(from Carson's Re-Read Blog, July 2016)
High Society: Getting Fancy and Getting Ahead
As I said in my assessment of the first volume of Cerebus
each volume comes with a different representation of Dave Sim in the
back-matter that appears to correlate to the overarching theme of the
work . It often looks like Sim is trying on different selves and ways of
engaging with the world that he feels will help him better express
whatever topic he is writing about.
High Society is a
difficult volume to peg in this regard. Sim’s then wife, Deni, is still
functioning as the publisher of the book and I assume had a fair amount
of input into things like advertising, backup stories, etc. It is hard
to tell what is due to Dave and what is coming from Deni. Some might
read this partnership as being expressed in Cerebus’ relationship with
Astoria. That narrative implies Dave Sim was not in control of his own
ship, which I find very hard to believe.
What I do see is an artist who has decided to take
himself very seriously, in terms of content, and in terms of
establishing his place within his field. By moving away from the
adventuring barbarian towards a tale of political intrigue, social
climbing and electioneering Sim takes the story in a much more mature
direction.
On the art front Sim pushes his efforts as a
designer. This adds a sophisticated look to the art that mirrors the
maturity of the story.
In the back-matter we get pictures of Sim out and
about, on tour, looking dapper, doing signings, starting to hobnob with
other greats in the field. Deni is constantly referring to new friends
and alliances made with other artists, notably Richard and Wendy Pini.
There is a F.O.O.G. (Friends of ‘ol Gerber) charity in which Sim joins a
number of other well-regarded artists in producing prints to sell as a
charity for Steve Gerber. The letter column has even developed it’s own
court of jesters by this point, with all of the silliness that stems
from Mike Bannon and his like (Did this group of early fans make it to
the end? I am very curious about that.).
These behaviors echo the themes of the story.
Campaigning, growing your connections, solidifying your status in your
field as a serious contributor to the discussion. [Read the complete review at Carson's blog...]
CARSON GRUBAUGH'S
CEREBUS RE-READ CHALLENGE:
CEREBUS RE-READ CHALLENGE:
Cerebus Vol 3: Church & State I
Cerebus Vol 4: Church & State II
Cerebus Vol 5: Jaka's Story
Cerebus Vol 6: Melmoth
Cerebus Vol 7: Flight
Cerebus Vol 8: Women
Cerebus Vol 9: Reads
Cerebus Vol 10: Minds
Cerebus Vol 11: Guys
Cerebus Vol 12: Rick's Story
Cerebus Vol 13: Going Home
Cerebus Vol 14: Form & Void
Cerebus Vol 15: Latter Days
Cerebus Vol 16: The Last Day
4 comments:
Nice job, Carson! Please keep it up to, as they say, the bitter end.
Thanks, Jeff, I am almost through. It was a bit silly of me to state that I was going to "blow through" the rest of the book. I forgot exactly how dense the last 150 issues really are, especially when you commit to reading the back-matter. I don't think I read all of the commentary, notes and essays my first go around.
Each issue past 280 takes anywhere between 3 - 5 hours to read. Fascinating stuff, but man does it eat up time.
Yeah, Carson, I once wrote to Dave to tell him that, suddenly, what used to take 20 minutes to read was now taking 2 hours. That was the summer when I was grading high school SAT essays for Pearson testing services. I told Dave that reading Cerebus was a very welcome respite from grading the high-schoolers' essays, which was akin to listening to Japanese fusion jazz.
Dave wrote back that my comment had nearly made him laugh out loud in the city hall cafeteria--a place he took me to for lunch several years later. Nice place, but definitely not a place for laughing out loud.
Ha-ha! That must have been a painful mental whiplash.
The one semester I taught Art Appreciation courses at a community college was brutal. Eighty papers a week, just four-hundred or so word reading responses really, but still the constant assault on the English language was preeeety hard to bear. Combine that with the realization that most people have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to say about ANYTHING; it was a disheartening few months.
I wish more people would read Islam, My Islam, and that I had read it before now. I have read the Koran, so as to not be totally ignorant of what is actually in it, but had no idea about any of the historical and social context Dave provides. Americans need that exposure. That said, I must admit I nod off about half-way through each time and have to come back for the second half.
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