Staff Picks (October): Cerebus: The Covers

Publisher: IDW Publishing

If you were around in the early days of the Direct Market you were thrilled to be able to order and expect to receive your DC, Marvel and Archie comics. There really wasn’t anything considered indie or alternative comic unless you counted the underground comix. We then started seeing creators with their own vision influenced by the Rip Off Press, Print Mint, and others use the new Direct Market to bring their stories to comic shops.

Two books that were early hits were Elfquest by Richard and Wendy Pini and Cerebus the Aardvark by Dave Sim. While Wendy and Richard had a solid story right at the start, Dave took a little while to get his magnum opus underway.

While Dave’s stories took shape, his art continued to improve and the later addition of Gerhard helped place Cerebus among the top illustrated books.

With IDW Publishing's Cerebus: The Covers we can see the path Dave’s artwork took over the course of the amazing 300 issues he produced. In addition to the artwork that was scanned from his originals, Dave has also provided additional artwork and sketches that help add to the historical relevance of this series in the history of comics.

From its start as a parody of Roy Thomas and Barry Smith’s Conan, and later on Wolverine, Moon Knight, and then into a unique look at history, philosophy, feminism and finally old age and death, Cerebus constantly grew beyond its expectations.

This book is a must have for your shelves to go next to your copies of High Society, Church & State, Jaka’s Story, and the rest of the 16 volumes in the series as well as the new remastered edition of Cerebus Volume 1 offered this month under Aardvark-Vanaheim.

~ Steve Leaf