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Cerebus the Aardvark (or simply Cerebus) was an ambitious monthly independent comic book begun by Canadian artist Dave Sim in 1977, and running for 300 issues and 6,000 pages, through March 2004. Now complete, it marks the longest-running comic book series ever by a single writer/artist leading its closest challenger (Erik Larsen's second volume of Savage Dragon) by over 170 issues.
Cerebus was, during its entire run, self-published by Sim under his Aardvark-Vanaheim, Inc. publishing banner. Sim's position as a pioneering self-publisher in comics inspired numerous writer/artists after him, most notably Jeff Smith (Bone), Terry Moore (Strangers In Paradise), and Martin Wagner (Hepcats).
The title character is a misanthropic three-foot tall bipedal gray aardvark ("We're all funny animals in a world of humans," says Sim) who has, at various points in his life, been a mercenary, Prime Minister of the fictional city-state of Iest, Pope (in the mammoth Church and State saga), and renegade. He is an extremely morally ambiguous character, at times sympathetic, at others almost unpalatably callous.
Inspired in some ways by the Steve Gerber character Howard the Duck, the earliest issues of Cerebus took the form of a parody of Conan the Barbarian and its genre. (Howard had even appeared on the cover of the first issue of his own comic as a parodic barbarian character.) The series developed artistic sophistication and originality very quickly. Citing as his self-originated commandment, "Thou shall break every law in the book", Sim has done everything from flipping the page from horizontal to vertical and all stages in between to alternating comics with prose narrative, to including real dead or living people (himself included) in the storyline, all in an effort to explode the conventions of the North American comic book in almost every conceivable way.
In 1979, Sim, who was at the time a frequent marijuana user, experimented with LSD, taking the drug with such impunity that he was eventually hospitalized. (He was also, around this time, reportedly diagnosed with borderline schizophrenia.) It was this incident that Sim claims led to the inspiration to produce Cerebus for 300 monthly issues. The episodic adventures strayed further and further from heroic fantasy, and the twenty five-issue graphic novel High Society segued the narrative into a complex political satire and drama. Sim was joined by Gerhard, who gave the series impressively rendered backgrounds that became a visual hallmark, after issue #65.
When Sim published the first Cerebus "phone book", a paperback collection of the High Society graphic novel, he angered retailers ? who felt that their support had been instrumental in his series' success in an industry generally indifferent to small publishers ? by offering the first printing via mail order only. The decision was a financial windfall for Sim, however, racking up over $150,000 in sales. Not long after, Sim became known for traveling to conventions and store signings in limousines (he spent $25,000 in limo service during his 1992 signing tour), and renting lavish suites at conventions at which he'd throw huge parties.
In the 1990s, Sim became an outspoken advocate of creators' rights in comics, and used the editorial pages of Cerebus to promote self-publishing and greater artist activism. Sim was also the biggest individual supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; when he guest-wrote the 10th issue of Todd McFarlane's best-selling Spawn, Sim donated his entire fee — over $100,000 — to the fund.
It is generally agreed that the graphic novel Jaka's Story, a tragic character study dealing with gender roles and the political suppression of art, is perhaps the series' pinnacle of narrative achievement. However, later issues of the series became almost inaccessibly personal and began to alienate many long-time fans, his female readers especially — though the series' visual innovation remained unparalleled. Issue #186 (collected in Reads) contained a lengthy prose section of the narrative that was roundly attacked by both readers and critics for its overt misogyny. This was followed by an even harsher essay in issue #265 called "Tangent," in which Sim claimed there is a "feminist/homosexualist axis" engaged in a conspiracy to oppress men. He also argues, in all seriousness, that husbands should have the legal right to spank their wives and states outright that women are "inferior beings".
Sim himself has appeared as a character in Cerebus, most notably to berate his creation in the graphic novel Minds. A writer entering his own fictional universe is not an idea which Sim can claim to have invented (see Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, Paul Auster's New York Trilogy and Grant Morrison's comic Animal Man), although he claims to have planned the encounter as early as 1979 — more than a decade before it actually took place.
He reportedly cut all ties with his family and virtually all of his industry colleagues apart from Gerhard in order to finish the work. He has had very public fallings-out with both Terry Moore and Jeff Smith, the latter of whom Sim challenged to a boxing match in an editorial published in the comic. Smith, Sim claimed, lied about an argument the two had had over the infamous essay in issue #186, and claimed he had threatened to give Sim a "fat lip." Sim also developed an adversarial relationship with Gary Groth, the confrontational publisher of The Comics Journal, an independently published comics magazine known for punishing criticisms and a decidedly non-mainstream editorial slant.
Sim has stated (in an editorial contained in issue #297) that he regards the production of Cerebus as of secondary importance to his religious practice. A 2003 magazine interview describes Sim as reciting a prayer of his own devising five times a day, and having sold much of his furniture to donate the money to charity as an act of religious asceticism. This prayer was published in the back of issue #300.
Sim, once a very public figure in the comics industry, now rarely leaves his native Kitchener, Ontario home. The publication in March 2004 of issue #300 was met with a muted, rather than celebratory, response from the comics industry. Though Sim reports the print run for #300 was doubled from that of recent issues, that would still only come to around 16,000 copies, a far cry from the series' high of over 35,000 copies around issues #100-125.
A new quarterly publication Following Cerebus followed in August 2004, feature correspondence, essays and previously unpublished artwork from Sim.
Sim was once quoted as saying that, had he died or otherwise chosen not to complete Cerebus prior to issue 300, that however many remaining issues there were left were to either consist of blank pages, or Gerhard was to have drawn his backgrounds only, leaving Sim's contribution blank. It is not known if this plan was ever serious, and it was obviously never put into effect.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Titles of the book collection in which given story elements occur are marked in bold.
Cerebus. We first see Cerebus as an amoral barbarian, gaining riches by violence and canny betrayals. He meets and falls in love with the bar maid Jaka. The initial series is primarily a parody of sword and sorcery fantasy, especially Conan.
High Society. All that changes when Cerebus meets Astoria, who manipulates him into the fast-paced world of business and politics. This eventually culminates with a campaign in which Cerebus ? rather clueless the whole time ? finds himself elected the Prime Minister of Iest.
Church and State I. He loses his status, but regains it under the machinations of Adam Weisshaupt, this time as a puppet.
Church and State II. Cerebus betrays Weisshaupt and becomes Pope of the Tarimite Church. He spends most of his tenure standing on a rooftop and delivering fire-and-brimstone sermons to the impoverished denizens of Lower Iest. He uses his position to collect vast amounts of wealth from his followers. He fulfills a prophecy and makes the Final Ascension to the Moon, where he meets the Judge, a timeless, godlike being who has watched over history from the very beginning. The Judge goes on a great deal of exposition, revealing to Cerebus that he will die "Alone, unmourned and unloved". Cerebus then falls back to earth, where he discovers that his empire has collapsed, and the Cirinists have invaded.
Jaka's Story. The fallen Cerebus runs into his love Jaka again and discovers that she has married Rick. Cerebus lives as Jaka and Rick's house guest while Jaka works illegally as a dancer for a sexually repressed tavern keeper who secretly lusts after her. That story is interwoven with unreliable tales of Jaka's childhood told by a writer, representing Oscar Wilde, watching Jaka. In the end Jaka and Rick are captured and jailed by the Cirinists.
Melmoth. Believing Jaka to be dead, a catatonic Cerebus spends his days mourning on the patio of a café. Meanwhile a fictionalized telling of the death of Oscar Wilde is given. At the end, Cerebus overhears a conversation by two Cirinist jailers discussing Jaka. He violently murders them both.
Flight. Cerebus's slaughter of Cirinsts leads to a very brief failed revolution. Cerebus ascends into darkness and speaks with Suenteus Po. Meanwhile Cirin works to manage her sect and arrange her own ascension.
Women. Cerebus crashes back to earth. He is assisted by two women who send him to a bar to hide. This series includes a parody of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, with The Roach playing Swoon, a parody of Dream. Astoria and Cirin symbolically duel in a dream realm. The book includes excepts from books written by Asotira and Cirin that describe their differing beliefs. Cerebus flies across the city to slay Astoria, but is interrupted by the physical arrival of Suentus Po.
Reads. A key background plot is that of an author of "reads", heavily illustrated books in Cerebus's world. There is a strong thread about the dangers of commercial success and "selling out". It is generally viewed to be Sim's treatise on why independent comic publishing is preferable to publishing houses. The series includes a long essay attributed to Viktor Davis, a fictional read author. This essay puts forth a theory on the nature of the female and the male, describing a "the Female Void" focused on feeling, and "the Male Light" focused on reason.
Minds. Cerebus and Cirin ascend, then are seperated by a mysterious force. As Cerebus flies through space, he is shown images from his past and is forced to reconsider his past and his faith. He is then shows Cirin's history, including her original identity as Serna, an assassin. Serna replaced Cirin's sect. Cerebus is shown visions of possible futures between himself and Jaka, none go well for Cerebus.
Guys. Cerebus hangs out in and eventually becomes bartender in one of the Cirinist's bars. Various characters come and go while Cerebus remains stationary. Enjoyed by a number of fans as a return to the "earlier, funnier" Cerebus.
Rick's Story. Eventually Jaka's ex-husband Rick arrives at the bar. He has significantly aged and become a bit addled. Rick is working on a book, which gradually becomes a religious work in which Cerebus is a holy person and Rick his follower.
Going Home. Jaka arrives at the bar and Cerebus leaves with her. They travel across land, then on a river boat. Along the way they encounter veiled hostility from the Cirinists.
Form and Void.
Latter Days. Much of this chapter consists of Cerebus reading chapter upon chapter of the Torah and commenting upon it. Lasting nearly a year (in publishing terms), this section, called "Chasing YHWH" (presumably a reference to the Kevin Smith film, Chasing Amy) threatened to alienate even more of Sim's followers. Cerebus ages rapidly during this chapter.
The Last Day. The conclusion of the series. In the first 40 pages Cerebus has a dream or vision in which cosmology is seen as a reflection of theology, complete with explanatory footnotes by Sim. Upon waking Cerebus ? now incredibly aged, decrepit and pain-ridden ? makes the laborious trek to his writing desk to write down his new revelation. He then hides the manuscript, and it is implied that nobody will find it for two thousand years (a possible homage to I, Claudius in which the dying Claudius does the same thing).
Cerebus spends most of the rest of the book trying to persuade his chief of security, Walter O'Reilly (named after Corporal Walter (Radar) O'Reilly from M A S H) to admit his son, Shep-Shep, with whom he remembers sharing an idyllic father-son relationship. But the Sanctuary is under lockdown due to opposition from a new and even more rabidly "feminist-homosexualist" group ? ironically led by Shep-Shep's mother "New Joanne", who actually resembles Jaka in appearance ? which favours such "rights" as pedophilia, zoophilia, juvenile recreational drug use and lesbian motherhood (issues that Sim apparently feels all feminist groups support). As a result, social values have undergone a complete breakdown.
Cerebus finally goes to bed despairing of seeing his son again, and feeling as if he should say "Rosebud" (an obvious reference to Citizen Kane.) But Shep-Shep ? or more correctly, Sheshep ? sneaks into Cerebus' room late that night.
Their subsequent conversation shatters Cerebus' last illusions about his son, who is planning to have himself cloned with a lion's body, marry his mother, and rule Egypt as the god Harmaclus.
As he leaves Cerebus grabs a knife, intending to kill him, but falls out of bed and dies of a broken neck ? alone, unmourned and unloved, just as the Judge had predicted. His life flashes before his eyes in a series of flashback panels and his ghost sees many of his old friends (and enemies) waiting for him in "the Light". At first he eagerly rushes to join them, thinking they are in Heaven, but then realises that the Light may in fact be Hell. He calls God for help, but is dragged into the Light anyway.
Various other characters in the series were designed to resemble famous actors, politicians, and other personalities, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Canadian Member of Parliament Sheila Copps, director Woody Allen, Oscar Wilde, and other members of the Marx Brothers.
(Known by fans as "phone books" for their size)
Notes:
Currently, a 17th book is planned for late 2004, or early 2005. Collected Letters 2004 is slated to include correspondence received by Sim after the publication of Cerebus #300.
Miscellaneous stories not appearing in the above collections have been reprinted in the short collections Cerebus Number Zero and Cerebus World Tour Book. A few standalone, uncollected stories have appeared in various collections and magazines over the years, and Cerebus has made cameo appearances on the covers of magazines such as PostScript format. A thorough summary of Cerebus through Jaka's Story.
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