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Rating: 
Summary: .
Review: I'm not generally into comics; but the sight of Church &State II on the bookshelves, with it's deliciously stark and unusualcover, grabbed my attention. I started at the beginning and readthrough the first 12 books of Sim's epic. Ironically, as far ascontent goes, I consider Church & State II a low point in theoverall series. Book 1 was fun in a silly, amateurish, ... way. Book 2was fascinating, and engaging, with its political focus, detail, andself-contained story. Book 3 was also excellent. But Book 4 is where Isee Sim beginning to get tedious, pretentious, andheavy-handed. Faults that would plague many later Cerebusvolumes. Although it has its moments, Church & State II marksthe first volume of the series that I found to be a bit of achore. The Judge is a lame character, and the pseudo-philosophicalexcursions of the last segment of the book are only marginallyinteresting and have little to do with *Cerebus.* ... Of course, ifyou're going to read Cerebus, might as well read them all, in order. Ijust think this volume is overrated.
Rating:
Summary: .
Review: I'm not generally into comics; but the sight of Church &State II on the bookshelves, with it's deliciously stark and unusualcover, grabbed my attention. I started at the beginning and readthrough the first 12 books of Sim's epic. Ironically, as far ascontent goes, I consider Church & State II a low point in theoverall series. Book 1 was fun in a silly, amateurish, ... way. Book 2was fascinating, and engaging, with its political focus, detail, andself-contained story. Book 3 was also excellent. But Book 4 is where Isee Sim beginning to get tedious, pretentious, andheavy-handed. Faults that would plague many later Cerebusvolumes. Although it has its moments, Church & State II marksthe first volume of the series that I found to be a bit of achore. The Judge is a lame character, and the pseudo-philosophicalexcursions of the last segment of the book are only marginallyinteresting and have little to do with *Cerebus.* ... Of course, ifyou're going to read Cerebus, might as well read them all, in order. Ijust think this volume is overrated.
Rating: 
Summary: THe High Point part 2
Review: In my opinion the two volumes that comprise Church and State are the best of Cerebus. No longer Prime Minister and no longer caring about anything Cerebus is nominated to pontiff and decides everyone should give them gold. His object lessons with the young and old will give you a heartattack they are so funny. The underlying statements on religion, politics, and humanity is thought provoking and intense.
Rating: 
Summary: Aardvark in the Dark Ages aspires to epic
Review: This ambitious series must have started as a drunken dare. Dave Sim, sometime in writing his black and white comic book about a mercenary aardvark, decided to make it a 300 issue epic, complete with his aardvark becoming pope and meeting God. This book (the second of the Church and State arc) is generally considered Sim's best work, before he suffered the Woody Allen syndrome of abandoning the plot and satire-driven formula that drove his success for plodding, self-involved storylines. This book pokes fun at everyone, including the Rolling Stones, Groucho Marx, Elric, the entire Catholic church, and yet somehow manages to have an interesting interaction with God. The only caveat I would warn readers with is this: reading this book is going to make you want to buy the rest of this series, and that's going to get expensive.
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