Dave Sim Collected Letters 2004

Dave Sim's Collected Letters #1

by Dave Sim

One of the longest-running comic book series of all time is finally over after 300 issues -- and now Dave Sim publishes his collected correspondence in one big hefty book. Same size and format as the regular Cerebus trade paperbacks.

Genres: Comics, Nonfiction

600 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

David Victor Sim is a Canadian comic book, artist and publisher, best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark.

Reviews

[Kaoru · Rating 5 out of 5]

So how many pages of Sim ramblings can you take? Some probably not even a single one. I just finished 600 of them. And they come in near A4-size with tiny print. So the amount of written text you have to go through might not exactly be the same as „Infinite Jest“, but it's getting there.

What it IS though is the collection of all the letters that Sim wrote after he finished the last issue of „Cerebus“, starting with the whole backlog of mail that had been lying around for a longer while. The letters of his readers (and colleagues) are not included however, which means that some correspondences are a bit less easier to follow than others, but in most cases Sim replies in a way that you get the general idea what the talk is about.

So what is there to say about all the text? Quite a lot, but this is one of those „Oh Boy, where do I even BEGIN?“ type of things.

Quite a few of correspondances are with other artists, professional and amateur. And they pretty much confirm my impression that „Cerebus“ was a bit like the Velvet Underground of comics. Not that many people may have read the series when it was around, but almost all who did took a pencil in their hands. The talk with the professionals and big names is interesting on its own terms, but the amateur stuff is intriguing as well. They're sending their own books in, hoping for Sim saying something nice about it – which he does, even if he doesn't like the work. He's always very constructive and hands out many advices. And I'm not sure if Sim is actually aware of it, but he'd make a great teacher in the comic field.

And then, of course, there's a lot of loony stuff. Of the paranoid and the... er... well... loony kind. There are long sections which I read with my mouth agape or just couldn't help but burst out in laughter. In one of the bizarrest moments the book has to offer Sim explains why he doesn't want to have an internect connection in his house. He heard about this thing called „child pornography on the web“, and just the thought alone that he technically could access it once the cable is plugged in worries him deeply.

Then there's his fax exchange with Tasha Robinson from The Onion/AV Club. Yes, you're going to read how that mess of an interview actually came together. And I have no idea what Tasha wrote on her part of the end, but his replies are littered with side remarks that are completely uncalled for and just way off the mark. But that's not where it stops. Long after that correspondence finally finished he reveals to another guy his suspicion that this very Tasha was sent to her by a female deity to lure him over to the feminist zeitgeist. Yes, he really means it, and no, I'm not joking. And with him being kneedeep in his so-called „Anti-Feminist“ phase (that continues to this day) there are many, many rants on that topic. Feminism is out there and it's coming to get us all! There's feminism in the TV, in books, in credit cards and clothes. No matter what in society Sim takes a look at (especially all the „bad“ and „wrong“ things), he can all trace it back to feminism. He CAN! It's like he's playing a very strange version of the Kevin Bacon game or something. And... well.. if you'd replace the word „feminism“ with „Illuminati“ in all his rants they wouldn't read that much different to most conspiracy rambles out there. In short: Car crash entertainment galore!

So, in the end, no matter what the individual pages were about, they were all interesting to read, for the right and for the wrong reasons. It was a terribly addicting read and hard to put down.

And there's still another volume of this out there. Dear God (or YHWH), please help me.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should be subtitled volume 1, since the letters go until June only. A prolific correspondent, our Dave is. He probably has more interesting things to say than wacky ones, but it's a close thing. And there is not very much about Cerebus, unfortunately.

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sim is eloquent and thoughtful, but some of his views may be hard for many readers to digest.