupt, who manipulated Cerebus back into the Prime Minister position, is angry at Cerebus. He wants the little grey aardvark to return all of the gold.

Now, before I get into the nit, it should be mentioned that when Cerebus was made PM again, Weisshaupt set the Earth Pig up in one hotel. However, after being made Pope, Cerebus moves himself and Red Sophia (and her mother) to another hotel.

To enforce his demand for the return of all of Iest's gold, Weisshaupt threatens Cerebus with four cannons (a new invention in the Aardvarkian Age) across the street from Cerebus. My question is how did Weisshaupt get those cannons up on the roof of that building? Those cannons are much larger than the ones we're all familiar with these days. They'd be extremely heavy to manuever, not to mention too big to fit through the doorway of the building across from Cerebus' hotel. So how'd they get up there?

Cerebus #83

On page 14, Countess Michelle takes a circle of cheese out of the cupboard. It has a wedge cut out of it. On page 15, she puts it in front of Cerebus, who sniffs it, doesn't like what he smells and pushes the cheese away from him. When he pushes the cheese, the wedge is no longer missing.

"But first, it's time to descend into the Secret Sacred Wars Alleyway and take a Secret Sacred Wars Leak."

Found these comments about Dave Sim & Cerebus a day or so ago.

Don't think I had heard about him being diagnosed with a mental problem before (well, officially diagnosed).

So a man who sputters half-logical right-wing, misogynistic, female-hating views isn't right in the head in a medical sense? I couldn't have imagined that to be true that literally.

So, all man out there take notice: if you are against feminists, or think woman are bad, you need to have your head examined, you are probably crazy!

It's been pretty well known amongst Cerebus fans that Dave once had a nervous breakdown (or nearly did) and that he suffers from schizophrenia, IIRC. What I find infuriating is that many fans of the books have used Dave's mental illness to excuse Cerebus #186 and "Tangents". They find it hard to believe, or are unwilling to believe that anyone in their right minds would hold such ultra-conservative beliefs. I'm not saying that Dave's schizophrenia didn't have an affect on the book. (Note that Cerebus seemed to suffer from schizophrenia, too.) But it cannot be used to excuse or explain away the socio-political views that Dave has come to subscribe to.

BTW, the review of Cerebus #300 was pretty good.

"Your other left, Most Holy."

I've been thinking about how Dave's conversion to some weird amalgam of Christianity, Judaism and Islam has clearly colored the entire "Latter Days" arc of Cerebus. I'm now wondering what the original ending to the series was, what Dave had in mind originally before he found religion. He certainly didn't plan to end the series with the aardvark dictating his interpretation of the Torah. I dunno. There's not really a point to this post. It's just something I thought of and wanted to get off my chest.

"Die? Of course you do...But you're going about it the Wrong Way."

Of course, as the review in the links you posted pointed out, it wasn't Dave's views alone, it was his paranoid worldview (which most likely is the result of his sickness) and his illogical arguing style which people find to be out of a normal person's mind.

But I must admit when first reading tangents I didn't think "That guy's mad", I thougt "That guy is right-wing conservative", since I have heard both, the illogical reasoning or rather, ranting, and the paranoid everyobdy-who-doesn't-agree-with-me-is-an-evil-fiend-of-liberty mindset among right-wing conservatives who hadn't been declared crazy (but then, maybe they should just be checked more often? )

Adam White gives a review of the whole series at http://www.indyworld.com/indy/review_cerebus/index.html

A response to the review is at http://rocr.xepher.net/weblog/archives/000308.html

My thoughts on Adam White's review:
The first dozen issues are probably the least inspired
What, I say, what are you talking about boy. Why issues 3 & 4 were funny. I also liked some of the other issues.

He uses this technique of interlarding conventional comics with stretches of prose later to even greater effect in the Jaka's Story sequence.
Well, maybe if Sim had tried to write like Sim instead of trying to copy Oscar Wilde. As it is Jaka's Story is a chore to read through.

As for whether or not you can call it a comic if it is all text, my feeling is that comics are graphic storytelling, so if you do try to use all words you should try to arrange the words in a graphical manner or use lettering that conveys a meaning by it's style or shape.

constanze - since I have heard both, the illogical reasoning or rather, ranting, and the paranoid everyobdy-who-doesn't-agree-with-me-is-an-evil-fiend-of-liberty mindset among right-wing conservatives
Funny, I've heard conservatives, liberals & even some moderates engage in ranting & paranoid mindsets.

We can't allow him to roll over us in the heat of victory!

Funny, I've heard conservatives, liberals & even some moderates engage in ranting & paranoid mindsets.

Maybe because I choose my friends, so there are no conservatives, but normal people. The only conservatives I know are either not by choice or on some internet sites.

Ever heard of Cerebus Syndrome? More info on this page.

Benn - the now cliched disfunctional father-son relationship.
Having finally read The Last Day I think the whole point of Shep-Shep was to give Cerebus a "hope spot" that he wouldn't die "alone, unmourned & unloved".
Given that everyone else Cerebus cared about, & who cared about him, was dead, Dave had to invent somebody that Cerebus could believably care about & who the audience would believe would care about him. (Okay, there was the Jaka-like-a-look, but who couldn't see that eventually falling apart?)

In Reads, Astoria admitted she tried to get pregnant by Cerebus, but that either she or Cerebus must have been sterile. However Astoria wasn't the only woman Cerebus had sex with, but the only women he apparently got pregnant was the Jaka-like-a-look when he somewhere around 250.
If it weren't for the fact that Shep-Shep has three toes like Cerebus one would suspect Shep-Shep wasn't really Cerebus' son.

If Cerebus isn't careful, he's going to start a whole new religion.

Rereading through the phone books brings up some general things which may or may not be nits.

In the first volume Cerebus doesn't seem interested in women or sex, except when he's slipped a love potion. Eventually High Society shows that he does have a sexual relationship with Astoria, but it's not until the Church & State stories where it starts to seem like a big part of his character.

Also there tend to be moments when characters start telling Cerebus things that make one wonder how they know that. (Such as the farmer in High Society telling Cerebus about how he was supposed to have gotten the albatross.) Almost as if the author is talking through them to Cerebus. Which oddly enough made me think of when Cerebus was translating the Torah & pointing out when characters were talking and occasionally being taken over by God to tell Yoohwhoo something. Which, if that analogy is correct, makes Cerebus Yoohwhoo. *snicker*

Throw a cripple! Throw a cripple!

Dave does have an annoying tendency to overuse certain artistic shortcuts. Cut & paste; focusing on an object, or scenery, while while people talk; and probably the one that bugs me the most, leaving lots of white space on the page.
While sometimes it works, other times I wonder if he was just running behind that month & needed to produce pages in a hurry.

Cerebus can't talk right now... Cerebus is sketching a tree

Stories reprinted in Cerebus (Book One)
(page numbers in parenthesis are from the graphic novel)

The Flame Jewel Cerebus #1
NNAN. Page 7 (15). In Panel 2 the wizard casts a spell & uses Terim, in Panel 4 he curses & uses Tarim. Later on the two spellings would be said to be how different people pronounce the name of a single god, so it's interesting to see both pronunciations used by one person.

Song Of Red Sophia Cerebus #3
Page 4 (56), Panels 1 & 5. The link connecting the front of Sophia's bra is missing.

Merchant Of Unshib! Cerebus #10
The last time Red Sophia showed up she was disgusted that Cerebus had killed an animal to eat & Cerebus' attitude was, "Meat is meat."
This issue Sophia is holding a dead rabbit & offers to make Cerebus "bunny burgers" & Cerebus thinks "yuck".
Now I suppose one could argue that it has been over a year since they saw each other & that Sophia's love for Cerebus allowed her to overcome her vegetarian stance, although I doubt it.
I suppose one could argue that Cerebus is allowing his feelings about Sophia (he doesn't like her) to overwhelm his feelings about meat, or maybe he prefers his meat prepared differently?

Okayyyy... The Black Blossom Lotus was created an unknown amount of time ago.
At the time of some religious wars it was to be moved to Eshnosopur & disappeared. According to Red Sophia the vizier had created a copy & taken the real Lotus, but he was waylaid by thieves. The thieves, not knowing what they had, sold the Lotus to a jeweler.
Alleged fragments began turning up 20 - 40 years after its disappearance.
Cerebus says the last authentic fragment was discovered nearly 50 years ago.
About a month ago, the jeweler died.
Now if I read that correctly, the Lotus disappeared 90 years ago &, presumably, was bought by the jeweler from the thieves shortly thereafter. That would seem to make the jeweler, at least, a 110 when he died. Seems to be an unusually long lifespan at that point in time.

The Merchant & The Cockroach Cerebus #11
NANJAO. Cerebus thinks, "If Cerebus isn't careful, he's going to start a whole new religion".
*snicker*

Captain Cockroach! Cerebus #21
I wonder if Dave got bored with the attack on Palnu story or what?

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: High Society

Petuniacon ...Day Two Cerebus #38
King K'cor is at Petuniacon in Iest.
Why is he there instead of in his walled city? I didn't get the impression from issue 9 that he had much interest in leaving.

Campaign Cerebus #40
Sooooo... last issue the McGrew brothers broke out of prison, got beat up by Moon Roach, and hotel security was summoned. Also Moon Roach was an unconscious lump whom you would think would also be arrested given all the people he had killed. However, this issue, all three are publicly working as Cerebus' bodyguards while he campaigns for prime minister. Huh?

Cerebus Six Crises Crisis No. Three Balances Cerebus #47
Astoria refers to Tarim & calls him a him, but by Church & State Volume 2, she uses Terim & calls her a her.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Church & State Volume 1

Cerebus kills a baby and later Cerebus kills, at least, one old person & yet Red Sophia seems to still love Cerebus & when Jaka is later brought to Cerebus, she doesn't refer to Cerebus' murdering ways either.
You'd think this might be something that deserves mention?

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Church & State Volume 2

An Anchor That's Going Places Cerebus #96
Cerebus & Astoria are arguing over whether God is Tarim, who is male, or Terim, who is female.
Oddly enough, the later revelation that Cerebus is a hermaphrodite doesn't come up here, where you'd think it would be appropriate, especially when Astoria refers to the idea of a male god as being like Cerebus.

Extrusion Intrusion Cerebus #108
NNANJAO. The Judge says that it will be 6000 years or so before man learns of the big bang which would seem to set at 4000 BC, more or less.

NNAN, but it's interesting that the Judge says, "In the beginning there was the void and the void was Tarim" given Reads later claim that women are the void, so the Judge should have said Terim. (Of course, next issue Terim is revealed to be the light, so...)

All The Suns Are Daughters Cerebus #110
Pages 6 & 7 (1186 & 1187). I wonder if Dave Sim took precession & stellar movement into account when he drew that starfield? Not all the stars are in the same spots 6000 years ago as they are now.

Base Tranquillity Cerebus #111
NNANJAO. The Judge's statement that men will land on the moon 6000 years from today indicates that the Aardvarkian Age is the year 4031 BC.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Jaka's Story

Dave seems to have dispensed with individual titles & has certainly eliminated the Table of Contents which I was using to figure out which issue the story was originally published in, so I won't even guess at this point.

In my memory I remembered this story as having large pages of text with small illustrations. Rereading it I'm surprised that no pages match that memory, the illustrations are large & the text usually takes up a small portion of the page.

I also find the text pieces are easier to read if you imagine it in Oscar Wilde's voice rather than generic text voice.
It's still dull, but easier to tolerate.

Page 160. "Whether attributable to the Locked Door's balance being less precarious that it had seemed;"
Than it had seemed.

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Like-A-Looks Cerebus #137 & 138 Reprinted in Cerebus Number Zero
NNAN. Many years ago we were discussing if the original story was printed in a double issue or not. Rereading this I was counting the pages & at the bottom of the 20th page was a note saying ""Like-a-looks" concludes next issue." The conclusion is 6 pages long. So what the heck filled the rest of issue 138?

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Melmoth

The timing in this story is off. Somewhere around the middle/two-thirds point of Jaka's Story, Cerebus goes off to find white paint, shortly thereafter Oscar is arrested & sentenced to prison for 2 years hard labor. At the end of Jaka's Story Cerebus returns to find Jaka, Rick & Oscar gone. This volume starts after Oscar has spent 2 years in prison, but Cerebus is in shock from the ending of the last volume. Benn suggested that the Cerebus & Oscar portions may have happened in different points in time, but there are two points to indicate they take place simultaneously.
1. Pages 33-39 have Oscar & Ross walk by Dino's & it appears the same as when Cerebus comes to it (if it had had the black marble & the waterfall that was being added after Cerebus had arrived, then it could have been said to have taken place later.)
2. Page 222. Oscar's funeral coach is passing by Cerebus.

NANJAO. In the Afterward Dave tells of choosing to omit a humorous passage because it involved the word Jew & Dave couldn't think of a good Estarcion counterpart word for it & didn't want people to question Judaism existing in Estarcion. Which becomes amusing considering all the references to Judaism in the Latter Days volume.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Flight

Introduction
"And you'll find out why no woman can go out with me for longer that three months."
Than, not that.

Pages 188-191. Prisoner Archbishop Posey refers to a fellow prisoner as Oscar & what little we see of his face could be Oscar from Jaka's Story & Melmoth, indicating that the Oscar's death portion of Melmoth was set in the future.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Women

The Oprah parody really seems out of place. Parts of it sorta work.
A town meeting about problems with mothers & daughters... okay.
Getting as the main subjects an author who wrote a book on the subject, Red Sophia, ex-wife to former Prime Minister & Pope Cerebus, & her mother... okay
However the main thing that bugged me was Rap'ho'e (Dave's name for the Oprah stand-in) using an ankh as a microphone. If she were holding just as a symbol of her faith... eh, maybe. If she used, & held it, as a pointer to indicate who she wants to speak, possibly, but she is drawn holding it like a microphone when there is no good reason for it. If Dave had drawn the loop as having a megaphone attachment then it might make sense, magnifying the speaker's voice so everyone can hear. Sadly he didn't put that much thought into it.
Also it bugged me when Rap'ho'e said, "We'll take a short break and then we'll be right back..."
Huh? Why the need for taking a break? It's not like they have commercials.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Reads

Having heard so much about the infamous issue 186 (so much that it kept me from reading this volume despite owning it for years) my first thought after reading it was, "Well that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." Admittedly I was expecting something much, much worse.

On the other hand knowing some of what I would encounter I tended to focus on the stuff that other people ignored. I also wondered if maybe he wouldn't have pissed off so many people if instead of men & women he had used gender neutral phrases like emotional thinkers & logical thinkers, but then I realized that he would have considered such a thing dishonest.
Also, I think it's safe to say, that Dave rather likes whacking the beehive. I remember an interview Dave did talking about the Wolveroach parody & how Marvel was only upset because the parody of Wolverine was like attacking a holy relic in Marvel's church. I think he kinda likes watching the angry bees buzzing around looking for someone to sting.

Probably the worst thing about the text pages is how unimportant they are to the actual story. If you were to produce an edited version of Reads using only the comic pages you would not notice anything missing from the story. If Dave thought his text was so important then why not make it intregal to the story?
I remember years ago watching a movie on TV, then a year or so later I saw it on tape & was surprised to see there were nude scenes, then realized that TPTB made sure to only put nudity in those sections of the film that could be easily edited out for TV. (So much for the claim that nudity was intregal to the plot.)
Personally, I feel that if you feel that something is important enough to be included in your work then it's absence should be noticed, otherwise how can you claim it was important?

So why use the name Viktor Davis instead of Dave Sim?

The Suenteus Po here doesn't sound much like the Suenteus Po from Mind Games.
Then again it has been said that Suenteus Po was a common name (& there was a human with that name in High Society), so perhaps it was a different Po in the first Mind Games?

Interesting to consider that if it weren't for Cerebus setting the Cirinists & Illusionists against each other in Mind Games Cirin might have considered Po unimportant.

Astoria states that Cerebus is an hermaphrodite and says it like she & Cirin have known it all along. Now presumably the Cirinists could have found out he had both sex organs when they had him unconscious & captive in issue 20, but how did they find out he had both male & female reproductive organs without cutting him open?

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Minds

On the one hand I want to nit the asteroid belt that Cerebus & Cirin travel through as having too many rocks at one point, but on the other hand Cerebus & Cirin are flying through space with no visible means of propulsion & neither of them has suffocated, so...

NANJAO. Cerebus is on Pluto which he thinks is called Juno. He's calling Aardvark-Vanaheim to talk to Dave's boss & the secretary says there is no such planet as Juno. Cerebus thinks, "Cerebus is going to live forever on a plantit that doesn't exist".
That line became truer than he thought when in 2006 Pluto lost it's planetary status.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Guys

Alec chewing out what turns out to be his mother or mother-in-law, while amusing, seems questionable given the Cirinist tyranny that exists. Good thing Mrs. Thatcher or any guards weren't around.

NNAN. When Cerebus reminds Cirin that he's still the Eastern Pope & that if Mrs. Thatcher or one of her goon girls kills him the killer becomes the Eastern Pope. Of course, Astoria, if she's still alive, is the Western Pope because she killed the previous one.
Which is interesting. Both halves of the Church of Tarim made up the largest religion in Estarcion, at least prior to Cirin's takeover, & yet she hasn't, apparently, made any effort to absorb that into her matriarchy by murdering the two popes.
Admittedly she might see becoming pope of the Church of Tarim as an abasement of her beliefs, or she might be content that the two popes are essentially retired & uninterested in running the church(es), but still it seems odd that she has left them alone.

Joanne is talking about her former neighbors & the implication is that Elrod was one of them.
Which is interesting given he ceased to exist in Reads.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Rick's Story

NNAN. In the introduction Dave writes that the events of Jaka's story & its aftermath have driven Rick crazy. While on the one hand authors know more about their characters than usually make it into the finished product that implies Rick must have endured some truly horrible things at the hands of the Cirinists that we readers never actually saw as Rick's delusions would indicate a serious withdrawing from reality or possibly evidence of massive head trauma.

So how many years have passed since Richard George left the tavern in Guys to his return here?
I mean Jaka doesn't look that much older since we saw her last in Minds, but Richard looks like he's aged 30 or so years.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Going Home

Jaka doesn't like to wear the same outfit twice.
I find it hard to believe that during all her years as a tavern dancer, then as Rick's wife she didn't wear the same outfit twice. Was she just spoiled by all those years back in Palnu that she can't bear to go back to wearing one outfit twice?

Why are Cirinists so enamored of Princess Jaka now? Where was this near-worship in Jaka's Story? Is it just from people reading Oscar's read & seeing her as a poor little rich girl?

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Form & Void

So how long does this take place after Going Home? At the end of the previous volume Cerebus had a bad cold which is gone here, but Cerebus is freaked out about all the Cirinist troops they had encountered when they got off the barge. If they had stayed down south for a few months (to avoid the problems with going north in winter) then you'd think Cerebus would have dealt with the Cirinist troop encounter by now.

Frankly the intrusion of the real world into Cerebus is rather annoying. Rather than Africa it should have been an Africa-like country.

As with F. Stop in the previous volume, one wonders why Dave went to the trouble of making up a fake name given how closely he tried to hew to the real Ernest Hemingway.

It's bad when the annotations at the back of the book makes understanding the story necessary. Sometimes I couldn't believe I had missed something (such as why Mary fired a shot before she & Cerebus returned to camp) & other times because the story was so vague about what was happening.

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Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Latter Days

Okayyyyyyy... in Form & Void Cerebus says that Isshuria was never conquered, indicating that they are a tough nation. And yet, the 10:13 Crisis turns the "quasi-nation and/or dominion of Northern Isshuria" into a parody of Canadian politeness.

There is a reference to kilometer as a measure of distance. Since kilometer is a relatively recent measurement it seems out of place. Then again, it's hardly the only anachronism that pops up in this series.

Okayyyy... it's the year 66 BOC (Because Of Cerebus) & a 20 year-old copy of the Reads Journal is brought to Cerebus featuring an interview with Rabbi author Garth Inniscent (to be delivered to Cerebus after Inniscent's death).
So Cerebus started reading Rabbi before his 20 or 30 years of making it to the Five Bar Gate finals. (I couldn't find an exact number, the annotations mention 20 & 30 years as the time.)
Several years pass after quitting Five Bar Gate & before Cerebus takes over the world & restarts the calendar.
So, at the earliest, the interview happened 69 years after Cerebus started reading Rabbi & since Inniscent created Rabbi for his son at some point before the son was 13, so presumably Inniscent was in his 20 or 30s when he started the book, which would make Inniscent over a 100 when he died.

Page 277. Inniscent says, "I only created Rabbi in the first place because my son was getting to that age where boys get really fond of blood-soaked, grisly, gory entertainment." However on page 275, Cerebus says, "Aleph-Bayz number one-that Garth Inniscent had done when he was, like, twelve" & the cover of Aleph-Bayz shows Rabbi on it. Also Inniscent says he found the Torah on the same day that he had the idea for Rabbi.
Soooooo... if Inniscent was, like, 12 when he had the idea & he only created it because his son was at the age that he liked bloody, gory entertainment how old was Garth Inniscent when he got a woman pregnant???

I didn't notice when reading the story, only when Dave mentioned it in the annotations, but the earlier appearances of the covers of the Rabbi reads look more like traditional reads, whereas the later appearances of the covers look more like comics.
However the comic covers are said to be the "Perfect Mink" copies, so maybe the copies we saw earlier were reprints with variant covers? ;-)

Reading the Cerebus interprets the Torah section I found myself wondering if it was supposed to be what Dave Sim believes or if it was supposed to be parody. The annotations explain that it is what Dave believes, but that he figured everyone would assume it was a parody.
Well, it is his belief.

There seems to be a bit of a change in Dave's view of the universe. Maybe I'm mistaken, but the light & void stuff from 186 doesn't seem to match the cosmology of God, God's Spirit (aka Yoohwhoo) & the Light here.
Admittedly I don't feel like rereading either to be sure.

Also interesting to consider Reads stories in light of this translation.
Of the three aardvarks, Suenteus Po is the male, Cirin is the female & Cerebus is a hermaphrodite, all aspects of Yoohwhoo. ;-)

Page 455. Okayyy... the woman Cerebus is about to marry asks Cerebus, "Isn't it true that you and Rick were both in love with Joanne?"
Wait, what? Didn't Rick mention Jaka at all in his writing? Also Cerebus told Joanne he didn't love her before they started their relationship in Guys & by the time Rick returned the relationship had ended & Rick's feelings towards Joanne in Rick's Story was... odd, he thought she was a goddess & a demon at different times, so while Rick may have been attracted to her, calling it love would be stretching it.

---

Stories reprinted in Cerebus: Last Day

While Dave's idea of how the universe was created is interesting, I'm not sure if it scientifically qualifies as a "thesis" as he calls it.

Given that in Latter Days Cerebus killed all the lawyers, one wonders why the beaurocratic situation that keeps Cerebus prisoner & his son away even came to exist in the first place. The annotations at the back explains that it was basically a UN type deal, but still, even if Cerebus didn't conquer the whole world & other countries exist, why would he agree to such a lawyerly designed mess? Was he brainwashed by "new Joanne" into agreeing with it?

More confusion of Jaka with Joanne. Shep-Shep thinks the Ginevra character in F. Stop Kennedy's book was based on Joanne, except that Kennedy gave Ginevra Jaka's last name Tavers. If people know that Jozan was based on Cerebus how can they not know that Ginevra Tavers was based on Jaka Tavers? Especially given Jaka's fame amongst the Cirinists.

Shep-Shep says that the Muslims are unhappy with what Cerebus has done to their religion.
I thought the Muslims didn't come around until the 14 century AD, so what are they doing somewhere between 4,000 & 3,000 BC?

And so Cerebus dies alone, unmourned & unloved... or does he?
Alone? Definitely. However if the real world has shown us anything it's that even despicable tyrants have followers so would Cerebus actually be unmourned & unloved?

In the annotations Dave Sim writes, "It's certainly hard to imagine-looking back across the intervening nearly sixty years-how the UN could've gone wrong with the two-tiered structure of the General Assembly and the Security Council".
Excuse me??? People did see the flaws, they were just dismissed or ignored.

NANJAO. The annotations explain some "creepy" indications of Shep-Shep's power, such as opening the door without using his hands or a stool coming out from under Cerebus' bed & going back by itself.
Even if I had noticed the door thing I would have written it off to an artistic shortcut, the stool thing I missed because the room was so dark.

The annotations mention that Shep-Shep planned to go into Egypt with his mother as his wife.
Eeeeeeeew! Now that's creepy. Still one wonders how long there had been an incestuous relationship going on? The "Woodstock" incident was the final break between Shep-Shep & his father, so presumably his mother had been brainwashing him before that, turning him against his father & his beliefs, so maybe sex was a part of it? Eeeeew...

Well, they are his sheep.

NNAN. Many years ago we were discussing if the original story was printed in a double issue or not. Rereading this I was counting the pages & at the bottom of the 20th page was a note saying ""Like-a-looks" concludes next issue." The conclusion is 6 pages long. So what the heck filled the rest of issue 138? - KAM

The beginning of "Melmouth". (I do have the issues in question.)

The Judge's statement that men will land on the moon 6000 years from today indicates that the Aardvarkian Age is the year 4031 BC. - KAM

There's no way that could be right. The technologies, the clothes fashions, etc. seen throughout the series argue for the series taking place at a much later time in history. (More like the Middle Ages, maybe.) That, or Dave was really slipshod in putting this book together.

And actually, given Weishuppt's wig, more like the 17th or 18th Century.

I think Dave's idea for the Aardvarkian age was it was equivalent to Conan's Hypoborean Age, a lost prehistoric period before the known prehistoric eras. Which given it started off as a Conan parody would make sense.

I think as the series went on Dave just gave up on trying to be consistent with that idea & just started drawing whatever he felt like drawing. Heck, the annotations mention that the car that showed up in Latter Days was because Gerhard wanted to draw a car.

Given that civilization in The Last Day was extremely decadent & that Shep-Shep was off to play a part in Egyptian history by becoming the inspiration for the sphinx, the idea seems to be that this civilization was about to collapse & all traces wiped out.

Then again the Mind Games stories tended to mention that there was a certain cycle of rebirth & repetition with people & events so maybe the anachronisms & people were just earlier iterations? Oscar later reborn as Oscar Wilde, Princes Mick & Keef reborn as Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Viktor Davis reborn as Dave Sim, etc., etc.

Yeah, up until the point the Roach first appeared, IIRC, the series could easily have been contemporaneous with Conan's Hypoborean Age. However, with the Roach (and really, it's even possible to say with the first appearance of Lord Julius), the anachronisms would start popping up more and more frequently in Cerebus. I guess I should also mention that the Judge should probably be considered an Unreliable Narrator.

BTW, I need to post a correction. After finishing up the "Like-a-looks" story, Cerebus #138 featured the 2nd epilogue to "Jaka's Story". My apologies. We regret the error.

Incidentally, not really on topic or anything like that, but I'm in the midst of reading Cerebus Archive #15. Gotta order #15 here soon.

Cerebus the Movie? The clip doesn't really look too promising, IMHO.

Yeah, that looks pretty awful. It makes the animation in Hoodwinked look like Pixar. I'm assuming they're going to texture map that a bit more, but then why show a clip before doing so, when people will conclude that that's the final product? Didn't Sim remember what happened after they showed a clip of Ang Lee's Hulk during the Super Bowl before it was finalized, and people judged it on that basis? And the scenes in the Cerebus clip are not even put together in any coherent way that suggests a story or conflict.

I don't think Dave's a part of this. He has stated that anyone can do what they want with Cerebus. Publish a new Cerebus series if they want, etc. (Cerebus is supposed to fall into Public Domain upon Dave Sim's death.) I'm kinda getting the impression this is being done without Sim's input. That said, the clip looks like it contains nothing more than straight forward adaptations of scenes from the first sixteen issues of Cerebus.

Site's About Us page - WHAT COMICS ENTERTAINMENT consists of over 50 3D artists who collectively are working on creating animated feature films based on independent comic books.
That many artists you'd think they could have made the animation be a little more lifelike & faster.

The voices... never had I heard a Groucho Marx or Foghorn Leghorn impersonation sound so slow. (Maybe they should have asked Dave Sim to actually do voices?)

Some of the faces on the site look like they came from Daz 3D.

Well, with Foghorn Leghorn, you may not want to do too close an imitation; for fear that Warner Brothers might sue. But Groucho? Yeah, they could've found a better Groucho Marx impersonator. Cerebus' voice sounds like they're using George C. Scott as the basis for it. Which is good. When asked, Dave Sim did say that Cerebus' voice was supposed to be George C. Scott's.

Wasn't Foghorn Leghorn's voice based on Red Skelton's Senator Claghorn character?

Actually, it was Kenny Delmar, the announcer of the radio program, "The Fred Allen Show", who provided the voice of Senator Claghorn. Ironically, as noted in this Wiki article, Delmar ended up having to ask Warner Brothers' permission to continue his use of the Senator Claghorn character after WB obtained a copyright on Foghorn Leghorn.

Weird given that Foghorn Leghorn could be considered to be a derivative property of Senator Cleghorn.

True. I guess Warner Brothers was smart enough to copyright the character, whereas Delmar didn't.

But the Fred Allen show was probably copyrighted as well.

It was probably more a matter of WB having a ton of money & lawyers to fight any such suit and/or actor/performer Delmar not wanting to tick off a possible employer.

If it came to a lawsuit Delmar could easily prove he'd done the character first (all those tapes of the Fred Allen show), but he could kiss off any chance at appearing in future Warner Bros films.

At least, that's my best guess.

Cerebus is one of the many participants in War of the Independents. This, I think, is the only time that Cerebus has been written by anyone other than Dave Sim. I've got the first issue. The Earth Pig plays a somewhat prominent role in the issue. At this time, I do plan on buying all six issues.

When I read the name War Of The Independents I thought it was some independent crossover that had been done years ago, but checking the link this one is new. (So what was that one I was thinking of?)

Odd to see Hero By Night involved last I heard there was some kind of problem between the comic's creator & Platinum Studios it's publisher.

This, I think, is the only time that Cerebus has been written by anyone other than Dave Sim.
Actually a few years ago a comic on Drunk Duck had Cerebus in it. The author said he had contacted Dave Sim for permission & Dave apparently didn't have a problem with it.

Sorry I don't remember the name of the webcomic, or even if it is still on The Duck or not.

In reading (finally, considering how long I've had the issue), Following Cerebus #10, it turns out the very first Cerebus story written by someone other than Dave Sim was "Cerebus Dreams" from Swords of Cerebus #5. It was written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith (and reprinted in Following Cerebus #10). I should've known that considering I have all of the Swords of Cerebus TPBs.

And now that you mention it I think Dave mentioned it in the Cerebus World Tour book. D'oh!

Beating a dead aardvark? Dave Sim to do Cerebus In Hell for the 40th anniversary.

I'm planning on getting the series.

Should be interesting if nothing else. (Although I hope it's funny.)

I was going to ask what do you do with a character once they're dead, but then I remembered there was a book called 100 Uses For a Dead Cat, sooooo... ;-)