Bone or Cerebus??

[Winghead]

both interesting creator owned series. Which do you prefer and why? Personally I find Bone to be surreal but still relatively easy to follow. Cerebus on the other hand has made no sense to me since High Society/Church and State. It makes me feel like I am missing something. Anyone else feel that way. It just seems like a bad acid trip all the way through.

[mgs]

eh, they're both kinda on the same level for me. I like the art in Cerebus more, but Sim is crazy. I appreciate what Bone has done, but I was never that interested in it.

[mauisunset]

Tried them both...neh.

If you're looking for something similar to a disney-type charming read, i'd say give Bone a shot. It was cute, but having only read the first book, I just wasn't that interested. Good stuff, but not my cup of tea.

Personally, though, I think Cerebus is waaay overrated. I read the first book, like you're not supposed to, but then I even tried a couple of the later ones, and I thought it just plain sucked.

Which is the book where he's having to consolidate power and has to get votes from all the competing districts?...Oh, yeah, whichever one that was... don't read it.

[rwe1138]

Bone is sheer genius.

[Mladen]

I don't think the two compare easily.

I quite enjoy Cerebus for its audacity and enormous scope, and there's a lot of really ingenious storytelling stuff going on. Sometimes its hard to get through, and the dialogue can get REALLY long-winded and tedious, but I personally really enjoy it (there's a lot of prose in there, so it must be read at a 'novel' pace rather than comic pace, which throws off a lot of readers. You can't breeze through these in an afternoon, thats for sure). The artwork is great, but Gerhard's backgrounds are especially breathtaking.

Bone is good clean fun, nicely illustrated, pretty entertaining story, reminded me a lot of the old Scrooge McDuck comics. Good narrative flow as well. All round I'd say I really enjoyed it, and its the sort of comic which kids would really get a kick out of but the adults enjoy as well.

Either way, kudos to self-publishers putting their necks out.

[Gothos]

I don't think the two compare easily.

I quite enjoy Cerebus for its audacity and enormous scope, and there's a lot of really ingenious storytelling stuff going on. Sometimes its hard to get through, and the dialogue can get REALLY long-winded and tedious, but I personally really enjoy it (there's a lot of prose in there, so it must be read at a 'novel' pace rather than comic pace, which throws off a lot of readers. You can't breeze through these in an afternoon, thats for sure). The artwork is great, but Gerhard's backgrounds are especially breathtaking.

Bone is good clean fun, nicely illustrated, pretty entertaining story, reminded me a lot of the old Scrooge McDuck comics. Good narrative flow as well. All round I'd say I really enjoyed it, and its the sort of comic which kids would really get a kick out of but the adults enjoy as well.

Either way, kudos to self-publishers putting their necks out.


I was gonna comment but Mladen left me nothing to add. Kudos.

[Paradox]

Bone is good all the way through.

Cerebus kind of falls apart after Sim went goofy.

[Darkside]

I'd take Bone over Cerebus...but I haven't yet read ALL the Cerebus phone books. It is a goal I have for some day, however...

[shaxper]

The short of it for me is that Cerebus is extremely complex and personal (often to a fault) while Bone is extremely simple and generic (also to a fault). They're extremes on a continuity. Having to choose one over the other, I go with Cerebus because it challenges me, and even when I disagree with its direction, I'm still awed by the effort and audacity of its reach. Bone is...cute. I can't find much more to it than that.

while we're on the subject of Anthropomorphic independently owned comic characters (is Bone technically anthro?), I've got to throw in my nomination for Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, the single longest running consistantly published independent title of all time after Cerebus (and Usagi is still going).

I think Usagi achieves an amazing balance between the two extremes of Cerebus and Bone. It's probably closer to Bone's end of the continuem, but it carries far more substance and maturity in my opinion.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/5623/200/5623_2_0010.jpg

Oh, and what about David Peterson's Mouseguard? Too early to compare?

[Nick Tapalansky]

Having not yet read CEREBUS I can only chime in with praise for BONE. I was waning on comics in the late 90's, starting high school and being jaded with my previously adored Marvel books. My best friend turned me on to BONE and it was like a breath of fresh air - the style, sense of design, involved and reaching story...Couldn't beat it then, still haven't yet.

In a weird way, BONE was the first book I ever read that inspired me to write comics - it showed me just how much you could do in a graphic medium.

So you can blame Jeff Smith for AWAKENING.

[Ryan K]

I'll reiterate what many have said about them not really being very comparable.

That said, I prefer Cerebus.

I think from beginning to end Bone is the more consistently excellent book. Cerebus falls of the wagon somewhere during Mothers and Daughters and never fully recovers (Bone too has a comparably lackluster finish). But the 80+ issues that make up High Society and Church & State are (IMO) better than Bone as a whole or in parts.

[matt levin]

Both bone and Cerebus start out 'cute' and 'funny' --Cerebus, due its earlier, much earlier, start, starts out far more slowly than Bone, but picks up much faster.

And then, both begin to take themselves Waaaay too seriously. And at their conclusions...

High Society is the best comic book series I've read in nearly 40 years of comcs reading: it's beautiful to look at, has deep political and sociological underpinnings, and is often laugh-out-loud hilarious. Bone starts there (laugh-out-loud hilarious) but, as does Cerebus, goes on less and less amusingly.

Pretty much at each half-way point, both comics take a turn for greater ambition: Cerebus to become historical biography, Bone to become epic fantasy. Both mostly succeed, although, as pointed out above, Cerebus veers into the deepy personal vision of its creator, where Bone remains on the story-telling plateau it finds for itself about midway.

In the end, I recommend both, favoring Cerebus for its unconventional ambition, the clear growth of artistry, and for that incredible satire of society and government and religion, which at its peak, Cerebus cannot be overpraised.

Now then, comparing both to Usagi-- well! Usagi Usagi Usagi! Stan Sakai manages to achieve both the epic fantasy of Bone AND much of the political and social commentary of Cerebus without yet ever going overboard, or over-broad, in its presentation. We are talking about three of comics' greatest achievements here, and I recommend'm all!

best wishes,
Matt

[Leocomix]

Cerebus, Simis a comics genius. Oh he's quirky, idiosyncratic and whatever but I guess that comes with genius territory

[estee]

I always liked Cerebus. But a times it would frustrate me and I would drop it, only to come back a year or so later and just be enamoured all over again. Dave's views rarely became too prominent within the main story and if they did they were easily ignored.

I recently bought the majority of Bone back issues and while it was good, I felt the comic was kinda derivative of any other fantasy book. And Phoney Bone just irritated the hell out of me. I would have killed the little freak if I was Grandma Ben.

As for Usagi...it tops both of those comics. Just stellar stories, art and characters.

[Nick Tapalansky]

You know, I was one of those kids who was introduced to Usagi by none other than those lovable Turtles back when I was a wee lad. I've always MEANT to check the books out but there's so much...I think I've just been daunted by it.

Anybody have any recommendations on where to start or is the beginning the best bet? I think it's time I took the plunge...

[jackdaw53]

Read Church and State and High Society doorstops, read all of Bone "main" series. Much preferred Bone.

[Whirlwind Dinamo]

Bone all the way

loved it from day one