* * * * *
                                        
                                Cerebus is dead
                                        
> The first 1,100-page graphic novel in the history of the medium, and the
> reaction could be summed up as the sound of one cricket leg chirping. Just
> as there was no “storm of misinterpretation” following Cerebus' “marriage”
> to Astoria. I'm not sure the quotes belong on there. That was part of my
> point. If Cerebus is the Pope and he declares himself married to Astoria
> and has sex with her, is that rape? There were a number of levels to that
> one, but that was the joke as far as I was concerned. To give it a greater
> immediacy: Why does having a priest say a few words to a couple make what
> they do marital relations, and if he doesn't say the few words, it's
> fornication? And if a priest can make fornication into marital relations,
> why can't he make rape into marital relations?
> 

Via Michael Duff [1], “Onion A.V. Club: Writer-artist Dave Sim [2]”

I was introduced to Cerebus [3] back in 1990 by my friend Sean Williams. At
that point Dave Sim was nearly done with Church and State [4] and I had a
great time in catching up and getting current with the storyline. I had read
the first 25 issues [5], but sadly, Sean did not have a copy of High Society
[6] (the next 25 issues, forming a single story arc). I became familiar with
the whole 300 issue story arc Dave Sim was planning, and became a great fan
of not only the writing but of the artwork as well.

But that was the early 90s. Over the next ten years I lost track somewhat of
Cerebus, managing to get a copy of High Society and a few volumes past Church
and State and hearing about the infamous screed against feminism [7] but
that's about it. And it surprised me that March of 2004, the last month of
Cerebus has already come and gone.

And thus ends, as Dave Sim says, “comic-book equivalent of one Russian novel”
at 6,000 pages of beautifully drawn art (well, nearly—the first few issues
were rather rough around the edges).

Dave Sim may be a right-wing conservative anti-feminist facist, but he still
has the best take on intellectual property [8] I've read in a long time.

[1] http://www.livejournal.com/users/michaelduff/144131.html
[2] http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/
[3] http://cerebusfangirl.0catch.com/abridged.html
[4] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0919359094/conmanlaborat-
[5] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0919359086/conmanlaborat-
[6] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0919359078/conmanlaborat-
[7] http://www.theabsolute.net/misogyny/tangents.html
[8] http://www.celshader.com/tips/dave_sim/procon.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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