Cerebus Vol 5: Jaka's Story

 Title: Cerebus Vol 5: Jaka's Story

ISBN: 0919359123

Price: $

Publisher/Year: Aardvark-Vanheim, 1991

Artist: Gerhard

Writer: Dave Sim

Collects: Cerebus # 114-136

Rating: 4/5

Dave Sim, writer and artist, liked to confound expectations. From humble beginnings (a Conan parody, featuring an aardvark) Sim moved Cerebus into the realms of politics with High Society and then religion with Church and State. With Jaka’s Story he confounded readers further with a tale inspired by the Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets. It’s a more human story than anything Sim had tried previously.

Cerebus isn’t even the main character here. As the book’s title indicates, it’s all about Jaka and the men in her life: husband Rick; Rick’s friend Oscar (Wilde); Pud Withers, her employer and landlord, and Cerebus. Domestic dissatisfaction, the struggle to make ends meet, much of the book has nothing in particular happening (something Sim clearly intended) and instead we spectate as lives revolve around each other. Interspersed with this story of the daily grind, there are extracts of a book depicting episodes from Jaka’s aristocratic childhood, written by Oscar in a deliberately flowery style that mirrors Wilde’s.

Sim, more than ably assisted by Gerhard on backgrounds, was by this point a very accomplished artist, and one who never tired of trying out new page layouts and storytelling devices. There is quite a lot of deliberate repetition, especially in the later sequences. Apart from the obvious appeal of repeating panels (Sim had used photocopies in the past, much to the annoyance of some readers) and therefore easing a heavy workload, there are good reasons for doing so, and it’s used to great effect.

This repetitive device is mirrored in the writing to build tension, as we witness Pud’s desperate internal monologues. Pud is only saved at the last minute from doing something terrible by the interruption of an old soldier who visits his premises and asks Jaka to dance for him. For the shortest time it even looks as if everything is finally falling into place for Jaka. So, of course, it all goes horribly wrong, and we have another sudden change of pace for the final act.

Jaka and Rick are imprisoned for questioning, and another character is carted off for two years’ hard labor, much like his real-life counterpart. His crime is the book’s punchline, and that in turn, leads into Melmoth, which again focuses on another character, with our titular hero side-lined.

Unrequited love, useless partners, feminism, abortion, art and Art: it’s all here. Cerebus is portrayed in a more sympathetic light than ever before, although he barely qualifies as much more than a secondary character, and even disappears for a long stretch as his presence would have undoubtedly changed the events that transpire.

There is comedy, but not as much as previous books, as a lot of the subject matter doesn’t lend itself well to humor. This book, unlike some of the others, can be read and followed without a great deal of background knowledge. All one has to know is that Cerebus and Jaka have history, and it’s really not that much history – actually little more than a couple of meetings. Ambitious, mature and challenging, this is one of the best of the series.

MtG Decklist - Arcades Thiccy Walls

I found this on YouTube as a Deck Tech from user Poppmagic and thought it was an interesting build. Always enjoyed the original Elder Dragons and a Wall deck has always had my interest.

Cerebus Vol 4: Church & State Volume 2

 Title: Cerebus Vol 4: Church & State Volume 2

ISBN: 0919359116

Price: $

Publisher/Year: Aardvark-Vanheim, 1988

Artist: Gerhard

Writer: Dave Sim

Collects: Cerebus # 81-111

Rating: 4/5

Church and State 2 makes it clear from the start, which in this case is page 595, that this is the second half of a book. If you haven’t read the previous volume, go and do so now. We’ll wait.

Dave Sim’s plot is going to sound bonkers, though it all makes sense, of sorts, if you’ve read the earlier books. Cerebus has been thrown off the tower (which is mysteriously growing) by Thrunk, a giant rock-monster. He returns, only to be dragged into complex religious matters that imply, Battlestar Galactica-style, that everything “has happened before, and will happen again”, and they’re all doomed to play out their parts in a constantly-repeating pattern. We also have a rape which upset readers even more than the baby-tossing from the previous volume. And, as always, there’s comedy, whether it’s Mick and Keef (Jagger and Richards) or the Roach’s latest incarnation, who spends much of this book obsessed with the Secret Sacred Wars.

It transpires that whomever stands atop the tower with a perfectly-cast gold sphere will ascend, to heaven or some equivalent. Weisshaupt had intended that it would be he who ascended, but it’s Cerebus who is atop the tower when it breaks off and flies towards the moon. Then, in a rare crossover with another title, Cerebus meets Flaming Carrot, a character that makes a talking aardvark seem pedestrian: a lunatic wearing a huge flaming carrot head (hence the name) and a pair of flippers on his feet (hence the lunatic). Flaming Carrot flies off, and, after a fight with a three-headed monster (another reappearance from the early days) Cerebus lands on the moon. He has a long telepathic conversation with the Judge (based on actor Lou Jacobi), who tells him how the world will end and also how Cerebus’ own life will end. Without spoilers, let’s just say that it’s not good news. Cerebus awakes, back home, and discovers that the Cirinists have invaded and take his gold.

One critic’s assessment was that the story’s ending was “too darn cosmic”. Which Sim called “moronic… in a medium where the blowing up of the universe and getting superpowers from radioactivity are the norm rather than the exception”. One can see Sim’s point, but it would be fair to say that blowing up universes and getting superpowers from radiation aren’t what those stories are normally all about, they’re just plot devices. Whereas this book attempts an intelligent examination of forces, be they human, religious, metaphysical, quantum mechanical or other, rather than a deus ex machina followed by 22-pages of fights in tights.

There is an epilogue published later, and collected in Cerebus Zero. Sim hoped to include it, but this book, the largest of the series at 630 pages, literally couldn’t be any thicker, as the binding wouldn’t hold.

Cerebus Vol 3: Church & State Volume I

 Title: Cerebus Vol 3: Church & State Volume I

ISBN: 0919359094

Price: $

Publisher/Year: Aardvark-Vanheim, 1987

Artist: Gerhard

Writer: Dave Sim

Collects: Cerebus # 52-80

Rating: 4/5

In High Society, Dave Sim pulled off the ambitious task of writing an actual graphic novel, one concerned with politics and the abuse of power and at a length almost unknown when he began serializing the story in 1980. With Church and State he attempted something even more ambitious as he examined religion. The story is so mammoth, running to 1,220 pages, that it required two volumes to gather it.

With Cerebus the aardvark having become Prime Minister of Iest in High Society, he suffers the same fate again. This time, wiser and more cynical, he is most reluctant, and has to be forced into accepting the post by the manipulative President Weisshaupt. Before you know it, the Machiavellian machinations are coming thick and fast, and the book moves into religious territory, when, in an attempt to undermine Weisshaupt, his enemies nominate Cerebus as Pope. Unfortunately, this sets Cerebus off on one, and he demands that everyone gives him all their gold or perish as a divine consequence. Then  hints occur that his prophecy could be self-fulfilling. And that’s when things start to get really strange.

However, it’s not all political intrigue and metaphysical weirdness, Sim also excels at comedy, whether it’s Marx Brothers-style satire or the broader parody of Wolveroach. This prompted a ‘cease and desist’ order from Marvel, something that earlier parodies – of Moon Knight and Captain America – hadn’t.

In one of the many great scenes Cerebus exhorts the masses to give him all their gold, and to illustrate the point that you can get what you want and still not be happy, he blesses someone’s child and then tosses it into the distance like an American football. This upset some readers. So Cerebus later kicks a crippled old man off a roof. The lesson: one less mouth to feed is one less mouth to feed. Many of these scenes provide some of the finest comedy in the book, with Cerebus showing what an imaginative, vindictive and greedy little bastard he can be.

This volume ends on a literal cliffhanger, with Cerebus, much like the aforementioned baby, being tossed into the air by Thrunk, a giant orange rock-monster (sound familiar?) that Cerebus had encountered back in the early Conan-parody days. This was to be a recurring theme in Cerebus, with characters who’d appear to be mere throwaways returning to become important elements in Cerebus’s life. Nowhere is this more true than with Jaka, the aardvark’s one true love. She abruptly reappears and Cerebus is ready to drop everything and go with her, but, as is so often the case, it’s not quite that simple. That moves us onto another topic, unrequited love, which is among the themes explored in detail in the next novel: Jaka’s Story.

Gerhard, who, like Prince or Madonna, apparently only has one name, came on board during this book to assist Sim with backgrounds, tints and the like. After some experimentation he settled on a distinctive style that would be an invaluable contribution, and some of his artwork is superb. By this stage Sim was an accomplished artist and writer, as adept at comedy as drama, constantly pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in comics, both in form and content.

WANTLIST - Hasbro SDCC 2024 G.I. Joe Classified Series: Cobra Commander (Once a Man) Figure

 

When I first started my action figure collection, I tried to keep it within the 3.75" realm because that's what scratched by nostalgic itch. I never got into the 12" figures from the original G.I. Joe line or any other franchise I collect. I do recall having a 12" Darth Vader when I was a kid... but I never really played with it since it was so much bigger than all the rest of my toys.

A few years ago, I got suckered into collecting from the Classified series of G.I. Joe from Hasbro. I don't open them for display or play with them, but I do enjoy looking at them through the plastic window of the packaging. And then Hasbro started doing their stupid no plastic packaging, and that upset me. I still purchased the figures I liked, but I wasn't 100% happy about not being able to see them.

But aside from that, I do collect the G.I. Joe Classified line; or at least the characters I like and can afford. While I like Serpentor, unfortunately is was just not in the budget. I was able to get Chuckles last year and have 0 regrets.

This brings me to the reason for this post. Recently, Hasbro announced that their San Diego Comic Con exclusive for the Classified line this year is going to the the Cobra Commander (Once a Man) Figure.

While I am not a fan of the Cobra-La aspect of the G.I. Joe animated movie, I did appreciate the movie nonetheless. It was definitely better than the 2009 Rise of Cobra live action movie.

When I first saw the promotion images of the Cobra Commander figure, the tug at my nostalgia bones hit and I feel that I need to include this in my collection.

For any of my readers who will be attending SDCC this year, if any of you would be willing to pick one of these figures up for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Of course I would pay for the shipping along with the cost of the figure. If you're willing and able, please send me a message so we can work-out the details.

MtG Decklist - Sauron, Lord of the Rings

 

I have been a fan of the Lord of the Rings series since I was a kid, so when Magic released the LotR set, I had to create a deck around it. I tried to stay with cards that were primarily sourced from the set, or were related to the theme... but we ended-up taking some liberties in the final cut.

As with most of my constructed MtG decks, this was a collaboration with my ex-wife.

Rose City Comic Con 2024 - I'll Be There

 

SEPT. 6-8, 2024

OREGON CONVENTION CENTER

777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Portland, OR 97232

I've said it several times before, and I get to say it again this year. I will be covering Rose City Comic Con as a member of the press. So very excited!