When the fine folks at Trouble With Comics asked me to take part in their guest reviewers month, I wasn’t going to say no. I’ve followed parent site Comic Book Galaxy for a lot of years and have always enjoyed the work of Alan David Doane and his collaborators, even when I disagreed with them. So yeah, I was happy to take part.
I decided to tackle Cerebus: The Last Day, the final volume in independent creator Dave Sim’s legendary and controversial, 300-issue epic, because it would give me a chance to do commentary I’d be interested in writing. You can read my thoughts here (second item down as of the date of this posting).
If you’re unfamiliar with Cerebus, this review isn’t going to make you eager to jump on board … but I urge you to, anyway, because it is one of the great creative achievements in comics. The stretch from volume 2 to volume 5 especially — High Society, Church and State I & II, and Jaka’s Story — are examples of the best the medium has to offer. Smart, funny, insightful, thought-provoking, and just plain entertaining as hell.
If you’re interested in my thoughts on other comics/graphic novels, you can check out my infrequently-updated Taft is Reading blog. It’s pretty informal in nature, but whatever. In the meantime, you can support my work and the good folks at Trouble With Comics by sending some clicks their way. Cheers!
