Cerebus' 40th at Hyperallergic

Hi, Everybody!

So your pal and mine, Sean Robinson, sent a big ol' batch of links to momentofcerebus@gmail.com, And I'm gonna be running them as I want.

Like today!

Now everybody say, "Thanks Sean!" and enjoy:

The review does not go well...

Cerebus' 40th Anniversary at Hyperallergic

Cerebus the Aardvark turns 40 years old this month. He is not among the ranks of widely known comic book characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or any other superhero you can think of. He doesn’t even have the mainstream crossover appeal of characters from successful non-superhero comics like the works of Alan Moore, The Sandman, or Saga. Yet his namesake series is as important to the medium of comics as those of any characters from the former category, and the characters from the latter would not exist without him. The influence of Cerebus runs deep through comic book art, business, and fandom, though it’s mainly dedicated fans of the medium who are familiar with it, and relatively few of them have actually read it.

It's an overview/postmortem  of the series. I assume aimed at readers unfamiliar with it. It's not the worst, though I do find numerous passages troublesome:

• "A devoted marijuana and LSD user for many years, Sim sought to stretch comics storytelling to its breaking point, and then past it." The first part is technically true, though I believe a tad misleading, and unnecessary. 

•  "Writing in general is not Sim’s strength. His idea of parodying the iconic fantasy character Elric is having him talk and act like Foghorn Leghorn. His dialog is often blandly functional, too easily taken over by expositional speeches and exchanges. And there is, quite frankly, not enough story to fill 300 issues, with many pointless diversions and episodes that can’t even justify themselves as entertaining." Oy. Writing is not Dave's strength? Yet McFarlane tapped him for the Spawn guest writers gig because Dave was considered one of the best in the industry. The Elrod complaint I'd grant, if not for Dave having no familiarity with Elric (I believe Dave says so in one of the Cerebus Archive portfolio commentaries. But I'm too lazy to go look. What? I'm a busy guy...) so his parody isn't "on" because he doesn't know what Elric "sounds" like. And the last complaint about there not being enough story for 300 issues? Uh...what? Dave had/has said that Cerebus is the story of a life. "Pointless diversions," pretty sums up a couple years of my life.

I dunno. Your results may vary, but for a guy familiar enough with the series/character/creator to run a blog devoted to it/him/him, I find it just insulting enough to dismiss.

But everybody thank Sean for the link anyway. "Thanks Sean!"

Next time: Pictures of Supermodels? Pictures of supermodels...