Cerebus the Aardvark
Cerebus the Aardvark (or simply Cerebus) was an ambitious monthly independent comic book begun by Canadian artist Dave Sim in 1977, and running for 300 issues and 6,000 pages, through March 2004. Now complete, it marks the longest-running comic book series ever by a single writer/artist.Cerebus has since its inception been self-published by Sim under his Aardvark-Vanaheim, Inc. banner. Sim's position as a pioneering self-publisher in comics inspired numerous writer/artists after him, most notably Jeff Smith (Bone), Terry Moore (Strangers In Paradise), and Martin Wagner (Hepcats).
The title character is a misanthropic three-foot tall bipedal gray aardvark ("We're all funny animals in a world of humans," says Sim) who has, at various points in his life, been a mercenary, Prime Minister of the fictional city-state of Iest, Pope (in the mammoth Church and State saga), and renegade. He is an extremely morally ambiguous character, at times sympathetic, at others almost unpalatably callous.
Inspired in some ways by the Steve Gerber character Howard the Duck, the earliest issues of Cerebus took the form of a parody of Conan the Barbarian and its genre. (Howard had even appeared on the cover of the first issue of his own comic as a parodic barbarian character.) The series developed artistic sophistication and originality very quickly. Citing as his self-originated commandment, "Thou shall break every law in the book", Sim has done everything from flipping the page from horizontal to vertical and all stages in between to alternating comics with prose narrative, to including real dead or living people (himself included) in the storyline, all in an effort to explode the conventions of the North American comic book in almost every conceivable way.
In 1979, Sim, who was at the time a frequent marijuana user, experimented with LSD, taking the drug with such impunity that he was eventually hospitalized. It was this incident that Sim claims led to the inspiration to produce Cerebus for 300 monthly issues. The episodic adventures strayed further and further from heroic fantasy, and the twenty five-issue graphic novel High Society segued the narrative into a complex political satire and drama. Sim was joined by Gerhard, who gave the series impressively rendered backgrounds that became a visual hallmark, after issue #65.
When Sim published the first Cerebus "phone book", a paperback collection of the High Society graphic novel, he angered retailers by offering the first printing via mail order only. The decision was a financial windfall for Sim, however, racking up over $150,000 in sales. Not long after, Sim became known for traveling to conventions and store signings in limousines (he spent $25,000 in limo service during his 1992 signing tour), and renting lavish suites at conventions at which he'd throw huge parties.
In the 1990s, Sim became an outspoken advocate of creators' rights in comics, and used the editorial pages of Cerebus to promote self-publishing and greater artist activism. Sim was also the biggest individual supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; when he guest-wrote the 10th issue of Todd McFarlane's best-selling Spawn, Sim donated his entire fee — over $100,000 — to the fund.
It is generally agreed that the graphic novel Jaka's Story, a tragic character study dealing with gender roles and the political suppression of art, is perhaps the series' pinnacle of narrative achievement. However, later issues of the series became almost inaccessibly personal and began to alienate many long-time fans, his female readers especially — though their visual innovation remained unparalleled. Issue #186 contained a lengthy prose section of the narrative that was roundly attacked by both readers and critics for its overt misogyny. This was followed by an even harsher essay in issue #265 called "Tangents," in which Sim claimed there is a "feminist/homosexualist axis" engaged in a conspiracy to oppress men. He also argues, in all seriousness, that husbands should have the legal right to spank their wives and states outright that women are inferior to men.
Sim himself has appeared as a character in Cerebus, most notably to berate his creation in the graphic novel Minds. A writer entering his own fictional universe is not an idea which Sim can claim to have invented (see Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, Paul Auster's New York Trilogy and Grant Morrison's comic Animal Man), although he claims to have planned the encounter as early as 1979 — more than a decade before it actually took place.
He reportedly cut all ties with his family and virtually all of his industry colleagues apart from Gerhard in order to finish the work. He has had very public fallings-out with both Terry Moore and Jeff Smith, the latter of whom Sim challenged to a boxing match in an editorial published in the comic. Smith, Sim claimed, lied about an argument the two had had over the infamous essay in issue #186, and claimed he had threatened to give Sim a "fat lip." Sim also developed an adversarial relationship with Gary Groth, the confrontational publisher of The Comics Journal, an independently published comics magazine known for punishing criticisms and a decidedly non-mainstream editorial slant.
Sim has stated (in an editorial contained in issue #297) that he regards the production of Cerebus as of secondary importance to his religious practice. A 2003 magazine interview describes Sim as reciting a prayer of his own devising five times a day, and having sold much of his furniture to donate the money to charity as an act of religious asceticism.
Sim, once a very public figure in the comics industry, now rarely leaves his native Kitchener, Ontario home. The publication in March 2004 of issue #300 was met with a muted, rather than celebratory, response from the comics industry (though Sim reports the printrun was doubled from that of recent issues). In it, Cerebus dies of a broken neck and ascends to heaven (or hell - it is ambiguous). A new quaterly publication is planned, entitled Following Cerebus, which will feature correspondance, essays and previously unpublished artwork.
Supporting characters
- Jaka - The love of Cerebus' life. A dancer by profession, she is the neice of Lord Julius.
- Cirin - Leader of the Cirinists, a martiarchial fascist sect who conquer Estarcion at the conclusion of the Church and State storyline. Like Cerebus, she is an Aardvark.
- Astoria - A beautiful political manipulator and the main driving force behind Cerebus' campaign to become Prime Minister in High Society. Leader of the Kevillists, a feminist sect which opposes Cirin. Lord Julius' ex-wife.
- Lord Julius - Tyrant of the ridiculously bureaucratic city-state of Palnu. Based on Groucho Marx.
- The Roach - An incompetent superhero character. Sim used the Roach to satirise whatever mainstream comic character was popular at the time. His guises have included Captain Cockroach, Moonroach, Wolveroach, and the Sacred Secret Wars Roach.
- Elrod - Essentially Michael Moorcock's Elric with the voice of Foghorn Leghorn. Pretty much a purely comic character, his main purpose is to frustrate and enrage Cerebus.
- Suentus Po - Estarcion's third Aardvark. An enigmatic illusionist and historian.
- Rick - First introduced as Jaka's husband. Later, the prophet of a religion centred around Cerebus.
- Bear - Cerebus' best friend from his mecenary days and main drinking buddy.
Cerebus collections
(Known by fans as "phone books" for their size)Notes:
- Book 2 was actually published before Book 1.
- Much of the material in Book 1, the original Conan-style parody, was reprinted in smaller collections called Swords of Cerebus before Sim decided on the phone book format.
- Unlike some glossy graphic novels, the Cerebus collections use the same newsprint paper as the original comics.
- The titles of books 8 through 11 could be read as a sentence.
- Beginning with Going Home, the first storyline begun after Sim's religious conversion, the covers of each collected volume are printed in full color.
Miscellaneous strips not appearing in the above collections have been reprinted in the short collections Cerebus Number Zero and Cerebus World Tour Book.
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