Cartoonist Dave Sim is a Canadian high-school dropout who has found his niche. And his roommate is an aardvark.
A cartoon project that Sim began in 1977 as a parody of Conan the Barbarian has made "Cerebus," about a greedy little Medieval pig/cynic, into comics' most unlikely and perhaps most important title.At the same time, it has made Sim a comics mogul and international cult hero. Proof of his stature could be seen recently in Salt Lake City, where hundreds of "Cerebus" faithful waited for hours to meet the man behind the aardvark.
"Cerebus" was born in basic black and white 17 years ago as a sword-and-savagery mini epic, and Sim has developed the work into a biting condemnation of modern hypocrisy at all social levels: uncontrolled bureaucracy, godless religion, murderous government and human relationships.
As satire, "Cerebus" has no peer - not just in comics but in any form. Outrageous, witty and courageous, "Cerebus" turns its swords and crossbows on our times while taking as a backdrop a skewed, Middle Ages society where polyester sport coats are no more out of place than savage feminists, Groucho Marx and Oscar Wilde.
The central storyline revolves around the struggle for control of women's (and second-class male) minds and rights as matriarchal fascists use force against the young-minded females seeking individualism. The male characters (popes, prime ministers, bureauracts), meanwhile, busy themselves with petty backroom maneuvering and providing the story's comic relief.
If none of this sounds like the makings of a monthly comic book, you have not missed the point. Nothing here fits the mold carefully constructed by the large comic publishers who give us slick, idea-poor superheroes fighting familiar battles against sinister but predictable super-villains.
None of this for Dave Sim. If one asked the comic giants how not to publish successful comics, their checklist would be the recipe that has made Sim the most successful of all independent comic creators. He draws, writes, publishes and distributes "Cerebus" without benefit of corporate overseers and editors. The results are pure Sim and pure quality.
Sim is Cerebus: proud, fierce, self-absorbed and, in the end, heroic because of his ingenuity and hard work. Cerebus never lets up aggravating everyone around him. Sim never lets up period.
Why an aardvark? Better to ask Orson Welles why Martians. An aardvark is somehow a perfect centerpiece for long, complex storylines, as Cerebus is neither whacked-out male or fierce female. He bridges the series' Middle Ages adventure and modern-life insights.
The Cerebus story now exists in print form through monthly issue number 184 and in Sim's mind to the final issue, number 300 (on the stands in the year 2004), in which Cerebus will die alone and unloved. In the meantime, Sim brings characters in and out of the story, juggling them like chain-saws and building a story-line that he holds up in front of us as a mirror. He does not, Sim insists, interpret our society for us but only draws so we can draw conclusions for ourselves.
In fact, if there is anything that fuels the fire under Sim, it is the empty rhetoric of people who insist on explaining what we should believe and what life and law mean. Do it for yourself, says Cerebus.
As storylines begin and end through the monthly comics, they are re-released in large, unpretentious volumes printed on newsprint paper in beautifully rendered black ink. If interested, a novice "Cerebus" reader can begin with the first issue and watch Cerebus' evolution from barbarian to prime minister to pope and beyond.
Sim's evolution as creator is as interesting to follow as the writing and inkwork mature.
Sim's greatest accomplishment is not that he has simply bucked the system to write "Cerebus" but that the skill, energy and talent in the project has not flagged but keeps burning brighter. Characters live, surprise and interact on these pages in increasingly fascinating and often wonderful ways. "Cerebus" has the potential of not just being important in a graphic medium but as mainstream literature as well.
*****
Additional Information
Utahns line up, meet cartoonist
When writer-artist Dave Sim came to town to meet his readers and sign autographs at Night Flight Comics in the Cottonwood Mall, Sim predicted beforehand there would be no such thing as a "typical" Cerebus reader in line. Although the crowd looked generally a little older and perhaps more educated than the normal comic-fan crowd, he was right. Married couples, men, women and teenagers of every description waited after driving from as far away as Logan.
"I certainly wouldn't drive 80 miles to meet me," said Sim.
Sim signed every book and shook every hand offered, thanking each reader by name. Only when a Simpson comic was offered did he balk at signing - instead crossing out the -pson suffix of the title and happily signing the now renamed Sim- comic.
He even signed a personalized CEREBUS Utah license plate.
A father and his son inquired where they might find a few back issues of "Cerebus," since father had made a trade with son: the son's rookie Michael Jordan basketball card for the father's entire "Cerebus" collection plus all missing numbers. The father had a year to make good on the deal and said he would pay up to three times the current asking price of a "Cerebus" No. 1 - about $1,000.
Impressed but unmoved, Sim said he was hanging onto his copies.