From: yamauchi@ces.cwru.edu (Brian Yamauchi)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Catching Up With Cerebus (was Re: CEREBUS recommendations?)
Date: 10 Oct 92 00:12:02
Organization: Case Western Reserve University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sartre.caisr.cwru.edu
In-reply-to: jordan@castor's message of 5 Oct 92 23:42:31 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.234231.22291@athena.cs.uga.edu> jordan@castor (USENET's Chuck) writes:

>I've TRIED reading Cerebus.  Really.  After hearing so much great stuff
>about it, I bought it whenever I had the chance.  The first issue I got,
>the art was great, but there werent' ANY words in the entire issue, so I
>had to go out and buy more.  I bought the only ones that were in my price
>range still, so I ended up not getting a complete storyline.  And, I tried
>with the Mothers & Daughters storyline, but I was really turned off by the
>last issue I bought (4) and started getting upset at paying 2.50 for only
>10 or so pages of story.

I had a similar experience when I first started reading Cerebus.  I
picked up an issue in the middle of Church & State Part I, thought it
looked interested but couldn't attach any meaning to all of the
references being thrown around (Lion of Serrea?  Eastern Church?
Western Church?  Palnu?  United Feldwar States?  And what's Groucho
Marx doing here?).  I picked up a couple more issues later in the
middle of C&S II, and still couldn't figure out what was going on
(Flying coins?  Insane men in roach suits?  Cirinists?  Kevilists?
What???).

So, I lost interest in Cerebus -- until earlier this year when I
spotted a couple of the phone books in a comics store.  I decided to
give it a try, starting with the _Cerebus_ phone book.  And I was
hooked.

Over the past few months, I've read through Cerebus, High Society,
Church and State I & II, and Jaka's Story -- and I just finished
Melmoth tonight.  It's worth it -- both in terms of time and money
(and substantial investments of both are required).

I am impressed that anyone would even attempt to create a 300 issue
story of a life.  I'm even more impressed that Sim manages to pull it
off so well.

>I'm going to ask for one of the "phone books" as a gift coming up this
>holiday season so I can get a whole story, all at once, to get the full
>effect of the story and see if I like it as much as you guys.  So which
>one should I get?  I can only get one -- I would think the first one, but
>I've heard that Church & State is better and I got the impression that it
>was more indicative of the rest of the series?  So, where should I start?

Start at the beginning, definitely.

True, the artwork in the early issues isn't very polished and the
storytelling doesn't become particularly sophisticated until about
halfway through the collection, but many of the major characters are
introduced early -- Jaka, Sonja, Elrod, the Roach, Lord Julius, the
Pigts, the Conniptins, Charles X Claremont, the Artist -- and follow
Cerebus throughout his life.  Their later reappearances are difficult
to understand without the background in this collection.

With the background, you're impressed by Sim's long-range continuity.
Without it, you're constantly asking "Who IS this?  And why did he
just do THAT?"
--
_______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi			Case Western Reserve University
yamauchi@alpha.ces.cwru.edu	Department of Computer Engineering and Science
_______________________________________________________________________________

Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc