Cerebus #7

Cerebus learned of the Black Sun Cult in the last issue and makes his way there to steal treasure. To his dismay he runs across Elrod the Albino along the way. Cerebus and Elrod break in. Cerebus looks for the treasure while Elrod gets into mischief. Cerebus ends up losing the treasure after a battle with a giant spider and questions his life as the issue ends.

This issue cements Elrod's opinion that Cerebus is a boy in a bunny suit. He meets a cultist in an aardvark costume and can't seem to tell the two apart. Several times he even muses on how quickly Cerebus painted his costume.

This issue was back to the more standard Cerebus barbarian fare. Though his annoyance at Elrod showing up was very amusing. The battle with the spider was probably the toughest challenge Cerebus has faced thus far in the series. And he also experienced failure for the first time as he lost the treasure that he found.

This was mostly a continuation of part 2 as the Black Sun came up last issue. The series has kept a light continuity so far which has been nice. Elrod of course remains one of my favorite characters in the series. You just can't read Elrod dialogue without having Foghorn Leghorn's voice in your head.

Until next time!

Cerebus #6

Cerebus gets drugged early in this issue and meets Jaka. He immediately falls in love with her and plans to steal a treasure to live with her. The drugs eventually wear off and Cerebus has no recollection of Jaka or his brief love for her. Jaka leaves saying that she will always wait for Cerebus to remember his love for her.

I really enjoyed this issue a lot. It had a much more emotional context to it than previous issues. The humor was also great as the drugged Cerebus maimed several bar flies that spot ill of Jaka. This was another good change of pace issue and you can see the deeper writing start to take effect here. This read a lot more like the High Society issues than the barbarian satire.

Jaka is a key character in this series. She's a real love interest for Cerebus unlike Red Sophia is. She becomes the only person that Cerebus grows to care about as the series progresses. Jaka comes and goes during the early stories but becomes a big player in the series once you get to the Jaka's story arc.

So far, this book improves with every issue. The art has made some huge leaps in just 6 issues and the storytelling gets deeper with each new issue. You can see in the last 2 issues that Sim is really starting to grasp that he has something special brewing with this very young comic book series.

Until next time when Elrod the Albino returns!

Cerebus #5

This time Cerebus encounters the Pigt tribe of people. He later discovers that they ate a religious cult that worships a statue of an aardvark that looks just like Cerebus. Cerebus smashes the idol and makes his escape as the issue comes to a close.

This issue introduces Bran Mac Muffin who will play a role in the storylines of High Society and Church and State. In this issue, Cerebus takes him for a crazy man when he talks about the Pigt people.

You can see something deeper lurking under the surface with this issue. You get some hints of where Cerebus came from and the fact that he might not be as unique as he thought he was. I don't know when Dave Sim decided to move from the funny barbarian stories to something deeper but this issue seems like he was dipping his toe in the water a bit.

With issues 4 and 5 you can tell that Sim was starting to find his footing with the series. The art is much more polished than it was in the first couple of issues. Cerebus also seems like a very developed character 5 issues in and the book has developed a definite humor style rather quickly.

I haven't read or heard much Dave Sim commentary on Cerebus outside of a few interviews on CGS so I'm not sure exactly when he decided he wanted to do a much more complex story with the series. As I mentioned earlier, you can kind of see the book starting to divert from the funny barbarian stories from the first couple of issues. I think we'll continue to see that trend as the next 15 issues progress.

Until next time!

Cerebus #4

In this issue Death is trying to recover the Chaos Gem that Cerebus happened upon. Cerebus also meets Elrod the Albino for the first time. Elrod's mouth gets them in trouble with the locals and they spend a little time in the dungeon. Cerebus manages to escape and decides to just leave Elrod there and decides to throw the gem away.

This book introduces Elrod the Albino who is one of my favorite characters from the entire series. He talks like Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Toons and is a satire from the Elric fantasy novels. Elrod is consistently hilarious through his many appearances in the series. He seamlessly uses Foghorn Leghorn's speech patterns and it's always funny.

This issue continues to develop Cerebus as an interesting main character. This issue yet again shows that he's smarter than most of the people around him and it also shows his general disdain for things that aren't Cerebus. Leaving Elrod in the dungeon at the end was a great character moment for him. That is what Cerebus would do. Elrod also brings the laughs by musing that Cerebus was "A nice boy, but he has the attention span of a grapefruit."

This was easily the funniest of the first couple of issues as it was mostly about the antics of Elrod. I've mentioned this previously but Cerebus standing around being annoyed by the antics of the other characters.

Till next time!

Cerebus #3

This time out, Cerebus is hired by the wizard Henrot to defend the honor of his daughter Red Sophia. Red Sophia is quite annoying and most of the issue is Cerebus being tortured by her never shutting up and just being annoying in general.

What I like about Cerebus in the early issues are the side characters. They're all a little wacky and they all drive Cerebus insane. Some of my favorite moments from the series are Cerebus standing around and just not understanding the insanity of the other characters around him or just being annoyed at their stupidity.

Red Sophia pops up from time to time throughout the series as a sort of non-love interest. Namely, she's interested in Cerebus and Cerebus has no interest in her whatsoever. She's usually a fun character to see pop up but she's not one of my favorites.

This was the best of the 3 issues. The humor was pretty strong in here and Cerebus seemed to have some stronger characterization through his annoyance at Red Sophia. This issue is a good showing of Cerebus' general disdain for anyone of the non-Cerebus species.

Join me next time as Elrod the Albino makes his way into the world of Cerebus!

Cerebus #2

More Conan the Barbarian satire in the second issue of Cerebus. This issue picks up well after Cerebus has spent all the gold he earned in the first issue. He encounters a succubus during his misadventures this time around.

This issue was very exposition heavy. A good chunk was just narration for what Cerebus was doing at any given time. Past the initial scenes, Cerebus didn't actually say very much in this issue. With that said, this issue did a good job of further showing that Cerebus is a very smart and savvy fighter. He knows and has a good grasp of how magic works and how to not be bested by it.

This issue also features a really funny scene. Cerebus had just won a duel to join a band of warriors and the leader was saying that Cerebus moral code would not allow him to kill an unconscious foe. The leader was then about to lecture Cerebus on how he would need to kill his foe when Cerebus did it anyway. The leader's response was a bit of a sheepish "oh...". It's hard to describe as there's a certain visual element but it's a good example of the sense of humor Dave Sim has.

I didn't quite enjoy this issue as much as the first issue. I felt the narration was a little clunky and the overall story really didn't go anywhere. The first issue was a much more satisfying overall story for me.

Join me next time for issue 3 and the first appearance of Red Sophia!

Cerebus #1

This debut issue is your standard Conan the Barbarian type of story. Cerebus is hired to steal a jewel from a wizard and the rest of the story is Cerebus thwarting the various traps of the wizard. Cerebus kills the wizard and gets the jewel and gets paid before revealing that the jewel was a fake. A very humble beginning to what later becomes one of the best independent comics ever released.

This was a very basic issue. A typical Dungeons and Dragons dungeon crawl would look and sound a lot like this. Cerebus has some personality though. You can see that he refers to himself in the third person a lot. It helps to establish that Cerebus is completely self absorbed. That's what is the key to the character as the series progresses. His existence is about Cerebus.

There wasn't a lot here. I don't think Sim had any sort of grand plan for this. I think he was mostly interested in telling some funny Conan type stories. The first 20 issues or so will be like this and then the deeper storytelling will start to show up from there. My commentary on the issues will grow as the stories do.