Dave Sim is the creator of Cerebus. He did that comic for decades, so it's what he's primarily known for. Since finishing the book, he's known for a lot of other things. You can wiki him to find out what that means. This post is not about any of that. It's about something I found going through my collections.
Hero Illustrated was a Wizard like magazine with a more progressive slant to it. It renounced price guides later in its run, which is likely (and sadly) the reason why it didn't last very long. It took to publishing guest editorials by industry professionals. Some of of them (like Jim Shooter post Jack Kirby's funeral) were given enough rope to hang themselves. Others wrote momentous pieces, like Sim.
The essay posted below (Dave Sim has let all his prose be reprinted online) comes from Volume 1, Issue 9 of Hero Illustrated. I could mention the context of the piece, the fact that it came out around the time of the Death of Superman and Clone Saga Storylines, not to mention the countless other story arcs that allegedly changed comics forever until the next retcon. In truth, you can apply Dave's thesis to today's Marvel and DC with the crossover event becoming the norm (the story continues in 7 other separate titles, the story has always continued in 7 other separate titles...), and it still works.
Dave Sim was an author you either got into or you didn't. I never read an issue of the Cerebus comic before I read this essay, but this was more than enough for me (for a while at least) to get into Sim the author, warts and all.
Hero Illustrated was a Wizard like magazine with a more progressive slant to it. It renounced price guides later in its run, which is likely (and sadly) the reason why it didn't last very long. It took to publishing guest editorials by industry professionals. Some of of them (like Jim Shooter post Jack Kirby's funeral) were given enough rope to hang themselves. Others wrote momentous pieces, like Sim.
The essay posted below (Dave Sim has let all his prose be reprinted online) comes from Volume 1, Issue 9 of Hero Illustrated. I could mention the context of the piece, the fact that it came out around the time of the Death of Superman and Clone Saga Storylines, not to mention the countless other story arcs that allegedly changed comics forever until the next retcon. In truth, you can apply Dave's thesis to today's Marvel and DC with the crossover event becoming the norm (the story continues in 7 other separate titles, the story has always continued in 7 other separate titles...), and it still works.
Dave Sim was an author you either got into or you didn't. I never read an issue of the Cerebus comic before I read this essay, but this was more than enough for me (for a while at least) to get into Sim the author, warts and all.
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