Cerebus: In My Life ~ Geoffrey A.

A MOMENT OF CEREBUS:
How did you discover Cerebus and how long did you read it for?

GEOFFREY A:

As a child I read many comics, I would get them from yard sales and flea markets. I discovered Cerebus through a local comic book stores cheap bin (around 92-93), they were mostly reprint issues with the framed original cover on the cover. I lived by (now defunct) Caliber Press when I was young, not having the PR skills to communicate what I wanted at the time (as a late teen to print my psychedelic art & prose) or the perseverance to accomplish it without any support my pitches to Caliber failed miserably, I let my own artistic dreams slowly die. Only coming back to comics several years later when I was able to save up enough pocket change from my terrible paying jobs to afford a few graphic novels (getting to chose what I read and not just reading what looked interesting of the bargains I could afford). While I liked the first Cerebus "phone book" I bought well enough, I knew from the single issues I had procured earlier that it became much more, so I eagerly grabbed the next in line of the big books of Cerebus. After that I was hooked. And the wait between when I could afford another was always unbearable. But by that time was usually a few weeks. At some point I caught up.

How has your own creativity / comics reading been influenced by Cerebus?

I spent my comic budget almost entirely on Cerebus for a long time. Now I mainly pick up old war comics when I have an opportunity as I still enjoy those as a guilty pleasure. Digital became a viable option shortly after and scanlation of titles that looked neat years ago but I couldn't understand the language and the French think we should all learn their language (not me, I don't get along with the ones I usually meet in online video game hockey). Or read an occasional online freebie from the stores on my tablet.

I don't know how reading Cerebus affecting anything for me, accept possibly it encouraged my already short patience with boredom in conversation, where I try to encourage the speaker to flip the page because I literally couldn't care less.

What is your favourite scene or sequence from Cerebus?

I love all the characters, but I think the audible chuckle of Keef snorting the gravel is the one that comes quickest to mind, with the hermaphrodite reveal being a big no way moment, and just the joy of seeing Roach reappear.

Would you recommend that others read Cerebus, and if so, why?

I have and will continue to recommend Cerebus the Aardvark to others. I haven't always met with success (I had a friend sell his car with my now replaced Church & State in his trunk), I did have one friend who "got it" and while I was cooking at a pool hall/sports bar, I would throw him a Graphic Novel of Cerebus when he returned from a out of state stint as a mover, and he would tear through one in about five hours of voracious reading/drinking.