January 2012
1 post
4 tags
Final (?) Thinkings on Cerebus
This blog was never about deconstructing Cerebus, psycho-analyzing Dave Sim, or any of that. It was simple a year long read-a-long. I’d only ever read the first phonebook (and a couple crossovers in other comics), and had always had this as part of my geek Bucket List - read all 300 issues.
So I have. And I have mixed feelings. I may even come back in 3-6 months and cogitate...
December 2011
18 posts
6 tags
Cerebus 300 “Latter Days 35”
This is it, the end. Cerebus dies. Leaping from the bed, he stumbles on the stairs of his bed, they tip and he falls head forward. Farting on the way down, and thanking God for that, he lands head first and breaks his neck. We see scenes of him from various stages of his life flash before his eyes, then his spirit (young and wearing the vest) steps from his body.
A great light strikes down...
4 tags
Cerebus 299 “Latter Days 34”
Shep-Shep starts asking questions about various claims Cerebus has made – apparently his relationship with Jaka is not public knowledge/part of the official story of his life. Other things are questioned, but Cerebus asks what’s in the box, trying to change the subject. Shep-Shep informs him that Cirin is still alive but “in worse shape” than Cerebus. However, New Joanne and her followers...
4 tags
Cerebus 298 “Latter Days 33”
We start out with a multi-page pan out, showing us that night has fallen. We go all the way out ot the gate of the Sanctuary, where two derelicts/junkies/whatever are slumped against the gate, which is locked. Then we zoom in, this time we hear someone fiddling with a key and lock, and when we get back to Cerebus’ chamber, Shep-Shep enters. He carries a box with something living inside...
4 tags
Cerebus 297 “Latter Days 32”
Back to one issue per day.
Cerebus struggles to the door, bends over, picks up the statement and pen, signs it, hands it through the door, struggles back to the bed arguing with himself internally, his “heartburn” flares up (and he clutches his left arm, tell tale sign of an impending heart-attack, esp. combined with the heartburn), but he makes it to his bed. The “happy sappy” voice in his head...
4 tags
295 and 296
295 “Latter Days 30”
296 “Latter Days 31”
Cerebus eats cheese and argues with the guard outside the door. His attempts to threaten and bribe the vetoer into changing his vote have not succeeded. Shep-Shep has arrived, but Cerebus has not been let out to see him.
Cerebus’ heartburn acts up, he falls asleep/passes out and has a dream that he interprets that his goose is cooked. ...
4 tags
293 and 294
293 “Latter Days 28”
294 “Latter Days 29”
Sigh. We get a comic full of old body jokes, fart jokes to find out that the bureaucracy that Cerebus set up is keeping his son from seeing him b/c they’re afraid that C wants to have sex with his son. o.0
While waiting the resolution of that, Cerebus recalls something about a music festival and abortion rights being why his son...
4 tags
Cerebus 291 and 292
291 “Latter Days 26” (no sub-title)
291 “Latter Days 27”
An ancient Cerebus wakes up from the dream of the Creation story. He goes downstairs, which takes pages of stupid bits about Cerebus complaining about body parts. I guess it’s supposed to be funny? He finally gets there and starts writing the dream down as a book. He writes it down, hides it where a voice (Dave?) directs him to,...
4 tags
Cerebus 288 and 289/290
288 “Latter Days 23: Chasing YHWH VII: The Final Cobweb”
289/290 “Latter Days 24/25: Chasing YHWY VIII: The Final Twinkle/XI: The Ultimate Roman Numeral”
Cerebus is answering questions from someone who turns out to be Jaka. Or a Jaka lookalike (not a like-a-look, mind you.) Cerebus and whomever she is are kissing and he pronounces them husband and wife so they can have sex w/o fornicating. ...
5 tags
Cerebus 286 and 287
286 “Latter Days 21: Chasing YHWH V: The Final Page”
287 “Latter Days 22: Chasing YHWH VI: The Final Flower”
More of the same. There’s a couple pages of panel discussing Cerebus getting fat and exercising. I think he says he’s only 46, which completely throws off the calendar, cuz I thought it was year 60 something of the new regime that he met K. Not that I care enough to try to...
5 tags
Cerebus #284 and 285
284 “Latter Days 19: Chasing YHWH III”
285 “Latter Days 20: Chasing YHWH IV: The Final Chapter”
More of the same – a few more panels, this time. Konigsberg’s wife cheated on him, left him, so Cerebus takes him to a park where they keep the evil, beautiful women. (Oh, this is just dumb.) Then it’s more bullshit reading the Torah and lots of boring words that honestly, I...
7 tags
Cerebus #282 and 283
282 “Latter Days 17: Chasing YHWH”
283 “Latter Days 18: Still Chasing YHWH”
I’ll be honest, I can’t even bring myself to read it all. We’re back to copious amounts of prose and a few panels here and there. And it’s juts completely insipid and boring. Who gives a fuck what some moron like Cerebus and Woody Allen have to say about the Torah?
Look, even the Cerebus Wiki...
5 tags
Cerebus #280 and 281
280 “Latter Days 15: In The Beginning”
281 “Latter Days 16: And It Came to Passe”
Sixty-Eight years since Cerebus took over, he meets Konigsberg, the not so good Samaritan. (Oy.) Konigsberg looks like Woody Allen. (AUGH I’m so tired of the constant, stupid, pointless “Tributes”.)
Years pass; Cerebus and Konigsberg discuss and debate the Torah. Cerebus tears out part of one page at one...
4 tags
Cerebus #278 and 279
278 “Latter Days 13: From Whence Wakes The Bird Watcher?”
279 “Latter Days 14: Pretty Flowers, Pretty Sunsets”
Cerebus starts making rules for life in his new nation. Rules that favour men strongly over women, of course. The nation adopts a calendar, Cerebus takes up birdwatching when the nation seems to be running smoothly (though half the time, he’s a Peeping Tom. Yeah, really. ...
5 tags
Cerebus #276 and 277
276 “Latter Days 11: And Men Shall Call Him Spore”
277 “Latter Days 12: With This Cast & This Bag & This Crutch”
Yowch. Now this subplot I can see being offensive to many people. Cerebus creates a costume to appear as Spore, King of all Demons, and sends Cerebus’ army on a gather, sort, and kill the Bad Women campaign. After forty days of this, Spore retires, proclaiming that...
3 tags
Month in Review: November - Going Home/Latter Days
I found the story with Ham Ernestway completely and utterly unnecessary. Especially the flashbacks to Africa.
Later, when Jaka and Cerebus have left them, then, yeah, actual plot development? Stuff about the characters that I (somewhat) care about? The eventual dissolution of Jaka and Cerebus’ little “happy” adventure? That was worth reading.
Latter Days is very hit or...
6 tags
Cerebus #275 “Latter Days 10: Avoyd Fornication”
Wow, here we are, a week later than I should have posted this. Yeesh.
And I come back to this project with about five pages of worthwhile story amidst a bunch of drek.
In a nutshell, Cerebus realises that McSpahn (McFarlane) is getting all the credit for the war against the Cirinists (which, since he’s the one actually making the decisions, is appropriate, but Cerebus is a weenie.) So,...
1 tag
Complete brain fart
Just realised, 5 minutes before I go to bed, that I never did today’s posts.
I apologise. Been battling depression the past year-plus (probably longer, likely most of my life, but especially in the recent past) and one of the biggest signs for me that I’m dealing with depression is memory issues. I barely remembered to call in and get an extension on my power bill today - and today...
2 tags
Apparently, I'm taking the week off. :P
This week has just been too draining physically and mentally for me to get any of the issues read; I’ll start Monday, and will do the final issue of last month (275) and the month-in-recap, then double issues the rest of the week, and that should just about get me caught up. I was thinking of doing something like that the week before Xmas, as I don’t know how many people’ll be...
November 2011
23 posts
3 tags
Unplanned Skip Day(s)
#275 is not being posted yet, it hasn’t even been read. I’m jammed up on some stuff that has to be done tonight. My work week starts tomorrow.. I will make every effort to at least read #275 and post tomorrow after work (after I run errands, after I call my mortgage company, either to make a payment, if I have enough, or to be for leniency, if I don’t.) But no promises.
...
5 tags
Cerebus #274 “Latter Days 9: If Rocks Be My...
The Three Stooges come back, declaring catastrophe, but tend to Cerebus’ broken leg first. Then they rush him to the battlefield, where all the Cirinists are dead, and none of the Cerebites are. Turns out the catastrophe was one soldier, Todd ‘Far Lane’ McSpahn (Todd McFarlane, oh joy) going against the orders, but since it worked out well, Cerebus forgives him, says his...
5 tags
Cerebus 272 and 273
272: “Latter Days 7” (No subtitle)
Cerebus finally manages to convince the Three Stooges that he’s the real deal and is unbound. That’s the only unstupid thing that happens.
273: “Latter Days 8: Uh-Oh”
Cerebus tries to fly (cuz he think he’s Rabbi and apparently Rabbi can fly) to help the Cerebites in their battle with the Cirinists, and falls and breaks his leg and spends...
5 tags
Cerebus #270 and 271
270: “Latter Days 5: If Cerebus Still Be Bound”
Wow, and I used to complain about the earlier dumb shit.
I’m not gonna go into details, but Cerebus is expected by the Three Stooges to utter some Word of Truth. Every day they take off his gag, he tries to guess what word he should guess, and eventually they decide his demon aspect is in charge, and gag him anew. He even starts uttering...
5 tags
Cerebus #268 and 269
Doing 2 a day Mon-Wed this week, as the holiday weekend is coming up.
268: “Latter Days 3: Lo There Shall Come Three Wise Fellows”
Cerebus, deciding that the only way to get killed is by Cirinists, moves into Cirinist territory and opens Fred’s Tavern, with strippers and all sorts of objectifying of women, surely a guarantee to death.
He gets “kidnapped” by the Three Stooges, instead.
...
4 tags
Cerebus #267 “Latter Days 2: If Five Bar Gate Be...
Cerebus becomes a professional sport (Five Bar Gate) player, the 2nd best in the country (though a couple years he wins and is #1.) It’s fascinating reading. Oh. Yeah. I’m being sarcastic.
He’s seen reading “Rabbi”, which is a riff on “Preacher”. That’s about the most interesting part of the story.
Sigh.
See you Monday. (Only 33 issues left, praise be.)
4 tags
Cerebus #266 “Latter Days 1: This Aardvark, This...
Cerebus is telling the story from later, but we see Cerebus wandering north from Sand Hill Creek. North, with intent to find somewhere to die. He begins having long periods of blankness, and in between is working at an Action Figures Pub (as a latrine cleaner), and then later as a shepherd/caretaker on a sheep farm.
There, he has a good life, reading comics (“reads”, Morpheus: The Dream Master...
6 tags
Cerebus #265 “Going Home: Form and Void 15”
They run down into Sand Hill Creek, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. Cerebus starts panicking, and cannot find anyone. Jaka follows him, calling out his name, but he’s too panicked to respond. Eventually, they run to his house, but nobody is there.
Mr. Morton, Cerebus’ parents’ neighbor tells Cerebus that his parents are dead, but when he calls Jaka a harlot,...
5 tags
Cerebus #264 “Going Home: Form and Void 14”
Jaka comes back, surprisingly. Apparently, they’re a few miles out of Cirinist-contolled territory. Cerebus was dreaming of being in Sand Hills Creek with her, and her accidentally letting slip that she was in the catacombs (which isn’t allowe for women) and one of the residents is about to kill her, when she shows up and wakens him. He brusquely tries to tell her to be circumspect...
6 tags
Cerebus #263 “Going Home: Form and Void 13”
Cerebus and Jaka are awakened by the sound of the horse plow, clearing the road. They leave, telling Gertrude (the Cirinist in charge?) that they’re just going to visit a “state of the art cannery” twelve miles away and will be back by nightfall.
Cerebus leads her to a secret passage through catacombs of the Black Tower, from when the Tower tried to conquer Isshuria. After they leave...
6 tags
Cerebus #262 “Going Home: Form and Void 12”
Jaka and Cerebus are holed up in a hunting lodge (no word on whether they had to sign a form stating they were thespians… er, lesbians), waiting out the storm. The Cirinists running the lodge are questioning Jaka, trying to determine if Cerebus was the one who killed Ham or not. Cerebus and Jaka talk about life in his hometown, and come to arrangements on how to behave there.
They also...
1 tag
Post forthcoming later, right now I pimp my eBay...
I will be posting today, just later - had a doctor’s appointment, followed by a date with a slice of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, I’m sure you all will forgive me for running behind today.
However, I have 46 auctions ending on eBay tonight (and 83 more tomorrow) - a bunch of comics (see it is topical, though the Cerebus one sold a couple weeks ago), roleplaying games, novels and...
5 tags
Cerebus #261 “Going Home: Form and Void 11”
Cerebus wakes up, and realises that it has stopped snowing. He starts screaming at Jaka that they have to go, now, without anything (as Rick instructed). He tells her it was because of his dream, but not that it was Rick. She wants to stay, but he finally goads her (by calling her the Princess of Palnu and offering biscuits) into coming with him, at least over the ridge.
On the way, Cerebus...
7 tags
Cerebus #260 “Going Home: Form and Void 10”
Jaka and Cerebus are in their tent, trapped in the snowstorm; after Cerebus found Mary and Ham (and believing that Mary killed Ham), they left the camp, to get away from mary. Cerebus is panicked because now he believes they’re going to starve to death and he knows that they’re lost – they were following the shoreline but there is no shoreline between Iest and Cerebus’ home.
...
7 tags
Cerebus #259 “Going Home: Form and Void 9”
After some shenanigans, the story ends. If there was a point to it, it was lost on me. Everyone goes to sleep, but Cerebus is awoken by a shot. He runs out to follow Mary, and they find Ham has shot himself. Mary says she doesn’t feel it’s her right to keep his possessions from her husband, so apparently, she let him have the key to the gun locker.
Cerebus is stunned and wanders...
7 tags
Cerebus #258 “Going Home: Form and Void 8”
The story continues, this time with no “present day” cut scenes. After their hunting trip is finished, they take an airship, but it crashes. After a boat rescues them, they board another airship which explodes when trying to take off. Ham is hurt.
Again, it’s just uninteresting.
7 tags
Cerebus #257 “Going Home: Form and Void 7”
Mary continues telling her story, referencing her journal. We see snippets of the story interspliced with scenes of Jaka, Cerebus and Mary sitting around their campfire. Jaka and C are getting more uncomfortable with the story, especially when Mary talks about her and Ham’s sexuality.
7 tags
Cerebus #256 “Going Home: Form and Void 6”
Mary tells Cerebus and Jaka a tale of her and Ham hunting in Africa. It’s really boring.
7 tags
Cerebus #255 “Going Home: Form and Void 5”
The thing on the horizon was an airship. Cerebus has never seen one and is frightened by it.
(Mary and?) Jaka has gone in to find out if the next hunting lodge will allow them to stay (most will not allow unmarried couples.) While the ladies(?) are gone, Ham is sleeping and Cerebus is daydreaming about his deep friendship with Ham (which is completely one sided and mostly imaginary, as Cerebus...
7 tags
Cerebus #254 “Going Home: Form and Void 4”
Cerebus learns to fire a gun, apparently something he’s never done. When he, Mary and the bearers return to camp, they find Jaka in her tent and Ham with a slap mark. Cerebus and Jaka argue, Jaka contending that Ham grabbed her inappropriately, though Cerebus refuses to believe, believing (though he does not say this to her) that no woman could resist Ham’s advances, had he truly...
7 tags
Cerebus #253 “Going Home: Form and Void 3”
Ham, Mary, Cerebus, Jaka and two native (American Indian/Eskimo style) pack-bearers are traveling, taking Cerebus and Jaka to Sand Hills Creek (Cerebus’ birthplace, and where they’re going to live.) We get several pages of the indians talking in their native tongue, which of course is not translated for us (so, in other words, a waste of space).
Ham throws wine in Mary’s face...
7 tags
Cerebus #252 ““Going Home: Form and Void 2”
Ham Ernestway sits outside, talking to someone not there (a dead friend, perhaps), complaining that he cannot finish the book he is writing. Jaka and Mary are talking, mostly Mary, talking about Ham’s “blackass” (dark moods) and the treatment (electro-shock therapy, albeit primitive) the Cirinists did… and Jaka starts comparing notes about the moods, realising that Cerebus is the same...
7 tags
Cerebus #251 “Going Home: Form and Void 1”
Jaka and Cerebus find themselves in the house of Ham Ernestway (yup) and his wife, Mary. Jaka and Mary talk of relationships, marriage and housebuilding, while Cerebus sits in the chair of THE Ham Ernestway, thinking about that, and trying not to think about the fact that Jaka had to have known about the Cirinist troops, and what did that mean?
…yeah, that’s all that happens.
Not...
October 2011
26 posts
9 tags
Month in Review - October - Rick's Story and parts...
Rick’s story, like much of the latter books, is a mixed bag. Sim excels at dialogue and banter and the storytelling through that. When Rick and Cerebus are sitting and talking, it’s highly entertaining stuff. Good quality story - the dynamic between Cerebus and Rick is a very interesting one. (I’m still thrown off by the time that has apparently passed, as Rick is rather...
7 tags
Cerebus #249 and 250 “Going Home: Fall and The...
249: The barge has arrived at the remains of Iest. Through recitation, we hear Cirin’s version of the Fall of Iest – pretty much complete hornswaggle.
F Stop and Cerebus talk, and F Stop finds out that Jaka and Cerebus plan to disembark at the next stop, Dead Salt Locks. We see Cirinists and a child react adversely to Cerebus, though he’s unaware (or ignoring them, though...
7 tags
Cerebus #248 “Going Home: Fall and The River 9”
Cerebus is sitting drunk, hours later, on the deck. Jaka is out by the stateroom, thinking. Thoughts of being a patroness of an artistic colony and of being Cerebus’ wife/woman in the cold north are seen. F Stop sees she’s come out of the stateroom and goes to talk to her. In his mind, he’s reciting how their conversation will go, but she turns from him and goes inside, and...
6 tags
Cerebus #247 “Going Home: Fall and The River 8”
Cerebus, Jaka and F Stop are having a meal on the deck of the barge. Jaka asks F Stop for an inspirational quote, and he offers to recite a truthful one, instead. As he’s about to, Cerebus points out a castle, believing that he killed a man there, once. When F Stop looks, he sees himself there, in the role of Weishaupt, from issue 69; while Jaka and Cerebus talk, and she corrects him on...
6 tags
Cerebus #246 “Going Home: Fall and The River 7”
At night, F Stop is writing, obviously inspired by his encounter with Jaka earlier. He’s visibly enthused and feeling confident and strong, and seems to be writing through the night.
The next morning, he finds Cerebus fishing. They chit-chat, Cerebus sharing some interesting quotes/anecdotes, that F Stop wishes he could put into a story, but confesses they’d likely be censored by...
7 tags
Cerebus #245 “Going Home: Fall and The River 6”
The next morning, F Stop awakens, quite hungover. Several Cirinists (or just one, I can’t tell) stop by to collect his wash and tell him their thoughts on his recitations from last night – he begins to daydream that one of them will want to join him in his room for adulterous fun.
When he steps out, one of the matriarchal Cirinists reminds him the laws of adultery and the punishments and...
5 tags
Cerebus #244 “Going Home: Fall and The River 5”
Oh, blah, blah, blah. This issue is solely either text from F Stop’s in progress novel, or scenes of F Stop sitting, drunkenly, on the barge.
It’s fucking boring is what it is.
