Cerebus [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

In retrospect what is fascinating here is to reconsider these stories and see how a funny-animal comic book, that begins with Cerebus bouncing on top of a horse as he a city to engage in some Conan the Barbarian like thievery. After all, Cerebus is wearing Conan's helmet and has a necklace with large round things on it just link Conan in the beginning. But then in #3 "Song of Red Sophia" and #4 "Death's Dark Tread" two important things happen. The first is that Sim undertakes some parodies of some supporting characters from the Conan comic book: Robert E. Howard's Red Sonja becomes Red Sophia and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melibone becomes Elrod the Albino who has a tall pointy hat and speaks exactly like Foghorn Leghorn. The second is that these two twisted characters become the first recurring characters in the "Cerebus" world, and from them Sim branched out in other directions for his targets.

Sim did go back and have some fun with turning another of Howard's original characters into Bran Mak Mufin (#5), but ultimately what took "Cerebus" to the next level were three characters. The first was the original character of Jaka the dancing girl (#6), who was clearly intended as a one-shot character. But the pathos of her parting with Cerebus, who has forgotten her once he sobers up, suggested for the first time there could be some pathos in these tales. The second was the ultimate parody character, the Cockroach (#11), who would pop up from time to time in the series and embody whoever was the hot comic book character of the moment. Okay, that makes sense for the Wolveroach but not the Moon Roach, but you get the idea. The third character was Cerebus' greatest foil, Lord Julius, who was first introduced in "Silverspoon" in the "Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom" (Lord Julius is the father of a spoiled Prince Valiant type son) and then took center stage in the Palnu Trilogy: "The Walls of Palnu" (#14), "A Day in the Pits" (#15), and "A Night at the Masque" (#16), at the end of which we learn that Jaka is Lord Julius's neice. However, what is important here is that Lord Julius looks and talks like Groucho Marx, a coincidence that is explained by the fact Groucho's real name was Julius.

Lord Julius is important because he made it easy for Sim to do stories about politics and to do so with a character whose major strength is his imperturbability and his refusal to be cornered on any point of contention. Add to this the fact that he is running the whole show in Palnu and it is impossible not to take great joy in every scene in which he appears. Every other "real" person who appeared in the 300 issues of "Cerebus," from Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, got through the front door because Lord Julius ripped it off the hinges and threw it on the floor.

The Palnu Trilogy is also Sim's first 71-page Cerebus story, which is what sets the stage for the "books," the first of which is presented in the second volume in this collection "High Society." This is clearly the point at which Sim starts thinking of having a big picture and eventually getting to the point where he can announce he knows how the whole thing is going to end. For the record I consider "High Society" to be the high water mark of Cerebus and the justification for giving this first volume five stars as well is because the historical value of watching how Sim turns his funny animal comic book into a first rate socio-political satire becomes a key part of the equation.

I definitely think that there was a point where "Cerebus," in the current vernacular, "jumped the shark," but before that point (which I hope to pinpoint as I reread all 300 issues) there was a period of time when this comic book was as the one I most looked forward to reading each month. Going back and starting over from the beginning certainly reminds me what that was the case.

The main idea of the stories in this volume is that the main-character Cerebus, a sarcastic wandering mercanary for hire who happens to be an aardvark, swerves around in a fantasy land. He never knows where he's going to be next week and his only things of interest are gold, peace of mind and booze, favorably to be earned in any employment he finds at the time (or just by theft). This gets him in the most awkward positions possible which he has to get out off by cleverly conning his (99% dumb-as-a lamppost) fellow characters. The dialogues in which Cerebus takes part are hilarious if you're a fan of sarcastic humor and sometimes you find yourself amazed seeing how Cerebus finds his way out off things you wouldn't have seen a solution for yourself. Big plus for Simm there because the tales NEVER get predictable.

Overall I'm quite enthousiastic about this volume although I do think it might not be the best one to get to know the character Cerebus. I think it's better if you read one of the later volumes first ("High Society" for example) and THEN come back to this book to see how it all evolved in what it came to be. Because evolve it does, just compare the drawings on the first page and the last page, and see how far story-development improves over time. Once you DO start reading this book I'd like to suggest that you especially take good notice of the characters "Elrod", "Jaka" and "Cockroach". Not only do these characters keep re-appearing in later issues, the stories starring them are also some of the best in the trade (more like "phonebook" really). Also take special notice of #20 called "Mindgame" which is hilarious due to the superb dialoguing and Simm showing off he can draw Cerebus in any position imaginable. Something he doesn't lack in at other issues either, though. In conclussion: go for it if you're looking for a cleverly written "talk-comic" where the action is more in the words than in the images, and stay clear of it if you're looking for a superhero comic or a comic that's all about action-filled art.