Would Cerebus be better if Dave Sim hadn't gone insane,

It's mostly worth reading for the mental breakdown, tbqh. The storytelling itself has has many flaws as it does qualities, probably more.

>>89811239
>or was his descent into madness essential to it becoming a masterpiece?

Pretty much.

> was his descent into madness essential to it becoming a masterpiece?

It was. Maybe someone who knows his personal history better can help clarify, but Sim having a mental breakdown after doing too much LSD is what lead to Cerebus ditching the early Sword and Sorcery parody to go on to High Society, Church and State, Jaka's Story, and Melmoth. This is the period that people hold in incredible high regard when they talk about Cerebus today, especially Church&State and Jaka's Story

The stuff after that was a result of Sim's clearly scared mental state. The divorce from his wife lead into the Mothers&Daughters story with the infamous "Reads." And the last third of Cerebus was devoted to his personal religion

It still somehow had a great ending

>>89813910
Yeah, despite the insane roller-coaster the comic became after the first half, the ending actually tied everything together nicelly and felt like a pretty logical conclusion to the story.

It actually my all time favorite comic, though it unfortunately goes downhill atfer Minds

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>>89813910
The sword and sorcery stuff was comfy though

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>>89814008
>though it unfortunately goes downhill atfer Minds

that art though

>>89814008
>It actually my all time favorite comic, though it unfortunately goes downhill atfer Minds

I don't know, I kind of liked Guys, Rick's Story, and half of Going Home.

>>89811239

It's essential.

The whole thing is a masterpiece and the transition into insanity is equally as essetntial as the transition away from sword & sorcery. The whole thing is one big trip and I can't imagine it any other way. The ending it got was a great ending and the final chapters do fit into a cohesive whole.

I mean, the last few volumes are, in my opinion, nearly unreadable. But they are peppered with genius.

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>>89815901
Aw snap, is that parodying my nigga Elric?

>>89818926
That 90% Gerhard, 10% Sim art, yeah.

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>>89819665
Maybe

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Remember when Claremont made a Cerberus demon named after Dave Sim in X-Men just because? And then he stuck around for like twenty years?

>>89819665
Yep, Elrod is Elric as Senator Claghorn (or Foghorn Leghorn, if you're more familiar with him instead)

>>89820041
Remember when they actually considered doing a Cerebus/X-Men crossover at one point?

>>89820041
I used to own an issue of What The--?! from the '90s that had a single page with a Cerebus reference on it, if I'd realized how rare and unique that was I would never have gotten rid of it

Has Cerebus ever gotten a modern printing? I've wanted to read it but all I can find on amazon is like volumes from the 90s.

>>89820406
My copy of Volume one says there have been at least 16 printings since 2014.

>Cerebus dies alone, unmourned and unloved
>Dave Sim will die alone, unmourned and unloved
P o t t e r y .

The comic might have been better if he had never developed schizophrenia, but it wouldn't have been as compelling without the meta masterwork of creator and creation merging into a single being.

Dave Sim sacrificed his own life to give us Cerebus the Aardvark, and that's tragically beautiful.

>>89820406
No.

BUT Dave Sim is restoring all of his issues and pages into an HD collection. He got High Society, Chruch & State, Guys, and I think he's doing Melmonth. He's slowly doing a restoration but it's probably not going to be a physical thing. You can get them on hsi website though, for free. Just Google "Cerebus Downloads"