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what's better, Cerebus or Bone?

Started by Monstro,

83 posts in this topic

readandburn

readandburn

Posted
Posted

They are very, very different.

 

I think Cerebus has more interesting artwork (especially the Gerhard backgrounds), but the story really got out of control towards the end.

 

I would suggest reading Cerebus when it was at its peak...High Society, Church & State and finally Jaka's Story. (Jaka's Story is one of the best examples of comic storytelling that I can think of.)

 

 

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nearmint

nearmint

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Taken as a whole, I'd go with Bone. It's a cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and end, that never strays. Cerebus is constantly going off on tangents and exploring radically different themes.

 

Taken issue by issue, probably Cerebus. But as a whole, I'd go with Bone.

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mschmidt

mschmidt

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They are very, very different.

 

I think Cerebus has more interesting artwork (especially the Gerhard backgrounds), but the story really got out of control towards the end.

 

I would suggest reading Cerebus when it was at its peak...High Society, Church & State and finally Jaka's Story. (Jaka's Story is one of the best examples of comic storytelling that I can think of.)

 

 

Cerebus is in a league of its own - but, like readandburn says, you have to know when to stop. When Sim starts going off on his anti-woman rants it becomes almost unreadable, unfortunately.

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s-man

s-man

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what's better, Cerebus or Bone?

 

GROO!!!! :banana:

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djpinkpanther67

djpinkpanther67

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I was reading Cereus when it first came out, so I have a lot of devotion to the first 100 or so issues...I just read the first 3 HC editions of Bone (ended when Thorn JUST found out her lineage :frustrated: ) and must say that I am impressed and looking forward to continuing the story to see what happens (thanks BigMike :thumbsup: )

Toss up for various reasons :shrug:

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Monstro

Monstro

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They are very, very different.

 

I think Cerebus has more interesting artwork (especially the Gerhard backgrounds), but the story really got out of control towards the end.

 

I would suggest reading Cerebus when it was at its peak...High Society, Church & State and finally Jaka's Story. (Jaka's Story is one of the best examples of comic storytelling that I can think of.)

 

 

Cerebus is in a league of its own - but, like readandburn says, you have to know when to stop. When Sim starts going off on his anti-woman rants it becomes almost unreadable, unfortunately.

 

i read something about that. didn't have something to do with Jeff Smiths wife?

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DocGo

DocGo

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I've never read Cerebus but I intend to in the near future. :)

 

The "issue" of Jeff's wife started the whole Sim/Smith rift, but I don't know if that was the inspiration for those stories. I'll guess that it is though.

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TupennyConan

TupennyConan

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I still have my Church & State "phonebook" mail ordered from AV back when originally printed & released -- I've probably read it 3 times over the decades but not again for about the past 10 years; as well as all of my original Cerebus comics from about 25 through 150. If anyone wants to sell their Cerebus phonebooks to me, any printing, I might be interested for the first half of the 300 issue run. I also suspect that there was a collection of the letters pages printed. Anyone know about this? Therein you'll find much of Sim's mysogyny.

 

I read the Bone phonebook last Christmas & really enjoyed it. But, it is light children's fare next to the more literary Cerebus.

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sakaridis

sakaridis

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For my money, there is no contest!

 

Cerebus is a true masterpiece. One of the finest examples of graphic storytelling in the history of the Medium.

 

Bone is simply a pretty good comic book, with some nice cartoony craftsmanship. My problem is that it started out as a really funny book and soon turned into LOTR for pre-teens. What the industry needed was a new Walt Kelly, not Elfquest for 8-year olds.

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DocGo

DocGo

Posted
Posted

 

The "issue" of Jeff's wife started the whole Sim/Smith rift, but I don't know if that was the inspiration for those stories. I'll guess that it is though.

 

Please illuminate us...

 

The "infamous" Jeff Smith interview

 

Dave Sim's response to the interview

 

A short review of the aftermath. (about a third of the way down)

 

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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The "issue" of Jeff's wife started the whole Sim/Smith rift, but I don't know if that was the inspiration for those stories. I'll guess that it is though.

 

Please illuminate us...

 

First off, the Dave Sim I know is not a misogynist - he doesn't hate women.

 

However, he has developed opinions about relationships and society that are specifically anti-feminist.

 

The best cartoonists tend to be social observers, and Sim is also a satirist --- Cerebus is a satirical work from the start, but it changes from a satire of Conan comics to being a satirical look at people, society, government, relationships and ultimately, religion. I think the work starts to become inaccessible to most of us who are comics fans around issue 200 when the "action" elements that the first 200 issues built towards pretty much come to an end. Issues 201-231 (Guys and Rick's Story) are more about people than anything else, and at the end of 231 Cerebus and his love Jaka go walking off into the sunset. Of course, like most love relationships and the process of growing older, Cerebus's relationship sours over compromises and the world around him changes dramatically until he ends up on one final spiritual journey before he ends his days as a cranky old man locked in a tower he built to keep the world away.

 

Incidentally, many people look at Cerebus 96 as the turning point - in that issue Cerebus rapes Astoria. It's a tough issue to read because Astoria (a manipulative political figure throughout the series), has now been arrested for the assassination (off-camera) of the Western pontiff by stabbing him in the chest. Cerebus, the Eastern Pontiff, visits her in jail and she starts goading and provoking him from the minute he walks in the room. She taunts him with sex, but uses his religion as her defense from him actually doing it. He countermands it by marrying them and forcing himself on her.

 

So yeah, Cerebus is a much more "complicated" work than the more straightforward adventure-fantasy Bone.

 

Sim is the only person that I know who completely builds arguments around reason instead of emotion, which he considers to be the major difference between men and women when it comes to decision and action in interpersonal relations. That's a sweeping and loaded statement, but his Tangents and other essays in the back of Cerebus are logic-based criticism of some pretty cheeky truths that western society has accepted to appease feminist activism. He originally thought it might encourage some debate (his intent), but instead of reasoned debate he got emotional response, and emotional responses to reading or hearing something someone doesn't like (and we see it all of time here on the chatboards) are to resort to insulting and/or name-calling instead of point/counterpoint (hence, he's labelled a misogynist for having a contrary opinion).

 

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