Tuesday, 8 December 2015

The Comics Reporter: Go Read, Gerhard Profiled

Gerhard's Cerebus Sketches
Prices ranging from $25 to $300 plus postage, depending on size and complexity
Contact: gerzmail [at] yahoo [dot] ca

THE COMICS REPORTER:
(from Go Read, Gerhard Profiled, 9 November 2015)
This profile of the very talented, one-time Cerebus background and settings specialist Gerhard brings up a lot of things worth noting. One is that Gerhard talks a lot about his frugal lifestyle, both its realities and the fact that he enjoys the fruits of the choices he's made. Another is that this comes with a slight feeling of doom and gloom, a worry for Gerhard and his loved ones that I think applies to his generation of cartoon-makers generally. These are men and women that did not enjoy a working-class living during an era for reasonably affordable housing as those that came before them may have.

Yet another thing worth noting is his very real gratitude towards Wizard for having him to one of the shows, and explaining all that they recently did on his behalf. Wizard does that kind of thing more than they're given credit for doing, as much as I'm certain I'll be attending their shows in hell. And I think that's a good thing. There's an argument to be made about the inclusivity of shows that gets wonky really quickly, but the idea that we may not be doing as much as we can to give older creators access to a vital marketplace is something we should probably explore.

Gerhard can be found online at Gerhard Art and Gerz Blog...
...along with details of Gerhard's prints for sale.

2 comments:

Sandeep Atwal said...

In case you haven't been checking out Gerhard's blog, you really should....

http://www.gerhardart.com/apps/blog

Steve said...


There's something really wonderful, unusual that Gerhard intuitively brings to so many of these sorts of projects.

So here's a Prime Minister, a position of dignity, social and cultural importance - but the chap's sitting on the stairs like some commoner with his hand on his chin.

Which is exactly what Cerebus would do - but is a pose / situation I don't think Dave ever put Cerebus in.

I get the feeling there's a State Dinner and The Wife (or perhaps more dramatically, the Mother In Law) is late.
Perhaps purposefully late, punishing Cerebus for some slight.

And the hilarity will ensue at half past nine.

(And the grey wash on Cerebus is perfect.)

Steve