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Does anyone actually collect Cerebus?

Started by Bonds25,

32 posts in this topic

delekkerste

delekkerste

Posted
Posted

Does anyone actually collect Cerebus?

 

Well, I met you at the San Diego Con, and I hope to someday meet the other 12 people who collect the title. tongue.gif

 

As far as I know, the title isn't even carried by the shops that I go to. I'm quite sure that most younger collectors would be just as likely to identify "Cerebus" as a new all-day antihistimine as a comic book.

 

Gene

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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I've been reading and collecting Cerebus since issue #48. I've got a near complete run (missing #5) and I will be looking forward to the end of the series since it has been dragging on for over a decade, with only periodic flashes of momentum and brilliance. These days the only interesting thing about the book is to see what Sim is going to discuss next in one of his essays, be it women and feminism, politics and the global situation, how he likes teenage girls over adult women, and so on.

 

As far as your two purchases, the seller must have really wanted to get rid of them. Aside from the first couple of years of the series, the books have very little movement as a back issue. People tend to pick up the phonebooks instead.

 

Kev

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rob_react

rob_react

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Except for the first few, it's not really a collectible series. The phone books make so much more sense for anyone trying to play catch up that they rendered the back issue market obselete. Which is fine really, since the type of people that read Cerebus could give a rat's [!@#%^&^] about collectibility. Amazingly, nay stunningly, there are people that just read this stuff and don't care about back issues, superheros or anything else from the dreaded "mainstream."

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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Except for the first few, it's not really a collectible series. The phone books make so much more sense for anyone trying to play catch up that they rendered the back issue market obselete. Which is fine really, since the type of people that read Cerebus could give a rat's [!@#%^&^] about collectibility. Amazingly, nay stunningly, there are people that just read this stuff and don't care about back issues, superheros or anything else from the dreaded "mainstream."

 

Indeed, when it comes to Cerebus I wouldn't ever buy a slabbed copy.

 

And I disagree with you on the collectibility of this series Rob, as the phonebooks are merely a small part of the Cerebus experience.

 

For many years there was a back-up feature called Neat Stories that featured short stories by some of independant comics greatest creators... and for over a decade Cerebus had one of the most unique, creative and interesting letter columns in the industry. Plus there are other features that have crept in over the years, such as the creators' rights summits, Sim's own essays (which range from brilliant to completely loony), etc.

 

So I feel sorry for the Cerebus fan that has only experienced the series thru the phonebooks, they only have a piece of the puzzle.

 

The phonebooks have made people feel that the individual issues are not necessary, and I agree with most series that trades kill the collectibility of back issues.... IMO not so with Cerebus.

 

I still have all of the individual issues, the Swords of Cerebus volumes and all of the trade paperbacks. If I were to part with most of my comics collection, there are few series that I would want to retain all of the individual issues of... Cerebus would definitely be the only one that I could think of off-hand.

 

Kev

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Bronty

Bronty

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Yeah, I hear you. But I think the average cerebus collector is content to have reading copies of 22up. For example, I collect the series and I have every issue, but I don't care about condition or slabbing on numbers above 22. It's impossible /unfeasible to put together a full slabbed run, so why bother above #22?

 

Dan

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Bonds25

Bonds25

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Yea, but the same could be said for any comic run. Action, Adventure, X-Men, Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc. I'd be willing to bet that if you put up a CGC 9.2 copy of a common issue of any of those series, it would sell for more than $4. I just don't think there is any interest in Cerebus. The series is nearing #300, yet people only want the first 22 issues in high grade? Doesn't make sense to me.

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Bronty

Bronty

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I think it boils down to this:

 

No new fans.

 

The Cerebus fans of today were the fans of 15 years ago. It's not the easiest series to wade into, say, at #254, and I am understating the point. Action #254, to name a series you mentioned, is largely a self-contained story. Sure, the reader needs to know the basics such as Kryponite, the Fortress of Solitude, etc, but that's really basic stuff and easy to grasp. Cerebus #254 has 253 issues worth of continuity behind it in a much more meaningful way. In fact, a random late # cerebus issue is virtually unintelligible to anyone who hasn't been reading the series for a long time (and some might say it's also unintelligible to long time readers of late). Furthermore, not all the fans of 15 years ago are fans today, as the circulation numbers have proven by dipping steadily from 30,000 around #100 to about 6,000 today. Everyone that wants 25up has likely picked them up by now, they are not rare, and since we're talking about long time fans they have had YEARS to pick these up by now. But 1-22 are scarce enough that people still have holes in their collections...

 

Plus, 1-22 is just SO much more manageable. I'm sure lots of people decide to collect only the early issues and just have phonebooks of the rest. I considered going that way myself but like kevthemev I wanted to retain copies of the essays in my possession.

 

SO... to summarize my take on it, the epic nature of the story line makes it impossible for new fans to latch on. Without new fans, and with endless reprints, only the rare issues are worth squat, cgc'd or not.

 

Dan

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Bronty

Bronty

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Btw... I am going to put your hypothesis to the test and see if I can find a sale on a 9.2 issue of Action from the same publication month or thereabouts and compare... will post the results in a minute. I'm curious to see the results. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

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Bronty

Bronty

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The Cerebus 52 you bought was published in 1983. There are only two 1983 issues of Action on the census, 544 and 546. Of these, only 544 is on the GPA. The 9.4 copy of #544 sold for $9.99, so it's actually somewhat comparable if you figure a 9.2 would have sold for less than thatinsane.gif

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