Likes & Dislikes - Dave Sim

Boy, this one comes with some controversy. During the 80s and early 90s, Dave Sim was one of the best comic book creators out there - one of those creators to be admired. He wrote and drew Cerebus (who was an aardvark), and it was one of the best comics out there up until its 113th issue. The rest of the run is good, but I felt that High Society and Church and State were the highlights.

Anyway, what he did is nothing short of remarkable. He wrote and drew all 300 issues of the series. Compare this to the tremendously overblown Bendis/Bagley effort of 100 issues on Ultimate Spider-Man, and you can get an idea of how I feel about the Bendis/Bagley thing. It's nice, but it's not 300 issues.

Cerebus covered lots of ground, and was always thought-provoking. The main topics were religion and politics in a fictional world set in the early 14th century. If there was a comic book trend going on at the time, you could bet that Sim would somehow humorously incorporate a parody into the storyline. Super Secret Sacred Wars is an example, as are Moon Roach and Wolverroach. There were also appearances by characters loosely based on Mick & Keith, George Harrison.

The issues gave you credit for having intelligence. His letters pages were more entertaining than some comics that were being published. His Notes From the Publisher were sometimes better than the issue that they appeared in. And during High Society and Church & State, that's saying something. You got the straight poop about the industry from someone who was actually doing the work - and was the publisher to boot. The letters pages were his opinion, and sometimes were angry and/or sarcastic - which was a refreshing change from the company line nice-nice way Marvel and DC pages. That's all pretty common now, but this is where it started.

The main knock that I can recall was that there was so much backstory, that you'd be lost if you joined Cerebus in progress. I started at around issue 78, and I managed to figure things out. Of course, this was also around the time that Sim released the High Society "telephone book" that collected issues 26-50.

I don't think enough credit can be given to Sim for the development of this form of collected volume. Now they are as common as the single issue, but back in 1986, there wasn't the plethora of trade paperbacks like there are now. After all, the mini-series had just been developed a few years earlier, as had the graphic novel. This was new ground for comic books.

The success of the High Society collected book, due largely, I feel, to the quality of the work within, led to more of these books from Sim. Church & State volumes one and two, and so on. After a while, it became obvious that a book would be released upon the completion of an arc, so rumor has it that a lot of collectors eschewed the single issue and just waited for the Cerebus books.

I have mostly the single issues, with the exception of the Cerebus book (issues 1-25) and the aforementioned High Society. I consider this series a watershed occurance in comics. A non-Marvel/non-DC effort that was every bit as good as either company's output. It was so good that luminaries such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore extolled the virtues of this comic.

More proof? Marvel threatened legal action against Sim when he featured his Wolverine parody Wolverroach on three consecutive covers, thinking that people might buy Cerebus thinking it was a Marvel product. Maybe Sim did push it a bit, but Marvel really needed to lighten up.

Then times changed, and Sim and Cerebus were no longer the relevant, highly regarded creator and comic book they once were. Bendis once disrespected Sim in one of his Powers letter columns - which is kinda ridiculous, because anyone paying attention knows that every independent publisher (and every overrated, overexposed talent publishing independent work) today pretty much owes a debt to Sim they can never repay for proving, time and again, the viability of the independent market.

To sum up, what makes Sim so special in my mind?

He published, wrote and drew 300 issues (for 25 years) of the same title for an independent publisher. And it was one of the best titles out there for at least a good chunk of its run.

He helped to pioneer the trade paperback/collected edition books that are currently all the rage.

Nothing more needs to be said. If you have the chance, get some Cerebus issues. They're more than worth your time.