Another definitively Canadian comics series is Dave Sim's CEREBUS.
https://comiconlinefree.com/comic/cerebusI've repeatedly described CEREBUS as one of the most intelligent and sophisticated comics ever done, easily on a par with the best work of Alan Moore and Frank Miller of the same 1980-1990 period. As well as being wildly funny.
CEREBUS is intelligent and well written from the very beginning. Initially single-issue stories, gradually developing into 2-part and 3-part stories.
For most of the first 10 issues, CEREBUS was visually similar to Barry Windsor-Smith's CONAN THE BARBARIAN work, and clearly intended to parody Smith's Conan.
But it developed beyond that, and became a parody of many other comics, and characters in popular culture. Such as Marshall Rogers' Batman, Groucho Marx, Foghorn Leghorn (Elrod), Red Sonja and Frank Thorne's Ghita, Captain America and the patriotic "Buy Bonds, support the war" patriotism of World War II comics, Moon Knight, Sargeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes, Clint Eastwood's movie "The Beguiling", Swamp Thing, Man Thing, and "Professor Charles X. Claremont" overseeing a special school for gifted young girls.
I think the art caught up with the writing around issues 13-18. And then Sim took on an ambitious 25-issue storyline with "High Society" in issues 26-50, where Cerebus unwittingly enters a new city, and (having in issues 14-16 been an appointed aide to Lord Julius) is seen by bureaucrats there as having the prestige of a highly connected diplomat. And then Cerebus, based on that support, campaigns for and then governs as the elected Prime Minister of the city-state of Iest.
Volumes 3 (issues 52 to 80)and 4 (issues 81-111) are the "Church and State" storyline. and while there were many great moments in these runs I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the first 50 issues. Cerebus becomes Pope, and with a lot of humor it mixes religious and political issues and manipulation of the masses.
Volume 5, "Jaka's Story" (issues 114 to 136) is the last storyline that I felt was a cohesive and well-told complete story, although much of it is from the memoir point of view of Cerebus' mistress Jaka, in huge blocks of texts, amid an otherwise brisk and fast-moving story that's told more visually.
Cerebus is no longer pope and is in exile being hunted by the repressive religious fanatics who have replaced his regime (a group of macho feminist nuns, called the Cirinists). He looks for his former love Jaka, and finds she is now married and living with her husband Rick, and Cerebus stays with them, hidden from the authorities in the guest room of their house. And despite that he is still in love with Jaka, Cerebus tries to restrain his true feelings for her.
The last two volumes I have, "Melmoth" and "Flight" were less than satisfying, and I stopped reading after that, as did a huge chunk of Sim's audience.
Sim retained a small core of readers from that point forward, but lost much of his following, because his ideas about women just got more weird and misogynist. Which coincided with his divorce from his wife Deni Loubert, who branched off and formed Renegade Press with all Aardvark-Vanaheim's titles except CEREBUS. Titles such as MS TREE, NORMALMAN, NEIL THE HORSE, SHERLOCK HOLMES, WORDSMITH and a few others.
Sim has this really weird idea that men are filled with creativity and women are a burden that pulls down and inhibits the creative potential of men. These ideas started coming out in "Church and State", "Jaka's Story" and "Melmoth". At the very same time CEREBUS' readership began to drop.
Unsurprisingly, Sim now identifies as a muslim, with an odd smattering of Christianity and other religions.
But regardless, CEREBUS for much of its run was a remarkable series, beginning in 1977, and finally concluding with its 300th issue in 2003.
In one of her editorials around the time High Society began, Deni Loubert described CEREBUS' character as distinctly Canadian, that as I recall, she saw him as a survivor, who keeps his head down, doesn't get ideologically tied down and weathers through difficult times despite the insanity of those around him.
My own opinion of Canadian culture maybe includes that, but (relative to American culture), I see Canadian culture as much more rooted in British Empire traditions. They have the Queen's image on their coins and currency, divisions of the Canadian government are The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Royal Canadian This and The Royal Canadian That. They are deeply rooted in British tradition and culture. And that brings with it a level of sophistication.
As opposed to the U.S., which I see as a culture that defies tradition and history, and deifies informality, and even vulgarity, in that defiance of tradition. Even the traditions we have, such as ceremony for national holidays and honoring the flag, are widely scorned, particularly by the flag-burning Left, and even in some far-Right circles who express a distrust and cynicism regarding federal authority and the abuse of federal power.
But regardless, those traits are what I see as recurring themes in CEREBUS and other Canadian publications, a sense of elegance and tradition, more rooted in those British traditions than the U.S. is. The content of their books, and even the design of their books, I think add to the sophistication of comics, whether in Canadian publications, or their work on this side of the border.
And CEREBUS, for whatever flaws, remains a high-water mark for what comics are capable of.
Sim as well in the 1980's and 1990's in particular, was an icon and inspiration for others who followed his example into self-publishing.
