Cerebus: RIP
1977-2004
No Spoilers to the final issue of Cerebus

I assure you in advance that this is not a synopsis or discussion of the comic book now that it's final issue-- 300-- has arrived in my mailbox; more of a moment for me to look back on the 22 years that I've been reading and enjoying it (through all of its highs and lows, ascensions and falls).

The first one I picked up was cover dated November, 1982...issue 44 ('The Deciding Vote'). I have a vivid memory of that day; a group of friends and I had hit the comic shop during the middle of the week for some reason (we normally took the bus downtown to Saint Paul Comics on Saturdays to get our weekly picks) and I, once again, took a look at this comic series...wondering if I should buy an issue to check it out.

My portly 12 year old self thought:
Hmm...who/what the heck is that Grey Guy on the cover? A talking Aardvark?!? Ooooo-Kay!?!

Heh.

Since I was a fan of funny animal comics* at the time (as evidenced by my complete run of (I am not kidding) Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew) I 'splurged' and plunked the 1.50 down for the comic (thank Crom for the paper route funds); unknowingly picking up an issue near the end of a 25 issue storyline (collected in the HIGH SOCIETY trade paperback...Volume Two of the Cerebus run of phonebooks).

Thoroughly confused AND entertained after reading it I was determined to amass the prior 43 issues as soon as possible (done so in a short amount of time via reprints of issues 1-24 and the original issues of 25-43).

And so it began.

22 years of following this book.

Now over.

In those two plus decades I've (in no particular order and certainly not an all encompassing list):

Finished Junior High
Graduated from High School and College
Fallen in love (at least) three different times
Spent time in the clink (well...a few hours, anyway...love them holding tanks!)
Went from Tuddly to Regular in pants sizes
Gone Grey
Worked part-time as a janitor for ten years
Got married (not for weak-willed)
Bought a dog
Bought my first house
Engaged in a bar brawl with a future Heisman Trophy Winner (the little candyass)

And, each month, throughout this time there was a new issue of the Anthropomorphic Aardvark to accompany me through my Real Life.

An interesting Companion, no doubt, on my journey into my latter years.

Now...gone.

So, tonight I plan on having a celebratory drink or eight to this towering achievement of Dave Sim and his partner in crime, Gerhard (who's been with the comic since issue 65); no other comic book in the history of this artform has ever accomplished what those two have done...300 issues, independently published, and rendered by the same creative team (the next closest would be the 102 issues that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did on the Fantastic Four and Erik Larson's Savage Dragon run...in its early hundreds now).

Love it or hate it...it has been a fascinating and thought-provoking run** and, no question about it, beautifully drawn and written.

But that's just my humble opinion...the opinion of a Cerebite.

Whoa.

T

*Okay...actually that was the only one I was getting at the time; most of my collecting involved superhero comics from DC and Marvel...

**No...it really was/is.