Customer Reviews

Minds (Cerebus, Volume 10)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lemme tell you, "Reads" the previous volume that everyone heralds as "Cerebus at its best" kinda left me feeling lousy with all its vitriol between the sexes. That big battle between Cerebus and Cirin started causing me nightmares, and I just couldnt really get into Viktor Reid's view of things...But then comes "Minds" and its the tonic I needed- First off, the art (as always) is superb, but the art's especially superb in this volume of the series as Cerebus hurtles on his broken throne through the astral dimensions and spends time on icey Pluto thinking things through. "Minds"- to me is Cerebus at his best- though "Jaka's Story" is still my favorite out of the series.--Alex Sydorenko, November, Chicago

Sim's previous volume of Cerebus, "Reads", and the final volume of his "Mothers and Daughters"--or, "the other big book" of the Cerebus storyline--is one of the most controvercial in the history of comics to date. It has shaken up a number of people. Some it has offended. Some it has made think.

All..(pregnant pause)..it has effected.

"Minds" is not "Reads".

Let's get that point across straight from the start.

"Minds" is not about you, the reader. The story arch "Mothers and Daughters" ended with the afore-mentioned final volume of which it was composed. Yes, Cirin is still there, for awhile anyway. The first approximately 60 pages, she and Cerebus have what is essentially a repetition of the screaming match between him and Astoria in issue #105, only instead of in the dungeons of a small Tarimite church, this one takes place on a large chunk of rock shooting through space.

But, even though we will get to hear some talk about her behind her back, "Minds" is not about Cirin. So, accordingly, Sim gets rid of her. No, no, don't be upset-slash-throw a party (whichever you prefer). He simply sends her to Saturn for a while.

So Cerebus is left all alone on his large chunk of rock.

Now the fun begins.

Did I mention "Minds" is not about Cirin, "Mothers and Daughters", or you? It concerns, in fact, a certain puzzling grey-furred personality whom we have all come to know and love/hate. And his Creator.

As you know, Sim has spent something like 20 years on his title character, Cerebus. He has been "Prime Minister, then he was a houseguest, than he was Prime Minister, then the Pope, and then a house guest again".

Don't forget mercenary, Kitchen Staff Supervisor, and...ehh, skip it.

He has been offensive, cruel, cunning, barbaric, sophisticated, loving, unlovable, scheming, noble, petty....

Etcetera.

He has been the focus of attention, and he has been in the wings.

He has been a lot.

So what is he?

Well, it hurts to say it, but he remains much the same in one tragic respect. He is destructive. He has wrecked, or had a part in wrecking, the lives of a lot of people, and he is well on the way to wrecking his own. Sim has tossed just about every trick in the book at him, and he still continues unswervingly on his path to a grim death--chant along, people!--"alone, unmourned, and unloved". He seems inviolate. It has become painfully clear that nothing on earth is going to make him change.

Well, he's not on Earth now, is he?

Sim has taken the voice of a lot of people in his books, including Cerebus himself, Oscar Wilde, Jaka, and Victor and Viktor. Now, in "Minds", he takes his own in a lengthy discussion with Cerebus: Creator to Creation.

You see, Cerebus has run up against a brick wall. With all that has happened, he continues grimly on the road to self-destruction. To draw a parallel, he has now encountered that same fork in the road Neil Gaiman's Morpheus encountered. He must either change...or die.

If a "needle in Cerebus' eye", "Jaka's new boyfriend" and "abandoning Cerebus on Juno" don't make him change, it's not likely anything else will.

"Minds" concludes on a humorous note, but there is still danger. Cerebus seems resolved to change his life, but then again, he's no longer stranded on Juno, is he? Instead, he's falling through space...to the rest of his story.

Well, it's 1997. We have until 2006. Nine years in which Cerebus can either shape up or revert back to his old ways--change or die.

Is that a cliff-hanger or what?

Later Cerebus volumes such as this are not for the uninitiated. Collecting as they do issues from the late 100s (of a total proposed 300 issue series), they require a knowledge of a large majority of the previously published issues of volumes. Cerebus itself is not necessarily enjoyable by those without some familiarity with its peer comics, fantasy novels by Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, the Marx brothers' films, and the writings and lives of Oscar Wilde, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, to enumerate only some of its influences.

Minds is much more traditional in its presentation compared to the previous volume, Reads, although it continues Sim's idiosyncratic view of the relation between creator and creation. I liked it a lot--especially the points where Cerebus tries to come to grips with the fact that he is talking to "God." Call it meta-fiction, call it jacking off--its unreal and poignant at the same time. Even if you think it doesn't work, you at least have to admire Sim for his audacity.

New to Cerebus? Don't start here. Find the first eponymous phone book and try that. It gets both better and worse after that, but this is truly one of those cases where you have to take the good with the bad.

"Minds" opens on a scene that evokes Druillet's Lone Sloane: - a massive throne, hurtling through space. As always, though, Cerebus goes his own way. This time, that way takes him on a voyage of discovery, settling some questions on the nature of deities and opening others. We also gain witness the aftermath of a violently traumatic event from the life of young Cerebus, Earth-piglet. This leaves the reader wondering what alternatives that event closed to Cerebus, setting him on the course we've seen in the story so far. Then, as befits this arc of the Cerebus story, he comes face to face with his creator. And, as befits Cerebus himself, he succeeds in annoying the Creator thoroughly.

Certainly not a place for Cerebus tyros to start, this provides the long-time Cerebus reader with unique insight into the character, in a setting of Simmish (I almost said 'Simian') surrealism.

-- wiredweird

Dave Sim has set so many precidents with Cerebus, that it would be worth reading even if it weren't as powerful and rewarding a work as you're likely to find in the comics medium. Start with the first volume, and when you find yourself thinking, "What's the big deal over this sword and sorcery genre satire?" keep reading. Toward the end of the first volume Dave Sim's drawing skills improve visibly with each new page. The intelligence and depth of the writing go off the scale starting with the second volume, "High Society." He is joined by his artistic colaborator, Gerhard, somewhere near the beginning of the third major story arc, "Church and State," and since then the two have been developing the kind of mature, competent, confident, and compelling graphic story-telling that only emerges after years of continuous development. Start at the beginning, and read up to the current issue. Thereafter, I suspect you will find yourself eagerly anticipating each monthly instalment of Dave Sim's self-published comic book

Some of the reviews here have interesting points. One point I have to dispute to let the reader understand where this is going. Cerebus WILL DIE. Sim has stated this time and again. Cerebus, the series, is a life. Cerebus will die. The big gaping questions is: "Will anyone LOVE Cerebus?" Will he die unmourned and unloved? Or will he learn to change enough to have someone love him when he dies? I think perhaps it will simply be 'resolved'. I don't think he will be loved. I think he will be content with that though....but we have a way to go yet so my opinion may change. Minds is Sims way of getting right to the point and MAYBE just maybe opening Cerebus' eye(s) enough to see that he has to change his self serving ways.

In this volume, we get a lot of explanations of Cerebus' past, and hints of what his future will be. We see the history of Cirin, and "Cirin", and Cirinism. As a Jaka fan, one thing I don't like about this book is page 138, in which Dave shows Cerebus what Jaka was "thinking" after Cerebus says "Cerebus isn't leaving without you" back in Volume 5. "How do I even begin to explain to him that I have no romantic feeling for him...not a drop of love or sweetness left [in Cerebus]...how very, very sad...I'll make men jealous of him...you don't ask a misplaced piece of jewelry how it feels or what it wants...." Every single sentence on this page contains a reference to a feeling. Every single one. Which ties in with Dave's philosophy that women are emotional and irrational. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend that you buy and read every volume of Cerebus. Hee hee hee.

Think, Jaka-- Think!

Boasting some of Gerhard's most breathtaking work, which contributes to a remarkably stark visual atmosphere, 'Minds' is the best book in the tiresome, if occasionally entertaining, "Mothers & Daughters" portion of the Cerebus books. It paces itself nicely, refraining from jumping around at random (as was the tendency in "Flight" and "Women"), staying on a single track, with Cerebus and Cirin reeling through space, confronting God. A dark, inventive, and fascinating piece of work. I almost busted a gut when Sim drew himself into the comic, shedding a tear if I remember correctly -- I'm sorry, but the man has issues, and his need to constantly include HIMSELF in his own book is extremely irritating and aesthetically retarded -- but, this can be forgiven in light of the book's overall merits.