Cerebus
The last day or so I've just had this urge to read up on Cerebus on wiki and some other sources such as the Cerebuswiki, which I only just glanced at today. It's been probably four years at least since I've read any of that comic, fairly sure that Guys was the last collection I read, though I bought almost all of the phonebooks.
But on a whim I started to think about that comic again and now I'm giving serious thought to finally buying the last collection, I have to check because I may also be missing Latter Days from my collection. But the series near the end, for me at least, lost much of its appeal - which is why although you are curious as to how the final 300th issue concludes (since if you know the series then you know that Cerebus dies at that point) it gets a bit agonizing long before you reach the series conclusion.
Don't want my post to knock the series too much because there's a lot in it to respect and enjoy - and if you aren't familiar with the series then I do highly recommend checking out the first four collections: Cerebus, High Society, Church & State I and II. After that it tends to get a bit... wordy, pretentious, boring? Something along those lines I think, though maybe if I tried it again I'd feel different. Noticed that sometimes things I disliked in my youth gained new interest a few years down the road.
The story behind the creator Dave Sim is also a fairly interesting - the whole misogyny rumors you'll hear fairly quickly but it was only in my recent wanderings that I read more into his conversion from atheist to... mostly Muslim is how he describes it (though he does believe in aspects from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Plus in the comic series you'll find references and parodies to numerous historical personas, I enjoyed reading a number of their true histories after seeing them referenced. It's a very long run series, which adds a certain interesting appeal, starting December 1977 (hey, the month/year of my birth :P ) and concluding March 2004 - I mean, can you imagine the dedication involved for a single creator to keep a series going that long?
Getting a little bit back on track, part of what threw me off the series was a certain level of depressing mood comes into it probably about halfway. Mostly I'd say in Guys, that may be the last complete collection I read, which the roughly twenty issues that makes up that collection is set almost exclusively inside a bar. Thinking about it now, which may be skewed considering the time that has passed since reading it, it strikes me as a personal hell to be in that situation. There's just conversations going back and forth, a meaningless poison from characters who just seem like they've given up. And to have the main character Cerebus to go from all those exciting adventures and positions of power to... an angry drunk who comes close to driving everyone away from him; I know I know, that's the whole point of the book. To me though it feels kind of crushing to go from this climax of Church & State to... a feeling of a flatline in the series. For the story overall I'm sure that bit of time in Cerebus' life is crucial but it was also part of why I was losing interest in the series.
Ah, I forgot to mention for those not familiar at all with the series - it's about an aardvark and his rise and falls, personal exploits and failures, love interests and foolhardy decisions. It begins mostly as an adventure to adventure story with a Conan the Barbarian feeling then moves to much more depth, often exploring subjects such as love, politics, religion... and a very large bit on feminism comes into play later on. And although you may think the story will be goofy, considering the main character is an anthro aardvark living in a world populated by humans and some monsters, it does gain an interesting sort of depth and background to it as you read. There is a reason for the main character being what he is and the innate "magnifier" ability of the aardvarks is a nifty part of the story.
I need to read this series again, this time a thorough start to finish reading. I may feel differently after a fresh look, I would agree with those who see it as an important series in comics. heh, if I go back far enough in my lj history I'll probably find some posts talking about this comic, I know at some point I had some icons referencing it. Weird how things change, the importance of things waxes and wanes over the years.
But on a whim I started to think about that comic again and now I'm giving serious thought to finally buying the last collection, I have to check because I may also be missing Latter Days from my collection. But the series near the end, for me at least, lost much of its appeal - which is why although you are curious as to how the final 300th issue concludes (since if you know the series then you know that Cerebus dies at that point) it gets a bit agonizing long before you reach the series conclusion.
Don't want my post to knock the series too much because there's a lot in it to respect and enjoy - and if you aren't familiar with the series then I do highly recommend checking out the first four collections: Cerebus, High Society, Church & State I and II. After that it tends to get a bit... wordy, pretentious, boring? Something along those lines I think, though maybe if I tried it again I'd feel different. Noticed that sometimes things I disliked in my youth gained new interest a few years down the road.
The story behind the creator Dave Sim is also a fairly interesting - the whole misogyny rumors you'll hear fairly quickly but it was only in my recent wanderings that I read more into his conversion from atheist to... mostly Muslim is how he describes it (though he does believe in aspects from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Plus in the comic series you'll find references and parodies to numerous historical personas, I enjoyed reading a number of their true histories after seeing them referenced. It's a very long run series, which adds a certain interesting appeal, starting December 1977 (hey, the month/year of my birth :P ) and concluding March 2004 - I mean, can you imagine the dedication involved for a single creator to keep a series going that long?
Getting a little bit back on track, part of what threw me off the series was a certain level of depressing mood comes into it probably about halfway. Mostly I'd say in Guys, that may be the last complete collection I read, which the roughly twenty issues that makes up that collection is set almost exclusively inside a bar. Thinking about it now, which may be skewed considering the time that has passed since reading it, it strikes me as a personal hell to be in that situation. There's just conversations going back and forth, a meaningless poison from characters who just seem like they've given up. And to have the main character Cerebus to go from all those exciting adventures and positions of power to... an angry drunk who comes close to driving everyone away from him; I know I know, that's the whole point of the book. To me though it feels kind of crushing to go from this climax of Church & State to... a feeling of a flatline in the series. For the story overall I'm sure that bit of time in Cerebus' life is crucial but it was also part of why I was losing interest in the series.
Ah, I forgot to mention for those not familiar at all with the series - it's about an aardvark and his rise and falls, personal exploits and failures, love interests and foolhardy decisions. It begins mostly as an adventure to adventure story with a Conan the Barbarian feeling then moves to much more depth, often exploring subjects such as love, politics, religion... and a very large bit on feminism comes into play later on. And although you may think the story will be goofy, considering the main character is an anthro aardvark living in a world populated by humans and some monsters, it does gain an interesting sort of depth and background to it as you read. There is a reason for the main character being what he is and the innate "magnifier" ability of the aardvarks is a nifty part of the story.
I need to read this series again, this time a thorough start to finish reading. I may feel differently after a fresh look, I would agree with those who see it as an important series in comics. heh, if I go back far enough in my lj history I'll probably find some posts talking about this comic, I know at some point I had some icons referencing it. Weird how things change, the importance of things waxes and wanes over the years.