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Cerebus #2
Cerebus Vol. 2: High Society
Reprinting Cerebus Issues 26-50
Volume two of the Cerebus the Aardvark series, High Society, is the beginning of the main Cerebus story line and one of the finest graphic novels ever published. If you have to start from the very beginning, you'll need the first volume, Cerebus, but if you don't mind a modicum of confusion, this is a much more satisfying place to begin. The artwork is much improved and the level of humor reaches its high point in the series to date. (Unkind critics point to High Society as the older, funnier book of the Cerebus series.)
Volume two of the Cerebus the Aardvark series, High Society, is the beginning of the main Cerebus story line and one of the finest graphic novels ever published. If you have to start from the very beginning, you'll need the first volume, Cerebus, but if you don't mind a modicum of confusion, this is a much more satisfying place to begin. The artwork is much improved and the level of humor reaches its high point in the series to date. (Unkind critics point to High Society as the older, funnier book of the Cerebus series.)
Parliamentary politics were never so much fun as they are in the Prime Minister election of 1414. Lord Julius and the mysterious Astoria battle for control of the city-state Iest with Cerebus as their unwitting pawn. Goats, bunny sketches, the Regency Elf, and Moon Roach join the pandemonium, helping to set the stage for things to come. High Society is a home run; an instant classic both as a stand-alone volume and in the context of the rest of the series. Beware though, the ending dovetails directly into Church and State; You may want to grab that volume as well, because once you start the series, the story of Cerebus gets increasingly harder to put down.
517 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1986
32 people are currently reading
760 people want to read
About the author
Dave Sim
1,049 books139 followersDavid Victor Sim is a Canadian comic book, artist and publisher, best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
December 23, 2024
Although very far from the masterpiece some see this series as, this second Cerebus volume gets me understanding the impact it must have had on the comic book reading audience of the 1980s when it was being published. Essentially Cerebus has always, so far, valued money, power and to being waited upon, and logic dictates that an easier route to money, power and adulation may lie in politics, than previous attempts with his sword and cunning. The ensuing car-crash of corruption, manipulation, disinformation, misrule and ultimate complete failure was always going to happen by the way it is plotted, drawn and written far exceeds the levels of the first volume Cerebus. A 6 out of 12, Three Star read.
2023 read
2023 read
May 7, 2022
Re-reading Cerebus as an adult makes me focus on the question - “what was Dave Sim good at?”. It feels like an important question because the answer puts the wider project - actually finishing Cerebus - in a different light. If I’m enjoying Cerebus for its ideas about society, or for the way Sim writes sympathetic relationships, that’s likely to make what’s coming considerably tougher than if I’m enjoying it because Sim draws a cool aardvark.
When I first read High Society, at age 14-15, I probably did like it for the ideas and the relationships and all the awesome characters, but I mainly liked it because it blew open any ideas I might have had about the scope of what comics could do. There was nothing like it. There is nothing like it. Could and should there have been anything like it? Goood question.
High Society doesn’t overtly show any of Sim’s later obsessions but it would be wrong to say there’s no connection in craft terms. Cerebus was always a balance between what Sim wants to do on the macro level in this stretch of comic and what Sim wants to do with these specific twenty pages this specific month. How enjoyable (or bearable) it is comes down to both how sympathetic his wider aim is and how inspired he is to do great on page work. There are stretches where the wider purpose crushes monthly spontaneity and bits where the opposite happens and everything stops for Dave to chase an urge.
High Society is a rare sweet spot where the wider aim is one readers can get behind - tell a satirical story of Cerebus’ rise and fall as a political leader - but Sim’s given himself enough month by month room to chase those ideas and improvise the details. The result on the page is that this is Cerebus’ most playful volume, full of unexpected caricatures, one- or two-page joke sequences and storytelling riffs. Not all of these work - it’s where Sim’s love of text really starts ticking, and there are plenty of bits where Sim’s delight at capturing a vocal rhythm wasn’t shared by me. But nothing lasts for more than a few pages - there’s always a new idea on the way.
What about that bigger story? It’s a lot of fun, playing on the trope of the outsider crashing the political system. Rather than our hero as a well meaning idealist manipulated by powerful forces, here our hero is a greedy and selfish pragmatist who’s *still* manipulated by them. “Everybody’s on the make” doesn’t really reach the status of ‘insight’ but it’s a rule that does create some darkly entertaining stories.
Sim splits High Society into three broad acts. The first has Sim build momentum (as he often does) by building a cast, complicating Cerebus’ changed circumstances by bouncing old characters off him while introducing new ones. One of Sim’s great discoveries as a plotter is that there’s no difference between comic relief and moving the story forward - the same characters (especially the Roach) can do both jobs. The cavalcade of old and new faces ends with a tragic, melodramatic reunion with Jaka that leaves Cerebus committed entirely to politics.
The second act is Cerebus’ rise to power, and is mostly Sim getting to be as cynical as he likes while doing a series of comic vignettes and impressions. Some of the ideas are fun - what if a political convention was like a comics convention? - but this section drags, mostly because the internal politics of Iest are presented just earnestly enough to be boring and just frivolously enough to not feel important.
And then the third, shortest and best act has Cerebus in power, pursuing his own agenda, and fucking up. One of the things I think late Sim and early Sim are quite consistent on is that Cerebus is not a hero, or even effective. He’s a success in the very short term arena of capers, fights and thinking on his feet but he is horrifically unsuited to any of the power he actually gets. The sections in the wider Cerebus story where he is acting decisively with a plan are often the sections where things end up going worst for him.
They also tend to be the most compulsively readable parts. The last half dozen issues of High Society are dazzlingly paced, a chaotic mess of hubris, disaster, plans and counter-plans, the desperation of seeing a situation slip away from you and a final bathos-soaked denouement. It genuinely feels like a payoff to the whole 600 page saga, one of the graphic novels that “sticks the landing” most gloriously.
So to go back to the original question - what was Dave Sim good at? Ultimately, pacing. At the level of a page, an issue, a storyline - all requiring very different skills. The individual moments that had stuck with me are little triumphs of one or two page storytelling, like the sequence with Lord Stormsend and the beacons. Those moments are all over High Society, threaded into a larger story whose momentum Sim loses partway but recovers gloriously by its end.
When I first read High Society, at age 14-15, I probably did like it for the ideas and the relationships and all the awesome characters, but I mainly liked it because it blew open any ideas I might have had about the scope of what comics could do. There was nothing like it. There is nothing like it. Could and should there have been anything like it? Goood question.
High Society doesn’t overtly show any of Sim’s later obsessions but it would be wrong to say there’s no connection in craft terms. Cerebus was always a balance between what Sim wants to do on the macro level in this stretch of comic and what Sim wants to do with these specific twenty pages this specific month. How enjoyable (or bearable) it is comes down to both how sympathetic his wider aim is and how inspired he is to do great on page work. There are stretches where the wider purpose crushes monthly spontaneity and bits where the opposite happens and everything stops for Dave to chase an urge.
High Society is a rare sweet spot where the wider aim is one readers can get behind - tell a satirical story of Cerebus’ rise and fall as a political leader - but Sim’s given himself enough month by month room to chase those ideas and improvise the details. The result on the page is that this is Cerebus’ most playful volume, full of unexpected caricatures, one- or two-page joke sequences and storytelling riffs. Not all of these work - it’s where Sim’s love of text really starts ticking, and there are plenty of bits where Sim’s delight at capturing a vocal rhythm wasn’t shared by me. But nothing lasts for more than a few pages - there’s always a new idea on the way.
What about that bigger story? It’s a lot of fun, playing on the trope of the outsider crashing the political system. Rather than our hero as a well meaning idealist manipulated by powerful forces, here our hero is a greedy and selfish pragmatist who’s *still* manipulated by them. “Everybody’s on the make” doesn’t really reach the status of ‘insight’ but it’s a rule that does create some darkly entertaining stories.
Sim splits High Society into three broad acts. The first has Sim build momentum (as he often does) by building a cast, complicating Cerebus’ changed circumstances by bouncing old characters off him while introducing new ones. One of Sim’s great discoveries as a plotter is that there’s no difference between comic relief and moving the story forward - the same characters (especially the Roach) can do both jobs. The cavalcade of old and new faces ends with a tragic, melodramatic reunion with Jaka that leaves Cerebus committed entirely to politics.
The second act is Cerebus’ rise to power, and is mostly Sim getting to be as cynical as he likes while doing a series of comic vignettes and impressions. Some of the ideas are fun - what if a political convention was like a comics convention? - but this section drags, mostly because the internal politics of Iest are presented just earnestly enough to be boring and just frivolously enough to not feel important.
And then the third, shortest and best act has Cerebus in power, pursuing his own agenda, and fucking up. One of the things I think late Sim and early Sim are quite consistent on is that Cerebus is not a hero, or even effective. He’s a success in the very short term arena of capers, fights and thinking on his feet but he is horrifically unsuited to any of the power he actually gets. The sections in the wider Cerebus story where he is acting decisively with a plan are often the sections where things end up going worst for him.
They also tend to be the most compulsively readable parts. The last half dozen issues of High Society are dazzlingly paced, a chaotic mess of hubris, disaster, plans and counter-plans, the desperation of seeing a situation slip away from you and a final bathos-soaked denouement. It genuinely feels like a payoff to the whole 600 page saga, one of the graphic novels that “sticks the landing” most gloriously.
So to go back to the original question - what was Dave Sim good at? Ultimately, pacing. At the level of a page, an issue, a storyline - all requiring very different skills. The individual moments that had stuck with me are little triumphs of one or two page storytelling, like the sequence with Lord Stormsend and the beacons. Those moments are all over High Society, threaded into a larger story whose momentum Sim loses partway but recovers gloriously by its end.
January 11, 2018
Sprawling and ambitious, this takes every bit of throwaway barbarian parody plotting from the earlier Cerebus stories and reconfigures it through massive political satire. It's a little odd to be reading Cerebus in 2018 given the directions we know Sim's obsessions would run in the future, but this holds up shockingly well as an independent work. Astoria, as clearly the smartest and best informed person in the story, remains a strange refutation to Sims best attempts to self-undermine. And the artwork, by this point, is immaculate and surprising throughout.
May 28, 2014
I can see why Dave Sim and Cerebus were such big deals back in the 80s. The degree of sophistication in both the evolution of story and characters as well as Sim's visual story-telling style is revolutionary and innovative. This is absolutely one of the earliest comics to make a strong case for comics as legitimate literary mediums. Mature and challenging while simultaneously playful and engaging. Sim pushes the boundaries and conventions of comics as they were and uses the visual aspect of the medium to great effect. One of my favorite parts has Sim rotating the panels fluidly as Cerebus himself is drunk and possibly on the verge of a breakdown. It forces the reader to turn the comic on its side, upside-down, back to its side and puzzle out the order panels are intended to be read and it simulates the disorientation of the character losing control in a tense situation, but also make the reader very conscious of the physicality of the book itself in their hands. I understand this kind of playful 4th wall-boundary-pushing becomes a hallmark of Sim's writing style as the series progresses... before the author infamously goes off the deep end (politically and philosophically).
However, everything about this book feels dated. It feels very much like an artifact of that period of comics history. Fascinating to read, but lacking the resonance it may have had in the early 80s. If comics are officially a respected art form deserving of reverence and critique and discussion, Cerebus would certainly belong in a dedicated history museum, but not in the canon of all-time great works.
However, everything about this book feels dated. It feels very much like an artifact of that period of comics history. Fascinating to read, but lacking the resonance it may have had in the early 80s. If comics are officially a respected art form deserving of reverence and critique and discussion, Cerebus would certainly belong in a dedicated history museum, but not in the canon of all-time great works.
October 17, 2009
Cerebus, man, you've changed.
You used to only be interested in drinking grog and chasing gold. Now you're still drinking grog and chasing gold, but you've also engrossed yourself in Machiavellian politics and are taking orders from... a woman!
You've changed, man.
But for the better, I suppose. There WAS too much exposition and talk of economics and politics for my liking in this book: even when it's all being voiced by an aardvark and a hot chick, it can still get pretty dry. And the cynical smug satirizing of political climates usually isn't my bag. In fact sometimes this book reminded me of something Robert Asprin (RIP) would write in his groan-inducing, puntastic MYTH series.
BUT even though it was on a subject I don't care about, the presentation was excellent, the jokes were usually funny, and the artwork was breathtaking. I don't think anyone has mastery of the comic book format better than Sim, and even if he picks somewhat dull subjects to utilize his talents, I can't really hold it against him because he tells such a compelling, magnificent story.
Also, he was a little younger than me when he created all this, which really kicks my ass.
You used to only be interested in drinking grog and chasing gold. Now you're still drinking grog and chasing gold, but you've also engrossed yourself in Machiavellian politics and are taking orders from... a woman!
You've changed, man.
But for the better, I suppose. There WAS too much exposition and talk of economics and politics for my liking in this book: even when it's all being voiced by an aardvark and a hot chick, it can still get pretty dry. And the cynical smug satirizing of political climates usually isn't my bag. In fact sometimes this book reminded me of something Robert Asprin (RIP) would write in his groan-inducing, puntastic MYTH series.
BUT even though it was on a subject I don't care about, the presentation was excellent, the jokes were usually funny, and the artwork was breathtaking. I don't think anyone has mastery of the comic book format better than Sim, and even if he picks somewhat dull subjects to utilize his talents, I can't really hold it against him because he tells such a compelling, magnificent story.
Also, he was a little younger than me when he created all this, which really kicks my ass.
April 21, 2020
3.5 stars. Maybe even a 5 at the start as I reread this and was blown away by the art and the playful layouts. Sim is clearly one of the best ever to illustrate comics. I loved the lighter moments in this story and all the more fun and ludicrous characters (best is Moon Roach for me). But, the lengthy, verbose political satire that dominates the second half of the book is just not my bag. It feels interminable. Its funny for me to think I happily devoured that 30+ years ago when I first read it.
Read
August 7, 2021On to Volume Two in the great Cerebus reread...
You know, I get the recommendation to start with High Society, but I don't? There is *way* too much from the first 25 issues that is referenced or figures into this story arc, never mind Church and State. And I wouldn't know enough to raise an eyebrow at Cerebus' story about buying the Pigtish idol he Also, reading "Mind Game II" as a callow teen, Po's political exposition probably just came across as so much extemporized rambling/Wall-O-Names (meanwhile, look at what Cerebus is doing in the pretty pictures), but coming at it with a real knowledge of who Cirin is and something more about the Church of Tarim, it's much more intelligible, and I have a stronger sense of how much Sim really is doing to set up things to come.
I was a little sad for those first two issues. Funny, but not *that* funny, and I wondered if I wasn't in the right headspace or if it was going to turn out that Cerebus just doesn't do it for me as a 40-something, in which case 300 issues was going to suck. So the Mind Game issue was a bit of a relief, because that's when the reading experience actually clicked.
-.-.-.-
Okay, this is the joy of reading a book again 20+ years later. I have so many vivid memories of the personalities, art style and particular scenes, but that still leaves all the stuff I don't remember. Like remembering the Moon Roach, but not remembering the big stone moons. When that second moon hit I busted out laughing and startled a coworker. So yeah, moments like that.
-.-.-.-
There's an unexpectedly poignant moment at the end of this, when Cerebus tells the Elf that he thought he could have made a difference. A little undercut when you think about it. Given the incoherence of his ambitions beyond gold and booze, it's hard to picture what he might have had in mind.
You know, I get the recommendation to start with High Society, but I don't? There is *way* too much from the first 25 issues that is referenced or figures into this story arc, never mind Church and State. And I wouldn't know enough to raise an eyebrow at Cerebus' story about buying the Pigtish idol he Also, reading "Mind Game II" as a callow teen, Po's political exposition probably just came across as so much extemporized rambling/Wall-O-Names (meanwhile, look at what Cerebus is doing in the pretty pictures), but coming at it with a real knowledge of who Cirin is and something more about the Church of Tarim, it's much more intelligible, and I have a stronger sense of how much Sim really is doing to set up things to come.
I was a little sad for those first two issues. Funny, but not *that* funny, and I wondered if I wasn't in the right headspace or if it was going to turn out that Cerebus just doesn't do it for me as a 40-something, in which case 300 issues was going to suck. So the Mind Game issue was a bit of a relief, because that's when the reading experience actually clicked.
-.-.-.-
Okay, this is the joy of reading a book again 20+ years later. I have so many vivid memories of the personalities, art style and particular scenes, but that still leaves all the stuff I don't remember. Like remembering the Moon Roach, but not remembering the big stone moons. When that second moon hit I busted out laughing and startled a coworker. So yeah, moments like that.
-.-.-.-
There's an unexpectedly poignant moment at the end of this, when Cerebus tells the Elf that he thought he could have made a difference. A little undercut when you think about it. Given the incoherence of his ambitions beyond gold and booze, it's hard to picture what he might have had in mind.
August 6, 2014
I had a friend in high school who fancied himself a comic book sophisticant, and he adored the Cerebus series. I always shied away from the bible-thick volumes, because the sheer scope of the series intimidated, and his descriptions of everything contained within made me even less inclined to give it a try.
My instincts would have served me well in this case. The first volume was tolerable, if long-winded, with a few sections that descend into a wall of text, but High Society showed Dave Sim truly getting into his groove.
And I hate his groove.
Comics are a visual medium. I want to nail a copy of that sentence to Dave Sim's door, because this book contained huge chunks where things are written out when a visual display would have served the medium so much better. It also triggered one of my biggest peeves, which is when the writer decides to dispense with plot and character for a while so he can lecture me about politics, society, etc. It's an abuse of comics, and the hubris involved would almost impress if I didn't find it so deeply irritating.
The tonal shifts didn't help either. It's been years, but I still recall hating the character who Sim completely modeled after Groucho. It didn't come off as satirical, so it ended up feeling like a awkward homage that never really fit with the severity of everything else.
To this day I think I only finished this book because I paid full price for the copy. Everything I knew about the series suggested it only got more pedantic and word-heavy from that point forward, so I decided that this dose of Sim was probably enough for a lifetime.
My instincts would have served me well in this case. The first volume was tolerable, if long-winded, with a few sections that descend into a wall of text, but High Society showed Dave Sim truly getting into his groove.
And I hate his groove.
Comics are a visual medium. I want to nail a copy of that sentence to Dave Sim's door, because this book contained huge chunks where things are written out when a visual display would have served the medium so much better. It also triggered one of my biggest peeves, which is when the writer decides to dispense with plot and character for a while so he can lecture me about politics, society, etc. It's an abuse of comics, and the hubris involved would almost impress if I didn't find it so deeply irritating.
The tonal shifts didn't help either. It's been years, but I still recall hating the character who Sim completely modeled after Groucho. It didn't come off as satirical, so it ended up feeling like a awkward homage that never really fit with the severity of everything else.
To this day I think I only finished this book because I paid full price for the copy. Everything I knew about the series suggested it only got more pedantic and word-heavy from that point forward, so I decided that this dose of Sim was probably enough for a lifetime.
July 19, 2018
When one approaches the political drama, it is usually with the expectation that the story will be about a young, idealistic human being with an ambition to make the world a better place, and a drive to resist the corruption that infects those around them. And by the end of the book the hero has overcome incredible odds, and managed to maintain their integrity.
Dave Sim does something wonderful because he does none of this. Instead he tells the story of a vain, greedy, bastard (in this case an aardvark) who only wishes to consolidate power, drink, fight, and ultimately crush his enemies. And yet by the end, even this character manages to find some level of humanity and the reader is sure to find High Society a positively absurd and somehow intimately human work.
I can't say that I believe Cerebus learns a lesson by the end of this book, but I can at least say he discusses a treaty with two of the Marx brothers. And I suppose that should reveal the ultimate weakness of this incredible book. How can you only have two Marx Brothers?
Dave Sim does something wonderful because he does none of this. Instead he tells the story of a vain, greedy, bastard (in this case an aardvark) who only wishes to consolidate power, drink, fight, and ultimately crush his enemies. And yet by the end, even this character manages to find some level of humanity and the reader is sure to find High Society a positively absurd and somehow intimately human work.
I can't say that I believe Cerebus learns a lesson by the end of this book, but I can at least say he discusses a treaty with two of the Marx brothers. And I suppose that should reveal the ultimate weakness of this incredible book. How can you only have two Marx Brothers?
May 7, 2008
What's most striking here is the overall sophistication of the writing and artwork. Dave Sim was only 25 when he created the first cohesive Cerebus graphic novel and while there are nods to Will Eisner and Neil Adams, in terms of visual inventiveness 'High Society' outdoes both his idols, creating entirely new tropes of graphic storytelling. Slivers of humor have aged poorly and the story doesn't quite pack the satirical/emotional punch intended, but this historic work remains suprisingly vital.
August 25, 2018
There is a lot to say about Dave Sim, good, bad, and really ugly. But I'm not going to go into his later politics here. Suffice it to say that the man produced a 6,000 page graphic novel, the length of which we are unlikely to see again, outside of manga.
High Society is the second volume (of 16, I believe) of the collected Cerebus, and the first that really began to demonstrate the skills that would in short order make Sim not only a master of the comic form, but an innovator.
He was also very damned funny when he wanted to be. Which, especially during the first half or so of the series, was very often. Even in this relatively early book he was a master of dialogue and dialect, and a near-master of caricature. His take on Groucho Marx, Lord Julius, is as good as anything the original managed, right down to the waggling eyebrows.
If you are able to accept that the lead character is an anthropomorphic aardvark, raised as a barbarian (the comic began as a spoof of the Barry Windsor-Smith version of Conan the Barbarian) who finds himself, somehow, embroiled in the affairs of a more or less medieval city-state, and you enjoy a story that ranges from absurdism to a genuinely tense election campaign, then find yourself a copy if you can.
Sim's latter slide into a bizarre, misogynistic philosophy that in some ways really anticipated the incel movement did a lot of damage to his reputation and, probably, to his ability to keep the books in print. But the early, atheist, Sim was a lot less problematic - and maybe you'll find yourself seeking out even his latter books despite yourself. (Memory tells me that, somehow, even when he was most rabidly political, his story-teller's instincts never deserted him.)
High Society is the second volume (of 16, I believe) of the collected Cerebus, and the first that really began to demonstrate the skills that would in short order make Sim not only a master of the comic form, but an innovator.
He was also very damned funny when he wanted to be. Which, especially during the first half or so of the series, was very often. Even in this relatively early book he was a master of dialogue and dialect, and a near-master of caricature. His take on Groucho Marx, Lord Julius, is as good as anything the original managed, right down to the waggling eyebrows.
If you are able to accept that the lead character is an anthropomorphic aardvark, raised as a barbarian (the comic began as a spoof of the Barry Windsor-Smith version of Conan the Barbarian) who finds himself, somehow, embroiled in the affairs of a more or less medieval city-state, and you enjoy a story that ranges from absurdism to a genuinely tense election campaign, then find yourself a copy if you can.
Sim's latter slide into a bizarre, misogynistic philosophy that in some ways really anticipated the incel movement did a lot of damage to his reputation and, probably, to his ability to keep the books in print. But the early, atheist, Sim was a lot less problematic - and maybe you'll find yourself seeking out even his latter books despite yourself. (Memory tells me that, somehow, even when he was most rabidly political, his story-teller's instincts never deserted him.)
November 5, 2011
Durante años, cada vez que escuchaba hablar de esa obra magna de Sim me preguntaba "¿Tan bueno está Cerebus?" Me leí uno o dos numeritos sueltos del principio y no me parecieron geniales pero la pasé muy bien. Cuando agarré este tomotote, me pasó al revés: me pareció una historia muy buena pero no la pasé tan bien. Me encanta que en un comic que arrancó como una parodia del género fantástico se traten temas de política, espiritualidad, estrategia, sátira social y varias cosas más, pero si soy sincero en algunas partes de la perorata me perdí, y me terminé el libro más por no dejarlo abandonado que porque me haya enganchado lo suficiente. Seguro que cuando tenga a mano algunas de las continuaciones lo siga leyendo, pero voy a tener que estar bien descansado, con la mente curiosa y bien atenta, porque si no me quedo con los chistes del genial Cucaracha Luna y me pierdo en las partes importantes. Por suerte, de la siempre mencionada misoginia de Sim vi poco y nada acá, y aunque se ve cierto odio incipiente hacia el género femenino no es mucho mayor al que se ve contra las personas en general.
February 22, 2013
In a largely corporately dominated field, Dave Sim made an indelible impression by self publishing his enormous graphic novel series Cerebus before most of the independent comics market came to be. Sim had a graphic virtuosity and a self confidence that led to both spectacular successes and failures in his storytelling opus. The title character, a funny-animal spoof of mid-70s Conan comics from Thomas and Smith, began as a thin, forgettable pastiche of Sim's influences. Soon, Sim built a world of far more interesting characters that became too weighty to comfortably coexist with the simple silliness of comics convention parodies like Moon Roach and, indeed, the title character himself. Sim answered to nobody but himself, creating passages of top notch storytelling interspersed with half-assed shortcuts like pages of script in place of drawing the action and scenes described. High Society, the second 25 issues of the book, is a densely packed story of nations at war and the personalities of the people they were composed of.
January 25, 2016
Well...I don't know how to explain this. Dave Sim's Cerebus was a long-running (more than a decade?) tale of...a small, sullen little aardvark who begins as kind of a comic pastiche of Conan the Barbarian and then goes on to...become pope? Match political wits with Groucho Marx? Run in elections? Meet Keith Richards? Visit other worlds? Trust me. I can't explain this to you. But there are at least sixteen collected volumes of Cerebus...and you need to read them. Let me repeat that: you need to read them. This is some of the funniest, wittiest, and more hilariously bizarre storytelling out there. All I can say is...Cerebus. Yes.
May 11, 2015
Fantastic fantasy/comedy comic. Basically a parody on Conan and many other fantasy characters. Highly Recommended
October 5, 2015
Well, this is a funny, clever and delightful masterpiece.
April 3, 2023
I'm so obsessed it's like if a Moomin was morally reprehensible
August 24, 2024
Although the second book in the series, after Cerebus, High Society was the first Cerebus book to be collected in the format that would become known as ‘phonebooks’ on account of their size.
Cerebus began as a Conan parody, but this was something far more ambitious – an honest to goodness graphic novel. With this approach in mind, Sim largely eschewed the normal episodic pacing of comics in favour of a narrative that would make more sense when read in its entirety. Realising this, many Cerebus readers stopped buying the comic and just waited for the collections. This became known as ‘the Cerebus effect’, and the ramifications of it are still felt in the industry today.
By this stage in his career Sim was a confident and accomplished artist whose style had developed organically from a Barry Windsor-Smith wannabe. He retained much of Windsor-Smith’s love of the ornate, but his art had become very much its own thing. His writing had progressed even further, and High Society is a complex, mature work with important things to say about the nature of power, while often being very, very funny into the bargain.
The plot is labyrinthine and resists precis, but when Cerebus turns up at the Regency Hotel in the city-state of Iest he’s warmly welcomed by everyone because of his past associations with Lord Julius of Palnu, another city-state to which Iest owes a great deal of money. Cerebus was his Lord Julius’s Kitchen Staff Supervisor – Julius likes to keep everyone on their toes by making sure no one has the faintest idea of who does what. Before long, Cerebus is embroiled in Julius’s complicated political machinations, running for Prime Minister against Lord Julius’s goat and trying to wage wars on neighbouring countries.
Much of the book’s plot is driven by the attempts of various characters to control and manipulate Cerebus. The main culprit is Lord Julius, who often seems to be working against himself, but also includes Astoria, Cerebus’s political advisor (and Julius’s ‘niece’) and assorted political and religious factions. However, Cerebus (who only ever refers to himself in the third person) proves himself to be not only cunning – something we had seen glimpses of previously, even in the early Conan pastiches – but also surprisingly knowledgeable in the ways of both magicians and politicians.
This book is a great starting point for anyone wanting to sample one of the most important comics in the history of the medium, self-published or otherwise. The first book, though relatively unpolished, is also worth a read, introducing many of the characters that would appear in this and later volumes over the course of 25 years, but any later books would be nigh impossible to follow without being aware of what has gone before.
And Cerebus? After Prime Minister, there was only thing left to do, become Pope, which he sets out to do in the next book: Church and State.
Cerebus began as a Conan parody, but this was something far more ambitious – an honest to goodness graphic novel. With this approach in mind, Sim largely eschewed the normal episodic pacing of comics in favour of a narrative that would make more sense when read in its entirety. Realising this, many Cerebus readers stopped buying the comic and just waited for the collections. This became known as ‘the Cerebus effect’, and the ramifications of it are still felt in the industry today.
By this stage in his career Sim was a confident and accomplished artist whose style had developed organically from a Barry Windsor-Smith wannabe. He retained much of Windsor-Smith’s love of the ornate, but his art had become very much its own thing. His writing had progressed even further, and High Society is a complex, mature work with important things to say about the nature of power, while often being very, very funny into the bargain.
The plot is labyrinthine and resists precis, but when Cerebus turns up at the Regency Hotel in the city-state of Iest he’s warmly welcomed by everyone because of his past associations with Lord Julius of Palnu, another city-state to which Iest owes a great deal of money. Cerebus was his Lord Julius’s Kitchen Staff Supervisor – Julius likes to keep everyone on their toes by making sure no one has the faintest idea of who does what. Before long, Cerebus is embroiled in Julius’s complicated political machinations, running for Prime Minister against Lord Julius’s goat and trying to wage wars on neighbouring countries.
Much of the book’s plot is driven by the attempts of various characters to control and manipulate Cerebus. The main culprit is Lord Julius, who often seems to be working against himself, but also includes Astoria, Cerebus’s political advisor (and Julius’s ‘niece’) and assorted political and religious factions. However, Cerebus (who only ever refers to himself in the third person) proves himself to be not only cunning – something we had seen glimpses of previously, even in the early Conan pastiches – but also surprisingly knowledgeable in the ways of both magicians and politicians.
This book is a great starting point for anyone wanting to sample one of the most important comics in the history of the medium, self-published or otherwise. The first book, though relatively unpolished, is also worth a read, introducing many of the characters that would appear in this and later volumes over the course of 25 years, but any later books would be nigh impossible to follow without being aware of what has gone before.
And Cerebus? After Prime Minister, there was only thing left to do, become Pope, which he sets out to do in the next book: Church and State.
November 2, 2019
Cerebus: High Society, or how an anti-feminist makes the best example of why a feminist politician (Astoria) is better suited to rule than men. In fact, while all the men in this book are either bumbling idiots or war-mongering profiteers (or both) with one sole exception, she is hands down the best character overall, highly intelligent and versed in politics and economy as well as diplomacy, public relations and strategic military thinking akin to Sun-Tzu. Also, for all the attempts of Dave Sim to picture her as false and whoring even if she never explicitly contracted marriage with Cerebus, her motivations come out as the least greedy and selfish of all. All while the social commentary on how propaganda, international politics, burocracy corruption and religion influence still sound fresh as they did in 1986, which again is strange considering that the main focus seems to be on critizing far-right politics by an author who this days goes by being a far-righter and trump supporter himself. People can surely change A LOT in time...
All in all, highly recommended.
P.S. I WANT 10, 100, 1000 ASTORIAS TO RULE INSTEAD OF NOWADAYS' INCOMPETENT POLITICIANS NOW!
All in all, highly recommended.
P.S. I WANT 10, 100, 1000 ASTORIAS TO RULE INSTEAD OF NOWADAYS' INCOMPETENT POLITICIANS NOW!
March 25, 2025
I don’t really understand the concept of political satire. Just poking fun of politics? I definitely understood some of the jokes but once it became very subtle I was lost in terms of the joke. Story was fun enough though
March 30, 2016
I'm rereading Cerebus for the first time in a decade or more. High Society was always lodged in my mind as the first of the really good Cerebus books, but I was concerned about the reliability of memory and the perils of revisiting old favourites. I shouldn't have worried - this is still great stuff. It’s funny, sharp and switched on, an amazing jump from the first collection. I don’t think we see another quantum leap in skill like this in the rest of the series, or indeed in any other artistic endeavours I can think of off the top of my head.*
That said, the beginning is still raw Cerebus. The issue breaks are very obvious and there are far too many narrative captions (they finally drop out maybe a third of the way through the book, and Dave’s storytelling skill has increased so much that you don’t even notice their absence). The kidnapping and the Fleagle brothers are great fun, but it’s when Astoria enters and starts manipulating Cerebus that it kicks up a whole another level. The economic and political detail is still far ahead of anything else I’ve seen in comics (apart from non-fiction works like Darryl Richardson’s Supercrash), but it’s also very funny. Some of my favourite sequences are the campaign trail encounters, where Dave’s gifts for mimicry and revealing character through dialogue shine. It may be a fantasy world, but these sketches are so recognisably from our shared cultural understanding. John Cleese, misanthropic depressed Jewish comedians, That Farmer Guy From The Wuffa Wuffa issue, all so vivid in just a couple of panels. Election night itself is memorably tense, an excellently orchestrated issue. After that, we’re into Cerebus’ premiership, such as it is. Some people have complained that this section is rushed and flies by too quickly. It might well be that they are right and Dave had written himself into a corner after committing to wrapping up HS in 25 issues (if so, not the last time it will happen. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the size of the work – there was no going back and revising what was already in the public domain), but I always thought it was deliberate, and, along with the page design literally knocking Cerebus’ world sideways, supposed to emphasise how overwhelmed he was by events. Maybe, maybe not.
A few other random observations:
The very last page is, considering it was created by a twentysomething, an astonishingly acute take on the tendency of the idealistic young to believe in pointless doomed causes.
On this reread, I was completely floored by a particular stupid comment of Elrod’s. Innocuous in itself, it takes on a whole new meaning once you’ve read Minds, which wouldn’t be published for another twelve years or so. That’s some pretty hefty foreshadowing.
All those words about how it’s much better than the first book and how this is the best starting point notwithstanding, it’s surprising how many elements of what I’d consider to be “Core Cerebus” are still waiting to be introduced at the end of the book. The Cirinists have been an absolutely minimal presence, if they’ve featured at all, the Tarim / Terim dichotomy has barely been mentioned, and any information about the nature and number of aardvarks is missing – at this point, Cerebus is still basically just a funny looking character. Lots to come… I am itching to crack on with Church & State now.
*(FWIW, I reckon Sim’s talent continues to build, albeit at a more incremental level, all the way through to issue 220 or thereabouts. After that, his technical ability soars – the lettering, page composition and character art in the final few books are all tremendous – but his narrative ability pretty much deserts him, until a late flourish with The Last Day).
That said, the beginning is still raw Cerebus. The issue breaks are very obvious and there are far too many narrative captions (they finally drop out maybe a third of the way through the book, and Dave’s storytelling skill has increased so much that you don’t even notice their absence). The kidnapping and the Fleagle brothers are great fun, but it’s when Astoria enters and starts manipulating Cerebus that it kicks up a whole another level. The economic and political detail is still far ahead of anything else I’ve seen in comics (apart from non-fiction works like Darryl Richardson’s Supercrash), but it’s also very funny. Some of my favourite sequences are the campaign trail encounters, where Dave’s gifts for mimicry and revealing character through dialogue shine. It may be a fantasy world, but these sketches are so recognisably from our shared cultural understanding. John Cleese, misanthropic depressed Jewish comedians, That Farmer Guy From The Wuffa Wuffa issue, all so vivid in just a couple of panels. Election night itself is memorably tense, an excellently orchestrated issue. After that, we’re into Cerebus’ premiership, such as it is. Some people have complained that this section is rushed and flies by too quickly. It might well be that they are right and Dave had written himself into a corner after committing to wrapping up HS in 25 issues (if so, not the last time it will happen. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the size of the work – there was no going back and revising what was already in the public domain), but I always thought it was deliberate, and, along with the page design literally knocking Cerebus’ world sideways, supposed to emphasise how overwhelmed he was by events. Maybe, maybe not.
A few other random observations:
The very last page is, considering it was created by a twentysomething, an astonishingly acute take on the tendency of the idealistic young to believe in pointless doomed causes.
On this reread, I was completely floored by a particular stupid comment of Elrod’s. Innocuous in itself, it takes on a whole new meaning once you’ve read Minds, which wouldn’t be published for another twelve years or so. That’s some pretty hefty foreshadowing.
All those words about how it’s much better than the first book and how this is the best starting point notwithstanding, it’s surprising how many elements of what I’d consider to be “Core Cerebus” are still waiting to be introduced at the end of the book. The Cirinists have been an absolutely minimal presence, if they’ve featured at all, the Tarim / Terim dichotomy has barely been mentioned, and any information about the nature and number of aardvarks is missing – at this point, Cerebus is still basically just a funny looking character. Lots to come… I am itching to crack on with Church & State now.
*(FWIW, I reckon Sim’s talent continues to build, albeit at a more incremental level, all the way through to issue 220 or thereabouts. After that, his technical ability soars – the lettering, page composition and character art in the final few books are all tremendous – but his narrative ability pretty much deserts him, until a late flourish with The Last Day).
July 17, 2014
This volume, like the first, is hard to rate. It's clear that Sim has defined a certain style and pastiche which is uniquely his own but at the same time it appears that he is still working out the kinks as he goes along (which is completely understandable). The art is sloppy in some places as hatching marks often cross over into speech bubbles or into different panels and the perspective on figures as well as the environment is wonky in certain parts (which I would suspect is a reason why Sim starts to block off the interiors into large, graphic, sections). The narrative is also trying to find its footing while attempting to seamlessly shift back and forth between the day-to-day and the larger events which the story revolves around.
This is all not to say that the story or art isn't good but that each element that Sim pulls together doesn't always fit with the other individual parts due to aesthetic or narrative hiccups (a natural part of the learning curve, I would think). It's clear that Sim has a wealth of creativity and ideas relating to the storytelling form of comic books and he is not afraid to let his ideas run wild and let the story go wherever it wants to go which is a rare and commendable thing to be able to do. By conceiving and writing a 500 page self-contained narrative in comic book form which has a clear ending, turns on its side (and eventually upside down) Sim revolutionized the way which comics could be read and conceived (a lesson the big publishers still need to learn, it seems). Sim expects his readers to be able to fill in the narrative gaps and figure out the visual and textual games that he plays which is a nice thing to see since so many comics (and books, actually) treat their readers like dimwits.
The largest thing that holds back this volume is its specificity and, because of that, it ends up being largely a product of its time. Everything about the book would have been interesting and new at the time it was written (the way it was made, what it was trying to do, how it was doing it, etc, etc) but it seems to have drawn heavily on the culture and themes of the moment (ie. the 80s) which are sometimes hard to translate into a contemporary context. At its best Cerebus is able to remain relevant and biting almost 30 years later (specifically the scenes about national debt, international politics and the Moon Roach) but these sections can be few and far between. The comments section and introductions contained in the individual issues were particularly useful in this regard since Dave and Deni were always candid and honest about their inspirations and aspirations. These sections set the book firmly in context and made it that much more entertaining, interesting and relevant. Without the opening and closing sections the collected editions can be hard to place in context for newer readers.
Cerebus is, above all, a grand experiment in a specific artistic form and, as the story continues and Sim hones his craft, I think great things are on the horizon. The story and art are both probably around 3 stars (although some individual issues would be worthy of 5, particularly those toward the end of the volume). I am adding in an extra star for the freshness and creativity Sim brings to the comic form through his continual run-ins with the boundaries of the medium.
This is all not to say that the story or art isn't good but that each element that Sim pulls together doesn't always fit with the other individual parts due to aesthetic or narrative hiccups (a natural part of the learning curve, I would think). It's clear that Sim has a wealth of creativity and ideas relating to the storytelling form of comic books and he is not afraid to let his ideas run wild and let the story go wherever it wants to go which is a rare and commendable thing to be able to do. By conceiving and writing a 500 page self-contained narrative in comic book form which has a clear ending, turns on its side (and eventually upside down) Sim revolutionized the way which comics could be read and conceived (a lesson the big publishers still need to learn, it seems). Sim expects his readers to be able to fill in the narrative gaps and figure out the visual and textual games that he plays which is a nice thing to see since so many comics (and books, actually) treat their readers like dimwits.
The largest thing that holds back this volume is its specificity and, because of that, it ends up being largely a product of its time. Everything about the book would have been interesting and new at the time it was written (the way it was made, what it was trying to do, how it was doing it, etc, etc) but it seems to have drawn heavily on the culture and themes of the moment (ie. the 80s) which are sometimes hard to translate into a contemporary context. At its best Cerebus is able to remain relevant and biting almost 30 years later (specifically the scenes about national debt, international politics and the Moon Roach) but these sections can be few and far between. The comments section and introductions contained in the individual issues were particularly useful in this regard since Dave and Deni were always candid and honest about their inspirations and aspirations. These sections set the book firmly in context and made it that much more entertaining, interesting and relevant. Without the opening and closing sections the collected editions can be hard to place in context for newer readers.
Cerebus is, above all, a grand experiment in a specific artistic form and, as the story continues and Sim hones his craft, I think great things are on the horizon. The story and art are both probably around 3 stars (although some individual issues would be worthy of 5, particularly those toward the end of the volume). I am adding in an extra star for the freshness and creativity Sim brings to the comic form through his continual run-ins with the boundaries of the medium.
April 27, 2022
I haven't read this in years, so I remembered relatively little about it, other than my recollection of how ground-breaking it was when it was first serialized. That is still evident, I think, but in the landscape of 2020, it is more clearly than it was at the time a tentative move in the direction of long-form comics narrative. While there is a 25-issue story arc, it coheres a lot less fully than I remembered, with each individual issue still being largely readable as a discrete unit and, more importantly, the supposed 25-issue story in fact consisting of smaller chunks that do interrelate but lack the extensive interconnections one would expect today. Characters appear and vanish, serving only local functions. Events are more episodic than interrelated. That said, Sim's growing ambition and skill is still something to behold. His formal experimentations with page layout alone are impressive--most notably, perhaps, in the long sequence in which the pages turn sideways and then actually rotate for a few pages (duplicating the "spins" effect of intense drunkenness). The Roach iteration here, Moon Roach, is one of my favourites across the entire series--and that's a high bar. His various scenes especially continue to be extremely funny; Sim's ability to nail but also undermine superhero tropes is very effective here. The plot, however, meanders and ultimately doesn't seem to make much sense--Sim is very good at making it seem as if complex things are going on, and when the book was serialized, one would have had increasingly vague memories of earlier developments with each new issue. However, when one reads the whole thing over a relatively short time, the cracks are easier to spot. Nevertheless, there is far more to admire here than to criticize. One of the essential early alternative comics.
January 13, 2023
The series that started as a silly parody of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian here shifts gears into political satire. Cerberus the short tempered and greedy aardvark, has hung up the sword and pursues power in the city-state of Iest. Given his previous role as the Kitchen Staff Supervisor (aka Lord’s bodyguard) of Palnu, he comes with an esteemed reputation. 75% of the book is about Cerberus’ campaign to become the new Prime Minister. His opponent? The current Prime Minister’s (who’s term is up) goat. Yes, so this manages to be completely obnoxious (an anthropomorphic aardvark vs a non-anthropomorphic goat) while being legitimately sophisticated. The bureaucracy, political parties, religious institutions, and cults of Iest are surprisingly sophisticated (almost to the point that the political dialogue can get somewhat dry). Given this book is a few decades old, Cerebrus’ campaign as the New Republicanism’s candidate and presidential role are surprisingly similar to Trump’s. Yeah, I didn’t say Cerberus was an good aardvark…no, he is eternally self-interested.
Once the characters from book 1 are fully recast from barbarian and superhero archetypes to bureaucrats, the story takes off. There is a surprising range in this book from, of course, comedy, to political intrigue, to genuine drama and tragedy. Sim artistically experiments and stretches the bounds of comics often by making a whole issue in a metaphysical realm with abstract art and script formatted dialogue, to docudrama (reading pages from an Anarchist historian’s account of the campaign in retrospect), and by forcing the reader to turn the giant book around so many times you forget which way is up to simulate Cerebrus’ drunken experience.
Definitely more impressed with this series than I was with book 1 and I look forward to the 2 book arc ahead, Church & State.
Once the characters from book 1 are fully recast from barbarian and superhero archetypes to bureaucrats, the story takes off. There is a surprising range in this book from, of course, comedy, to political intrigue, to genuine drama and tragedy. Sim artistically experiments and stretches the bounds of comics often by making a whole issue in a metaphysical realm with abstract art and script formatted dialogue, to docudrama (reading pages from an Anarchist historian’s account of the campaign in retrospect), and by forcing the reader to turn the giant book around so many times you forget which way is up to simulate Cerebrus’ drunken experience.
Definitely more impressed with this series than I was with book 1 and I look forward to the 2 book arc ahead, Church & State.
March 29, 2018
Many often say that this is the best arc in the series. I disagree, my vote goes to the next two volumes Church and State I and II. The tone of the series shifts into a well written, highly intelligent story of power and greed, marked by humorous and bizarre elements to keep in touch with the original rhythm. It is an artful tale, expertly told. The art continues to grow, the author experimenting with different styles and presentation of material to create a new effect at the time. It is much copied, but seldom beaten.
There used to be a debate among creators and collectors on the place of the trade paperback of collected issues of comics, on how the graphic novel would affect sequential storytelling. Purists claimed that they would disrupt the flow of the stories, that the individual issues were not meant to be read immediately one after the other, and that a space between readings was needed to build anticipation. They also claimed that if the industry changed its writing style with the trade paperback in mind, it would make individual issues difficult to attract new readers who may not like entering into a story mid stream, like watching a film from the mid. Still another concern was that people would only purchase the trades, driving down sales of the single issues (at the time the bread-and-butter of the industry) and threaten the entire future of the medium.
Cerebus, as always, was ahead of the curve and with this volume the series abandoned its single, double, and triple issue arcs. Here the author devoted twenty five issues to a single arc, “High Society”. Thus once again scoring a new first for the series. This story also proved that the trade paperback could be viable and not significantly affect individual issue sales. The author began bundling the stories into large trade paperbacks, selling them direct market, even having a 1-800 number for orders. When the numbers came through, the big boys in marvel and DC cautiously followed suit. Now it is expected that a series will be collected into a graphic novel. This was called “the Cerebus effect”.
Cerebus evolves from the life of a barbarian and mercenary to accidently enter the realm of politics in the city-state of Inest - a near-bankrupt, corrupt theocracy on the verge of collapse. While the action on the series has changed, Cerebus hasn’t. If anything the change of scenery emphasizes his more dislikable traits. Without the threat of violence against him he appears arrogant, evil-tempered, selfish, and a world-class alcoholic. He is in fact an anti-hero in many ways. He struggles day by day to succeed in a political system that he has no respect for and cares little about.
It’s interesting that because of his inflexibility Cerebus becomes the least interesting character in his own series. Being so single minded, he is a pawn to the mighty and the graspers. His bid to become prime minister is a power play instigated by others, which he takes advantage of and eventually destroys. Power to him is an excuse to carve out an empire that he is incapable of managing.
Joining the cast, we have the character of Astoria (named for actress Mary Astor) and a revamped Jaka. While Jaka was in the first volume, her character is essentially different here. Before she was a tavern dancer who referred to herself in the third person. In this volume (the character does evolve) she’s the true love/perfect woman character for the protagonist. Their encounters are awkward, Jaka trying to bring Cerebus back to his roots, while our hero brags to her about how rich and important he is, blissfully unaware of her wealthy upbringing. She returns his sword as a remembrance of why she fell in love with him and warns him of his danger. It’s interesting that true love characters often only have two characteristics, being beautiful and supportive. Jaka, like Agnes in David Copperfield, is nearly a manikin that speaks.
Her foil is Astoria. Capable, ruthless, power hungry, she is a Hillary Clinton character, a political mover that props up men in order to rule behind the scenes. First she uses the Roach character (here lampooning Moon Knight) to wipe out some political and religious enemies, then latches onto Cerebus’s rising star. While she is a capable power player, she doesn’t have the charisma to get there on her own. Without her Cerebus would have been back to killing people for beer money. We will see more of her soon and, like Laura Palmer, she’s filled with secrets.
In the backdrop of the political climate lurks the religious element, the true masters of the civilized world here, though largely unseen in this arc. We are given hints on the Cirinist movement waiting in the wings, who are taking a special interest in Cerebus, and the Church of Tarim, which for most of the arc has sequestered itself in an “inward exodus” due to a religious prophecy and the murder of its Grand Inquisitor. Both will emerge in the next few books to reveal their nature. For this story the religious aspect is mostly shown in the character of Bran Mak Mufin (the one mocking Bran Mac Morn by Robert AE. Howard), who reappears minus tribal regalia to serve the “Earth Pig born”. He is convinced that Cerebus is a return prophet messianic figure and convinces our hero to run for office, then to declare a war which leads to Cerebus’s ruin.
And always lurking in the background is the insidious figure of Suenteus Po (some have mused that his name is a take on the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus whose work Robert Graves I, Claudius was based on). Not seen yet in his full form, we encounter his disembodied voice in Ming Game II, where Cerebus and Po trade insults and interrogate each other. In this world the name is a common one, so there is deliberate ambiguity here as to where the important character is actually interacting in the story. But as he is creator of the Illusionist Tradition (more on that in later posts) it seems fitting. I always found Po to be the most interesting character in the series. He knows much, but cares little.
January 27, 2016
Whilst the first volume (which reprints the first 25 issues) provides a lot of the background for the series, this volume (which reprints issues 26-50) is where it really takes off. Dave Sim has developed both his artwork and writing since the start of the series, and this storyline contains a nice mix of stories which are cynical, stories which are surreal, stories which are quite emotional, and everything in between.
Cerebus develops a lot during this story, but his roots are still visible not far below the surface, and many of the supporting cast develop along with him. As with any large story, there are characters who disappear and new characters are introduced. With this volume Cerebus, as a comic, comes a long way from being the swords and sorcery send up that it started as, but Sim retains his ability to brutally parody both pop culture and world affairs (of the time).
Cerebus develops a lot during this story, but his roots are still visible not far below the surface, and many of the supporting cast develop along with him. As with any large story, there are characters who disappear and new characters are introduced. With this volume Cerebus, as a comic, comes a long way from being the swords and sorcery send up that it started as, but Sim retains his ability to brutally parody both pop culture and world affairs (of the time).
January 6, 2018
This is #94 on the top 100 graphic novels of all time list.
I know this is supposed to a great work of literature or something, but I didn't care for it much. I loved the first Cerebus story, where he was a traveling barbarian, and all that. This is far too political for my taste, I could give an earth-pigs tail about elections and the inner workings of a government.
If it weren't for Elf, and Jaka, and the Moon Roach, this would be a 1 star book to me.
How this is ranked over the other 6 graphic novels is beyond me.
If you are interested in seeing a fantastic parody of Conan turned into a hollow politician controlled by a woman named Astoria, then this is your book.
Finally moving on, I am.
I know this is supposed to a great work of literature or something, but I didn't care for it much. I loved the first Cerebus story, where he was a traveling barbarian, and all that. This is far too political for my taste, I could give an earth-pigs tail about elections and the inner workings of a government.
If it weren't for Elf, and Jaka, and the Moon Roach, this would be a 1 star book to me.
How this is ranked over the other 6 graphic novels is beyond me.
If you are interested in seeing a fantastic parody of Conan turned into a hollow politician controlled by a woman named Astoria, then this is your book.
Finally moving on, I am.
August 10, 2024
Man. I thought Cerebus might not hold up well after all these years (I first read the series 30 years ago, and even then it had been a well-established series for many years), but I'll be damned if I didn't get the same feeling I got when I first discovered it. I think my only complaint is that, even though Cerebus proves himself capable over and over again, it seems like things just happen to him, and he rides them out as best he can. It doesn't feel like he has the agency to get himself going.
December 28, 2016
Pucha. Por más que intenté no lo logré, me tocó abandonar. Llegué a este libro por casualidad, en una venta de usados, y viendo la nota me pareció que tenía que ser muy bueno. Pero si me sacó una sonrisa fue mucho. Creo que tiene algo.mas que ver con el recuerdo de la gente que realmente con el libro en si.
July 17, 2014
Well, it's about an aardvark fighter. Just the thing to read while listening to Nirvana.
Just writing those two sentences makes me feel a thousand years old.
Copy loaned by Judith.
Just writing those two sentences makes me feel a thousand years old.
Copy loaned by Judith.
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