Cerebus - Under the Aardvarkian Spell

Nov. 15, 2010 - PRLog -- My first encounter with a Cerebus fan was last year when I met Oliver Simonsen.  Oliver is the producer, director, head writer, and one of the many animators working on the Cerebus Film project as part of What Comics Entertainment, a company he founded when he created his own comic book, Captain Zap.  

Cerebus, I learned, is many things and yet always an aardvark.  That’s right, an aardvark.  This creature is commonly known as an ant eater, however, as Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out, human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.  Dave Sim, the creator of the Cerebus graphic novel series, was just the sort of madman for the job.  

What is astonishing about Cerebus is his long-lasting spell.  The peculiar muse enticed his artist to commit to creating 300 issues, and he did.  Moreover, comic fans ate it up.  The aardvark started as a barbarian warrior and mutated into the Pope.  That’s right, the Pope.  He also became the lover and husband of one blonde bombshell, Jaka, a favorite character in the series.

What else is astonishing about the aardvark is that he has collaborated with teenage mutant ninja turtles and spun them off into supernova stardom, while he himself chose the painful path of pioneering...which leads me to believe that he is, like most muses, sadistic, and that Dave Sim, like most artists, is a masochist.  (It takes one to know one.)

Legend has it that George Lucas himself once asked Dave Sim if he could make a Cerebus movie, and Cerebus was not interested.  More recently, Cerebus resisted the seduction of a letter of interest from DreamWorks.  For reasons only a barbarian warrior can understand, Cerebus chooses to remain a maverick.  That’s right, a nonconformist, a rebel, an eccentric, an individualist.  This comes as no surprise to those who have read all 300 issues of the legendary independent comic books, and there are thousands, literally, thousands upon thousands of geeks who have done just that.  Sim continues to pay his bills with money earned by the aardvark’s celebrity.

This film project is eccentric in every way.  Evidence of this can be found in the production blogs frequently posted http://www.cerebus3d.com.  The film is being made by 100 or so animators, riggers, modelers, and voice actors – most of whom are Cerebus fans themselves and are doing it as a labor of love.  Many of them are professionals with IMDb credits as part of the creative workforce that created Emmy and Oscar winners!  Not a single penny has exchanged hands in the making of this movie, and specific percentages of backend residuals have not been promised.  The film is entirely home-grown and artist-owned.  When they have all the pieces complete, they will discuss options for its release and distribution and agree on compensation percentages and methods.  It is all transparent.  Of course, Dave Sim himself will have a percentage and will have to sign off on the film’s release, so this team of artists is eager to please him and the fans who collect and admire his body of work.

Cerebus fans who are new to the film project usually ask if Sim is aware of it and want to know if they have his blessing.  Simonsen earned Sim’s trust to produce the first feature-length animated film based on his graphic novels by persisting for two years.  After observing this project for a year and a half, and talking directly with its producer for hours, it becomes clear that while Sim and Simonsen have great variances, they also have a kindred spirit.  It is fair to say that Simonsen thoroughly understands Sim, reveres his achievements as the champion of independent comic book publication, and admires his abilities as an artist.  Anyone who flips through a volume of Cerebus is instantly struck by the quality of the illustrations.  I myself, a disciple of the ancient art of storytelling, was struck at Sim’s instinctive greatness.  

What is most astonishing about the Cerebus Film project, however, is the  team’s gutsy move to do it all in public where die-hard fans could easily rip them a new one in front of an audience.  Most of us can’t appreciate an animation model in a T-pose.  The blank faces fail to trigger emotional responses, so we look at these images and feel nothing.  We don’t know if they are good or bad.  We don’t know if we should like it.  Those who understand the painstaking process that involves tedious days of development can appreciate details that the untrained eye misses.  

As I have watched this movie happen in slow motion, I too have fallen under the aardvarkian spell.  Genuine excitement is beginning to bubble up as I realize I am witnessing   something extraordinary happen.  This is going to make a huge splash.  No one has ever done this before, and after this, every animator, every rigger, every modeler, and every voice actor will know that if a fan like Oliver Simonsen can persuade a quirky creator like Dave Sim to trust him with his baby...if an ordinary geek can gather up a team of artists and make a movie...they don’t have to wait for a green light in Hollywood when they can take the scenic route and avoid the traffic jam altogether.

The victorious muse that spawned an entire industry of self-published comic books now blazes a trail for independent comic book movies.

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About Imagination Unleashed: Independent publisher based in California. Owner: Carma Dillon. Web site: www.saardu.com.