Okay, let's see if this thing's any good.

... well? How is it?

Just wait to you get Vol.2, it's even better.

Vol. 1 is a lot of fun, but not genius. High Society (Vol. 2) is where the genius kicks in.

That said, the adventure in Vol. 1 is a hoot, and you do see some pretty dramatic improvement in Sim's craft over the course of its 400-500 pages. The first few issues and last few issues are like night and day.

Just got home, I haven't even started it yet. In fact, I also got a Dark Horse Conan trade with Buscema art I was going to read first, as well as an issue of Kamandi.

The main reason I picked it up was because I have always been a little curious, but the trade didn't have a price on it. I asked the clerk and he said he didn't know it either, but he'd let me have it for $12. Well, 25 issues of material for 12 bucks is always a great deal, so I snagged it.

Who here's a fan of this thing?

Lots of us. Offhand there is myself, Twitchy, Stanley, Trevah, Pope, Bill Johnson, Gator, and a number of others who liked the earlier Cerebus work.

Wow, looking at the link to buy the same book I just got on AmazWAN, I see that the regular price for it was 30 bucks!!!

The clerk gave me an $18.00 discount! Woof, hope the owner doesn't ream his ass.

The first one is funny in a "parody of the early Barry Windsor-Smith Conans" way -- lots and lots of references to those early comics in the first ten or so issues.

Ocean Doot is on that list too. The first volume is great, although I like it better reading only one or two chapters a day. As opposed to High Society, which is hard to put down.

I'm that way with the middle of Church and State, too.

First time I read Church & State in its entirety I think I did it all in 24 hours or so. I couldn't put Volume 2 down and read it all in a single Sunday afternoon. I was that locked into it. That two-volume arc is still my favorite Cerebus.

Same here...I've long said that Cerebus is at his best when he's

Boy, howdy.

I read Church & State as monthlies -- that was something akin to acute torture, since that was when he switched from doing issues that were essentially stand-alone to the "writing for the trade" format he later pioneered. I very nearly gave up on Cerebus as a monthly until he Once that happened, and the repercussions thereof were in full swing I was hooked and stayed with the monthlies all the way to the end.

Kinda wish I'd stopped somewhere around 250 and picked it back up again for the final story -- but then I would've been absolutely confused and gone back and gotten the intermediary material -- and then be much more disappointed with that material than I was when it was monthly, so there you go.

Anybody want to sell any old reading copies?

Well, I finally read some of it last night.... the first three issues, to be exact. I really enjoyed it... it sorta felt like a guy doing classic Conan comics with an Aardvark instead of Conan himself. I found the whole thing pretty charming.

Too bad Dave Sim is a lunatic.

I enjoyed the Conan parody nature of it in the early issues.
Rather lost interest as it became something else.

I was with it for the full run for better or worse. Some terrific highs and some damned tough issues to slog through. Not a big fan of "reads."

I lost about half of them in my move, but I can send you the first several volumes if you like.

You don't have to do that, but it would be much appreciated. I'd gladly pay a pittance for shipping and the trouble.

PM me your address. I'll probably ship them out later in the week.

First, I have to find them

There were a few issues towards the end ("Chasing YHWH" and the Woody Allen and 3 Stooges bios) where I'd pick it up, leaf through it to see if Cerebus was throwing any babies, and just say "fuck it" and hope that it was better the following month. I could be wrong, but I think there were a few issues where the art would end and his text pieces would begin BEFORE the staple.

This. I thought Latter Days and The Last Day were awesome, though.