People are always talking about Cerebus like it's the Final Boss of comics, so I figured fuck it I'll check it out. I just finished the first "phonebook" (issues 1-25), and all I gotta say is WOW. The artwork especially, this guy is just a master cartoonist and it's awesome to watch his rapid improvement as the issue number ticks on. Also the lettering, my god the lettering. I've never seen anything like it in comics. And of course the writing is absolutely hilarious. Most comic book humor might make me smile or laugh internally, but this kind actually managed to make me chuckle out loud. There's a lot of comic related parody. The last issue I read involved Professor Charles X. Claremont summoning the Woman-Thing.
I understand though that the tone of the story changes somewhere during the 300 issue trip. Is there a jumping off point anyone agrees on? Cerebus thread.
>Is there a jumping off point many >Is there a jumping off point anyone agrees on? nope, good luck with that one. Most will agree Books 2-4 are the best, but noone can tell how much are you willing to stick for the rest.
Kevin Butler
Glad you like it. Cerberus the aardvark is totally some heavy stuff no matter what you enjoy. A lot of people say that the early stuff is not as good but I still really like it.
Adam Ortiz
Yeah I heard a lot of people say that but I loved it. Heck, if volume 1 is supposed to be “bad”, then volumes 2-4 must be amazing
Luke Lee
Cerebump
Wyatt Garcia
I thought the humor was Robot Chicken-tier honestly. Just a bunch of empty references repeated way too many times. Really all it did for me was make me drop the series and read the real books it parodied.
Brandon Cooper
I don't agree but I can understand feeling that way
Juan Hill
>jumping off point I own every book and think they're all good so no. If you're offended by words, stop after book 4 because book 5 has a lot of words. If you're offended by insane people stop reading at book 8 because book 9 was written by someone in psychosis, also even more WORDS. If you're an absolute faggot who can't appreciate comedy and SoL stuff where little happens stop at book 10 because books 11 and 12 are about guys hanging out in a bar. If you're an insufferrable feminist who thinks women are infallible, you should stop at book 12 because books 13 and 14 apparently change a previously established character into an evil cunt (they don't but I keep seeing people claim they do despite every bad thing in that relationship being the man's fault) If you're offended by people having unorthodox, even heretical views of the Bible, stop at book 14 because book 15 has lots of that. No matter what kind of faggot you are book 16 is still good and I don't think anyone can argue it isn't.
Michael Reyes
Are there any books that can be skipped without feeling like you're missing a story beat?
Mason Jenkins
Do you want to read Cerebus or do you want to read the last page so you can tell people you've read Cerebus and gain their respect? If you want to read Cerebus, you read all of it. If you want to pretend you've read Cerebus you skip all of it.
Cameron Richardson
You've read the first book which is the one people don't usually recommend all the time (a lot of people recommend reading High Society, the second book, then going back to the first book).
Since you've already read the first book, you might as well go forward and at least read:
High Society Church and State 1 Church and State 2 Jaka's Story
Then decide if you want to continue from there.
Landon Stewart
>Do you want to read Cerebus or do you want to read the last page so you can tell people you've read Cerebus and gain their respect? huh? I was only asking a question about how self-contained a reading experience the books past 4 are. like book 11 (guys) sounds kind of interesting. I'm wondering if I could go straight from, say, jaka's story to that and not feel like I'm missing too much.
Jaxson Garcia
>I'm wondering if I could go straight from, say, jaka's story to that and not feel like I'm missing too much. So you want to skip thousands of pages of story? I mean, I'm not your dad or anything but I'd be pretty fucking disappointed in you if you did that. I never understood this mentality of skipping things. Like, if you're watching a movie do you just fastforward it? If you're reading a book do you skip the chapters of just every other page? What's the point of even starting if you're not going to read it properly? Like I said before, I own every book and think they're all good. So I repeat my question: do you want to actually READ Cerebus or do you just want to have bragging rights about having kinda skimmed through some of it?
It is a linear plot so you can't really skip things without getting lost. If you are bored you can just drop it. Cerebus is really fucking boring for the most part.
I'm still glad that his only claim to fame got taken from him by Fred fucking Perry
Brody Hughes
Who is Fred Perry and how did he claim Cerebus for himself?
William Wood
good to know. i'll just read until I stop liking and then skip to guys and try that one because i like the idea of him just hanging around a bar.
Jonathan Ramirez
The whole thing is actually fucking awesome because of how much it changes, it basically has a little of everything. If you absolutely must jump ship I guess I'd say stick around through Jaka's Story which is phonebook 4 or 5 I think. If you do though you'll miss all of the insane shit
Joseph Roberts
>book 9 was written by someone in psychosis Wait, what?
Parker Lewis
Do you think all the text pieces came from a healthy mind? How do YOU feel about the feminist-homosexualist conspiracy?
Sebastian Kelly
Should I keep reading this if I couldn't stand it by mid-way through High Society? The characters are not even a little interesting to me so far and I really don't give a shit about what they are doing.
Isaac Hall
Absolutely not. It's not for you.
Ayden Cooper
Thanks. Do you mind telling me what is so special about this story? Because I don't really get the appeal. It just seems like boring fantasy politics stuff but with an Aardvark and a bunch of lame parody characters.
Liam Davis
There's nothing special about the story. Cerebus is special because it was self-published for 300 issues and laid the groundwork for independent comics. People pretend to like it because it was a trailblazer but the actual story always sucked. There's some pretty artwork in it though.
yeah the artwork is amazing. shame he ends up doing so much prose
Julian Cooper
Yeah that sounds about right. That was a great accomplishment and all but I still don't have to read it. The art was pretty great though I do have to admit. If every issue was as nice to look at as the first two Mind Game issues I probably wouldn't have dropped it.
Nicholas Hill
>The backgrounds aren't done by Sim come the fuck on people
Jaxson Collins
who said they were?
Nicholas Anderson
>In the essay in Cerebus #186, Sim characterized fellow self-publishing cartoonist Jeff Smith as an example of a man dominated by his wife. When Smith contested this,Sim accused Smith of lying and challenged Smith to a boxing match, which Smith declined
Swords of Cerebus is basically pre-phone book reprints of the first 25 issues of Cerebus, plus new material (that later got reprinted in Cerebus World Tour, I think)
Thomas Hernandez
Ah, alright then
John Long
Issue 200 is the jumping off point
Charles James
Jeff Smith is a pussy who won't even defend his honor. I'd totally box with someone who said I was pussy-whipped.
Michael Anderson
You know who else has a youtube channel? An actually talented person who isn't crazy.
There are lots of things were some parts are very good but are dragged down by the boring parts. In that case skipping the shit parts results in a overall better experience. However there are cases where the bad parts still add something to the story, and skipping them will result in the good parts being less good. I presume user was asking if Cerebus is the former or the latter.
Andrew Garcia
Stop that.
Juan Bell
I’m trash and I wouldn’t do it either. We don’t plan fights we just have them in the muddy parking lot of the state fair.
