Cerebus the barbarian messiah : essays on the epic graphic satire of Dave Sim and Gerhard

241 Pages·2012·13.922 MB·English

by  Merritt, Kory, Sim, Dave, Gerhard

Cerebus the
Barbarian Messiah
This page intentionally left blank
Cerebus the
Barbarian Messiah
Essays on the Epic Graphic Satire
of Dave Sim and Gerhard
Edited by E H
RIC OFFMAN
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Cerebus the barbarian messiah : essays on the epic graphic satire of
Dave Sim and Gerhard / edited by Eric Hoffman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6889-8
softcover : acid free paper
1. Sim, Dave, 1956– Cerebus 2. Gerhard, 1959– Cerebus
3. Comic books, strips, etc.—Canada—History and criticism.
I. Hoffman, Eric, 1976–
PN6734.C47C47 2012 741.5'971—dc23 2012007782
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2012 Eric Hoffman. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Reprint with corrections
Cover art by Dave Sim, colored dyes and black ink on illustration
board, 111⁄2" × 17", 2005 (from the collection of Darren O’Shaughnessy)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank each of the contributors for their
time and talent in helping make this volume a reality.
Utmost appreciation goes to Dave Sim and to Gerhard,
for their immense contribution to the art of the comics
medium. Together, they have expanded the medium’s visual
and verbal lexicon. I sincerely hope that this volume is wor-
thy of its subjects.
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments v
Preface 1
Introduction: Alone, Unmourned and Unloved
Eric Hoffman 5
Part One: A Map of Estarcion
Growing Complexity; or, the Cerebus Effect
Sebastian Domsch 65
Audacious Tenacity, Tenacious Audacity: Cerebus’ Grand (and
Changing) Narrative Strategies
Eric Hoffman 77
Part Two: Ignore It, It’s Just Another Reality
“Does This Seem Right to You?” Stories Within Cerebus
David Groenewegen 97
Aardvarkian Intertexts and True Stories
Dominick Grace 103
“Why Certainly Dear Boy...” Incorporating Oscar Wilde into
the Aardvark’s World
Gregory John Fink 118
Part Three: Becoming Synonymous
with Something Indescribable
Seeing Sound
C.W. Marshall 127
Negative Space and Guttural Noise: Gerhard’s Psychological Reads
Sabin Calvert 148
Part Four: Mind Games
Testing the Limits of Genre/Gender
Dominick Grace 163
vii
viii Table of Contents
Anti-Feminist Aardvark? Gender, Subjectivity and Authorship
Isaac J. Mayeux 175
The Aardvark and the Beautiful Women: Male Sexuality and
Gender Politics
Mario N. Castro 190
Part Five: Ye Booke of Sim
YHWH’s Story, or, How to Laugh While Reading “Chasing YHWH”
and Still Have Enough Stamina for The Last Day
Edward M. Komara 199
Appendix: An Introduction to the Cerebus “Phonebooks”
Lenny Cooper 217
Bibliography 221
About the Contributors 225
Index 227
Preface
In 1977, a struggling Canadian comics artist named Dave Sim self-published the first
issue of Cerebus the Aardvark. A Conanthe Barbariansatire utilizing the Howard the Duck
setting of a funny animal trapped in a human world trope, at first Cerebus was largely a
story of a foul-tempered, sword-wielding aardvark, traveling the “northern territories” of
the imaginary world of Estarcion, seeking fortune and strong drink. Sim’s bi-monthly black
and white comic was one of the few success stories of the comic industry’s direct market,
then a relatively new comics distribution phenomenon. Within a decade, Sim single-hand-
edly helped revolutionize the comics medium by showing other comics artists they too
could forgo the usual route of publication by way of a major publisher. In so doing, Sim
inspired such successes as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bone, along with dozens of
other self-published black and white comics that began appearing in subsequent years and
decades.
The reasons for Sim’s success with Cerebus the Aardvark (later just Cerebus)are man-
ifold: its humor, its artful design, Sim’s knowledgeable, tongue-in-cheek satire of the comics
medium, and perhaps most importantly, its predictable bi-monthly (later monthly) pub-
lishing schedule. As critic R. Fiore observes, “Sim’s success was the result of a fan boy’s
understanding of what made a comic successful: a regular publishing schedule and the same
ingredients as what the majors had to offer: superheroes, buxom women, and, at the time,
a funny animal and swords and sorcery” (Fiore October/November 2004, 105). Over the
course of 26 years, from December 1977 to March 2004, Sim, and later collaborator Gerhard,
produced over 6,000 pages of narrative, totaling 300 separate issues subsequently collected
into sixteen trade paperbacks.
When he set out to write Cerebus, Sim intended to break every rule of the medium.
The title of this book suggests this unique aspect of Cerebus; namely, the ability to transform,
transgress and violate. As the essays collected here demonstrate, with Cerebus, Sim meant
to upset multiple boundaries, be they aesthetic, sexual, political or religious.
Comics in the late 1970s were staid, predictable stuff. The Marvel revolution of the
late 1960s had long since devolved into cookie-cutter homogeneity, and unchallenging, for-
mulaic work cluttered comics racks. Cerebus became the outlet for Sim’s dissatisfaction with
the medium he loved. As the series progressed so too did its satirical reach. Sim began
incorporating other comics characters, notably through the agency of The Roach, a schiz-
ophrenic whose sundry personalities are comprised of parodies of various popular-at-the-
time superheroes, including Moon Knight, Wolverine, Captain America and The Sandman,
among others. Yet Sim also satirized non-comics characters, including Michael Moorcock’s
Elric, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, and even Groucho (and later Chico) Marx. His satires
1