LJ Idol, Week 30: "Shock and Awe"

Jun 14, 2012 15:18

I am always pleasantly surprised when a book, or movie, or piece of music, or whathaveyou, lives up to its hype ( Read more... )

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minnesattva June 19 2012, 11:20:05 UTC
Two-thirds of the way through sounds like a terrible time to start reading Cerebus :)

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dslartoo June 19 2012, 14:22:55 UTC
Oh, I didn't start reading without the backstory. :) It was actually issue 200 (or 201 -- whichever one was the first of "Guys"), and that one was just so informal and fun that I wondered what I had been missing. So I went back to issue one by starting with the first phonebook, and realized this was a work of a lot more scope and depth than what I'd seen in issue #200. I picked up all the other trades as well until I was all caught up.

(I almost quit reading when I got to the anti-women rants in "Reads", and Dave really went off the deep end towards the end of the series, but as far as I'm concerned the first two-thirds of the series is generally some of the best comic book work ever created).

cheers,
Phil

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minnesattva June 19 2012, 16:40:36 UTC
Oh yeah, I was just thinking, the change between #200 and #1 must have seemed quite a leap :)

I like the middle third of Cerebus. It's too big and complicated for me to think about in its entirety, and really I think my life is too short and already full of enough unpleasant things that I don't need to go seeking them out :) But my husband is working on a book about Cerebus and dealing pretty well with all the complicated and fraught stuff. so I do appreciate it is a good and useful topic for debate and critical thought. It's just one that I'm more or less happy to leave to other people (though I do love Church and State through to Jaka's Story and Melmoth).

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dslartoo June 19 2012, 20:55:33 UTC
Hm. Does Dave know about your husband's work? He tends to be pretty open to interviews and things about people who are really trying to get in depth.

cheers,
Phil

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dslartoo June 20 2012, 12:58:21 UTC
Oh, that's right, I read that somewhere and then dismissed it as just another "Sim has REALLY gone off the deep end this time" exhibition. I'm now to the point where I respect the HELL out of the man's work, but geez, I just can't see him as a cool human being. I would have had real trouble reading Cerebus if I hadn't already discovered over 180+ issues that it was really good stuff before I discovered Sim wasn't a very nice person.

cheers,
Phil

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