So … We're Talking About Cerebus
About this episode
The episode discusses the influential and controversial comic series Cerebus, featuring guest Bryan Stratton.
Content warning: Sexual assault It's finally happened! After 10 years and more than 250 episodes, we finally get around to discussing the elephant (or, rather, the aardvark) in the room: Dave Sim's 300-issue magnum opus, Cerebus! And to help us grapple with the weight of one of the longest-running, most creative and most controversial comics in the history of the medium, we're joined by longtime friend of the show Bryan Stratton of Marvel by the Month! Self-published by Sim's Aardvark-Vanaheim, Cerebus paved the way for many other independent comics creators to self-publish their work. And its ambitious, experimental approach to comics storytelling expanded the artistic possibilities of the medium, as it grew from a parody of swords-and-sorcery comics into a complex, sprawling saga that would take on politics, religion, and other weighty issues. But while there's a lot to recommend Cerebus, there's also a lot to give potential new readers pause—namely, Sim's contentious, divisive views on women, which ultimately begin to exert greater and greater influence over the series itself. As the Will Eisner Comic Awards prepare to induct Sim (among other creators, including Gerry Conway…
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