Cerebus

[kent_allard_jr]

agrumer encouraged me to read Cerebus for years, and I finally started about a month ago. I've gotten through the first eight volumes, and it is amazing stuff. Not always in a good way, though! I don't find the series all that funny, for one thing (although I've had a few laugh-out-loud moments); the story is often painfully slow, the dialog snoringly long-winded; and eventually the whole series becomes a stupid, tedious misogynistic rant. Far as I can tell, the rant is only beginning in the eighth volume, Women. I intend to stop reading by volume 10 or so.

So why am I reading it? I have lots of reasons. It's the best artwork I've ever seen in a comic, both in its beauty and its ingenuity. Sim's world is a fascinating creation, a unique mixture of the modern, the medieval and inspired otherworldliness. At times, as I noted, it can be extremely funny, and other times the writing is heartbreakingly sublime. It's uneven, to say the least; I'm not sure I'd recommend anything after volume five, Jaka's Story. But those five volumes? You just have to read them.