Oct. 3rd, 2006

angelophile: (Wombat)
(Crosssposted to [livejournal.com profile] scans_daily)

I may have been living under a rock for a few years, but I've never quite worked out at which point Dave Sim lost it, or the reasons behind all. All I know is that I started picking up the Cerebus the Aardvark collected volumes in the early 90s and loved them. Funny, whimsical, full of pathos and strange worlds with characters echoing our own reality.

Then as I read more and more, I found the books descending into unreadable prose, the comedy stripped away and the books becoming uncomfortable to read. I've never heard the story of why, all I remember is being disappointed.

Lately I started flicking through the early collected volumes again and I remembered what drew me in. Church and State and earlier were wonderful reads, with an entertaining supporting cast of misfits and strange and funny plots. There's a couple of "one shot" issues between the massive storylines which really hit the high note for me, which were collected in "Cerebus Number Zero", one of which had an infinite amount of Lord Julius's (which I may post another time) and this, slotted between the last issue of High Society and the first of Church and State.

Esentially the story's just an excuse to lock Elrod the Albino (based on Foghorn Leghorn), Lord Julius (Groucho Marx), Duke Leonardi (Chico Marx) and Cerebus in a room together and see what happens, throwing in a few more guests along the way. It all plays out like the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers' Night at the Opera, and there can't be many greater acolades than that.



20 scans under the cut.

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