Swords of Cerebus Volume 3

Rating:
Summary: Cerebus the Aardvark first encounters....the Cockroach!
Review: "Swords of Cerebus, Volume 3" presents issues #9-12 of Dave Sim's "Cerebus the Aardvark," although to be accurate the aardvark part of the title only appears on the first two issues (one of which proudly proclaims "Canada's Only Bi-Monthly Comic"). These comics still constitute the "Cerebus the Barbarian" stage, where Sim's main goal was to try and draw like Barry Windsor-Smith and have stories that were in the mode of "Conan the Barbarian" except that the hero was a three-foot tall gray aardvark. However, the elements that would turn "Cerebus" into the premier independent comic book are starting to fall into place. The character repeatedly fails, miserably, in his attempts to get something for nothing. More importantly, with the first appearance of the Cockroach Sim opens the way for on ongoing concern with involving parodies of every other successful comic book on the face of the earth (with Cerebus playing Robin to the Cockroach's Batman). Sims is also starting to master the pen and brush so that Cerebus is actually starting to look like Cerebus (although issue #12 is a classic example of experimentation gone mad). Issue #10 features the return of Red Sophia, which was the most blatant of the takeoffs on the Marvel Robert E. Howard craze. One of the nice points of these collections is that Sim includes retrospective comments on each issue, explaining what was he was trying to accomplish in each story as well as what was happening in his personal life that was impacting his artistic endeavor. Those are often more entertaining at this point than the stories, but Sim's ability for self-criticism was always one of his strengths. "Swords of Cerebus Volume 3" also includes "What Happened Between Issues 20 and 21" by Sims and Gene Day, which seems rather odd since those particular issues comes at the end of Volume 5 and the start of Volume 6 of "Swords of Cerebus."

Rating:
Summary: Cerebus the Aardvark first encounters....the Cockroach!
Review: "Swords of Cerebus, Volume 3" presents issues #9-12 of Dave Sim's "Cerebus the Aardvark," although to be accurate the aardvark part of the title only appears on the first two issues (one of which proudly proclaims "Canada's Only Bi-Monthly Comic"). These comics still constitute the "Cerebus the Barbarian" stage, where Sim's main goal was to try and draw like Barry Windsor-Smith and have stories that were in the mode of "Conan the Barbarian" except that the hero was a three-foot tall gray aardvark. However, the elements that would turn "Cerebus" into the premier independent comic book are starting to fall into place. The character repeatedly fails, miserably, in his attempts to get something for nothing. More importantly, with the first appearance of the Cockroach Sim opens the way for on ongoing concern with involving parodies of every other successful comic book on the face of the earth (with Cerebus playing Robin to the Cockroach's Batman). Sims is also starting to master the pen and brush so that Cerebus is actually starting to look like Cerebus (although issue #12 is a classic example of experimentation gone mad). Issue #10 features the return of Red Sophia, which was the most blatant of the takeoffs on the Marvel Robert E. Howard craze. One of the nice points of these collections is that Sim includes retrospective comments on each issue, explaining what was he was trying to accomplish in each story as well as what was happening in his personal life that was impacting his artistic endeavor. Those are often more entertaining at this point than the stories, but Sim's ability for self-criticism was always one of his strengths. "Swords of Cerebus Volume 3" also includes "What Happened Between Issues 20 and 21" by Sims and Gene Day, which seems rather odd since those particular issues comes at the end of Volume 5 and the start of Volume 6 of "Swords of Cerebus."