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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 1, 2021 12:30:09 GMT -5
I read so much Oscar Wilde at one point. I read a couple of biographies. I honestly don’t think Sim captured him very well. But it’s a lot better than his Gertrude Stein or Woody Allen caricatures.
You've read more than I have, but I thought this was a fair caricature of a certain side of Wilde's personality. It compares nicely with the later 'Melmoth,' about Wilde's death (although they are apparently different characters; I believe Estarcion has at least three, maybe four Oscar Wildes).
Estarcion has Oscar Wildes like Gotham has Two-Faces!
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 1, 2021 12:42:44 GMT -5
I flipped ahead to see if the next few issues are as full of TEXT MONSTERS as the last few.
#286 is as bad as the last few issues, but #287 only has a couple of these terrifying text pages and #288 doesn’t have any. So I might try to read up to #288 today.
I don’t call them TEXT MONSTERS merely because it’s a lot of text. The type is very small. It looks like footnote text. And the columns are way too wide for the text being so small. As I go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line, I often have trouble finding where I’m supposed to go next. It makes it hard to follow the train of thought. Such as it is. And it gives me a headache after a while.
I’m wondering how many people who claim to have read the whole thing - all 300 issues of Cerebus - have actually read every word of Chasing YHVH. I’m not saying nobody has done it. I’m just wondering if there’s a certain percentage that were just skimming after a while.
And who could blame them.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 1, 2021 14:14:59 GMT -5
Dave quotes Jonah Goldberg in Cerebus #286’s installment of Why Canada Slept. Goldberg is slinging gratuitous insults at Canada.
Dave. Quoting Jonah Goldberg is no way to go about persuading thoughtful people that you are a thoughtful person.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 2, 2021 15:14:37 GMT -5
I finished Cerebus #288 last night. So I’m done with Latter Days Book One.
I’m taking a few days off before reading the last twelve issues.
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Post by String on Sept 2, 2021 16:18:45 GMT -5
I flipped ahead to see if the next few issues are as full of TEXT MONSTERS as the last few. #286 is as bad as the last few issues, but #287 only has a couple of these terrifying text pages and #288 doesn’t have any. So I might try to read up to #288 today. I don’t call them TEXT MONSTERS merely because it’s a lot of text. The type is very small. It looks like footnote text. And the columns are way too wide for the text being so small. As I go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line, I often have trouble finding where I’m supposed to go next. It makes it hard to follow the train of thought. Such as it is. And it gives me a headache after a while. I’m wondering how many people who claim to have read the whole thing - all 300 issues of Cerebus - have actually read every word of Chasing YHVH. I’m not saying nobody has done it. I’m just wondering if there’s a certain percentage that were just skimming after a while. And who could blame them. I have to give credit to my LCS. They've had some Cerebus trades in stock the last few times I've visited. Today was no different as I went there to get some comic storage supplies. I checked and luckily, I was able to acquire Vol 15, Latter Days.
You are so right Hoosier. Once home, I flipped through the volume and OMG! Dense is an understatement! Yeah, this one is not going to be a quick read...
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 2, 2021 16:49:49 GMT -5
Just to let you know where I’m coming from on Chasing YHVH ...
I read the first five books of the bible when I was a teenager. Yeah. There’s a lot of weird stuff in there. Sim trying to make sense of it doesn’t really make any sense if it.
I’ve seen all but a handful of Woody Allen’s movies.
I’ve seen all of Fellini’s feature films.
I’ve seen a lot of Bergman.
So it’s kind of painful to see Sim doing so little with a lot of material that’s ripe for parody in the hands of somebody who understands what he or she is looking at.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 3, 2021 11:26:26 GMT -5
So it’s kind of painful to see Sim doing so little with a lot of material that’s ripe for parody in the hands of somebody who understands what he or she is looking at.
All the more so as she showed such a deep understanding of the Marx Bros and what made them tick. Lots of cartoonists have done Groucho tribute characters, and Sim's is the only one which remains memorable.
(I fantasize about what 80's Sim would have done with the Giraffes on Horseback Salads book.)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 3, 2021 16:14:58 GMT -5
I flipped ahead to see if the next few issues are as full of TEXT MONSTERS as the last few. #286 is as bad as the last few issues, but #287 only has a couple of these terrifying text pages and #288 doesn’t have any. So I might try to read up to #288 today. I don’t call them TEXT MONSTERS merely because it’s a lot of text. The type is very small. It looks like footnote text. And the columns are way too wide for the text being so small. As I go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line, I often have trouble finding where I’m supposed to go next. It makes it hard to follow the train of thought. Such as it is. And it gives me a headache after a while. I’m wondering how many people who claim to have read the whole thing - all 300 issues of Cerebus - have actually read every word of Chasing YHVH. I’m not saying nobody has done it. I’m just wondering if there’s a certain percentage that were just skimming after a while. And who could blame them. Oh, I did read every word. Never again!
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 3, 2021 16:18:17 GMT -5
I flipped ahead to see if the next few issues are as full of TEXT MONSTERS as the last few. #286 is as bad as the last few issues, but #287 only has a couple of these terrifying text pages and #288 doesn’t have any. So I might try to read up to #288 today. I don’t call them TEXT MONSTERS merely because it’s a lot of text. The type is very small. It looks like footnote text. And the columns are way too wide for the text being so small. As I go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line, I often have trouble finding where I’m supposed to go next. It makes it hard to follow the train of thought. Such as it is. And it gives me a headache after a while. I’m wondering how many people who claim to have read the whole thing - all 300 issues of Cerebus - have actually read every word of Chasing YHVH. I’m not saying nobody has done it. I’m just wondering if there’s a certain percentage that were just skimming after a while. And who could blame them. Oh, I did read every word. Never again! Okay. That’s one.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 3, 2021 20:30:09 GMT -5
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Post by Jeddak on Sept 3, 2021 21:00:34 GMT -5
Oh, I did read every word. Never again! Okay. That’s one. Two. I had stopped buying the book by then, but a couple of years back when I reread the whole thing I did indeed read every damned word. Call me a completist, call me a masochist, but I trudged through it. And yeah, probably never again.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 3, 2021 21:15:17 GMT -5
Two. I had stopped buying the book by then, but a couple of years back when I reread the whole thing I did indeed read every damned word. Call me a completist, call me a masochist, but I trudged through it. And yeah, probably never again. Make it THREE as when buying Cerebus new I would save it as my LAST read of my new buy pile each month. I read the ENTIRE issue and letter pages at the time devouring it all trying to absorb every bit of nuance Sim provided. Made for some truly dense reading in my 20's. While others did drugs, I was drinking my Guinness while doing my drug of choice: Cerebus!
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 3, 2021 21:16:47 GMT -5
I’ve been reading every word of the actual Cerebus text but I have not been reading the essays or the letters.
I think Islam My Islam looks interesting. I skimmed it from time to time and I remember back when I was buying these brand new that I read several installments of Islam My Islam even when I wasn’t reading Cerebus’s commentary on the Torah.
Skimming Why Canada Slept doesn’t generate any interest in reading it.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 5, 2021 18:38:42 GMT -5
Oof ouch owie. Read through 10 issues this day. From #51 through #60 being the start of Church and State. Begins lightly enough with nice mix of humor and parody with our introduction of the Countess and along with her "Uncle" Artemis. Better known for us readers as the new and improved mighty WOLVEROACH! From there we get Red Sophia returning to bedevil our Earth Pig as his better half in marriage.
Quicker than quick Astoria arrives to stir up the political scene along with a certain glowing hotel elf floating about. From here I remember things developing rapidly along the storyline as Sim digs in for the looong haul. Church and State is NOT a fast read, it requires attention and patience watching this build and grow.
Sadly it will be at least another 10-12 days before I delve deeper for reading as the shortened 4 day holiday week means 10 hour days of work. Reading Cerebus when your brain is exhausted is not recommended for continued proper mental health. Next weekend will be spent helping a friend pack up his apartment into storage and then at work we will be short a body on vacation, so more hectic office time.
By then, I will either be prepared for a jump into binging more issues or having a weekend devoted to mindless recovery with my Westerns and War comics. Time shall tell...
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 19, 2021 21:07:46 GMT -5
I took almost two weeks off from Cerebus because it hasn’t been that long since I read Cerebus 289 and 290, the double issue where Cerebus dreams about forty pages of a King Jamesish homage to Genesis with an almost unreadable font and I guess it’s Dave’s idiosyncratic interpretation about what YHWH was REALLY trying to tell the Hebrews.
I wasn’t really eager to read it again but I got through it over a couple days and I’m ready to read the last ten issues.
I’m reading Roughing It by Mark Twain and there’s several chapters on the Mormons including a savage but very funny chapter on the Book of Mormon. Many years ago I read two or three books in the Book of Mormon and decided that it reads exactly like a guy made it up while pretending to translate ancient plates from a magic hat using seer stones and using the King James Bible as a model as well as he could remember it.
I’ll give Dave credit for writing a much better King James homage than the one Joseph Smith came up with.
I wouldn’t dislike it so much if he had used a legible font.
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