(See? It is possible for me to do interviews. I think the article turned out okay. A bitch to write.)
Cerebus: Aardvark adventure takes comic books into the 21st century
by Chris Winters
The half-life of a comic book can usually be measured in months; if it's lucky, years. Even rarer is a comic book which knows precisely when it will finish.
Cerebus is slated to end in March 2004, a life of 27 years. Only Dave Sim has written, drawn and published Cerebus, and he will be the only person to do so until it is complete. Last weekend Sim visited Pittsburgh as part of the U.S. '92 tour promoting Cerebus, attending a convention on Sunday and signing issues at comic stores around the area on Friday and Saturday.
Cerebus is an aardvark living in a Middle Ages framework who doesn't use personal pronouns, and Cerebus is his life, more or less. Sim gets somewhat exasperated when people ask him what Cerebus is about. "If I could say what Cerebus was about in five paragraphs, I wouldn't have done it for 14 years. I wouldn't keep doing it for 12 more."
In 1977 Cerebus began as a mercenary got entangled in a bureaucracy to become prime minister, quit after becoming frustrated with governmental impotence. wound up a pawn of a powerful politician to be catapulted to Pope and after riding a black tower to the moon, was Pope no more. This took roughly 110 issues. The comic then slowed down and dealt with more allegorical themes (death, marriage, love).
Cerebus then became an unwanted houseguest and found himself battling an entire church of militant feminists. Cerebus will end when Cerebus dies, at issue 300.
Central in Sim's mind, and to Cerebus's uniqueness, is the idea of a complex story from beginning to end. Most comics don't have a consistent storyline in mind because the number of writers and artists who serve their time each have their own vision. Instead, mainstream comics frequently rely on one issue stories which sell comics ("Appearing in this issue: The Punisher/Ghost Rider/Spider-Man!") but are short on character development and involved plots, terms people don't normally think apply to comics.
One of the obstacles Sim has had to overcome is the perception of comics as kids' stuff. Neither people used to reading comics nor people new to comics were used to the sometimes-wordless issue. Mike Rehn, a sometime Pitt graphic-arts student, said Sim is "Best whenever he keeps his verbosity to a minimum."
Sim himself explained the distinction between comics and fiction: "A visual literary medium is where you show what's going on rather than explaining it."
At the Phantom of the Attic in Oakland, Sim's first stop last Saturday, several people nervously milled around 15 minutes before Sim's arrival. Half an hour later, Sim's fans packed the store, and it remained so until he left.
For two hours, the calm, reddish-blond Sim stood behind the front desk and shook hands with all the fans before signing their comics. Because there were so many, there was not a chance for more than a few cursory thank yous ("Great work on the book" "Thanks for your support") until the next person came up with a stack of books for Sim to grace with his signature and perhaps a quick sketched head of the famed aardvark.
At the larger B.E.M. in Wikinsburg, Sim had a much smaller crowd and was able to answer more involved questions about Cerebus.
He also expounded on subjects from television's influence on politics to the conflicts between feminism and child rearing while doing sketches and sipping Diet Coke.
Sim is outspoken on many issues. He is a fierce supporter of free-agency for artists ("Shouldn't it be the ideal of any individual to sell his services to the highest bidder?" he said) and is known in the comic world for his brutal opinion of editors and large companies.
"Business people don't like to touch artist people if they can help it. That's why they hire editors," Sim said.
Cerebus, unlike many comic hooks, is not merchandised much beyond T-shirts. ("I don't mind doing T-shirts," Sim said, "because I wear T-shirts.") Although he's had proposals for games ("Nobody comes up and says. 'I do lousy wargames, and I want to turn Cerebus into a wargame.'") and an animated Cerebus, as well as offers from larger comic companies to purchase Cerebus, Sim possesses a strong desire to keep everything about Cerebus his, and he keeps everything in-house.
Arthur Allen, an employee of Phantom, says Sim's autonomy "Lets him be more frank because he doesn't have to answer to anyone but himself.
"He isn't such a cog in the machine like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane (two popular artists from Marvel Comics)."
Allen also pointed out Cerebus has been around longer than both companies which distribute comics to the East coast.
One of Sim's main selling points -- to both distributors and retailers -- is that Cerebus has been around 14 years and will be around for 12 more.
It won't fade away like other independent comics.
Asked about the reason people not into comics are attracted to Cerebus. Sim thought for a moment and replied, "In this day and age, if you have something you want to get published, you'd have to go to Tundra or be distributed by Eclipse. Self-publishing is something we don't want to run out of completely."