Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

I've been re-reading Cerebus lately...

It really does feel like Dave Sim ran out of steam after Church & State (books 3 & 4)

A re-read of Cerebus is getting close to the top of my re-read pile (now merged with my read pile to make sure things get read that I've been dieing to re-read but get by passed by new stuff). This has left me with a bit of a dilemma. I remember really enjoying it beyond 'Church and State' and into 'Jaka's Story' and 'Melmoth' and even beyond into the first half of 'Mother and Daughters' at least. Then for one reason or another I stopped reading comics. Now the bits of 'Guys' I've read I enjoyed (this was some time ago) and 'Rick's Story' has always intrigued me. Then I read the last 15 or so issues and it was a slog. The dilemma I mentioned before wittering on, was whether to pick up the latter trades. Everything I've read about them says "no really not worth it". The completest in me just won't let it go. So should I go for it and try to read the lot. Or just stick with the bits I think I can trust?

[TordelBack]

My advice as a diehard Cerebus fan would be to stick it out.  Post-Mothers and Daughters, the central idea is that Cerebus cocked up and missed out on the great messianic role that destiny had mapped out for him in the first 200 issues, and these last 100 issues map out what happens for the rest of his life, partly repercussions of the above, partly just life's vagaries. It's a bit like The Last Temptation of Christ, but with lots more Bible, and no happy ending.  It's also a unique project.

I'd definitely go back and read Guys in full anyway, it's very funny, especially if you were into the B&W self-publishers of the day, and features the best use of speech balloons ever seen in comics.  Rick's Story is virtually meritless, IMHO, but it does set up the 'plot' for remainder of the series.  In trade-form the last two books (broken into four trades, Going Home, Form and Void, Latter Days and Last Days) just can't be as painful as they were month-to-month, and some of Dave's angry witterings about Hemmingway in Form and Void are genuinely hilarious in their weirdness ([spoiler]he liked the missus to shove things up his bum, apparently, and once ate lion meat - for these violations of the natural order he was DAMNED by THE LORD[/spoiler]).  The art is amazingly good throughout, and you owe yourself a stab at working out WTF the end is about.  You should probably have a high tolerance for fart jokes, though.  And Woody Allen.

[Colin YNWA]

I'd definitely go back and read Guys in full anyway, it's very funny, especially if you were into the B&W self-publishers of the day, and features the best use of speech balloons ever seen in comics. 

Well fingers crossed I get this bit done at least. Even just reflecting back on the copies I borrowed of 'Guys' when typing away just then lead me to eBay... a pretty cheap copy (if I win) and the realisation that as my re-read starts I think the rest might come a calling...

[Mardroid]

Two issues of Dogbreath arrived on my mat yesterday. (Issues 7 and 17 to be precise. I know it probably looks strange to have 10 issues in between but this is my first read of this mag, and I wanted an example of the older issues and the newer ones (FQP onwards) ). They both contain self contained stories so there isn't a continuity issue.

Anyway it was interesting to see the difference in format, one A4, one A5 with a shiny cover!

Anyway, I munched my way through DB 7 yesterday. I was a tad disappointed to start with that there was only one comic strip. I needn't have been. The text stories were rather good, probably the best bit! (Not knocking the strip, it was more a light weight humour piece and worked well too.)

The first story Zero, was actually pretty nasty. (In a 'subject matter' sense not quality sense.) It was well told. The second text story Target was a great mixture of bounty hunter action and mystery story. All round rather good. The accompanying art was lovely.

The only criticism I'd give was that there was a bit too much swearing. They do use the word 'sneck' as well, after all.  I understand they're going for a more adult feel, but it surprised me somewhat due to the lack in the comics. I figure just stick with the comic invented swear words. The content is still edgy and adult enough in itself. (Oh, and I'd have used a different mutant than Angel, as that seemed a bit too close to X-Men to me, although the character was very different, mutation aside.)

I've yet to read 17, apart from the 'case files' sections, but I've noticed the ratio of strip to text piece is more even. I'll probably read this tonight.

[HOO-HAA]

I'm kinda reading the polar opposites of Fantasy literature - Andy Remic's pulpy sequel to KELL'S LEGEND, SOUL STEALERS, and Karen Miller's more character-driven EMPRESS. Both excellent books in very different ways...

[Dandontdare]

Just read CHEW - fan-bloody-tastic. This had completely passed under my radar, but I bought the first book on a friend's recommendation and immediately orederd the next two. Insane premise, lovely art and really funny. Chomp!

[Richmond Clements]

Just read the first two volumes of The Chimpanzee Complex- very very good indeed, but I need volume three!

[johnnystress]

this, and loving it

[Colin YNWA]

It is great

[I, Cosh]

Phonogram.  Hey, that was pretty good!  It's a pity some of the celebrity likenesses weren't a bit easier to identify (Damon Albarn in particular looked more like Alex James, which is a little too confusing, if you ask me), but as an argument from the very specific to the universally general it was very clever.  I'm thinking of trying to track down The Singles Club, is it worth my while?

Well, I wouldn't want to oversell it or anything, but here's what I thought:

On the way home this evening I bought 5 of the 7 issues of the second series of Phonogram...I've just read the first one and I can honestly say it's one of the best single issues of any comic I've ever read. I was suffused with joy as I read it.

The second series isn't as cohesive as the first and none of the rest of it really lived up to that over the top description but it's still a lot of fun. The thing that made the first series work so well for me was that I was familiar with about 90% of the music they were referencing but I wasn't a big fan of much of it and certainly didn't agree with their view of "Britpop." This meant I got to appreciate all of the snobbery and bitchiness, wince in recognition at stupid things I've done or said and still be able to look down my nose at them all for having rotten taste!

Also, Mr Gillen draws the ladies pretty.

[Robin Low]

Just finished Alan Campbell's Scar Night. It was intriguing right from the start and very readable, but at the same time I didn't feel the need to read it at every opportunity. However, it picked enormously in the latter stages, becoming a bit of a page-turner. I did enjoy it, and I'm looking forward to picking up the next two books.

Regards

Robin

[Ignatzmonster]

I've been re-reading Cerebus lately... Still on the second-last book (Latter Days) but it's really tough going, even though this latest re-read is very much in "skip all the boring text bits" mode.

It really does feel like Dave Sim ran out of steam after Church & State (books 3 & 4) and then just coasted for the next fifteen or so years, making up the rest of the story as he went along. The following twelve books do contain a few moments of sheer genius amid the deluge of anti-church / pro-faith polemic, but they're widely-spaced and hardly worth the trouble.

I'll second most of what Tordelback said. Loved Jaka's Story, Guys, and found Melmoth, Going Home and Form and Void both worthwhile.

Mothers and Daughter's is hard to wrestle with but if I leave out the non-comics portion of Reads (Yes, that is most of it I know)I think it's a pretty important comic. It always read to me like a retelling of the history of Iran in the seventies coupled with some of the more bizzare Feminist tracts like Valerie Solanas wrote. It would have worked better if I hadn't read any of the essays and Sims railing against his longtime friends and readers.

My suspicion was that Sim is not a misogynist but instead a paranoid schizophrenic whose paranoias concentrate on women instead of the government.

[TordelBack]

My suspicion was that Sim is not a misogynist but instead a paranoid schizophrenic whose paranoias concentrate on women instead of the government.

I wouldn't know enough myself to put a name on Sim's mental illness (although he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the early '80's, while doing what most consider his best work), but it's real and apparently ever-worsening.  Catching a bad dose of religion in the mid-90s really didn't help.  It's a real shame, not least because he's one of the real geniuses of comics.  Andrew Rilstone (another religious type) has some great essays on his blog weighing up the man and his work.

[Ignatzmonster]

My suspicion was that Sim is not a misogynist but instead a paranoid schizophrenic whose paranoias concentrate on women instead of the government.

I wouldn't know enough myself to put a name on Sim's mental illness (although he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the early '80's, while doing what most consider his best work), but it's real and apparently ever-worsening.  Catching a bad dose of religion in the mid-90s really didn't help.  It's a real shame, not least because he's one of the real geniuses of comics.  Andrew Rilstone (another religious type) has some great essays on his blog weighing up the man and his work.

It's not just a shame, it's creepy. Douglas Wolk pointed out that while Sims storylines were thrown off track by his religion/politics/paranoia his artistic ability only kept getting better and better. However much I find Rick's Tale and Latter Days unreadable I have to admit they are fucking gorgeous.

The schizophrenia stuff is all on display. Worries about mind reading? Check. Belief that the force in question is stealing your powers? Check. Long rambling diatribes that the sufferer in question writes to help save the world from the force in question? Oh checkity-fuckin-check.

I always kind of understood Sim's paranoia about women. I don't agree at all but I kind of get it. There are more than a few points in my life where I had to change a part of who I was for the woman I was with. For instance, leaving a job I liked but that paid miserably to pursue a job with which I was less comfortable. And when I did I would get this flash of resentment and oppression that were just off the charts. And I wonder, what if those moments had been turned up to eleven? Would I have become Dave Sim?

[HOO-HAA]

this, and loving it

Hell, I used to enjoy the hell out of Johnny Red when he was in Battle in the 80s...